A Principal's Reflections
JANUARY 3, 2013
'I have read some very thought-provoking posts and associated commentary over the past couple of weeks focusing on how particular educators use social media. What I have found interesting is the powerful opinions as to how one should use social media. I think it is great that so many people have focused opinions on what social media should, could, or should not be with a considerable emphasis on specific do''s and dont''s.
The Web20Classroom
MAY 29, 2013
'I had a wonderful conversation this morning on Twitter with a teacher from New Zealand that commented on a tweet about using Skype Classroom to go global. She mentioned how her students were going to Skype and talk to kids in Iowa. How awesome is that! I just love the fact that the world gets so much smaller when we use technology like that. There really are endless learning opportunities for students (and teachers as well).
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Educational Technology Guy
MAY 20, 2013
'I put this list together for our district as we are going with GAFE and Chromebooks and I figured I''d share it here too. Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources Google Apps for Education (GAFE) GAFE Training Center [link] Learn how to use GAFE [link] GAFE User Guides [link] Google in Education - Teacher Resources [link] Google for Educators Resources [link] GCF Learn Free - Google Training [link] Google Apps Crib Sheets [link] Recordings -- Innovative Chromebook Teachers - Hangout on Ai
Tom Murray
DECEMBER 26, 2013
'The role of the typical school district technology director has become obsolete. Speak with your average teacher in many school districts in the U.S., and you’ll find the technology department is better known for getting in the way than for serving the educational needs of both staff and students. Many technology departments, led by obsolete tech directors, are inadvertently inhibiting learning.
This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.
Baker's B.Y.O.D.
MAY 30, 2013
'UPDATE AS OF 1/15/14: The company Gobstopper has changed its name to Curriculet, but this update hasn''t changed how I use Curriculet with my students. The stories and information in the below post still hold true despite the change in company name. While I''ve written quite a bit about assessing writing (ad nauseum) via digital means, reading instruction and assessment have remained a primarily paper-based enterprise in my class.
The Innovative Educator
OCTOBER 30, 2013
'Brian Finke for The New York Times You may have read the recent New York Times story No Child Left Untableted. Like others before it ( Seeing no progress, some schools drop laptops ), these stories have the wrong focus. They narrow in on the tool itself, and draw apocalyptic conclusions -- Technology May Be Destroying Children! -- rather than drawing attention to the goal of the learning experience, and how the tool may best help achieve it.
EdTech Update brings together the best content for education technology professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Comfortably 2.0
AUGUST 25, 2013
'I have been thinking about some "new" items I could add to my original Digital Citizenship Kit that I created last year. Like I said in that blog post, I love using props when teaching. After some great conversations with the good wife @jenbadura on what I should include, I have come up with some new items to include in the survival kit. Yes, you can use this with your students!
Kathy Schrock
NOVEMBER 21, 2013
'I have been asked to elaborate on my understanding of the SAMR model, a model written about extensively by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. This model suggests a structure for the design of embedded technology use in the classroom to have a significant impact on student outcomes. My feeling is this model supports teachers as they design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences.
wwwatanabe
APRIL 1, 2013
'Students need to be taught how to read complex texts. One of the strategies for learning how is close reading. It slows the reader down to notice and ponder more. It also connects meaning and builds systems of thought. Text complexity with close reading Complex text requires a close reading. So what makes a text complex ? There are three "ingredients" to text complexity: It''s important to understand text complexity to build students'' literacy skills.
EdTechSandyK
JANUARY 27, 2013
'When you first start using Twitter, one of the things you have to figure out is how to decode Tweets. What does each part represent? What does it mean when a word starts with a #? Below is a Tweet as it might be displayed on the Twitter website when viewed on a computer. Note that not all Tweets might include all of these exact attributes. If you are using an app or third-party service like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to read your Tweets, they might look slightly different, but the parts will still
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A Principal's Reflections
APRIL 8, 2013
'A year and a half ago I decided to implement a job-embedded growth model at the suggestion of some of my teacher leaders. They desperately sought time during the school day to engage in professional growth opportunities, learn how to integrate Web 2.0 tools, and develop their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN’s). After some thinking and looking at various options inherent in the current schedule, I decided to cut all non-instructional duties in half to create a Professional Growth Period (PGP
The Web20Classroom
JANUARY 21, 2013
'When I was teaching science one of the best lessons I learned was about formative assessment. In my first year of teaching I taught the way I was told to teach. Deliver content to my students, assess at the end, remediate if necessary. With that cycle, I always had kids who were behind, who never seemed like they could catch up. I was talking with a teacher friend the summer after my first year and she suggested something simple.
Educational Technology Guy
NOVEMBER 27, 2013
'LiveMinutes is a very cool app that integrates with Evernote (my all time favorite and most used app) and allows you to work on the same Evernote note with others, similar to Google Docs. Evernote is an excellent app, with the ability to share notes with others, but there is not a collaboration piece until this app came along. You go to LiveMinutes and create a work space and select the notes from your Evernote account that you want to collaborate on, share them with others and off you go.
Tom Murray
DECEMBER 26, 2013
'Every year, school districts around the country waste a tremendous amount of time and money on ineffective professional development. The traditional model of “sit and get,” where a one-size-fits-all approach is utilized, yields abhorrent results. Ask teachers from typical school districts in America their thoughts on traditional in-service time, and the feedback won’t be pretty.
Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions
There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.
The Mobile Native
MAY 18, 2013
'Here is a list of resources to help you get started with Project-Based Learning. 1) Exploring Resources for PBL 2) 10 Practical Ideas for Better Project-Based Learning in the Classroom 3) Leading PBL Schoolwide? Tips to Get Started 4) 15 Tools for Better Project-Based Learning 5) 10 Apps for More Organized Project-Based Learning 6) Diving into Project-Based Learning: Designing the Rubric 7) PBL: Managing Your Project 8) PBL or Just Another Project: Use This Checklist to Find Out 9) Project-Base
The Innovative Educator
FEBRUARY 16, 2013
'A new study conducted by TRU provides a body of research which supports the idea that students use cell phones to learn, and also that schools are not acknowledging or supporting them fully, yet. This research supports the work of innovative educators who are guiding today’s generation text and will help in the effort of getting more schools to stop fighting and start embracing student use of mobile devices for learning in school.
The 21st Century Principal
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
'In his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR , David Meerman Scott perhaps captures why a number of us so heavily engage in using social media: “ It’s fun to blog and tweet, and it makes you feel good to get your ideas out into the world.” It is fun to blog and tweet, and there is satisfaction that comes from “getting your ideas out there.” But for me real satisfaction comes from making “connections” with other educators and growing my personal learning network.
Comfortably 2.0
FEBRUARY 25, 2013
'It''s a simple little prop I use when teaching Digital Citizenship to our K-8 #aurorahuskies students. I love utilizing props to try to get my point across to students. To me, it helps a student retain the lesson better. Let me introduce you to Mr. Badura''s "Digital Citizenship Survival Kit." Each of the items has a purpose.
Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions
The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.
Philly Teacher
SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
'To start off the year, I decided to make sure that all of my 9th graders understand what the Internet really is and how it works before they get their Internet-ready laptops in a few weeks. When they came in, they had the first five minutes of class to “draw the Internet.” I got a lot of quizzical looks. “What do you mean?” “You can’t draw the Internet!
The Electric Educator
JUNE 20, 2013
'In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times , the Senior VP of People Operations at Google discussed how Google hires and how they analyze job performance and hiring data. One of the few things that the data has clearly shown is that there is no correlation between job success and GPA: Link to Full Article | Click image to enlarge I have been reminding educators that it is not about what you know, it''s about what you can do with what you know.
EdTechSandyK
AUGUST 30, 2013
'The Background Photo Used Under a Creative Commons License In the Spring of 2013, my school district committed to issuing an iPad to every classroom teacher. The purposes for this initiative were to give teachers an additional tool for teaching and learning and to familiarize teachers with mobile devices in anticipation of more iPads being purchased for classroom use and a grades 6-12 BYOD program coming in the next school year.
SpeechTechie
SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
'You may have heard that a new version of iOS- iOS7- is available! This gives your iPad operating system a new look and feel and additional features. This new operating system is accessed (for free) in your Settings app under General>Software Update for iPad 2s and later, including the mini. I did my updates after a backup and "over the air" (i.e. through Settings), rather than connecting to iTunes via a computer, and it went smoothly, though it took about an hour, so be sure to allow that ti
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The Web20Classroom
APRIL 25, 2013
'Blogging is an important part of who I am as a professional. I can use this space to share resources with you, reflect on my own practice and try to figure out how to be a better educator. It is my public reflection on technology, leadership and learning. Think about when you were in school. You write an essay. Who read it? Most likely the teacher and that is where it ended.
Kathy Schrock
DECEMBER 6, 2013
'Since this blog IS the Kaffeeklatsch, I thought I should share some of the ways people have been using coffee analogies to explain the SAMR model. I cannot vouch for the analogies, but thought it was interesting this seems to be a common practice! The SAMR Model The image below was created by Jonathan Brubaker and appeared in a blog post here. SAMR Model and Starbuck''s Coffee SAMR vs.
Tom Murray
DECEMBER 26, 2013
'Each week, educators from around the world take part in various conversations on Twitter known as “chats.” These conversations have become an excellent way for educators to connect on relevant topics, share resources and best practices, all while challenging each other’s thinking. The premise of a Twitter chat is simple. Each lasts for 60 minutes, moderators pose questions on a predetermined topic, and participants use a consistent hashtag (#) to communicate.
wwwatanabe
JANUARY 31, 2013
'How does a teacher start to use iPads in the classroom? While Part 1 focuses on the hardware basics, Part 2 focuses on iPad integration in the classroom. Most teachers need to think through a few things about implementation before going full throttle. iPad management When I think about introducing a class to something new, I recall the lesson learned in my first year of teaching when I handed out geoboards for the first time.
Speaker: Aaron Webb, Jamf
Apple empowers educators and students by design. Whether using Macs, iPads, or Apple TV, Apple devices encourage creativity and can simplify teaching with apps to make the classroom more flexible, collaborative and personalized for each student. To unleash the full potential of the technology and create the best learning environment, you need to understand the tools and resources available, and develop an education-focused, comprehensive plan, from equipment purchase to deployment, management an
The Innovative Educator
MAY 23, 2013
'Guest post by Jaime R. Wood In his most recent TED Talk , Sir Ken Robinson says, “There are 3 principles on which human life flourishes, and they are contradicted by the culture of education under which most teachers have to labor and most students have to endure.diversity.curiosity.creativity.” What does it take to infuse these principles into the education systems we build?
The 21st Century Principal
AUGUST 6, 2013
'“Teachers who are willing to experiment and take risks on behalf of kids are in a much better position, regardless of their age, to meet their students where they are, and my experience is that students appreciate the effort.” Ron Nash, From Seatwork to Feetwork: Engaging Students in Their Own Learning A new school year is upon us, and the decisions we are making now as educational leaders and classroom teachers will determine whether our students are engaged learners, or are passive learners.
Nik Peachey
SEPTEMBER 25, 2013
Back in April 2013 I delivered a workshop at the IATEFL 2013 conference in Liverpool. The topic of the workshop was ' Criteria for Evaluating Web Tools and Apps ' and in the workshop I encouraged participants to share and explore their subconscious criteria for deciding which apps and web based tools they used with their students. I particularly encouraged them to think about 'authentic' apps rather than those made for learning.
Philly Teacher
AUGUST 15, 2013
'Overflow crowd from the August 15, 2013 SRC meeting. As I reflected on the events of today, I began to think of my journey as a teacher here in Philadelphia. I began to think of all of the red flags that have gone up over the last ten years before getting to this point. Here is a run-down: 2001. The State takes over the School District of Philadelphia and puts in an appointed board to run the District called the School Reform Commission (SRC), which is made up of appointees chosen mostly by the
Speaker: Todd Theobald, Noel Gomez, Marcus Painter
Join educators and assessment experts as they discuss the role of formative assessment in student learning, how formative practices can guide the teaching and learning cycle, and the positive impact assessment can make on your classroom. We’ll cover topics including: Reframing the value of assessments and focusing on learning opportunities. Using assessment data to make informed decisions about instructional strategies.
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