This page shows the common sequence I use when introducing students to new technology. The first step is the ‘play’ step, and I believe that play is an essential step for students learning new technologies. This step gives the students free reign to explore the new tools without having “serious work” to accomplish. This stage …
“Reverse mentoring is a concept borne of the information age… Reverse mentoring asks the younger, technologically savvier youngsters to tutor or support the older generation in learning how to leverage social media, blogs, email, cloud-based services, and other tools that we now have at our disposal.” — Meredith Ely What if the most meaningful professional …
What if students led teacher professional development? Read More »
“As educators, we are always looking for the best ways to help our students learn and retain the knowledge and skills they need in life,” said Adina Popa, technology resource teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools, Virginia. “We know student engagement is a key factor in that, and with a tool like Kinect, we are …
After recently listening to this week’s Back to Work, I have been working to declutter. Unlike Merlin and Dan, I am not to the point where I can sit down and go through mass amounts of acquired clutter attachments, but what I have been able to do is freely throw away the clutter that I …
As I have been ticking through my to do list today, I’ve had my playlist on random. Every once and awhile, I’ll hear the voices of my students as they perform on “Element News” or other projects that we’ve done. Every once and awhile, I hear that song that we listened to what seemed like …
Mathews writes that he was at first impressed with “the brain power and good intentions” of the new standards and thought they would “elevate instruction” and help low-achieving states do better. But after talking to Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless, he has concluded that the new standards represent “another big disappointment we should have figured …
Maybe students should be writing the Common Core Standards Read More »
If we can’t answer this for our students and for ourselves as teachers, then we are shooting aimlessly everyday in our classrooms hoping that we will hit on something that students will need later. Kinda a big risk, don’t you think? What if you could know that what you are doing in the classroom will …
Although I am a huge advocate for digital literacy, what I do not advocate is how that looks in your classroom. I can tell you how it worked in one of my classrooms with one group of students and one school context, but that’s not your classroom and not your context. I can provide examples …
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Gamers understand to make a successful game, they need to do the following: Design the game with the user in mind. Provide continuous feedback. Make it challenging enough that the user is interested, but not impossible that they will quit in frustration. (Flow theory) Work with an end …
Communicating with someone is never easy whether we are face to face or communicating through a screen. Communication is one of the most important things we do everyday. It’s done formally through great teaching practices, emails and one on one conversations we have with parents and professional conversations with colleagues. Formal communication is a part …
