Understanding Learning Disabilities

Science Daily reports that about two to three students in every classroom (up to 10% of all children) have some type of learning disability, and many have several disabilities. The study says, for example, that children who are hyperactive often struggle with dyslexia and about eleven percent of them have dyscalculia. The research was completed in order to offer a better “understanding of how individual differences in brain development interact with formal education” and how such knowledge can help adapt learning to the needs of the students, which may be achieved through use of technologies.

Augmented Reality in Your Classroom

T|H|E Journal tells us that the promise of Augmented Reality (AR) “is enormous.” That’s because it’s an emerging technology, which has the power to transform classrooms making our interactive whiteboard classrooms look like the Dark Ages of technology in education. 


Mobile devices with GPS and photo capabilities, already in many classrooms can, even today, access apps that offer a glimpse into the potential of AR.  You might want to try the free Apple app String and the free Android app AndAR and think about what is possible in classrooms and field studies when augmented reality enters your toolbox of resources.

Easy Way to Find Educational Apps

EdShelf on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest offers help with finding great applications for you and your students. For example, this week's recommendations from EdShelf include AlgebraGenie (gaming with algebra problems), Eyes on the Solar System (NASA tool), Stencyl (creates games), Tynker (teaches students computer science and programming), Sketchometry (practice in geometry), and MaKey MaKey (electronics kit). Some of the latest trending tools listed are: Mystery Math Town, Word Wonders Project, and Basker's Presidents. You can search for what you need by topic and/or receive email messages from EdShelf. Use the video intro to learn more about this site and its abundance of resources.

Why Pre-Kindergarten? Why Tech in Pre-K?

Studies find that students who attend Pre-Kindergarten:

1. Are less likely to develop drug and alcohol problems.
2. Are more likely to graduate from college.
3. Earn an average of 50% more than those who didn't attend Pre-K.
4. Are more likely to own their own homes and have longer marriages.

Considering that many Pre-Kindergartners come to school accustomed to the fast-paced world of television and digital devices, use of appropriate apps and educational games available for digital devices will help with the transition to school and provide learning activities in a format understood by these students. Combining the use of software and traditional Pre-K learning activities is a good idea for today’s Pre-Kindergarten classes.

Handy Social Media Commandments

You'll want to take a look at these social media commandmentsfrom Leaderswest: Fresh Perspectives on Social Media & Technology. Included are many suggestions I'm sure you already know, but reviewing the ideas with your students is wise. As always, it’s important to keep up a conversation with your students about their use of online networking and to stress use of common sense.

What Makes a Good Teacher?

Can good teaching be measured? Temple University Professor Ronald Granieri says that efforts to evaluate teachers through quantitative means “are susceptible to interpretation and manipulation”, and even if these problems are avoided, what we discover is not really what we want to know. New Jersey Superintendent Lorraine Cella agrees. She asks how such evaluations will be able to tell us which teachers make a difference in students’ lives? According to Cella, “My greatest worry is that teachers will fade into deadly, robotic, fit-the-rubric nonentities” because their goal is to achieve a certain score, not change students’ lives. As we try to figure out ways to fill our schools with the best teachers, how do we keep them in the system if we don’t understand how to evaluate hard-to-measure qualities that make teaching a profession?

iCivics by Sandra Day O’Connor

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was worried about students’ lack of knowledge about our government. Deciding to do something about it, in 2009, she founded iCivics. O’Connor says she wanted to make learning about civics motivating for students, so her company created, according to Common Sense Media, “an engaging educational site cleverly disguised as a gaming spot, with innovative games, cute animated characters, and a real-world reward component.” Topics covered include: Citizenship and Participation, Separation of Powers, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, The Legislative Branch, The Judicial Branch, The Executive Branch, and Budgeting. You and your students can access iCivics on its Website.

Perfect Clip Art When You Need It

DOVERPICTURA is the place to check when you need perfect clip art images. Some of the categories you might appreciate are: Holidays, Animals, Fine Art, Historical Periods, Transportation, People, Architecture, Culture, and Silhouettes and Stencils. Go to the site and you’ll receive three free image sheets.  Suppose you are looking for Renaissance images. You can purchase a royalty-free Renaissance image collection of 452 images for $14.99. If you are looking for individual images, let’s say of a butterfly, you can buy one sheet for $.99. (Four hundred ninety butterfly and moth images would cost $15.99.) Individual images in the collections are $.99 up. The images are in jpeg and tiff formats and download directly to your computer. You will love the images made available by DOVERPICTURA because they are beautifully rendered and many are rare and unique.

Canvas App Center—App Library

Instructure’s Canvas App Center could be called an App Library, since it provides an open apps suite with over 100 apps and allows teachers and administrators to install other apps in the Apps Center, as well. With this system, your IT people will not need to install the apps you want because you can do it yourself. Instructure’s Canvas, for Higher Ed and K-12, is an open-source learning management system, which has garnered praise from those using it.

Give Me More Math Homework!

Once in a while, we teachers encounter a math-whiz who can’t get enough math, but most of our students don’t exactly fit into that category. So, when students beg for more math homework, we wonder what might be causing this sudden fondness for the subject. According to Susan Bowling, the Enrichment Program Director at Fremont Intermediate School in Mundelein, Illinois, the answer is to put students to work with Wowsers. The product is an online learning platform for Grades 3-8, which provides games and activities to help students master core mathematics concepts. Bowling’s students want more Wowser math fun after school, on weekends and when they are out sick. At Fremont, all students, including those in Special Education and Gifted programs, receive time with Wowsers, and they can also access it at home, during their free time, and on their mobile devices. Currently only school editions, which can be used at home, are available, but the folks at Wowsers are working on the ability to offer a single use edition for families whose children’s schools don’t have Wowsers.