Teachscape Win Professional Development Award

The 2013 Golden Lamp Award for Professional Development, presented by the Association of Educational Publishers went to The Teachscape Effectiveness Platform. The online product helps schools and districts by providing observation and evaluation tools. Teachscape was honored for the Platform’s “teacher friendliness, wealth of information and streamlined time-saving approach . . . .”

Robotics & Literature—Watch

Watch students merge literature and robotics using a Hummingbird Robotics Kit. On the Hummingbird site, you’ll find two videos—one is the presentation of Robert Frost’s Fire & Ice and the other shows how the students created their poetry theater. It’s not just in language arts that you can integrate engineering with course content. Creative teachers and students are finding ways to have fun with the electronics kits in science, art, math, and social studies, as well as, technology. Hummingbird kits are priced below $200 and include tutorials, hardware, and software that works using Windows, Mac, and Linux. On the Arts & Bots curricula site, you’ll find full curricula, after-school activities, project ideas, and classroom resources.

Creating Presentations Through Sites and Apps

As we look beyond PowerPoint for tools and software to help our students and us create the best presentations, it’s difficult to tell which way to turn. That’s because so many digital resources are available. To the rescue comes Tech & Learning’s David Kapuler, who after an extensive search through the expanding universe of sites and apps offering presentation and slideshow creators, has compiled a list of his 40 favorite tools.

iPad Mistakes to Avoid

Tom Daccord, in his Edudemic piece, warns us about five critical mistakes schools make when using iPads in classrooms. These include “Focusing on content apps”, “Lack of teacher preparation in classroom management of iPads”, “Treating the iPad as a computer and expecting it to serve as a laptop”, “Treating iPads like multi-use devices”, and “Failure to communicate a compelling answer to ‘Why iPads?’”. 

Although, many schools and teachers are eager to jump into digital device use with students, critical mistakes like these can ruin iPad initiatives.  Daccord suggests we think beyond content apps as we look to integration tools and strategies and content from sources other then apps. In other words, if an app for a particular part of course content cannot be found, that doesn’t mean iPads can’t be used effectively for that content. Essential ingredients in iPad initiative success are: providing time and guidance to help teachers with using iPads in the classroom; having enough iPads for 1-1 integration; and helping teachers, parents, and students understand that iPads are unique devices and not mobile computers.

Transforming Education with Digital Resources

Grade 6 teacher Jody Cohen says that the use of digital media makes her feel like a brand new teacher. It’s given her the opportunity to move away from textbooks and worksheets and enter a world her students understand. According to Cohen, the technological resources available to teachers today give them an abundance of ways to help their students learn. Cohen is especially pleased that her students have the ability to review content, as needed, and to find content that fits their needs. “We are very fortunate,” this veteran teacher says, to have digital media available to us. When asked whether she would like to return to textbooks and worksheets, Cohen gives an emphatic “no”, saying that they can be very boring.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

Check out Samantha Morra’s “8 Steps to Great Digital Stories” in order to get ideas for integration of oral storytelling into your classroom. The author believes that digital storytelling is the “21^st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling.” The difference is that today students can share their stories via video and the Internet worldwide.  Students, however, need a plan of action to help them tell their stories. Morra provides one as she suggests you lead your students through a series of steps that includes thinking of ideas, developing storyboards, gathering input, creating products, and getting feedback. She also notes that great digital stories are usually personal and concise, follow a script, use available materials, involve collaboration, and are based on universal story elements.

Do You Know What SEL Is?

SEL or Social and Emotional Learning is one of strategies that the George Lucas Foundation promotes in its effort to transform learning. When SEL becomes part of a school’s curriculum, students increase in self-esteem and in the appreciation of others, improve academic performance, and “reduce aggression and emotional distress.” Watch the SEL 6-minute video to find more about student success in programs that emphasize social and emotional learning.

Summer Reading for Teachers and Administrators

Teacher and Educational Journalist Mark Phillips, in his Edutopia article, Summer Reading for Educators: My Favorites, has some excellent suggestions for us.  These include a book that tackles the problems of bullying, one that keeps you informed about what your students are reading, and others that address creative thinking, learning settings, student engagement, media literacy, engaged teaching, and sensitivity.

So, what is the next Hunger Games for our students? Most likely, it will be The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. Phillips’ summer film recommendation for you is: A Year at Mission Hill.

Should We Consider Autism, ADHD, & Dyslexia Neurodiverse?

Are students with special needs simply neurodiverse and, if so, how does this change how we work with them and try to help them? They may not learn and/or interact with others like most of the rest of us, but many have abilities associated with creativity and concentration. Aaron Rothstein in his article Mental Disorder or Neurodiversity in The New Atlantis discusses neurological conditions and the norm and calls on us not to worry about labels, but instead to learn how to help everyone do their best with what they have been given. This is a very interesting article in which you will discover that being “normal” is, as Rothstein says, “a fluid term.”

Don’t Forget Grammar Girl

When Grammar Girl’s podcast first came out, we looked to her to help us and our students with grammar. Maybe, we even have her book in our classrooms and offices. The good news is that Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty is still around reminding us about such grammar goodies as there’s a difference between i.e. and e.g., how to know when to use affect and effect, and that “different from” is preferred over “different than”. You’ll find her on iTunes, on Facebook, you can subscribe to her newsletter, you can order her audio books, and you can access her Quick and Dirty Tips online. Did you know that Grammar Girls says it’s okay to use sentence fragments on Twitter—if the meaning is clear.