Take Part in ISTE Research

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) encourages you to take part in the Speak Up 2013 Survey.  You can share the link to the survey with peers, parents, and students. Your answers, along with those of other educators, parents, and students will become part of the Speak Up 2013 National Research Project. The survey closes December 20, 2013 and in February 2014 national and state data results will be available.

Schoology for Learning Management & More

Schoology, a CODiE Award winner, helps teachers and administrators put easy-to-use tools to work to develop their own educational communities. The system encourages collaboration and integrates nicely with other platforms like Google Apps, Moodle, Blackboard, Turnitin, etc. It allows schools to put all content in one easily accessible place. edshelf reviews call it “Facebook-like in appearance and navigation” and an “unbelievable classroom tool”.  Schoology includes different levels of pricing and is free for basic management and administrative features. A limited admin plan is free for schools and includes privacy controls, word filters, and data import and export. Schools and districts interested in advanced management and administrative features should contact Schoology for pricing.  This program is getting a host of great reviews by teachers who use it.

Google Hangouts

Think Google Hangouts and you’ll come up with all sorts of ways your students can interact digitally with others. Perhaps, you’ll want to invite a few parents to “visit” your classroom to watch and interact with a group of students doing a special project?  Up to ten students and parents can hang out together in their own virtual space. An eduptopia article (February 1, 2013) suggests that Hangouts be used to connect with classrooms around the world, with experts in different fields, and with authors. To put Google Hangouts to work, you’ll need Google and Google Plus accounts and the inspiration to get a good conversation going.

Everyone’s Favorite Tiger: Daniel

If you are a preschool or Pre-Kindergarten teacher, you may want to recommend this PBS app to parents who are having difficulties getting their children ready for school.  The app, Daniel Tiger’s Day & Night, which includes eight games, helps children with their night and morning routines. Morning games target getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, and putting on shoes. Good night games are: Bath Time, Brush Teeth, Pajama Tim, and Bedtime Story. The app ($2.99 at the iTunes Store) is the second in the series, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Math Bingo

Fun with math for Kindergarten through Grade Three, Math Bingo ($.99) by ABCya.com, motivates children to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with five Bingo games. The games range in content level from easy to difficult. Bingo Bugs are given as rewards; a scoreboard displays student scores.  Three bonus games come with the app. According to a review in Education World, Math Bingo “is a great app to supplement regular math lessons.”

Headstrong Nation: Dyslexic Community

The site, Headstrong Nation, provides help to the world’s largest disability group—those with dyslexia. It includes videos, books, and other resources for those with dyslexia and those working with those with dyslexia. You’ll find information on classroom accommodation tools and mapping children’s dyslexia. The fact section features information such as: 35% of American entrepreneurs are dyslexic, there are many different ways to read, being dyslexic does not mean those who have it are slow learners or stupid, dyslexia is not something anyone outgrows, and boys and girls are just as likely to be dyslexic. The mapping feature encourages parents and teachers to assess children’s strengths and attitudes by using the assessment survey provided. Areas used for mapping are Visual, Kinesthetic, Spatial, Narrative, Social, Verbal, Musical, and Mathematical/Scientific.  Resources available on the site help parents and students learn to use technologies to help with learning, learn to understand the world of dyslexics and those with attention deficit disorders, and learn to understand how disabilities affect family dynamics.

The Teenage Brain

WKCD (What Kids Can Do) includes information on how our students learn. Research shows us why teens act the way they do with behaviors such as “mood swings, surliness, impulsivity, poor decisions, insensitivity (or too much sensitivity), and more.” The brain’s frontal lobe, the area that affects judgment, is not fully developed until ages 25-30. As the brain grows, young people have difficulty making decisions quickly, don’t notice errors in judgment, have trouble identifying other’s emotions, and are “vulnerable to stress.” So—it’s good for all of us in education to remember that there is a biological reason for why teens are the way they are and that we need to be patient as we wait for their minds to mature.

The Ophelia Project—All About Cyberbullying

As of July 2013, all curriculum downloads of The Ophelia Project resources are free. These include information about relational aggression and five critical steps teachers can take to help students, the Cyberbullying OneSheet, and resources for teachers, parents, administrators, mentors, and middle school and high school students. On the site, you can browse by curriculum such as K-8 Classroom Meetings, High School Self-Empowerment, Grades 4-5 Friendship Unit, and Youth Leadership.

AllerMates & Medimates: Safeguarding Children

The AllerMates & MediMates site features information, puzzles, and activities to help children understand allergies and medical conditions. There’s the N’Silin Brothers to target childhood diabetes, Prefessor Wheatly to discuss gluten free options, Puffer who takes on asthma, N.Nutty for peanut allergies, Bizzy for bee stings, and more.  There’s also a store with wristbands, dogtags, and other products that alert others to children’s medical conditions.

Playful Learning’s Bite-Sized eCourses

The Playful Learning site offers a free eBook that is designed to help teachers and parents provide activities that will enhance children’s love of learning. The eBook, Raising Lifelong Learners, may be read online or downloaded.  The site features a great list of science apps and an abundance of activities you might be able to use in your classroom. The activities are grouped into categories such as Arts & Crafts, Math, Science, Seasonal, Social Studies, Well Being, and Writing. This is a very nice site to recommend to parents of young students.