Here are this past week’s great blog posts:
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Free Technology for Teachers: Say Goodbye to Old Google Forms
The current version of Google Forms has been available for almost three years. But change is hard and so there are still people using the old “classic” version of Google Forms. The old version is going to be officially retired by the end of this yea…
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create an Animated GIF
Animated GIFs can be handy for quickly showing a process or sequence of events. Check out Common Craft’s soccer guide for great examples of using animated GIFs to illustrate concepts. And, of course, GIFs are fun to use to make a point in a social m…
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Fun Video Project! Produce a TV Commercial for an Invention – Teacher Reboot Camp
In a previous post I outlined my 6 step process for implementing digital projects (1. Evaluate an example, 2. Assign the mission, 3. Students carryout the mission, 4. Peer edit, 5. Share the mission, and 6. Feedback/evaluation).
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14 Questions To Ask Yourself Before The First Day Of School – Smart Classroom Management
To help ensure you begin the school year on the right classroom management foot, I compiled a list of questions. The questions are meant to test your preparedness.
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Flexible Seating: What’s the Point? – The Wejr Board
I have been critical of Twitter as it very rarely seems to create dialogue but for some reason, this tweet caused a number of different deeper conversations of which I thoroughly enjoyed and helped with my thinking. As with any changes we make in ed…
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I occasionally get emails from followers, readers, and conference audience members asking for advice. It’s lovely! And flattering! And OK, a lot of work sometimes. But, I always try to answer and help.
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In my book Blended Learning in Grades 4-12, I shared the following elementary writing rubrics with my readers.
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Starfish continue to baffle researchers with mysterious disease | Watching Our Water Ways
Five years after a mysterious disease began killing millions of starfish and turning their tissues to mush, the decimated population has yet to recover.
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Happy Jeans Day – an #XPLAPcamp ‘Player’ Type Motivation post – Classroom Powerups
I am intrigued by the “Player” player type in the realm of education because most educators, especially ed reform minded types, are so put off by the idea of external motivation.
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Free Technology for Teachers: An Easy Way to Find Images for Google Slides Presentations
There are plenty of good places to find public domain and Creative Commons images to use in your Google Slides presentations. The Unsplash photos add-on even makes it possible to find public domain images without ever leaving the slides editor.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: GoGo Brain
GoGo Brain is a new site/program set to launch Aug 1st. This learning tool is designed for students grades Pre K-5th and helps develop their skills for school.
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Mercedes Schneider: Charter School Growth Is Declining | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Well, here is some good news. Mercedes Schneider reports that the net rate of charter school growth is declining. The number of charter school closings is rising, and the number of new schools is slowing.
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Learning, Education & Games – Volume Two: Bringing Games into Educational Contexts
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Reading Racer
Reading Racer is a free new iOS app that I just had the pleasure of reviewing. This is an excellent easy-to-use app that uses the mobile device’s microphone to “listen” as a student speaks the words on the screen.
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15 Science Projects for Book Creator Classrooms – Class Tech Tips
15 Science Projects for Book Creator Classrooms is a free ebook I created for K-12 educators. It provides ideas for how to use Book Creator for science projects in your classroom. You can tailor the ideas to different grade levels and subtopics.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Add Music to Your Google Slides With the AudioPlayer Chrome Extension
Earlier this year I excitedly shared the Google Slides Add-on called AudioPlayer for Google Slides. The video tutorial that I made for about it has proven to be popular too. Recently, I’ve received comments from viewers of that video who said that t…
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add Music to Google Slides
In my previous post I shared some information about the AudioPlayer for Google Slides Chrome extension. If you need some help getting started with that extension, please watch the following video tutorial that I created.
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Free Technology for Teachers: A Great Example of Sharing Stories Through Google’s My Maps
Kevin Hodgson’s blog has been one of my daily reads for the better part of the last ten years. Kevin is a sixth grade teacher and masterful storyteller. Over the years I have learned a lot from reading his blog.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Polyup
Polyup is a new free site that uses Game Based Learning to help students grades 3rd-12th learn Math. These fun games teach a number of different Math topics such as: order of operations, logical thinking, calculus and more.
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The latest TED-Ed lesson and video is on A day in the life of an ancient Egyptian doctor. I’m adding it to our ELL World History class blog.
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Honing the Craft | My Island View
As an educator and speaker I have often used pictures and images to underscore comparisons of education to other professions as a very effective tool to demonstrate the great need education has as a system to change.
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Blended Games for the classroom using YOUR content
CUSTOM CONTENT 1. In the member’s section users can select a game to play by clicking on it. 2. Once the game is launched, a ”new game” can be created or an existing question file can be loaded from the user’s account. (see below on how to save an…
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Blended Play for Classroom Review Games
Last week I published a post about a neat game platform called Blended Play. Blended Play provides five online game boards that you can project in your classroom to use as the template for review games.
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Item Cards: Symbols and Images Meaning Map – Classroom Powerups
In my past version of Item Cards I just picked colors and symbols that I thought looked cool or matched the picture image. This year, since I am rebooting my narrative and needed to redo items anyways, I figured I would take a little time and plan o…
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Getting lost in the tangle of connections called the Puget Sound food web | Watching Our Water Ways
I’m increasingly amazed at the interwoven nature of the Puget Sound food web. Whenever I become focused on a specific species — Chinook salmon, for example — one of the first questions I ask is: What is this species eating?
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How it Works | Micro-Credentials | NEA Center for Great Public Schools
If you’re reading this, it means you’re interested in taking steps to improve your practice as an educator and create better outcomes for your students.
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A Lever and a Place to Stand: Lots of Fun with Numberella
While wandering around the expo at ISTE, I stumbled upon a board game. A board game, at a technology conference. A longtime lover of board games, I was immediately intrigued. Numberella is a game designed to increase skill level and engagement in ma…
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Why Can’t Most College Graduates Write a Decent Essay? – The Edvocate
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A Brief History of Gregor Mendel – Math with Bad Drawings
The poor guy tried. Took the qualifying exam twice, and failed both times. (He kept botching the section on “natural history.” Cue Alanis Morissette.) So he put in a few years as a substitute, and eventually left the job behind to focus on his true …
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Free Technology for Teachers: Formatically Offers a New Instant Citation Tool
Formatically is a service that was designed by college students to help other students create properly formatted works cited pages. Last year I published a tutorial about how to use it. This week Formatically introduced a new instant citation tool.
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I had an interesting chat with my eldest daughter recently. As with many chats with her, I was left thinking about the choices in my life… yeah, she’s reached that age! This really hit me hard.
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The Adventure Blog: Trash is a Common Sight on Ben Lecomte’s Pacific Ocean Swim
When Ben Lecomte set out on his attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean last month he knew he’d be facing some big challenges. Swimming in an ocean brings dangerous currents, encounters with sea creatures, plenty of big waves to battle through.
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The Problem with Fear-Based Education Reform – Have You Heard
Did you hear the one about how schools should be run more like businesses? In the latest episode of the Have You Heard podcast, Jennifer and Jack are joined by business journalist Andrea Gabor, author of the new book After the Education Wars: How Sm…
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NOLA Research Unit Issues Glowing Report, Wins $10 Million from DeVos | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Which game shall we play: Follow the Money or Connect the Dots? Only two days ago, the Education Research Alliance at Tulane University released a glowing report about the privatization of public schools in New Orleans.
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Mercedes Schneider: TFA Has Been Losing Money Since 2013 | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Is this any way to run a business? Mercedes Schneider reports that Teach for America has been losing money every year from 2013-2016, the last reported year.
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Gary Rubinstein: Tennessee’s $100 Million ASD Melts Down | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Tennessee was one of the first states to win a grant from Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top. It won $500 million. It placed its biggest bet on an idea called the Achievement School District. The big plan was to have the state take over the state’s lowes…
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Infographic On Gamification In eLearning—6 Examples – e-Learning Infographics
Gamification is the integration of gaming elements in eLearning to create a highly effective and immersive learning experience. Here’s an infographic illustrating 6 examples of gamification in eLearning to engage learners in a better way.
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“There are a lot of other things that we’re not attentive to enough, and that we’re not measuring, to make it important in schools,” Duncan-Andrade said.
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#Instagrambookstudy: Part 2 #innovatorsmindset | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog
The #instagrambookstudy of George Couros’ Innovators’ Mindset continues this week with Chapters 7-14. You can read my documentation of participating and learning of the introduction and chapters 1-6 in Part 1. How do we learn to be comfortable? Prac…
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Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Tools for Gathering Real-time Feedback From Students
Chat rooms and polling services provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Three Ways to Record and Share Video Notes in Real-time
Tools like EDpuzzle and TED-Ed are good for creating questions that you want your students to answer about videos that you share with them. But if you want students to share their own questions or notes with you, you’ll have to try some tools that w…
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20+ Emoji Activities and Resources for Teaching Math, Science, and English – Teacher Reboot Camp
Today is World Emoji Day and to celebrate I’m sharing 20 emoji activities, my slide presentation, and resources to engage your learners. Emojis are an important part of our students’ digital culture and the way students humanize time spent communica…
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3 Thoughts on Innovation in Education Heading into the New School Year – The Principal of Change
The #InnovatorsMindset book study on Instagram just wrapped up, and it was a great learning experience for myself and hopefully, the participants that took their own time (most on a break) to connect, create and model their learning openly.
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7 Reasons Microlearning Works Today Infographic – e-Learning Infographics
Microlearning, or bite-size learning, speaks to what science has long known about the brain’s inner workings and helps learners focus—despite their diminishing attention spans—by providing information in a manner aligned with their brain’s wiring.
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Technology as Distraction – Ideas and Thoughts
Today most inspirational messages, books and challenges to schools are to “prepare them for anything” or “future ready” or “solve big problems” or “change the world”, all good and valid messages. I’ve already shared my concerns over an overemphasis …
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Group by Need, Not by Number | All Things Assessment
Let us talk about shopping for shoes. I am not one of those people who meanders through shoe stores, struggling to narrow down my choices (no judgment for those who do—that is just not me). Rather, I am a very pragmatic shoe purchaser.
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ABCmouse is Free for Teachers! – Class Tech Tips
Finding a robust resource for ELA and math activities for students can be a challenge. This is especially true if you’re looking for free ebooks, activities, and games for students.
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A Process for Implementing Student Digital Projects – Teacher Reboot Camp
Lately, I’ve been busy grading my students’ digital products. Each year my students accomplish so much with technology, such as brainstorming, collaboration, annotation, editing, research, and so forth.
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ProKeys: Save Time Online with Keyboard Shortcuts |
I’ve been using shortcuts in Google Documents for years to save time editing student papers. However, I do a lot of work online outside of the Google environment.
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I spent part of last Monday working with the awesome staff of the Eisenhower Foundation at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum. They hosted 18 teachers from around the state during a week long focus on using primary sources across the curric…
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#Geniushour Chat Archive | The Genius Hour Guidebook
7 June 2018 we had a great discussion on “Genius Hour 2.0: Elevating Genius Hour to the Next Level.” Our guest host was Bobby McCutcheon (@Fight4Mizzou). He was so attentive in responding to everyone’s tweets; he…
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One powerful example of students taking on a different role in the classroom happens when teachers use the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development as a framework for inquiry. Students explore their passions, interests, and curiositie…
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The long-term impact of global warming is one of the key issues of our time. Greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly and it is becoming increasingly clear that mankind will not significantly reduce emissions during the next few decades.
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New Resources For Teaching About Refugees | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
Memories Lost and Futures on Hold: A Look Inside a Camp for Syria’s Displaced is from The NY Times. SEEKING REFUGE FOR MY CHILDREN is a bilingual (English/Spanish) interactive.
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Opening the school year with a letter to your physics teacher | Quantum Progress
Every year, I seem to go through some variant of an introduce yourself to your teacher activity, from asking students to fill out some sort of template I’ve created or to answer a Google survey.
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The Nerdy Teacher: “Find Your Passion” Research #EdChat
A new article has come out and it shared the research done on the idea that people just need to “Find their passion” and how it is terrible advice.
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A Principal’s Reflections: Listen. Reflect. Decide.
Conversations on effective leadership are varied although they focus more or less on the same general points, yet in different contexts. One saying revolves around the notion that the buck stops with the leader.
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Model the Way – The Principal of Change
Think of these two statements: You should do ___________ because it will make you a better teacher. I have done ____________, and here it is how it has made me a better teacher. The first statement, obviously with the best intentions, can almost fee…
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Quality-Check Your Tech: 6 Strategies | Cult of Pedagogy
In schools, we use more tech tools every year. We also have very little time to vet them for quality. Do the math and you have a formula for some tech choices that may not be serving our students as well, or as equitably, as they should be. It’s eas…
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More States Opting To ‘Robo-Grade’ Student Essays By Computer : NPR
Here’s a little pop quiz. A: They’re cheap to score.
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Robo-Grading Student Essays is Garbage | Diane Ravitch’s blog
NPR ran an interesting story about robo-grading student essays. It didn’t use the headline that appears here, but there is no better way to describe the insanity or stupidity of asking a machine to judge a student essay. First, it shows disrespect f…
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