Here are another bunch of amazing blog posts from this past week:
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How To Become A Better Teacher? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
The New York Times Magazine this week is the “Education Issue,” with several articles that are well worth reading. I’d start with Sara Mosle’s Can Good Teaching Be Taught?
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A Fun Game and Mission to Teach Students About Giving Good Instructions – Teacher Reboot Camp
I recently took on a new position teaching 400+ elementary students Computer and Technology. After the first few weeks of going over procedures and an introduction to computers, I noticed my students were getting restless.
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A Fun Way To Teach Students How Not To Behave – Smart Classroom Management
One of the most effective classroom management strategies is teaching students how not to behave. The way it works is simple.
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Instagram recently released published a fairly comprehensive guide for parents.
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Classroom PowerUp VLOG – Classroom Powerups
I love writing on this Blog. It is a great way to reflect on my classroom practice and hopefully inspire others with some awesome engagement tools. But I am branching out to the world of video and launching a weekly VLOG which can be found on my You…
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Grades 9-12 1. Explains the structure and function of systems. 2. Uses mathematics to support explanations and draw conclusions. 3. Applies scientific knowledge to investigate how humans impact environmental/ global systems. 4. Clarifies and organiz…
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Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: Why Do Standards-Based Grading? (Part 1 of series)
When I taught eighth grade in California, our administration started talking about implementing standards-based grading. I was skeptical to say the least! I could not imagine how I would manage that type of scoring for 120+ students.
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A Principal’s Reflections: The Purpose of Content
When I think back to my days as a learner, the content seemed to be at the forefront of every class. Whether it was disseminated during a lecture in college, through direct instruction in K-12, or at times consumed from a textbook or encyclopedia, i…
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K-5 Interactive Science Lessons on iPad – Class Tech Tips
Do your science lessons inspire students to explore the world around them? If you are interested in bringing interactive science lessons to your classroom, here’s an iPad app you’ll want to check out! Tappity is an interactive app for iOS to help cu…
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Tabletop Audio – Ambiences and Music for Tabletop Role Playing Games
Original, 10 minute ambiences and music for your games and stories.
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add a Materials Section to Google Classroom
Last night I shared the news that Google has added the option for teachers to add materials like digital handouts to the Classwork section in Google Classroom. Judging by the emails and Tweets I’ve already seen, this is going to be a popular feature.
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add a Classwork Section to Older Google Classroom Classes
Last night Google released two new features for Google Classroom. The first was the option to add materials into the Classwork section of your Google Classroom classes without making assignments. The second was the option to update your older Google…
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Free PBS Site Explores Nature Through Games & Real-World Activities – Tech Learning
Pros: Hands-on investigations help kids explore the world around them and build scientific understanding. Cons: Alignment to the Next Generation of Science Standards leaves a bit to be desired.
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2018-19 Items: Unit 1 Cards – Classroom Powerups
For the 2018-19 School Year I am completely revamping my Power Card Items. This year I am tying the Item cards into my narrative.
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Free Technology for Teachers: ReadWorks Now Integrates With Google Classroom
ReadWorks is a free service that provides standards-aligned reading lesson plans for K-12 classrooms. In addition to lesson plans ReadWorks offers a huge libray of fiction and non-fiction literature that you can search according to topic and grade l…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Two New Google Classroom Features That Everyone Has Been Asking For!
The new version of Google Classroom just got a little bit better. Ten minutes ago I got an email from my contact at Google about informing me that the new version of Google Classroom now has a dedicated “materials” section within the new Classwork s…
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How to transform your library into a real learning community – Hack Learning
Is your school library mostly a place to store books? Is it empty and silent? What if you could transform your library into a dynamic learning hub? Award-winning school librarians Kristina Holzweiss and Stony Evans are on a mission to incorporate li…
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3 Questions to Promote Innovative Leadership in Education – The Principal of Change
I received an email from a teacher the other day that was quite frustrated.
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Stuff I Have Been Wrong About |
Shocking, but sometimes I am wrong. Part of the job of the Superintendent, as I have described it, is to be looking around the corner at what is coming next.
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Gamification And Microlearning: A Dynamite Combination – eLearning Industry
We, at EI Design, have been offering learning and performance support solutions for over 16 years. Over these years,
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Google Classroom: Quickly Add Video Directions – Teacher Tech
The most influential element in a classroom: the teacher. You work hard to build relationships and students like you. Putting your face into your digital assignments makes a personal connection with students, even when they are using a computer.
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Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Multimedia Projects for Social Studies Classes
If you teach social studies and you’re looking for a new project to engage your students this year, I have some suggestions for you. All of the following ideas can be modified for use in elementary school, middle school, or high school settings.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: 30 Sites and Apps for Digital Storytelling
For my Pinterest board on Digital Storytelling click here.
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iPad users – Minecraft: Education Edition now available – NCCE’s Tech Savvy Teacher Blog
Welcome back teachers! We are excited to share stories, resources, and videos with you again this year! For the readers of this blog that are using iPads in your classroom, Microsoft released some big news just in time for the start of school! Minec…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Three Good Options for Digitizing Your Students’ Physical Work
Whether it’s a model made for a science fair or a paper on which a student successfully solved a complex math problem, there are times when we want to save a copy of physical work to use in digital portfolios.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Find & Read Old Newspapers Through the Google Newspaper Archive
Yesterday’s blog post about the Chronicling America collection of digitized newspapers prompted Daniel Bassill to ask me about options for newspapers printed after 1963. My suggestion was to try the Google Newspaper Archive.
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You want kids to have skills. Read Inquire Write can help. | History Tech
Last week, I got the chance to work with about 25 teachers and educators from around the state as we started the process of revising our state social studies standards. Long time readers will recall a similar process from seven years ago.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Fiete Math Climber
Fiete Math Climber is a fun iOS game to help students w/ basic Math skills (i.e. addition, subtraction, etc.). The concept to FMC is simple as a student solves an equation and their character jumps up on the ladder collecting coins. If a player gets…
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Free Technology for Teachers: 18 Great Cartoons That Teach Cyber Safety Lessons
Planet Nutshell is a video production company that produces short, animated videos to explain products, services, and concepts. Within their education section you will find videos addressing topics in mathematics, physics, climate science, and cyber…
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The Perfect Pairing: Virtual Field Trips and Scavenger Hunts |
“Mrs. Tucker, why don’t we go on more field trips?” Every year students ask me this question. There are a couple of answers. In an effort to expose my students to more experiences, I’ve embraced virtual tours and field trips.
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A Slightly Embarrassing Look into my Classroom: Narrative Example and Plickers – Classroom Powerups
Every so often our Curriculum Coordinator, Ms McCoy, comes in to view my classroom. When she does she often brings her iPad and records things she finds interesting.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Twine – Write Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Stories
Twine is an open-source program for writing choose your own adventure stories. You can use Twine online or you can download the software for Mac or Windows. I used Twine online to create a short story.
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Real teaching means real learning: Zombies and number talks….
Recently, during a walk I was playing The Walking Dead: The Zombies, and an awesome mathematical experience occurred. I smiled, and replied “How would we do that?” As she grabbed for her phone, I asked her to humor me and try it mentally….
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Really. In a reversal of fortune that seems lifted from fantasy, the once stigmatized refuge of the antisocial is now the new social, and it has returned from exile with a vengeance.
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How many questions should you have on a summative assessment? | All Things Assessment
I love using Twitter as a way to communicate thinking in a markedly different way than when using blogs, articles, and books. By limiting the number of characters, Twitter forces us to be succinct in our thinking.
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Collaboratively Create Documents on Canva
Last week Clint Heitz asked me for a suggestion for tools that students can use to make magazines online. He has used Lucid Press and was looking for other options to try. There were two tools that I suggested. One suggestion was to try Book Creator…
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A Lever and a Place to Stand: Using Google Slides & Drawings to Make Interactive Notebooks
If you were using interactive notebooks in the spring of 2017, you probably remember the Great Glue Shortage. Somehow that spring making slime exploded onto the scene and glue was hard to come by.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Badaboom
Badaboom is a new “game based” learning tool that I just found out about from the amazing educator and friend, Naomi Harm. Badaboom bills itself as an alternative to Kahoot, where educators can make quizzes/games and then have students answer them i…
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I grew up in a family where the Beatles were on constant rotation. It was the default soundtrack for many family car rides. Even today The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM is definitely in my Top 10 stations. It’s Channel 18, in case you’d like to add i…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Chronicling America – An Archive of 2,600+ Digitized Newspapers
Chronicling America is a great resource provided by the Library of Congress. On Chronicling America you can find more than 2,600 digitized copies of newspapers printed in the United States between 1789 and 1963.
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Yo Teach! to Create a Classroom Backchannel
On Friday I wrote an overview of a new backchannel tool called Yo Teach! It’s a great alternative to the much-loved, but now gone, TodaysMeet. To help more people get started on Yo Teach! I made the tutorial video that is embedded below.
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Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: #BacktoSchool List No No #1 – Graphing Calculators
It is not unusual for costly graphing calculators to be a part of back-to-school lists. The arguments go something like this. We need students to have a separate non-computer graphing calculator to know they really know how to use a graphing calcula…
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I swear to you dear reader, I am NOT a paid spokesperson for Bitmoji! In fact, they haven’t even answered, commented, acknowledged, or even liked ANY of my Tweets or Instagram where I’ve mentioned them. I am just a total fangirl. A lonely little neg…
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Innovative educators are generally good fact checkers and don’t fall for chain social posts like the one making its rounds about seeing the same 26 people on Facebook. They know to verify and even a quick search on The Google will help you find out …
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Free Technology for Teachers: Poetry 180 – A Poem for Every Day of the School Year
Poetry 180 is a Library of Congress project that was created when Billy Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate. The purpose of the project is to provide high school teachers with poems for their students to read or hear throughout the school year.
