Here are this past week’s list of great blog posts:
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Free Technology for Teachers: Why We Say “OK” – And Other Lessons on the Origins of Words
A few days ago Vox published a short video that explains the origins of “OK” and how it came to be something that we say, read, and click everyday.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Find Free Photos by Searching on Every Stock Photo
Regular readers of this blog probably know that my go-to places for free images are Photos for Class, Pixabay, and Unsplash. But those aren’t the only places that you can find free images to use multimedia projects.
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Schools Matter: Blockchain: Welcome to Your Permanent Record
I realize my Blockchain video presents an abundance of information that may be difficult to absorb all at once. For that reason, I’ve pulled together images from the video and accompanying text into a slideshare that people can review at their own p…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Two Ways to Use Google Sheets to Create Reading Logs
Google Forms and Google Sheets are my go-to tools when I need to collect and organize data. One of the things that I often help teachers do with data in Google Forms and Sheets is create progress trackers or reading logs. There are two ways that you…
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What’s In Our Reader’s Notebook – Pernille Ripp
A frequent question I get while speaking to other educators is what does your reader’s notebook look like? I usually don’t have a good answer because much like for many others it is a work in progress, every single year.
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Why we should focus on our beliefs as well as our practices – Reading By Example
I was at the front of the school during dismissal, holding the door open for the students leaving. One 3rd grader stopped, looked at me, and asked, “Did you go to college?” “Yes, I did,” I responded. He thought for a moment, then shared quietly, “I …
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Uncovering The Virtual Reality Secrets Of The Empire | David Mullich
I’ve been a fan of location-based entertainment ever since I was a child ho bought a book at Disneyland on the making of The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and dreamed about becoming an Imagineer, one of the creators of Disney theme parks.
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Hurricane Florence: A Link Roundup – The Map Room
The Washington Post has maps tracking Hurricane Florence’s forecasted path and its potential impact. Researcher Eira Tansey compiled data from several NOAA sources—hurricane track forecasting, potential storm surge flooding and long-duration hazards…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Voicepods – Automatically Turn Text Into Voice Recordings
Voicepods is a neat service that will create voice recordings based on the text that you write. Voicepods offers eight voices in which you can have your text read-aloud.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Bookmark It – A Tool for Adding Bookmarks to a Video’s Timeline
Bookmark It is a free Chrome extension that can solve a problem many people face when trying to show students just a specific part of a video. That problem is having to scroll along the timeline of a YouTube video to find the spot that you want to s…
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Technology Beyond the Tools | My Island View
I recently read a blog post about how teachers will never be replaced by technology. The author stated that technology was just a “tool for learning”. This had to be among literally hundreds, if not thousands, of similar posts and comments that I ha…
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SearchReSearch: Answer: Can you be a Fermi estimator?
Fermi Estimation needs both kinds of knowledge–along with a bit of practice in figuring out how to go from point A to point B. Let’s practice with a true Fermi estimation! 1. Can you estimate how tall Enrico Fermi was? In this example, I give you a…
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‘It’s Like Amazon, But for Preschool’
A year ago, the richest man in the world asked Twitter for suggestions on how he should spend his money. And today, Jeff Bezos unveiled a few more details about his plans – other than funding space travel, that is.
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Beyond Test Scores and Retention of Information – The Principal of Change
There are two terms that I have seen thrown around which mean a lot more than how they are being used; learning and achievement. The reason these two come to mind is due to their direct connection to one another in the context of education.
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Superhero Cards and Relationship Journeys – Classroom Powerups
I am currently on a Hurri-cation 2018. I have evacuated my eastern South Carolina home in Pawley’s Island and have found refuge with family in the upstate due to Hurricane Forence.
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Hurricane Florence is has recently made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina as a category one storm with sustained winds of approximately 85 mph (see latest radar image below). It is now weakening rapidly.
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Learning the Wrong Lessons from Video Games – dy/dan
In the early 20th century, Karl Groos claimed in The Play of Man that “the joy in being a cause” is fundamental to all forms of play. One hundred years later, Phil Daro would connect Groos’s theory of play to video gaming:
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Seven Reasons to Pilot Genius Hour Projects – John Spencer
Genius Hour (or 20% Time) projects begin with a simple idea: give students a dedicated period of time to pursue their passions, interests, and questions in a creative way. In this blog post and podcast, we explore the benefits of doing Genius Hour p…
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10 Tips for Teachers Using the Station Rotation Model |
Teachers are already blowing up my Twitter feed with awesome photos taken during their first few station rotation lessons! It’s exciting to see so many teachers trying this blended learning model and creating opportunities for small group instructio…
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The Adventure Blog: Researchers Create Most Detailed Map of Antarctica Ever
Even in the 21st century, much of Antarctica remains unvisited by man, with the frozen continent largely unexplored. Sure, there are expeditions to the South Pole every austral summer, but most stick to the same trident and true routes, rarely varyi…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Two Interactive Copies of the Constitution for Constitution Day
Next Monday is Constitution Day in the United States. By law all schools that receive federal funds have to offer some instruction on on the Constitution.
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Using Book Creator in Middle School – Class Tech Tips
Middle school students have stories to tell. From narrative writing in the English Language Arts classroom to daily reflections in the math classroom, students can use Book Creator to capture the story of their learning.
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“I want students to own their own learning” | Mike Kaechele
What do educators even mean when they say, “I want students to own their learning” in our school? Think about the context of that statement for a moment. In our highly standardized curriculum and over-tested classroom environments, this statement is…
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Early next year, the U.S. will move to new global model. The new model (FV-3) was developed at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamical Lab (GFDL) in Princeton and will replace the old Global Forecast System (GFS) model that has been around forever.
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Six New Videos Related To 9/11 | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
WikiImages / Pixabay I’m adding these six new videos to The Best Sites To Help Teach About 9/11:
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Schools Matter: St. Hope Charter School Students Have Had Enough
St. Hope Charter Schools, Inc. is a small charter school chain owned by Kevin Johnson and his wife, Michelle Rhee.
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Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Free iPad Apps for Making Videos in Elementary School
In the next weeks I’ll be spending quite a bit of time working in elementary school classrooms that are equipped with iPads. One of the things that I’ll be doing is helping teachers help their students make short videos. These are some of the apps t…
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Sharing Adobe Spark Creations with Google Slides – Class Tech Tips
When it comes to sharing student work, there are lots of ways to establish a workflow in your classroom.
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Play is, by definition, intrinsically motivated. People and many animals do it just because. But apparently parents and teachers these days need more of a nudge than that to make the space for play. So here are some of the research findings that app…
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Become a Mystery Skype Master!
In a post earlier today I shared an explanation of the Mystery Skype game and some places to find partners to play the game. But if you’re not sure how to get started, Microsoft offers a detailed overview in the form of Become a Mystery Skype Master.
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Free Technology for Teachers: What is Mystery Skype?
Last week I reTweeted someone’s request to find a partner for a Mystery Skype activity. That generated some new connections, but it also generated a few questions from people who wanted to know what Mystery Skype is and what it entails.
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Student Blogs In The Middle School And High School Classroom – The Edublogger
A few weeks ago, we brought you the story of grade two teacher Becky Versteeg. She told us how she sets up student blogs with a new cohort of students. Blogging offers many benefits for students from the early years of schooling right up to adult le…
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Edventure Builder
Edventure Builder is an innovative new site that is perfect for sparking student’s creativity by providing a online platform for creating: scavenger hunts, interactive stories, or choose your own adventures.
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Free Technology for Teachers: A Good Site for Vocabulary Lists and Practice Activities
Vocabulary.com is an excellent vocabulary study service offering thousands of vocabulary practice lists and activities for students in elementary school through graduate school.
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Free Technology for Teachers: The Online Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States
The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond hosts the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. This online atlas contains more than 700 historical maps of the United States. The maps within the atlas are arranged into ei…
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My last post demonstrated a way to use Google Slides and Drawings to make a digital interactive notebook.
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Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Funny Face Picture Prompts Spice Up Class Photos
For most of us we have just two options when it comes to group photos. Say cheese is the standard. Okay, be silly, is next. Second grade teacher Shira Moskivitz has figured out a way to make boring class or staff photos a thing of the past.
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The Balance Between Struggling and Developing Strengths – The Principal of Change
I thought about this quote a lot this past week in connection to education as I listened to a powerful student speech where they encouraged their teachers not to have them conform into a specific “box” but help them bring out their talents while fin…
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Social Emotional Learning Resources | Inside the classroom, outside the box!
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Note-taking: A Research Roundup | Cult of Pedagogy
Let’s talk about note-taking. Every day, in classrooms all over the world, students are taking notes. I have my own half-baked ideas about what makes one approach better than another, and I’m sure you do too.
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Class Introductions with Flipgrid – Mari Venturino
One of the biggest lessons I learned in EDS 250, one of the first education courses I took as part of my Masters/Credential program, was the value of names. Our professor, Dr. Luz Chung, read us a poem called “T-shirt” from a selection called My Nam…
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