Here are some great blog posts from last week:
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By mile 10 of my first half-marathon, the persistent, frigid drizzle had forced my fingers into a clenched C shape. The thrill of running alongside thousands of people after weeks of solo training had mellowed into a quiet, somewhat dull drive towar…
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Bob Shepherd: Life As a Teacher in the Age of the Deformers | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Bob Shepherd is teaching in Florida after a career in education publishing. He left this comment on the blog about his teaching experience in Florida. His contributions to the blog are consistently brilliant. On a personal note, Bob reached out to m…
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Makerspace for Little or Nothing
Makerspace for Little or Nothing You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to start a Makerspace area. You don’t have to have a designated room or rip out bookcases.
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Free Technology for Teachers: The Google Science Journal App Now Saves Data in Google Drive
Google’s Science Journal app is one that I regularly feature in my presentations and workshops about blending technology into outdoor lessons. With the app (available for iOS and Android) students can record data about acceleration, location, sound,…
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how-to-start-a-quizlet-live-game-in-60-seconds-tips-and-tricks
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Free Technology for Teachers: Kahoot Adds a Smart Practice Mode
Kahoot has added a new way for students to use the free Kahoot iOS and Android apps. The new way to use the apps is to play games in what Kahoot is calling Smart Practice mode.
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Games and Learning: Using functions in Minecraft (Education Edition and Bedrock)
I teach game design and development and I encourage my students to use command blocks and redstone to automate functions in their games.
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Flip the Script: Student-Designed Units |
In a Twitter chat this month, I mentioned student-designed units. Several curious teachers asked for details, so here goes! My favorite unit each year is the unit my students’ design. We spend the entire year building up to it.
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Emailing Your Teacher, with Captain Communicator: Next Vista for Learning
This video was contributed as part of the Next Vista for Learning Creative Strength Video Contest.
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Laurie Halse Anderson, poetry, and WWII | Using Comics in the Classroom
I am lucky enough to have gotten to know Laurie Halse Anderson over the years, both in person and by reading her emotionally brave and honest writings. My wife and I wrote the teacher’s guide for the powerhouse graphic novel adaptation of Speak (htt…
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3 Important Questions Regarding “Success” in Schools – The Principal of Change
As an adult, your version of what “success” looks like could and should be different from mine. But how “success” is often portrayed in society, can send a message to students that their success is not as valuable as the success of someone else.
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MonikaP / Pixabay Here’s the latest lesson and video from TED-Ed:
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What classroom teacher doesn’t hate those so-called benchmark assessments that districts often force us to give to students?
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Talk with Civilization Game Designer Soren Johnson | Gaming the Past
Those studying historical games need to have more conversations with the designers and developers that actually make these games.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Braingenie – Math & Science Practice from CK-12
Braingenie is a free service offered by the CK-12 Foundation. Braingenie provides online math and science practice activities for elementary, middle, and high school students. Braingenie’s library of activities is divided into nine sections and many…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Flippity’s Google Sheets Add-on is Back!
On Monday I shared an update from Flippity about their Google Sheets add-on being broken and taken offline because the deprecation of the Goo.gl service. This morning I woke up to the news that Flippity’s Google Sheets add-on is back. Not only is it…
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Tomorrow’s Read Aloud: The RPG • Teched Up Teacher
This post is written by Ivan Kaltman, a K-5 educator, Game-Based Learning advocate, and designer of Sydney’s World from New Jersey. Ivan is doing amazing work around video games and literacy. Here he describes how he is using video games to redefine…
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Mo Physics Mo Problems: Getting Started with Pear Deck
Fighting the Inertia of a Traditional Classroom
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Forming the foundation for esports in NJ | Video | NJTV News
Just like any sport tryouts, coaches are taking notes to see how players work together and individually. Parents are watching from the sidelines and students are competing on the field — only this is a virtual field.
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Grading is NOT Essential to the Instructional Process @tguskey – Teacher Tech
I’m a fan of Thomas Guskey, I recommend you check out his books and other resources. I saw this tweet from a presentation he was giving on the July 24th, 2018 and I think it is worth reflecting on. Grading is NOT essential to the instructional proce…
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You can find all my “Best” lists related to planets and space here.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Synth Adds Podcast Moderation Features
Synth is an excellent tool for creating short podcasts. In fact, it’s one of my picks for Best of the Web for the 2018-19 school year. But to call Synth a podcasting tool is a bit misleading because it is more than that.
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Curriculum Development: Start with Questions (Instead of Standards) – Reading By Example
Boredom is a product of ignorance; the more we know about something, the more interesting it becomes. If you could teach your students anything you wanted tomorrow, what would it be? No standards need to be considered. Principals are giving you free…
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Word Hippo is a nice little tool that students can use to find definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and translations for words. The service also provides students with verb conjugation assistance, pronunciation assistance, and assistance with prefixes a…
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The Weather Channel regularly publishes pretty amazing “immersive mixed reality” videos related to climate, and I’ve previously shared them all here. Their newest one shows the impact of melting glaciers. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn Abo…
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See Beyond Behavior Podcast for Educators – Class Tech Tips
Earlier this year consultant and author Torri Wright, reached out to share her new podcast, See Beyond Behavior. Are you following along with me on social media or on my email list? Then you know that podcasts have been front of mind for me this spr…
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Council Post: Five eSports Predictions: What Does The Year Hold For Companies And Developers?
Andrew Paradise is the CEO and Founder of Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, which was ranked #1 on the 2017 Inc. 5000 list. Between League of Legends appearing in the Asian Games and worldwide phenomenon Fortnite dominating headlines, …
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Dear First Year Teacher, – The Everlasting Learner
I often think back to my first year teaching and I’m going to be blunt… I see lots of worksheets, missed connections with students, and an extreme lack of confidence in myself. I am not embarrassed or ashamed by this as I am proud of who I have beco…
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Open Middle: Equivalent Fractions Activity – Teacher Tech
I’m a troublemaker and have started giving busting out math problems at dinner when I’m over at someone’s house or if my kids bring friends over for dinner. Whoa to you if you say to me “I’m not good at math” or “I don’t like fractions.
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New TED-Ed Video: “Why are earthquakes so hard to predict?” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
Angelo_Giordano / Pixabay I’m adding this new TED-Ed lesson and video to The Best Sites For Learning About Earthquakes:
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The Most Dangerous Writing App is a free service that is designed to force you to write without stopping for a preset amount of time. You can set your writing timer for as few as three minutes or as many as many as sixty minutes.
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Flippity.net: Easily Turn Google Spreadsheets into Flashcards and Other Cool Stuff
Easily turn a Google spreadsheet into a set of online flashcards. Easily turn a Google spreadsheet into a trivia game show.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Important Information for Fans of Flippity
Flippity is one my favorite Google Sheets add-ons. I probably refer people to it more than any other individual Google Sheets add-on. I do that because Flippity’s Google Sheets add-on provides twenty templates for making useful things within Google …
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5 Ways Video Games Can Help Kids with Special Needs – GeekDad
From communication to motor skills, learning through play is a wonderful motivator for kids with challenges. Communication Games that promote visual storytelling, social modeling, and language patterns can help kids with speaking, listening, and com…
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2 questions about cheating, copying, and student ‘integrity’ | @mcleod | Dangerously Irrelevant
We’re so quick to bemoan the lack of ethics in our students. They cheat. They copy. They take shortcuts on the work.
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Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: Language Should Never Be A Barrier
I recently returned from a trip to Paris, France where I attended a gathering with over 250 educators from across the world. In their respective countries, these educators were the best of the best; innovative, creative and focused on creating stude…
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Conversations – Microsoft Translator
By using this site you agree to the use of cookies for analytics and personalised content. Learn more How this works 1. Start Click on “Start conversation”, log in and enter your name and language. 2.
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Amusing Monday: Eco-comedy videos have gotten edgier than ever | Watching Our Water Ways
Amateur video producers seem to have grown darker and more intense in dealing with the topic of climate change — even when their task is to create a humorous video.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Good Tools for Creating Word Clouds
The popularity of word cloud generation tools seems to have declined from their peak of about six years ago. None-the-less they are still useful in providing students with a nice way to visualize the most frequently used words in a passage of text.
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7 Ideas To Find Inspiration For New Blog Posts – The Edublogger
There are two types of bloggers. One has a never-ending list of blog post ideas but just can’t find the time to write them all. The other wants to write more blog posts but is stuck for ideas.
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Ready-to-Use Curriculum for Global Student Connections – Class Tech Tips
Collaboration and authentic audiences are two topics I frequently cover on the blog. And if you’ve read my book Tasks Before Apps you know that I value the power of collaboration and creation for an audience.
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Learn from Assessments? | All Things Assessment
Consider an assessment you or your collaborative team recently gave in a grade level or course. All too often the data gathered from scored assessments are recorded in an electronic grade book and forgotten until it is time to generate report cards.
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On Your Feet Guide to The Station Rotation Model |
Teachers plan on the go! As much as I enjoy reading books that help me to push my practice forward, I appreciate having quick and easy resources I can reference in the classroom.
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Free Technology for Teachers: A Few Good Resources for Earth Day Lessons
Earth Day is a couple of weeks away. Here are a few resources that you might consider incorporating into your Earth Day lesson plans. I’ll be sharing more resources later this week. ARMAP is a comprehensive resource of interactive, online maps of Ar…
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Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: 4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Limit Tech Use to A Communal Area
Youth need privacy for healthy growth, development, and to work through ideas. Yet in these monitoring-obsessed days of child-rearing, privacy is often thrown to the side in exchange for surveillance.
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A Principal’s Reflections: 5 Ways to Create Relevant Cultures of Learning
Education can seem like a balancing act between what we as adults feel is essential and what interests our learners. The struggle is real as the former is sometimes emphasized as a result of a school or district’s focus.
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Missouri: Why Fund More Charter Failures? | Diane Ravitch’s blog
The editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a powerful editorial in opposition to the expansion of charters into the suburbs. They are currently limited to Missouri’s two biggest cities, St. Louis and Kansas City.
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Chalkbeat: Attending a Selective High School Does NOT Confer Advantage | Diane Ravitch’s blog
This is a story that made me happy. I graduated from a non-selective, open admissions public high school in Houston. It was untracked (but unfortunately it was racially segregated like all schools in Houston because I graduated in 1956).
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