December, 2015

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4 Very Good Tools to Create Crossword Puzzle Games

Educators Technology

December 25, 2015 Crossword puzzles are an effective tool to use in your teaching. You can use them for a variety of educational purposes but most importantly in teaching vocabulary. Crossword.read more.

Teaching 204
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10 Bits of Wisdom I Learned From a Computer

Ask a Tech Teacher

Life is hard, but help is all around us. The trick is to take your learning where you find it. In my case, as a technology teacher, it‘s from computers. A while ago I posted four lessons I learned from computers : Know when your RAM is full. You Can‘t Go Faster Than Your Processor Speed. Take Shortcuts When You Can. Be Patient When You‘re Hourglassing.

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A Model of Good Teaching?

User Generated Education

One of my guilty pleasures is watching MasterChef Junior, a cooking competition for 8 to 12 year olds, and as an educator, I have been analyzing it as a model for good teaching. My observations include: The challenges are hands-on and naturally engaging for these kids. They are based on the kids’ passion for and interest in cooking. The kids don’t need to be graded about their performances.

Teaching 133
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Output Ideas for Interactive Notebooks

Science Teaching Junkie

INPUT vs. OUPUT The Interactive Notebook has become a large part of many classrooms around the country. It is typically divided into two sides (left side and right side). • The right side of the notebook is used for INPUT. This side is for the student to record notes and “testable” information. It is typically information that is provided by the teacher, such as class notes.

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Can Brain Science Actually Help Make Your Training & Teaching Stick?

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

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Give the Gift of Time By Avoiding Common Calendar Mistakes

The Innovative Educator

If there is anything innovative educators need more of, it’s time. We are always on the go, teaching and learning new things with new people in a variety of places. Those places may be physical spaces, phone calls, Skype, Hangouts, and more. Start the New Year off right by resolving to make calendar invites that save everyone time by being as complete and accurate as possible.

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Testmoz- A Great Tool for Creating Automatically Graded Quizzes

Educators Technology

December 17, 2015 Testmoz is an excellent web tool that allows you to create auto graded tests and quizzes. This application is designed by Matt Johnson, an undergraduate student at Washington State.read more.

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Get Ready for the New Year!

Ask a Tech Teacher

Next week, I’ll share three holiday activities that will get your computers, technology, and social media ready for the new year. Here’s what you’ll get: Is Your Online Presence Up to Date? Back up and Image your computer. 15 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer. Join me! You’ll come away feeling ready, re-energized, and geeky. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years.

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Maker Education Card Game

User Generated Education

I like and have always used games in my classrooms. One of my current educational interests is maker education. As such, I have begun creating games for maker education – see my first one, a board game, at Reflecting on the Making Process. The game I am presenting here is a card game that ends with the makers making something based on selected cards.

Education 128
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Connect to STEMx Superstars

STEMx

Read these profiles to learn about the groundbreaking efforts to turn the promise of STEM education into real impact. How to use this report. This report is built to be a resource for connecting you with talent in our network. First, download the report. Second, find someone you’d like to connect with. Third, use the form below to email the lead STEMx contact in that state.

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Harnessing The Power Of Math Manipulatives

Mathematics, a subject steeped in abstract concepts, often poses challenges to students, especially those in grades 5-10. But imagine a bridge that transformed this intricate maze into an interactive adventure.

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Does Tech Mean the End of Teaching As We Know It?

The Innovative Educator

There’s been a lot of discussion in my learning networks lately warning of the horrors of students learning from screens and relegating teachers to the status of robot babysitters. Here’s one such snippet from the Stop Common Core blog. ==For a while teachers will be on the sidelines to coach kids through the modules, check the data dashboards, and sign off on community projects.

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Top 50 Sites/Apps of 2015

Technology Tidbits

It's the time of year again for my favorite annual sites and apps. This year's list will be a little different as I list my favorite 50 instead of 100. The reason for this as not as many new learning tools came out this year compared to years past, while more current tools focused on regular updates. However, that does not mean there are not a lot of new items to look through, as sites/apps for programming/coding, Math/STEM, and Game Based Learning played a predominant role in this year's list.

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Here Is Another Terrific Interactive Timeline for History Teachers

Educators Technology

December , 2015 In the last few weeks we featured two excellent tools for history teachers: Chronas and Histography. Chronas allows you to explore the world history through the use of a colourful map.read more.

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17+ Holiday Activities

Ask a Tech Teacher

Here are some great projects to keep your children tech-involved over the holidays. They take lots of critical thinking, problem-solving, and are worth the effort! Let me know how these go: 19 Holiday Websites For Your Students. Holidays. Book Review: 16 Holiday Projects. Holiday Newsletter. A Holiday Card in KidPix. A Holiday Memory in Word or KidPix.

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Downloadable Design Briefs for an Integrative STEM Curriculum

These easy-to-use design briefs outline student objectives, challenges, and materials needed to complete each 30-minute to 4-hour lesson. ITEEA’s Integrative STEM curriculum, Engineering byDesign, includes many more standards driven hands-on activities just like these!

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Courage to Be an Outlier Educator

User Generated Education

Today, during a podcast interview, I was asked what it takes to be an educational thought leader. My responses was, “courage.” In this test driven, accountability-laden era of education, it takes courage to be an educator driven by authentic, constructivist , and student-centered values and practices. Courage: Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation.

Education 126
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Cell Biology Inspiration

STEM Teacher Inspiration

The following links are very useful in teaching Cell Biology:

Biology 52
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Is Sharing A Meal The Ticket To Teaching Cultural Awareness #VibeEdu #VibeIsrael

The Innovative Educator

When Michael Biton took the role as Mayor of Yeruham, a small desert city, made up of about 10,000 mostly Israeli immigrants he had some challenges to realize one of his visions for the city. Known for it’s historical and archeological sites, the city was to become a sought-after tourism hot-spot. One that, among other things, offers sumptuous ethnic meals and gives visitors insight into the heritage, culture, and traditions of regular Israelis.

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VocApp

Technology Tidbits

VocApp is a free mobile (Android/iOS) app/site that I just found out about from a promotional email, for making multimedia flashcards. This app can be used to learn any subject/topic as a user can create a flashcard containing audio, texts, images, etc. Also, VocApp has some prebuilt courses that are ideal for learning languages (i.e. Spanish). This is a great tool for self paced learning and VocApp differentiates instruction so a student will see items they are having more trouble with.

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Where’d Christmas Come From?

Ask a Tech Teacher

Watch this video and come away educated: __. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum , K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, CSG Master Teacher, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers , CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer,

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End of Year Tips: Update Your Online Presence

Ask a Tech Teacher

This week, I’m providing tips for end-of-year technology maintenance. These are activities that could (or should) be done once a month if you’re active on your computer, but AT LEAST do them yearly. Like today. For most teachers I know, life zooms by, filled with lesson planning, meetings, classes, collaborations with their grade-level team, parent meetings, and thinking.

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Have Santa Call Your Kids

Ask a Tech Teacher

DialMyCalls (an AATT sponsor) has a special Christmas offer for kids who want to hear from Santa: Send Free Santa Calls To Your Family This Christmas. This Christmas we have a great gift for everyone! Whether you’re an existing DialMyCalls user or not, you can take advantage of our completely free phone call from Santa. Imagine the look on your child’s face when they receive a personalized phone call from Santa with his or her name on it!

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End-of-Year Tips: 18 Steps To A Speedier Computer

Ask a Tech Teacher

This week, I’m providing tips for end-of-year technology maintenance. These are activities that could (or should) be done once a month if you’re active on your computer, but AT LEAST do them yearly. Like this week. There are two ‘speed’ problems that arise when using computers: the computer itself is slow, for lots of reasons. you are slow–meaning: You have too much to do.

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Hour of Code: Create Macros

Ask a Tech Teacher

Creating a macro is a quick, easy programming exercise that students fifth grade and up can accomplish with moderate supervision. By fifth grade, students appreciate technology for how it can speed up their homework and class projects and seek out ways to use it to make their educational journey easier. Take advantage of this by introducing pre-programming skills like creating macros.

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Hour of Code: Build Websites

Ask a Tech Teacher

As a tech teacher, I see a lot of student websites. I’m always impressed with the effort, the tenacity, and often the skill, but most require ‘some additional work’ to be published. And then I got an email from Stephen Byrne. In his quest to better learn history, he blended it with his love of of programming and built a website. It’s called History for Kids.

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21 Holiday Websites For Your Students (copy)

Ask a Tech Teacher

Need a few websites to fill in sponge time? Here are Holiday websites that will keep students busy while teaching them: 12 Days of Christmas. Christmas—history—fun video. Gift Hunt –updated version of 12 Days of Christmas–just as much fun. Holiday collection. Holiday Crossword. Holiday Elf Games. Holiday hangman. Holiday Hangman II. Holiday music. Holiday music II –sing along with the music–the site provides the words.

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Subscriber Special: December

Ask a Tech Teacher

65+ Great Gifts. For teachers. Don’t know what to get? Choose one of the 65 ideas here ranging from $1.99-$199 (or more). Everything from lesson plans to curricula to student workbooks to online classes and more. Need help deciding? Talk to one of our curriculum specialists. They’ll help you figure out what’s best. Our holiday gift to you: When you make your selection, use this coupon code and get 15% off: HAPPYHOLIDAY15.

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Listen to Ask a Tech Teacher on EduTalk Radio

Ask a Tech Teacher

Many thanks to Larry Jacobs for inviting me to join him on EduTalk Radio, to talk about my recent Editor’s Choice Award from SmartBrief Education. We had a great time talking about technology in education, blending games like Minecraft into curriculum, and using technology to meet students where they want to learn. Here’s the link: [link]. …and here’s a summary of some of the conversation: Minecraft.

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Happy Holiday!

Ask a Tech Teacher

I’ll be taking a week (or so) off–until after the New Year–to edit/format my website, work on writing projects with a deadline, prioritize life, and wish my two adult military children could come home to visit. I may drop in on you-all as you enjoy your holidays, but mostly I’ll be regenerating. I wish you a wonderful season, safe and filled with family.

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A Shout Out for My Donate Button

Ask a Tech Teacher

Ask a Tech Teacher is a small group of tech-ed teachers with a big goal: provide free and affordable resources to anyone, anywhere that integrate technology into education. It’s an ambitious goal and we rely on donations from readers like you to make that happen. About this time of each year, when several of our larger bills come due, we give a shout out for help.

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End-of-year Tech Tips: Image and Back-up Computer

Ask a Tech Teacher

This week, I’m providing tips for end-of-year technology maintenance. These are activities that could (or should) be done once a month if you’re active on your computer, but AT LEAST do them yearly. Like today. Two critical maintenance tasks that lots of people skip are: image your computer. back up your documents. Image your computer. Every computer must be reformatted eventually.

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Best 2015 Videos: STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education Theme

User Generated Education

One of my end of year rituals is finding and posting the years’ best videos. Given my current interest in maker education , I decided to locate and post 2015 videos related to maker education, STEM, and STEAM. Maker Education: Reaching All Learners. At Albemarle County Public Schools, maker education fosters student autonomy, ignites student interest, and empowers students to embrace their own learning.

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Coding and Bots

User Generated Education

I have been asked to return to teach summer enrichment classes on maker education for elementary-aged learners at a local school during the summer of 2016. One of the new classes I am designing is called Coding and Bots. The description is: Learn how to code first by playing games and then by coding some bots including Sphero, OZOBOT, and Dash and Dot.