January, 2022

article thumbnail

Top 10 Hits and Misses for 2021

Ask a Tech Teacher

Since we at Ask a Tech Teacher started this blog thirteen years ago, we’ve had almost 5.6 million views from visitors, about 10,000 followers who have read some or all of our 2,731 articles on integrating technology into the classroom. This includes tech tips, website/app reviews, tech-in-ed pedagogy, how-tos, videos, and more. We have regular features like: Weekly Websites and Tech Tips ( sign up for the newsletter ).

EdTech 466
article thumbnail

Teaching Must Get More Flexible Before It Falls Apart

ED Surge

The Great Renegotiation is coming for schools. According to national data, schools are not facing greater teacher vacancies this year than in years past. But if you’re reading this article—if you’re engaged enough in education to be reading EdSurge—you probably don’t believe that data. And for good reason. Teachers report being more stressed as the pandemic goes on, and much more likely to leave the profession than they were before March 2020.

educators

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Edpuzzle Full Review for Teachers and Students

Educators Technology

Edpuzzle is an educational platform that enables teachers to create and share annotated video lessons with their students. Teachers can use YouTube videos or upload their own, add questions, notes,read more.

Education 361
article thumbnail

5 Ways to Build Reading Stamina in Adolescent Students

Cool Cat Teacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Reading stamina matters. Prior to the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of students in the US were below grade reading level for grade 4,8, and 12 (NAEP). If that isn't bad enough, UNESCO found that more than half of children and adolescents were not even learning worldwide. Furthermore, in September 2020, UNICEF reported that 1 billion children worldwide aren't learning at all.

Economics 268
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Math Teacher Writer Highlight: Helen Squire

Accelerate Learning

Helen Squire’s love for STEM can be found in all areas of her life—from her job as a math teacher at a charter school, her education (a bachelor’s and master’s in civil engineering), her side gig as a STEMscopes Math curriculum writer, and even her chosen names for the family dog and cat (Vader and Tesla). Her deep interest in STEM has enabled her to leave a lasting mark on STEMscopes Math.

Math 246

More Trending

article thumbnail

Public Domain Day and Happy New Year!

Ask a Tech Teacher

Every year, January 1st, is P ublic Domain Day. This is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain–free for all to use. According to Public Domain Review, here are some of the newly-available artistic works you might like a/o January 1, 2022: Click image for interactive content on PublicDomanReview.org. Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work: [link].

article thumbnail

Indigenous Knowledge Is Often Overlooked in Education. But It Has A Lot to Teach Us.

ED Surge

As I sit at my grandmother’s oval-shaped wooden table, I feel a warm summer breeze through the open window. I ask her again how to pronounce iciyapi. “Ee-chee-yah-pee,” she says in a slightly slower, but confident tone. I repeat the syllables in a much slower and deliberate voice. “Ee.chee.yah.pee.” “Good my girl, that sounds good,” she says. She is teaching me how to properly introduce myself in our Lakota language, Lak?

Teaching 357
article thumbnail

Using Blogs in Teaching- A Helpful Framework for Teachers

Educators Technology

Blogging is a digital activity with immense pedagogical benefits for students. Besides developing a number of key multimedia literacy skills essential for thriving in the 21st century classroom,read more.

Teaching 359
article thumbnail

Benefits of Using Board Games in the Classroom

User Generated Education

As a kid growing up, I loved board games. loved playing The Game of Life , Clue , and Sorry with my friends as a preteen and then Backgammon throughout my undergraduate years. I definitely liked the thrill of winning but equally so interacting with my friends while we played the games. Years ago I brought board games into my classroom. but haven’t for several years focusing more on using video games with my students.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Computational Fluency

Accelerate Learning

There’s a scene in the award-winning film A Beautiful Mind where the real-life math genius John Nash (played masterfully by Russell Crowe) stands before two massive screens full of cryptic numbers formulated by an enemy government and computes in his mind for hours until he demystifies the code. Numbers are illuminated on the screens, indicating the highly complex mental math he’s performing.

Computer 246
article thumbnail

Computer Science for the sake of ?

Computer Science Teacher

My grandson in kindergarten has a class in reading. It makes sense as he is just learning how to read. Over time, school spends less time teaching how to read and a lot more time using using reading to support learning. For many years, I have been saying that computer science and its tools should be the same. Early on I thought of things like using spreadsheets to look at data.

article thumbnail

How Minecraft Teaches Reading, Writing and Problem Solving

Ask a Tech Teacher

A while ago, Scientific American declared “…“ not only is Minecraft immersive and creative, but it is an excellent platform for making almost any subject area more engaging. ” A nod from a top science magazine to the game many parents wish their kids had never heard of should catch the attention of teachers. This follows Common Sense Media’s seal of approval.

article thumbnail

Kids Use Play To Communicate. Here’s Why Adults Need To Pay Attention.

ED Surge

Throughout my 20 years in the field of early childhood development, in the classroom and as a kids’ show host, I have observed that a young child in focused, self-guided, open-ended play is like a lucid dreamer. Consider how our subconscious processes the experiences of our daily lives during our dream cycles. When adults pay attention to children’s verbal and non-verbal play, we are, in a way, able to look into their subconscious, and with some careful observation and analysis, gain a pretty go

article thumbnail

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!

article thumbnail

Quillbot- An Excellent Paraphrasing Tool for Students

Educators Technology

An online paraphrasing tool (a reword generator) is a tool that allows you to find better ways to reword or paraphrase your content. Students can use paraphrasing tools to help them enhance the.read more.

355
355
article thumbnail

12 Picture Books That Celebrate Women in STEM

Carly and Adam

The following is a guest post from Dr. Jacie Maslyk. *This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. The books we share with our students can cultivate an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Providing exposure to a variety of books helps to show students that STEM is for everyone.

STEM 145
article thumbnail

Black History Month Hero: Katherine Johnson

Accelerate Learning

February is recognized across the US as Black History Month. In keeping with this tradition we like to look back on great leaders, trailblazers, and heroes in STEM. This month we recognize the NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose work played a pivotal role in the moon landing, Project Mercury, and the beginning of the space shuttle program.

STEM 241
article thumbnail

Writing The Wordle Clone

Computer Science Teacher

Kelly Powers posted a Wordle project document on the AP CS A Teachers Facebook page. It’s solid as one would expect from Kelly who is just awesome. It inspired me to write my own Wordle clone to better understand what is involved from a student project perspective. Of course I did it my way. A Wordle project must consist of several parts: Pick a word Accept a guess from the player Analyze the player’s guess Look for letters in the right place in the work Look for letters in the word but not in t

article thumbnail

Build Empathy Among Students

Ask a Tech Teacher

It used to surprise me that it became the school’s job to teach empathy. Shouldn’t parents do that? The truth is it doesn’t always happen in homes. Since children spend much of their daylight hours in school, it is a logical place to reinforce empathy as a life skill. Edsurge has an interesting article, How to build empathy among students , that shares one teacher’s experiences: Lessons in empathy often are taught with a focus on the individual, rather than the collectiv

article thumbnail

I’m a Former Migrant Student. Schools Need to Hire More Educators Who Look Like Me.

ED Surge

When I first began attending school, my teachers often seated me in the back of the classroom. My parents immigrated from Mexico and were farm workers who lived in Florida and migrated around the country based on the season. That meant I didn’t just attend school in Florida, but also in the states that we traveled to, such as Indiana and Michigan. At the time, I could not speak English, so it was easy for me to be overlooked by my peers and teachers.

Schooling 333
article thumbnail

Watch2Gether- Watch Videos Together in Real Time

Educators Technology

Watch2Gether is a platform that allows you to watch videos with your friends and family remotely wherever they are in the world. While watching, you can also interact with each other via text and.read more.

354
354
article thumbnail

6 Books and STEM Challenges to Teach About Groundhog Day

Carly and Adam

*This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on the links and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow? Groundhog Day is celebrated every February 2nd and it is the perfect time to engage your elementary students in STEM and maker learning. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on Groundhog Day and sees its shadow, we are in for six more weeks of winter weather.

Teaching 139
article thumbnail

Fact Fluency: Beyond Rote Learning

Accelerate Learning

Imagine an alien planet where the inhabitants are born with the multiplication table imprinted on their DNA. Let’s call this galactic species Multiplydons. The Multiplydons enter their distant world reciting multiplication facts the way human babies babble and coo for their parents. Like humans, Multiplydons attend school and study math, but their curriculum naturally omits memorization of the multiplication tables and skips ahead to their application.

Learning 241
article thumbnail

Planning Before Coding

Computer Science Teacher

After all these years one would think I would know better. But it turns out that when coding for fun I don’t always do the planning that I should. It always comes back to hurt me. If you have been reading this blog lately you know that I have been playing with a Wordle solver. It’s going well. But. I started well. I identified several thins my solver should look for: Words that include letters I know are in the word Words that don’t include letters I know are not in the word.

159
159
article thumbnail

Google Earth Lesson Plans

Ask a Tech Teacher

Tech Learning recently shared an excellent lesson plan by Dr. Stephanie Smith Budhai that incorporates the amazing Google Earth into learning. Here’s the beginning: The 3D interactive online exploration platform Google Earth provides a pathway to endless learning adventures around the globe. For an overview of Google Earth and a breakdown of its unique features, check out How to Use Google Earth for Teaching. .

Geography 387
article thumbnail

How Has the Pandemic Changed the Way Educators Think About Homework?

ED Surge

Ray Salazar has been teaching high school Journalism and English in Chicago Public Schools for over twenty years. He usually begins the academic year with lessons on written profiles, but in the fall of 2020, he felt that wouldn’t meet the moment. Instead, he crafted an entirely new curriculum that he felt would better resonate with students, a series of reading and writing assignments that looked at the stages of grief.

Education 331
article thumbnail

Flipsnack- A Great Tool to Create Interactive Flipbooks

Educators Technology

Flipsnack is a platform that helps you create interactive flipbooks. Using a simple drag and drop editor you can instantly design visually attractive magazines, newspapers, eBooks, resumes,read more.

353
353
article thumbnail

5 Pandemic Learning Gains

The Innovative Educator

If you follow the fear-mongering mainstream media, you’d think today's youth is doomed as a result of the “learning loss” caused by the emergency remote learning students were involved in during the pandemic. Innovative educators (and their students) understand this is untrue. There is not one moment in time when any particular subject or topic needs to be learned.

Learning 130
article thumbnail

Media Literacy Words to Intrigue Your Students

Middle Web

Metaverse? Prebunking? Zombie claims? The rapid evolution of digital technology and methods of persuasion has unleashed a flood of words and phrases that need to be in students’ vocabularies. Media literacy expert Frank Baker offers examples from across current culture. The post Media Literacy Words to Intrigue Your Students first appeared on MiddleWeb.

article thumbnail

Wordle Solving For Fun and Coding

Computer Science Teacher

After my post the other day ( Is Wordle A Project To Assign Students to Program?) I got thinking about solver help for Wordle. I happen to have a huge word list I got some somewhere some time ago. For various reasons I had written a program to make sub list files of words of a specific length. So of course I have a list of 5 letter words – something over 8,000 of them.

article thumbnail

Subscriber Special: Donate to my blog–free MLK Lesson Plans

Ask a Tech Teacher

Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching. January. This month: If you donate to my blog drive, I’ll send you FREE: . The 18-page two-lesson plan bundle to teach about Martin Luther King (click for more information) in preparation for MLK Day January 17, 2022. Lesson plans include: an Event Chain of Dr.

EdTech 377
article thumbnail

How to Motivate Students to Actually Do Homework and Reading

ED Surge

The following is the latest installment of the Toward Better Teaching advice column. You can pose a question for a future column here. Reader Question: Dear Bonni, What ideas do you have for student accountability? How do we get students to do pre-class work without giving a grade to everything? —Looking for change Dave, my husband, was in the driveway a few days ago, about to head somewhere with our two kids.

Primary 300