Ask a Tech Teacher

AUGUST 30, 2016

One of my new favorite online writing tools is BoomWriter. It is a free group writing website for teachers where their students can develop and enhance their writing, reading, vocabulary, and peer assessment skills through three collaborative tools. I won’t go into detail today–that’ll come later–but I did want to share this humorous video I got from them about the Pre-Conference–that meeting teachers have with the principal before he comes in to observe your class.

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Amy Brown Science

AUGUST 30, 2016

It is so easy to get kids excited about science! We get to "play" with so many cool gadgets and gizmos in our lab activities. Why not make the FIRST day of school the BEST day of school for our students? Let them know on the very first day that your class is going to be great! I have developed three lab station "first day of school" icebreaker activities that I think your science students will love.

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The Innovative Educator

AUGUST 30, 2016

When I was a brand-spanking new teacher I was in awe of veteran teachers who had mastered classroom management. Classroom management is difficult for any teacher, but it can be even more difficult in an inner city school. The school where I started my career in the late 90s was the center of the book Push and/or movie Precious. It was a rough and tough place in Central Harlem, yet there were many teachers who had this classroom managment thing mastered.

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 31, 2016

Paperscorer is a fantastic new mobile (iOS/Android, or Chrome plug-in) app that allows educators and students to assess their learning in real-time. The way this works is a teacher creates an assessment/quiz in Google Forms/Documents and then create and print out a unique answer form/bubble sheet for each student. The student then uses those forms to answer the question and take the assessment/quiz.

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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.

Teaching

Ask a Tech Teacher

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

I repost this article every September because I get so many requests for mouse resources for those youngest keyboarders. Enjoy! One of the most important pre-keyboarding skills is how to use the mouse. The mouse hold is not intuitive and if learned wrong, becomes a habit that’s difficult to break. Here are some images to assist you in setting up your newest computer aficionados: Here are 16 websites students will enjoy, including 3 for adults new to computers: Mouse Skills.

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The Innovative Educator

AUGUST 28, 2016

Innovative Educators are Connected Educators. This month's issue of #CiscoFocus is all about how to be a connected educator. You can check it out at https://newsroom.cisco.com/connected-education , There you'll find several useful articles looking at topics like digital tools and the future of connected education. Here's an overview of what you'll find.

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 31, 2016

SpellingCity w/out a doubt is my favorite site for Spelling and Vocabulary. This is a great site w/ educational portal that allows educators to create word lists that can be incorporated into educational games. These games are not only fun but highly engaging and help students learn their "words". Also, an educator can track students, find an abundance of resources/videos, and even use it for mobile learning w/ a free mobile app (iOS/Android).

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Ask a Tech Teacher

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Here are thirteen of the top tips for teachers new to technology, according to Ask a Tech Teacher readers: Top 10 Reasons to Sign Up for Summer Learning with Ask a Tech Teacher. 169 Real-World Ways to Put Tech into Your Class–NOW. 6 Tech Best Practices for New Teachers. New to technology? Follow my classes. How Teachers Learn About New Edtech Products (Round-up).

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EdTech Curriculum Professor Teaching 153

STEMx

AUGUST 27, 2016

Dave Ferrero, Senior Program Officer for Education at Vulcan Inc., and his team have released project-based STEM resources for teachers and grants to incentivize early adopters. These “DIY project guides” were created by recipients of the Allen Distinguished Educator Award, a program that recognizes teachers who have developed innovative ways to teach computer science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.

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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.

Math

The Innovative Educator

AUGUST 27, 2016

Holding strong at the top for another week is a post that outlines how to Move From Lecture to Learning. This post is essential for innovative educators looking forward to #backtoschool strategies that go beyond the lecture. Also at the top is a topic on every teacher’s mind as they prepare for #backtoschool. Classroom set up and design. This post looks at what various classroom designs are inviting students to do.

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 29, 2016

iPracticeMath is a wonderful FREE (Common Core aligned) site for Math grades K-12. I like to think of this as the "ultimate" Math resource as students/educators can find whatever they are looking for, such as: worksheets/printables, interactive problems, detailed problem-walkthroughs, and more. Also, iPracticeMath covers a wide variety of Math problems.

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Algebra Math Education Education 29

Ask a Tech Teacher

AUGUST 31, 2016

An LMS — Learning Management System — is a digital tool that tracks a wide variety of student-teacher interactions such as homework, grading, sharing of resources, parent communication, assessments, and more. It allows teachers to create, distribute and track class materials anywhere, on any device. That means it’s accessible from school or home, with any platform (including Macs, PCs, Chromebooks, and tablets).

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The Innovative Educator

AUGUST 31, 2016

Advice for success in the digital classroom. Do you pledge to empower students to use technology safely, responsibly, and effectively? Make it official at www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/pledge. When you do, you will get a back to school guide that will provide young people with the digital literacy and citizenship skills they need to thrive in today's world.

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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!

STEM

The Innovative Educator

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

I hope you'll join us for our fifth monthly #NYCSchoolsTechChat taking place today, Thursday, September 1st at 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time. The topic is "#BacktoSchoolNYC." It will be perfect for those just getting back as well as those who have been back a few weeks. It will be led by Twitter Chat Queen , @eileen_lennon ( @NYCSchools) with me, @InnovativeEdu ( @NYCSchools ) and @TaliCSM ( @CommonSenseEd ) serving as trusted co-moderators.

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The Innovative Educator

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

The September 1st #NYCSchoolsTechChat focused on back to school tips for New York City educators. The chat consisted of 5 questions that were discussed by 29 participants who shared 200 messages and 33 resources. If you missed the chat, don't despair. You can catch up, view the transcript and resources at this link or by clicking on the photo below.

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Technology Tidbits

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

DimensionU is one of my favorite companies for Game Based Learning. These games take place in an interactive 3D virtual world where students strengthen their Math/Literacy skills. The games are designed for kids grades 3rd-9th and are aligned to Common Core Standards. Here are a list of DimensionU games. Watch the videos below to see all 4 AMAZING DimensionU Games in action: Meltdown is the DimensionU game that offers students a second chance when answering difficult questions, and rewards creat

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 30, 2016

Sketch Nation is a wonderful free app (iOS/Android) and website for creating games. Sketch Nation reminds me of Pixel Press Floors but w/out the paper. All a student has to do is select their category of game (i.e. platform, jumping, etc) then draw their backgrounds/characters/items and let Sketch Nation do the rest. The advanced level editor will help students create more complex games and work on their STEM skills.

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 30, 2016

BoomWriter is a excellent site that educators everywhere are using to help teach Writing grades 3rd-8th. The way this works is through an innovative collaborative writing/voting process that motivates students in a fun way. Recently, BoomWriter released a new video to show their writing process in action. Below is their NEW demo video. I highly recommend checking out BoomWriter by clicking here !!!

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Technology Tidbits

AUGUST 30, 2016

NameCoach is a wonderful web service that educators are using to learn student's names and pronounce them correctly. This is especially useful w/ commencement/graduation ceremonies on the horizon. The way this works is simple as a teacher creates a name/web page and then has the student's speak their names. The audio gets embedded into a page and a user can access them all on one page at anytime.

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Accessibility Technology Schooling Education 28

Ask a Tech Teacher

AUGUST 29, 2016

I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakehol

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Ask a Tech Teacher

AUGUST 27, 2016

This just out: Turnitin has released “ Rethink Feedback” –themed resources to help K-12 teachers and higher education instructors teach proper methods of attribution and help improve student writing skills in response to the ongoing priority teachers place on not only improving writing skills but educating students about plagiarism and integrity.

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