Ask a Tech Teacher
AUGUST 19, 2016
Whether you teach habitats in second grade or Middle School, understanding how animals survive in their corner of the world is critical to a well-rounded perspective on life on planet Earth. Animals evolve or disappear based on their ability to adapt to the environment. Here are eight resources to encourage discovery of the amazing and varied worlds that surround Earth’s animals: Build a Habitat .
The Innovative Educator
AUGUST 17, 2016
Editor's note: HT to @Mr_Casal the purveyor of geekery who reviewed and revised this post to help ensure it was technically accurate. Livestreaming has been around for awhile making it's debut with platforms like UStream and Livestream. While those platforms were powerful, they didn't take off like the next wave of livestreaming platforms which have advantages of being ad free, cost free, and a built in audience.
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STEMx
AUGUST 16, 2016
by Michael Feder, Director of STEMx. There seem to be an ever growing number of STEM education conferences convened each year. It can be difficult to know which conference is right for you and STEM educators in your state. Why did you choose to present at the NSTA STEM Forum and were your expectations met? Liz Kuehl represented STEMx member Colorado at the NSTA STEM Forum.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 16, 2016
Quick Rubric is the wonderful new site for creating rubrics from the creators of Storyboard That. This is far and away the easiest site I've seen for creating a beautiful rubric where a user can add a row or a column w/ a tap of an arrow button. Everything inside of the rubric is customizable (i.e. from the heading to customizing points) and a user can save/print out as many rubrics as they need.
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.
Ask a Tech Teacher
AUGUST 18, 2016
If you’re like me–and 20% of US schools–when you think of ‘online slideshow tool’, you think of Haiku Deck. And now, your favorite tool just got better. Haiku Deck Classroom offers an easy way for educators to add and manage student accounts, integrate with Google Classroom and other CMS systems, sign in through Google, share projects to a classroom gallery, and more.
STEM Education Central brings together the best content for STEM education professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Ask a Tech Teacher
AUGUST 17, 2016
Here are the top geography tips according to Ask a Tech Teacher readers: 14 Ways to use Scribble Maps. Lesson Plans: Where Did I Come From? 149 Websites for K-8 Geography/Geology. Google Street View. Sponge Activities for Geography. A Virtual Tour of America–Via Biplane. The Power of Symbols–What does the word ‘Turkey’ mean? Wonders of Google Earth. 20 Websites to Learn Everything About Landforms.
Ask a Tech Teacher
AUGUST 16, 2016
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m taking 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 stakeholders, w
Ask a Tech Teacher
AUGUST 15, 2016
Several times a year, I teach an online class called the Tech-infused Classroom. Here, we discuss the idea that tech-infusing a class isn’t about replacing activities with technology, rather enhancing and extending learning with the wonderful tech tools now available (think M or R on the SAMR Model). One of my students, Matthew DiSiena, a PK-8 grade tech teacher in Queens New York, wrote a top-notch description of what he sees as the tech-infused classroom: The tech-infused classroom is a
The Innovative Educator
AUGUST 13, 2016
This week a new #backtoschool post moves into the #2 spot. It asks teachers “ What’s Your Classroom Inviting Students to Do?” It provides four options, then suggests how to achieve each. It also asks teachers to consider bringing students into the design process. Holding strong in first place is a hot topic. How to Mov e From Lecture to Learning This post is essential for innovative educators looking forward to #backtoschool strategies that go beyond the lecture.
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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.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 19, 2016
Help Teaching is an excellent site for educators, parents, and others looking for educational resources such as quiz/test creators, online assessments, or worksheets/printables. These printables are for K-12 and cover a wide range of subjects. Also, there is a test/virtual room where students can take online assessment and get results in real time. I highly recommend checking out Help Teaching by clicking here !!!
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 17, 2016
Tower Math is an excellent app for learning basic Math skills. Tower Math uses the ultra-popular "tower defense-game" format to create a fun learning environment for kids. Teachers can use this to integrate Game Based Learning into a classroom while students learn basic Math skills such as: addition, multiplication, subtraction, etc. I highly recommend checking out Tower Math by clicking here !!!
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 16, 2016
Decimalus Rex is a new online game from RoomRecess for learning Decimals. This is a fun platform style game that has students running and jumping while breathing fire and burning away signs w/ the correct answers. Some of the skills learned are: reading decimals, ordering decimals, adding decimals, and place value. Once a user completes a board they are then able to update their abilities.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 17, 2016
Clockwork Brain is a free brain training iOS app. This is a super-fun game that has a steampunk feel to it as users play through 17 brain training activities. These games focus on different skills such as: memory, attention, dexterity, reasoning, and more. Also, a player will collect power ups to unlock special features. Best of all, is the detailed reporting that shows graphs of the different areas of how a person is doing.
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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!
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 16, 2016
Storyboard That the wonderful site that educators are using for a variety of purposes such as: digital storytelling, project based learning, as a graphic organizer, timeline creator, and more, has been hard at work creating "top" new features for the summer as well as some great ideas for Back to School. Storyboard That had some pretty big updates come out this summer to make using Storyboard That even easier for teachers to use.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 18, 2016
Sangha is a new (free) iOS app communications/calendar app for schools. This is a great app that gives teachers/parents the same calendar across any platform. This way educators can schedule anything they want (i.e. parent conferences), classroom reminders, etc. and then parents can sign up via a e-signature form. Also, teachers can send messages w/ attachments as well as private message others and organizations.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 18, 2016
Diffission EDU is a excellent new (free) iOS game for students to practice their Fraction skills. Diffission EDU is a fun game aligned to Common Core Standards that has players slicing through shapes to form fractions. Best of all is the teacher dashboard for tracking student progress as well as a "Challenge" mode to help modify a student's learning.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 16, 2016
Answer Garden is an excellent new tool for a person's website. AG is a gadget that can be embedded into a site (similar to a poll) that people can use to answer question that you create. These answers then get displayed in a visual brainstorming/tag cloud view w/ the top choices standing out as more bold and bigger font (think Wordle). Answer Garden can be used by teachers to get feedback from students, bloggers for self analysis, etc etc.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 15, 2016
Neo K12 ia an excellent site for finding educational videos/games. What I really like about NK is how easy it is to use and the vast amount of different resources they cover. I like to think of it as a cross between Nettrekker and United Streaming. Give NeoK 12 a try by clicking here.
Technology Tidbits
AUGUST 15, 2016
BoomWriter PRO BoomWriter is a terrific site that I’ve written about many times because it lets elementary, middle, and high school teachers conduct non-fiction, fiction, and vocabulary development group-writing activities in almost any subject area. Now they’ve added BoomWriter PRO, which is a paid version of their product, and any teacher whose work with students involves writing should definitely consider this upgrade (only $2.99 a month) for the following reasons: Standards-based Rubrics!
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