Tech Tips
November 2014: Volume 2 Number 7
November Blessings
Happy Thanksgiving!
Realtime Board
"RealtimeBoard is an online collaboration software created as a team collaboration and online brainstorming tool. It's super easy to use & free!"
Hour of Code
"The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 30 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104."
Canva
"Design Essentials will guide you through simple tools and techniques that will help you create designs you can proudly share with the world."
Cybraryman's Differentiation Page
This site is an amazing resource!
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Small, Safe Steps for Introducing Games to the Classroom
"Some educators are nervous about using games in the classroom or fully implementing all aspects of game-based learning (GBL). However, there are a few small, safe steps that all educators can and should consider to leverage the power of engagement that games can bring. Finding games isn't as difficult as it used to be. Sites like Educade provide game ideas, links, resources, and even lesson ideas. This is a great start, but educators should take some of the following next steps to feel even more confident and safe about using games in the classroom."
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The Skyping Renaissance
Many, Many Examples of Essential Questions
"Essential questions are, as Grant Wiggins defines, “‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important andnecessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term."
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STEM & Writing: A Super Combination
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Why Student Engaged Assessment Matters
"The apathy, disconnection, or lack of self-esteem that causes students to disengage in school—to stop caring—is not inherent. It is learned behavior. Kin- dergartners come to school excited to learn. In the course of their schooling, however, some students lose touch with their ability to thrive in a school environment. School becomes something that is done to them, something that they are not good at. They may feel they are good at sports, music, or video games, but school is just not a place where they succeed. Their test scores and grades make this clear. Student-engaged assessment puts students back in the driver’s seat, in charge of their own success. It makes clear to them that hard work and practice pays off—just as it does for them in sports, music, or video games—and that the immediate, clear feedback they get in these other pursuits can also guide their academic progress. "
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The Ebola Virus Explained
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10 Tech Trends that Will Impact (Virtually) Every Teacher
"These professorial pioneers are typically the teachers and administrators that K-thru-12 schools and districts rely on to determine how and to what degree technology is rolled out within their organizations. They also have massive input on what apps, videos and websites should be run on iPads and other devices. So whatever conclusions these folks are arriving to today will no doubt influence most everyone else working in early childhood education through high school and beyond in the months and years ahead.
Here are 10 takeaways from the conference."
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Makers in the Classroom
"The “it” I’m referring to is “Making,” and simply put, Making is any activity where people create something, often with their hands.
I often define Making by looking at what people bring to the Maker Faire, which does include more technical aspects like 3D printing, physical computing and programming. But Making also includes woodworking, growing food, making art and crafts.
Making gives students (or anyone, really) an opportunity to find a passion. Additionally, Making provides a context to place academic learning in the “heart, mind, and hands” (a concept championed by 18th century educator Pestalozzi) in pursuit of deepening students’ conceptual understanding of content. A loose translation for today would be that we use Making to focus on learning character traits, content, process, and skills.
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Design Tips for Science Learning Spaces
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50 Resources for Using Tech in the Modern Classroom
"The aim of technology may be to make processes more efficient and to expand our horizons, but unless used appropriately, it can also make life unnecessarily complicated. In the classroom, teachers are more and more often expected to show innovative and progressive thinking by integrating technological solutions into their lessons — but starting out isn't easy. From learning how to scour YouTube for clips to working out which photos and files can be used under fair copyright terms, while trying to keep up with standard workloads, invigorating lessons with technology can fall by the wayside.
To help teachers out, and given the popularity of ZDNet's last iPad in the classroom roundup, here is an updated, fresh list of tutorials, apps and software to transform your work-life balance and the student experience in today's modern classroom."
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Common Core in Action: The Power of a Checklist
"Because I teach using project-based learning, I find it very important not only to let students in on what our main goal needs to be, but to let them in on the process and steps it will take to meet that goal. My checklists, therefore, become almost a sequential narrative through an academic unit."
Try:
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Articles about Young Adult Literature
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Common Core in Action: How Two Science Teachers Are Implementing Common Core
"While math and English language arts teachers have a much more direct call for Common Core implementation, teachers in other content areas are also being called to implement the Common Core State Standards. This may be a challenge for some. In my work with teachers across many states, I find that non-ELA and non-math teachers aren't as familiar with the CCSS, nor with implementation. In the next couple of blogs, I'd like to share the stories of science and art teachers implementing the CCSS -- their processes, reflections and advice. We'll start with science."
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Strongsville City Schools Instructional Technology Information
Contact me if you have any questions or would like help using these tools.
Email: turner@strongnet.org
Website: http://www.strongnet.org/InstructionalTechnology
Phone: 440-572-7067