Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 29, 2015
Wide variety from formative to summative, from quizzes to games. See what works for you: 60-seconds Adventures in Economics –videos from Open University. Basic Economic Terms. Basic Economics Jumbled. Be Your Own Boss. BrainPop—money movie. Business and Profit Millionaire Game. Coffeeshop Game. Economic Concepts. Economics in Plain English –from Atlantic Monthly–videos.
Educators Technology
MAY 30, 2015
May 30, 2015 Here are three of the best web-based applications for drawing and image editing as recommended by Chromebook Help Centre. Students can use these tools on their Chromebooks to engage in.read more.
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User Generated Education
MAY 6, 2015
I was recently asked what is was about my childhood that led to me being an adult who makes and who advocates that everyone should make in one form or another. I believe there were several childhood experiences that contributed to me becoming a lifelong maker. I was born a very curious and creative kid. This was accepted by my mother who gave me the freedom to be so.
The Innovative Educator
MAY 27, 2015
A recent study from the Center for Economic Performance in London makes a disturbing recommendation to ban students from using their digital devices for learning. The study making the rounds in stories like this one (The Conversation), this one (ABC On Your Side), and this one (NY Mag) disregards what innovative educators know and research shows: Paper assessments are a poor indicator of student achievement.
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.
Technology Tidbits
MAY 12, 2015
It's that time of year again for my annual list online summer learning opportunities or programs. Being a parent of four kids, I often find myself asking what I'm going to do w/ them when school gets out. There are lots of options out there for parents but I wanted something that would be fun as well as educational. Over the last few years Ed Tech companies have started to offer online summer "schools/programs" that are affordable and help prevent learning.
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Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 24, 2015
Alice Keeler is sharing a Google Doc of favorite educator tech tools. It’s crowdsourced, so view, add to it, come away richer thanks to your online colleagues: Link to the crowdsourced list. More tech ed resources: Great Resources. Great Lesson Plans. Great Apps. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of dozens of tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum , K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 14, 2015
‘Close reading’ entered the teacher’s lexicon with this Common Core literacy anchor standard: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Dr. Doug Fischer defines close reading this way: Close reading is a careful and purposeful re-reading of the text.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 20, 2015
It’s summer, time for teachers to recharge their cerebral batteries. That could mean reading, going on field trips, spending time with online PLNs, or taking calls from family members who usually end up at voice mail. For many, it means attending conferences like ISTE and NEA to learn how the heck to integrate technology into their lesson plans.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 18, 2015
To students, knowing how to ‘compare and contrast’ sounds academic, not real world, but we teachers know most of life is choosing between options. The better adults are at this skill, the more they thrive in the world. Common Core Standards recognize the importance of this skill by addressing it in over 29 Standards, at every grade level from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade.
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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.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 8, 2015
This is for both younger and older students so check these out–pick the ones that work for you: America’s Story. America–Colonies. American Indians. Civil War I video. Civil War II video. Civil War—reconstruction—video. Colonial America–life. Growth of the USA. Historic speeches. Jamestown Adventure Game. Mt. Vernon. Native American Conflicts.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 15, 2015
As a passionate Economics major in college (which grew into an MBA), I find Econ at the root of much of the world around us. It starts with counting coins in first grade and grows up to a peek into NASDAQ and other adult subjects in middle school. These websites cover kindergarten (counting money) through elementary (economics for youngers) through Middle School: Coins and Counting Money.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 22, 2015
Memorial Day is the time we remember all of those soldiers (and anyone in the Armed Forces) who gave their lives in the defense of American freedom. In war and peace, they made the ultimate sacrifice, and because of them we are privileged to live the American Dream. Once a year, we honor them, their sacrifice, and those they left behind. Here are some activities to help students understand the import of this day: In Flanders Field- -poem.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 16, 2015
The technological advances of the past two decades have changed the world, and education is no exception. Today’s students have access to far more knowledge than their parents once found in encyclopedias and on maps. With the click of a mouse and without leaving the classroom, they can access the collective knowledge of all mankind via the Internet.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 28, 2015
Ask a Tech Teacher is teaching two: the Tech-Infused Teacher — starts June 1st. How to use Tech to Differentiat e — starts June 8th. Click the links for information. Sign up quickly–time is running out! More on Summer PD: the Tech-Infused Teacher (no college credit, but you do get a certificate). That starts June 22nd. Summer PD–Questions We’ve Gotten. 11 Take-aways from Summer PD.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 27, 2015
Have students teach each other the 25 most common techie problems. They learn how to solve the problem and teach the class as a presentation, then answer questions. They will feel accomplished and tech savvy. If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative. More on problem solving: 98 Tech Tips from the Classroom. 25 Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix–Update.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 11, 2015
Every teacher I know juggles an exhausting teaching schedule with parent conferences, administrative tasks, and specialized student needs. They take work home evenings and weekends and often are forced to choose between family and job when it comes to allocating a finite quantity of time over what surely seems to be infinite needs. The teachers I know are also positive thinkers.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 19, 2015
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! Q: I love the Windows snipping tool, but it takes too long to get to. Is there a shortkey for it? A: Oddly, there isn’t, which is why I didn’t use it for a long time.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 21, 2015
By third grade, students can email their homework to you rather than turn in all those pesky hard copies. No more lost work, no more dog-ate-their-homework, no more blaming their mom. They can use their own account or a parents. Once they learn how, it is automatic–and they love doing it this way. Here’s the lesson: If the lesson plan is blurry, click for a full size alternative.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 13, 2015
Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please contact me at askatechteacher at gmail dot com and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names. Here’s a great question I got from Sandy: I am a computer teacher for Elementary as well as for preschoolers…ages 3 and 4.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 12, 2015
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! Q: I have a video on my classroom computer I want to use on my iPad. How do I do that? A: There are ways to do that–email it to your iPad, open through DropBox–but those have issues: emailing requires extra steps and time you may not have. many email
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 25, 2015
I’m taking the day to honor our soldiers. Without their sacrifice, where would we be? Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of dozens of tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum , K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, adjunct professor, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers , CAEP reviewer, C
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 4, 2015
Every month, subscribers to Ask a Tech Teacher get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching. This month: 10% Discount on Full Package. Summer Tech PD. CODE: SUMMERPD. We polled everyone we could think of to come up with a great collection of targeted learning for you this summer. How’s this sound? Sound good? Click to purchase. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 10, 2015
Mother’s Day in the United States is annually held on the second Sunday of May. This year, that’s May 11th. It celebrates motherhood and it is a time to appreciate mothers and mother figures. Many people give gifts, cards, flowers, candy, a meal in a restaurant or other treats to their mother and mother figures, including grandmothers, great-grandmothers, stepmothers, and foster mothers.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 6, 2015
Sometimes, it takes a picture to really show what you’re trying to say. It doesn’t have to be drawn with pencils or paint brushes. Sometimes, it’s a graph or a chart, formatted to clarify important points. That’s called Excel. Words and numbers are always black and white and the same size. Excel never is. There are twenty-two Excel skills I teach grades 3-5 that turn Excel into a useful tool in their classroom.
Ask a Tech Teacher
MAY 1, 2015
In response to extensive interest from readers, Ask a Tech Teacher will be offering Summer PD : June 22nd through July 11th. 3 weeks, 12 Activities, 29 webinars, lots of resources and hands-on help. You can read more here and here. What I want to do today is go over the most common questions I’ve gotten regarding sign ups: Q: What is the cost to register?
User Generated Education
MAY 31, 2015
I’ve written about connections before in It’s All About Connection. Today, though, I was thinking about all of the connections important for learning. Connection has a lot of meanings and connotations: Here are some of the connections I thought of that can/should be part of both formal and informal education: Connecting of Neural Networks in the Brain – New brain connections form in clusters during learning.
The Innovative Educator
MAY 24, 2015
PBS LearningMedia , which provides digital learning experiences for students, recently conducted a study that goes beyond looking at the impact of technology on students ability to fill bubbles in old-fashioned tests. Instead, it showed the positive impact of educational media on student achievement. Key findings include: 1) High quality digital content positively impacted student content knowledge and critical thinking practices when integrated into existing curriculum.
User Generated Education
MAY 20, 2015
The maker movement and maker education, in my perspective, are such great initiatives – really in line with what student-centric education should be in this era of formal and informal learning. Maker education (often referred to as “Maker Ed”) is a new school of educational thought [at least in terms of having an “official” educational label – JG] that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students.
User Generated Education
MAY 26, 2015
I used to teach a graduate course in professional ethics for the educator. One of the assignments I did is have these inservice educators develop a list of promises to their students. I asked them to make it poster size so they can post these promises in their classrooms. Here is an example of from 10 Amazing Teacher Promises for the Beginning of School.
The Innovative Educator
MAY 3, 2015
The ultimate learning experience for students is both highly collaborative and extremely personalized, supported by mobile devices and digital content, reports Project Tomorrow in their latest Speak Up report. Over the last few years of the Speak Up survey, more students and administrators have signaled the importance of being able to access mobile devices in the classroom, whether through Bring Your Own Device policy consideration and implementation or through school-provided technology.
User Generated Education
MAY 15, 2015
Yesterday I was one of several speakers at a mini-conference sponsored by a New Mexico agency whose sole purpose is to raise the reading achievement scores of the student body of low performing skills. My piece was to present on the Growth Mindset (the interest of the agency in Growth Mindsets was due to its potential to raise test scores – e.g., see https://www.mindsetworks.com/page/increase-students-motivation-grades-and-achievement-test-scores.aspx ).
The Innovative Educator
MAY 18, 2015
Today is the first day of the New York City Department of Education's "Bring Your Own Device" Institute. Below is an interview featuring teachers from two participating schools that was conducted by Common Sense Graphite ( originally posted here.) By Erin Wilkey Oh On March 2, 2015, the New York City Department of Education lifted its school cell phone ban.
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