Tips For Education

I have been doing a lot of thinking for a  presentation  on technology in the English Language Arts classroom I am planning for the end of January. In the course of my preparation I came across the SAMR model developed by  Ruben N. Puentedura  It provides a framework for how technology impacts pedagogy. This YouTube  video  does a great job briefly explaining each of the stages. As such, the SAMR model can help teachers think about their own implementation of various tech tools in the classroom. While thinking about the best way to present the model to teachers, I came across a  blogpost  by Tim Holt that compared the various levels of tech implementation to ordering coffee from Starbucks. A person ordering from Starbucks can simply substitute its coffee for the homemade version or order a Pumpkin Spice Latte, which truly redefines an espresso drink. This metaphor gave me the inspiration to create the following slide (included here as a stand alon...

Consistent and relevant parent communication is essential for a good school year. Luckily, there are many great tools that make communicating with parents relatively easy. First, Remind101 provides a free and safe way for teachers to communicate with students and parents. After signing up for a free account, you create your classes. Remind101 then  provides you with a phone number and a separate code for each class. Parents and students simply send a text message with the code to the number given by Remind101. They are then subscribed to any messages you send out for that class. Parents and students can also signup for email updates, but this is not as obvious. If you click on the print button on the left hand side of the screen, it will create a PDF with the instructions for signing up for text messages and email messages. Now you are ready to send out alerts to parents and students. Just click on a class, type a message, and then hit send. It is blasted out to everyone who is su...

Quizlet is a flashcard site that makes it easy to study any subject for free. This web tool allows a user to create a flashcard set for any subject and immediately begin studying terms and definitions. The power of Quizlet is how easy it is to create a flashcard set and the features available once the set is created. To begin with, you don't even have to create an account to preview Quizlet's features. On the front page of the website you can test drive its features using one of the sample sets. The most basic mode allows the user to quickly flip through the terms and definitions and begin learning the content. Each set gives you the option of viewing the term first, or both sides at the same time if you are running through the cards for the first time. But it is the other features that make Quizlet such a powerful tool for teachers and students. The first feature is a "Speller" mode, which allows the user to listen to a term and then type in the correct spelling. Ne...

Last year one of my students wore a t-shirt with a thoughtful quote: "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard." I immediately wanted to put the quote up in my classroom so that students would read it and be challenged by its message. I thought of making a poster, but realized that our poster making machine no longer worked. But then I remembered the website www.blockposters.com . This great web tool easily creates a poster from any image a user uploads. The poster is "blocked," that is the image is pixelated when viewed up close, but looks excellent when viewed from a distance. A quick search on Google images provided a large number of pictures with the quote. I downloaded an image and immediately got to work creating my poster. Blockposter.com walks you through three easy steps to create your poster. First, you upload the image from your hard drive. Next, you choose how many pages wide you want the poster to be and what size of paper you will use...

This week i want to introduce you to an app i have started using called Audioboo. The company tagline is that it is the simplest way to share audio. Audioboo works with Android, Nokia, and Apple devices. If you don't have a smart phone, you can also record directly in your web browser. I have been using the iPad app, but the process works the same with another smartphones or the Audioboo website. Simply open the app, click on the record button, and begin talking into the microphone. When you're done with your recording, press stop, and then click the upload button. You can then go to the Audioboo website to view the audio clip that you created. You can share the audio file via Twitter, email, or there's also an embed button so that you can embed the clip into other websites. Right now, I am using the app to create audio agendas of what we do in class each day. This helps students who are absent and need to make up the work they missed that day. The agenda takes no more than...

With all of the websites teachers have to sign-in to these days, it is easy to forget your password. Luckily there is a way to create passwords that are both easy to remember and secure. This tip can also work for teaching students how to create passwords. Just click on the link below and watch the tutorial.