To be an effective learner today, you need to know how to curate resources. There is a tremendous amount of information out there and if you do not curate your resources, selecting those that are relevant and useful, you will be overwhelmed by what you find. There are a lot of curation tools out there…
Last year I had to replace my kitchen faucet. I had never done this before so I did what I do a lot when faced with a problem for the first time, I do my research online which includes a lot of YouTube videos. In most of the videos they showed the people using a…
While a textbook can be a good resource, it no longer has to be our only resource. Curation tools, like Flipboard, can help you to put together resources to help your students learn. There are many resources out there are that are more up to date than a textbook or more engaging. We can find…
Animated GIFs are great tools to show students/teachers/others how to do something without having to create a full video to host online. You can quickly create animated GIFs using Snagit for Chrome,https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/techsmith-snagit-extensio/annopcfmbiofommjmcmcfmhklhgbhkce?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon, by doing a quick screencast and then converting it into an animated GIFs. There are other extensions, like MakeGif (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/makegif-video-capture/cnhdjbfjheoohmhpakglckehdcgfffbl), that allow you…
One new thing we are trying at my building this year is the use of Google Classroom to assist the work that our PLCs are doing. As our PLCs work together to collect data from common formative assessments and collaborate to improve student learning, we needed a way they could easily do this in a…
In the next couple of weeks there will be a large number of teachers starting their first day as a teacher. They will get advice from many experienced teachers and I have my own. Most of this advice can also apply to teachers who have been teaching for awhile and this list does not include…
I was reminded this past week how much our mindset can affect that which we can accomplish. Our mindset can easily help us reach our goals or keep us from being successful. As we encounter challenges and obstacles, our mindset will determine which direction we will take and whether we will keep moving forward or…
One of the things that irritates me, both as a teacher and a learner, is when I see so many teachers missing a great opportunity to help learners because they only provide assistance or feedback at the end of a learning activity. Too often we assign something and wait till it is turned in before…
This summer I am trying some new things to help keep the learning going with teachers that I work with. Some of them are tools that I used during the school year that I am still using while others are new to me in the way that I am using them. I believe, that as…
For some reason, computers and other devices have become the new targets when students exhibit bad behavior in the classroom. Some are so quick to blame the technology when we are seeing the same behaviors we have seen in the past. When a student posts a inappropriate or hurtful message online, some are quick to…
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