Recent Blog Posts
Original, creative, practical, and sometimes unusual advice and ideas to get you started -- or keep you going! Posts are listed by publication date, with the most recent entry at the top.
A Primer on Interactive Books
By Betty Ray
9/8/10Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Laura Fleming, school librarian at Cherry Hill School in River Edge, NJ. Laura blogs at EdTech Insight.
In my quest to find all interactive children's literature or take "static" literature and make it interactive, I have divided all of my findings into tiers which I will share with you in this post.
Back to School: Rules and Routines in the Classroom
By Rebecca Alber
9/6/10I admit it. I allowed students to chew gum in class. Why? I chewed gum. I have a throat that tends to dry up mid-morning. Gum works.
A Classroom Canvas that Encourages Community
By Gaetan Pappalardo
9/3/10The smell of permanent marker is in the air; books are piled neatly on each desk; brand new posters and charts hang peacefully on the walls; pencils are sharpened to needle-like perfection. And in the distance, new sneakers beat the pavement with anxiety and excitement about the first day of school.
The Future of Teacher Prep Programs, Part Three
By Heather Wolpert-Gawron
9/2/10What began as mere musings, became a fully fleshed fantasy for what a teacher prep program of the future looks like. It all began in part one of this series of posts. It continued in part two, and now it concludes here.
The Importance of Student Journals and How to Respond Efficiently
By Todd Finley
9/1/10Burdened by expanding curriculum and multiplying high-stakes assessment requirements, some of my respected colleagues might be forgiven for not integrating student journals into their courses. The most common objection: "Who has time?"
Introducing the First #scichat Challenge
By Eric Brunsell
8/31/10
"Let's get this #scichat party started!"
9:01 PM - June 9, 2010
As school was winding down for the summer, #scichat was launched with a passionate discussion about increasing the relevancy of school science. A vibrant community of science educators began to connect on Twitter to share ideas and resources. Throughout the summer, this growing community met every other Tuesday to discuss topics ranging from using web tools in the classroom to assessing science.
The Shallop Project: A Summer Learning Adventure
By Suzie Boss
8/30/10Bath, Maine, has long been known as the City of Ships. More than 400 years ago, this was the site that launched the Virginia, the first seaworthy ship built by English-speakers in the New World. Since 1884, Bath Iron Works has been turning out battleships, destroyers, and commercial craft.
Technology Tools for the First Week of School
By Mary Beth Hertz
8/30/10Are there specific technology tools that educators should use during the first weeks of school? Yes! In case you’re not sure where to start, I asked my Twitter colleagues to tell me what tools they are planning to use, or have used, and why.
Keep in mind that there are many uses for each tool and there is no one right way to use it -- adapt the ideas to work in your own classroom. And if you would like to learn more about certain tools, I will be addressing some of them in my next post, so please let me know in the comment area what interests you.
Social and Emotional Learning and the Start of School
By Maurice Elias
8/27/10From a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) point of view, the most important consideration at the start of the new school year is to create positive feelings and optimism about school. This has many practical implications for both educators and parents.
The Future of Teacher Prep Programs, Part Two
By Heather Wolpert-Gawron
8/26/10In last week's post, part one, I fantasized about what a credential program might look like years down the line. Now I'm going to take a look at the staff, differentiating the credential, and curriculum.
Race to the Top: What It Means for Real Students
By Edutopia
8/25/10Amid all the hubbub about this week's new Race to the Top winners -– who got it but didn't deserve it, who didn't get it but should have, why almost all the victorious states are east of the Mississippi -– the big thing I'm wondering is: how will all this change the experience of kids in the classroom?
A Handwritten Letter, With Love and Thanks, to My Students
By Edutopia
8/24/10Last week at a family dinner my mom handed me a letter that had arrived at her house for me. Puzzled, I opened it -- and what I read made my mouth fall open with surprise and enchantment.
Preparing Students for STEM Careers
By Bob Lenz
8/24/10As summer winds down and we prepare for a new school year, I would like to share a letter one of our veteran math teachers, Stephanie Lundin, sent to the summer staff at Envision Schools. Stephanie received her BA and MA from UC Davis. She has taught math for seven years, four at Envision Schools. Coaching students through the Envision Schools Graduation Portfolio Defense has been her most meaningful teaching experience.
The Path to Innovation: Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Integration (5 of 5)
By Betty Ray
8/23/10Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the fourth in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).
Interview 2.0: Using Social Media to Prepare Students for the Workplace
By Andrew Marcinek
8/21/10"Please submit a letter of interest and a resume by mail only. No electronic submissions will be accepted."
- In the comments section listed below, please list your first impression of this statement.
The Future of Teacher Prep Programs
By Heather Wolpert-Gawron
8/20/10I was recently asked to contribute to a book about the future of education and what I believed to be the perfect teacher prep program. These thoughts I will present to you in three consecutive posts, broken up into key topics. This first one includes an excerpt from the book, Teacher Solutions 2030 (Teachers College Press, to be released January 2011) while the other posts will continue my thoughts on this vital topic.
Bittersweet News for Social Media in Education
By Edutopia
8/20/10We live in an incredibly exciting time. My recent visit to @jeffpulver's #140conf in San Francisco reinforced just how exciting a time it is. Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, has quickly dominated the social media space. In a matter of six months, Twitter has doubled its tweets per month to an impressive two billion tweets. That's worth repeating: two billion tweets per month.
TEAMS Model State: The Ohio Arts Integration and STEM Initiative (Part 4 of 5)
By Betty Ray
8/20/10Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the fourth in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).
News Flash: How Tiny Boosts to Personal Identity Improve Minority Students' Grades
By Edutopia
8/18/10A few years ago I wrote a story about a new piece of research that blew my mind. A group of Yale University researchers led by Geoffrey Cohen gave a bunch of Connecticut seventh-graders a 15-minute writing assignment. Half the children in this racially-diverse, working-class school were prompted to write about their personal values – a task designed to validate their identity and self-worth -- and half were assigned a more neutral subject.
Elementary Educator Asks: Does Merit Pay Turn Kids into Zombies?
By Gaetan Pappalardo
8/17/10Tap, tap, tap–––tap, tap––tap. I'm sending a signal from down here in the muck, down here where the boogers are hard and the shoelaces are eternally untied. HELLO up there? In the 80's words of Def Leopard, "Is anybody out there? Is anybody there?" Call me crazy, but how come I don't see or hear serious discussion about what's going to happen to elementary school students and teachers when teacher evaluation is tied to test scores?
