Kindergarten Crayons Home Over 25 Links Uncovering Project Based Learning Resources On The Web Welcome to this first in a series of PBL Mania Posts. For the next few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning by hosting a webinar at Edtech Leaders Online, and by presenting a PBL session at the NICE Conference in Chicago. In this post I will introduce you to some awesome places on the web containing some of the very best PBL resources. Before reading, please take a moment to subscribe to this 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. Welcome to the land of PBL knowledge. BIE – BUCK Institute BIE – Also known as the BUCK Institute for Learning. BIE Videos – What Is PBL Video – A great collection of videos that demonstrate PBL and its best practices. BIE Tools – PBL Project Search – Here you will find a collection of 450 proven lesson plans to set any PBL desire into action. BIE PBL Research Library – Here you will find a wonderful collection of research summaries, full papers, and presentation materials. West Virginia Teach 21 PBL
edWeb: A professional online community for educators The Nerdy Teacher SLJ Reviews Gobstopper and Subtext: Apps that Enable Interactive Classroom Reading “If you think about math teachers, they’ve always been able to give assignments in which students are required to show their work. That makes it easy for them to check individual understanding, pretty much on a daily basis. English and humanities teachers who give extended reading assignments have never had that luxury. Instead, they’ve comparatively been flying blind, taking it on faith that most students have done the required reading, without knowing for sure, and moving along daily without solid evidence that kids are really ‘getting it.’” That’s what Jason Singer, the CEO and founder of Gobstopper, told me was the central issue his product is designed to address: the challenge of ensuring that every student is meaningfully moving forward in a given reading assignment—and not just faking it. Subtext, launched a year ago and currently available as a free iPad and Edmodo app, is another application that doubles as a collaborative reading platform that focuses on Common Core skills.
KINDERWORLD GaTechTeach : Inspired by @thenerdyteacher... Daily Five and Technology As of this moment, one of the bigger movements in my school district at the elementary level involves The Daily Five, by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. “The Daily Five is a series of literacy tasks (read to self, read with someone, writing, word work, and listening to reading) which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or confers with individuals.” The book “explains the philosophy behind the structure,” and it shows teachers how to train “students to participate in each of the five components.” As teachers begin to implement different aspects of the Daily Five into their classrooms, many teachers have been curious as to how one would integrate technology with the Daily Five. Read to Self: There are countless websites that students can use in order to record themselves while they are reading. Finally, if you have a Twitter account (and you should), the quickest way collaborate and get fresh ideas about the Daily Five is by searching for #d5chat.
Yammer Yammer is a freemium enterprise social networking service used for private communication within organizations. Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user's Internet domain so that only individuals with approved email addresses may join their respective networks.[2] The service began as an internal communication system for the genealogy website Geni,[3] and was launched as an independent product in 2008.[4] Microsoft later acquired Yammer in 2012 for US$1.2 billion.[5] History[edit] David Sacks, one of the co-founders of Yammer Adam Pisoni, one of the co-founders of Yammer, in 2013. By April 2010, Yammer CEO Sacks claimed that Yammer revenue was doubling every quarter, but would not disclose revenue figures for 2009 beyond describing it as "seven figures." On July 24, 2014, Microsoft announced that Yammer development was being moved into the Office 365 development team, and Sacks announced that he was leaving Microsoft and Yammer.[14] See also[edit] List of social networking websites
Top Posts #3 - 5 Ways For Teachers To Get Quality PD This Summer This post first appeared on Edudemic and is post #3 in my reposting of my top five posts from the past school year - Enjoy! 1. Attend (or start) a summer Edcamp For the third consecutive summer, our district will host an Edcamp each Tuesday morning in Burlington, MA. These informal sessions are open to educators from Burlington and beyond who feel like gathering to lead their own learning. Attendees assemble each week and decide what topics will be the focal point for their learning. This model could be replicated anywhere! 2. Most of the teachers whom I know hate taking one day off from their classroom during the school year, and they would never consider missing consecutive days for a workshop of any kind. 3. The beauty of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is that most of the learning opportunities can be done regardless of time and place. 4. If you are an educator, then there is a Twitter chat for you. 5.