50 Apps In 50 Minutes LACUE 30hands Mobile is a fun and innovative storytelling app that allows students, teachers and anyone with creativity to easily create stories or presentations based on photos, images or slides using a smart phone or tablet. Different from other presentation apps, 30hands Mobile focuses on the power of storytelling. Like pages in a book, photos or images are dragged around the desktop into the order of the story. Next, the teacher or student records audio over each image. Finally, the story or presentation can be published to the device’s photo area or uploaded to a 30hands collaborative learning site. Uses: In class stories or presentationsSynchronized slide + audio lectures for flipping the classroomAudio-enhanced image portfoliosForeign language "spoken" flashcardsPhoto-enhanced audio interviewsFun photo memories with audioWhatever you can creatively come up with using images + audio Users include Students, Teachers, Presenters, Photographers, Bloggers, Journalists, Artists, Families
School Choice: The Good, the Bad, and the Untested | Education on GOOD Schools, like politics, are a seriously local issue today. At first glance, school choice initiatives in communities around the country—which determine how children choose and are assigned to schools—seem like part of a monolithic national movement called school choice. On closer inspection, however, they display tremendous diversity, for good and for bad. This was not always so: Neighborhood schooling was once the American norm for assigning children to elementary schools. By the second half of the 20th century, however, the idea of universal provision of infrastructure—including schools, electricity and telephone wires—was under attack by many as inefficient, unequal and constraining. As a result, there's no single school choice paradigm. In the last few years alone, major cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Raleigh, Boston and Louisville have rewritten school assignment policies with remarkably contrasting approaches. The entire genre, by the way, is untested.
10 Great Apps for a Teacher’s New iPad Did you receive a gift of a new iPad this year? If so, you’re probably spending this holiday vacation week trying out all kinds of new apps. Here are ten that I recommend getting started with. Evernote is the Swiss Army knife of iPad apps. I subscribe to the RSS feeds of a few hundred blogs and websites. If you want to make your own short instructional videos for students, Knowmia Teach is an app you have to try. Box is another service that I use for file storage and sharing. It took me a while to come around to Pinterest, but now that I have I really like it. Haiku Deck is an iPad app that all students and teachers should have installed on their iPads. Skitch for iPad is an app that I use when I want to quickly edit, create, and or draw on an image. A couple of years ago a friend of mine set a New Year’s resolution to watch one TED Talk a day. You may have noticed that this list is comprised entirely of free apps. Chrome is the browser that I use 90% of the time that I’m on the web.
10 Of The Best TEDTalks On Improving Education There have been some rumblings that TED Talks may have jumped the shark–a topic our own Nathan Jurgenson took on recently. Either way, there have been some worthwhile talks given on ideas for changing education, and the folks over at TED have done us all a solid by piling 10 of them together in a single post, starting with the ubiquitous Ken Robinson “Bring on the Learning Revolution,” then including Emily Pilloton’s ideas on design in learning, Dan Meyer’s ideas on a potential math makeover, and Diana Laufenberg on the importance of mistakes.. You may have caught most of them, but if you haven’t here’s your chance. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 10 Of The Best TEDTalks On Improving Education
6 Helpful Tips For The 1 iPad Classroom by Ben Lovegrove, inkids.com.au While most educators and teachers are aware of the benefits that can arise in the classroom through the use of iPads and tablets, budgetary constraints can often limit the way that technology can be used to augment learning activities in smaller schools (or school districts). In many cases, schools find that the money required to buy iPads for an entire class would be better spent on other equipment or products but this doesn’t mean that the classroom should be an iPad free zone. There are countless benefits to be gained from having one or two iPads in the classroom a single device can still be a useful asset for your classroom for lesson planning and supporting curriculum. There are several ways that teachers can make effective use of a small number of iPads in a classroom here are some ideas to get you started. 6 Helpful Tips For The 1 iPad Classroom 1. 2. 3. 4. Again, only 1 iPad is required. 5. 6.
NC Teacher: “I Quit” Kris L. Nielsen Monroe, NC 28110 Union County Public Schools Human Resources Department 400 North Church Street Monroe, NC 28112 October 25, 2012 To All it May Concern: I’m doing something I thought I would never do—something that will make me a statistic and a caricature of the times. Before I go too much into my choice, I must say that I have the advantages and disadvantages of differentiated experience under my belt. In New Mexico, I led a team of underpaid teachers who were passionate about their jobs and who did amazing things. Then, the bottom fell out. The Internet told me that the West Coast was not hiring teachers anymore, but the East Coast was the go-to place. I had come from two very successful and fun teaching jobs to a new state where everything was different. Union County seemed to be the answer to all of my problems. Let me cut to the chase: I quit. Why? Because… I refuse to be an unpaid administrator of field tests that take advantage of children for the sake of profit. Dr.
What Great Teachers do Differently Todd Whitaker is a great educational thinker and an experienced Educator. He has written several books, and his thoughts seem to resonate with Educators from all levels in all positions. Here are my book club notes from his book, "What Great Teachers do Differently." Todd is also on Twitter (@toddwhitaker)1. 2. - School districts put a lot of emphasis on new programs and initiatives? 3. - Are student expectations clear in your class? 4. - What are the most successful classroom management strategies you use? 5. - Are your expectations higher for your students than for yourself? 6. - When something goes wrong in your class (behavior, homework completion, quiz scores) who do you blame? 7. - How can we make sure we treat all students and colleagues with respect and care? 8. - How do you set the tone in your classroom? 9. - Building strong relationships with staff and students is essential to being a “great” teacher 10. 11. - Do you plan to use all 50 minutes of class every single day?
What parents say testing is doing to their kids - The Answer Sheet This was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. By Carol Corbett Burris The politicians who believe in using tests to judge schools and teachers will tell you that their efforts are designed to help our nation’s children. In order to find out what was on our parents’ minds, a group of New York principals created a short survey to give parents and teachers an opportunity to share their opinions. Over 8,000 parents across New York State responded to our online survey regarding their children’s experiences with the recent New York State 3-8 Assessments in English Language Arts and mathematics. The New York State parents who responded expressed serious concerns regarding the impact that tests have had on their children’s health and their learning. * 75% reported their child was more anxious in the month before the test