Creatively Teach the Common Core with Technology

Educators today are facing two major shifts in education–a move to the Common Core Standards and increasing pressure to teach students with the technology they’ll be expected to use in their lives beyond high school. Both seasoned educators and those new to the teaching profession must confront these daunting challenges, which demand fundamental changes in the way teachers teach and students learn.

I’ve written Creatively Teach the Common Core Literacy Standards with Technology to support English, history/social studies, and science teachers as they shift to the new Standards using technology. Instead of simply teaching the way we have always taught, we have an opportunity to rethink our approach and use technology to breath new life into our classroom. Here are just a few of the creative ideas included in this book:

•  Using Instagram for research and narrative writing.
• Creating multimedia notebooks for science.
• Engaging in KQED’s Do Now global Twitter conversations for prewriting.
• Writing dialogue with Google Story Builder.
• Designing infographics as a creative alternative to the research paper.
• Capturing voice recordings.
• Inspiring creative writing with Google maps.
• Connecting with Voxer to create study groups, encourage asynchronous conversations, or offer virtual office hours.
• Real-time editing with Google docs.
• Creating dynamic digital stories with mobile devices.

This book provides teachers with a clear, easy-to-understand explanation of the Common Core Literacy Standards and identifies key points of emphasis in the Standards. Throughout the book, I’ve highlighted tech tools that can be used to make teachers more effective and efficient. I’ve included ideas for using technology to differentiate learning, provide scaffolding, and support students at different skill levels. Unlike many Edtech books, I’ve included concrete strategies and lesson ideas that leverage web 2.0 technology to encourage students to be active and engaged participants in the learning process. My goal is to get teachers resources and activities they can use with students today!

Although the aim of this book is to provide simple, easy to understand explanations about the Standards and creative ideas for using technology to improve learning, my focus as an educator is always to create a student-centered classroom. The theme of the student-centered classroom is an undercurrent throughout this text. I believe powerful learning begins when we put students at the center of the learning process, so my approach values autonomy, choice, collective construction and creativity.