March, 2012

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Children Stressed to the Breaking Point Due to Standardized Testing

A Principal's Reflections

'Recently New York City made public teacher evaluations based on student standardized test scores. This proceeded the state of New York''s decision to change how educators are evaluated, in part by connecting the standardized test scores of students into final ratings. The following letter was shared with me by a friend whose daughter is in the New York City Public School System.

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Why You Should Give Edmodo A Try

The Web20Classroom

'Recently I attended the North Carolina Technology In Education Society''s (NCTIES) Annual Conference. Each year it gets bigger and bigger and we try to find more and more ways to engage with the attendees to make the conference more meaningful and to carry on conversations beyond just the sessions. So this year we did something new. We partnered with Edmodo to create the NCTIES community.

Edmodo 248
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Trying to Ban Facebook is Not the Answer.

EdTechSandyK

'Image Source It is our professional opinion that you get your child off Facebook. - From Pinecrest Preparatory Middle-High Administration Letter to Parents , February 22, 2012 When I first read and watched a news story about this Florida charter school''s letter to parents encouraging them to get their kids off of Facebook because of the problems social media activities were causing during the school day, it got me thinking.

Facebook 108
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3 Considerations for 21st Century Digital School Leaders

The 21st Century Principal

'“Digital footprints and shadows constitute our permanent imprint on the world: a detailed summary of our life for our contemporaries and for people of the future to view and consider.” Erik Qualman, Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence With those words, Erik Qualman outlines the precarious position all of us as 21st century school leaders face.

Wiki 106
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Quickly Create Personalized Learning Experiences that Work

How can we actively engage learners 24/7, on their level and according to their interests, while respecting their learning styles? It’s not impossible. In this guide: Explore how to transform traditional, one-way videos into two-way interactive learning experiences Understand different types of artificial intelligence (AI), including - Generative vs.

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iPads in Students' Hands

wwwatanabe

'This was our first year with iPads in the elementary classrooms, purchased with Title funding. Training with Tony Vincent We''ve had several trainings with Tony Vincent , starting with a three hour introduction and a two hour follow up with fabulous center ideas for literacy, fluency, and spelling. How I see them used in the classrooms After Tony Vincent helped us get started, we''ve become more comfortable with using them, and we''re at the point where we were figuring out new ways to use them

iPad 93
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So, You Want An App?

The Mobile Native

'Here are some sites that provide a wide variety of resources on apps. Teachers With Apps APPitic Smart Apps for Kids I Education Apps Review Moms With Apps Apps in Education Android 4 Schools Fun Educational Apps Best Kids Apps Tony Vincent provides great ways to evaluate educational apps. Ways to Evaluate Educational Apps.

Android 84

More Trending

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A Brief History Of #Edchat

The Web20Classroom

'As one of the founders of #edchat I get a lot of questions about the what, where, when and why. So here is everything you need to know (or wanted to know) about #edchat. The History #edchat started out of a series of conversations between myself, Tom Whtiby and Shelly Terrell. Tom is a bit of an instigator and likes to push people''s thinking about various topics in education.

Twitter 226
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Announcing Fun & Functional (v. 1.1)

SpeechTechie

'One of my first clinical experiences in graduate school involved planning and implementing classroom-based lessons in the school setting. It really shaped my thinking for the years to come, as I learned how important semantics was to students'' functioning in the classroom. We would do book-themed lessons and many activities in which students would describe items related to the activity.

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School Administrator Uses of Evernote & Must-Have Evernote Extensions

The 21st Century Principal

'Evernote is a must-have application for the school administrator. This week, I conducted a concurrent session on it and other web tools at the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s annual conference. From that conference, here’s 7 Ways Administrators Can Use Evernote : Evernote Desktop App Screenshot Note Taking: This is the most obvious use of Evernote since that is the application’s purpose.

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5 Ways to Use Google+ in your Classrooms

The Electric Educator

'Google+ has tremendous promise for K-12 classrooms. Handouts, circles, and selective sharing are three features that will be heavily used and relied upon by teachers. Here are my suggestions on ways to use Google+ in a K-12 classroom. Please share your ideas with me by leaving a comment! Thanks for subscribing to my blog. I always appreciate feedback on my posts.

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Can Brain Science Actually Help Make Your Training & Teaching Stick?

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

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Lead, Coach, and Build Capacity

wwwatanabe

'Building capacity in the school district means improving and strengthening the learning in our students, employees, teachers, administrators, school board, and community. Coaching is a great way to build capacity, and leaders naturally build capacity. Finding leaders to assume leadership roles is an important part of the process. Please be aware that I don''t believe a title makes someone a leader, it''s just who they are.

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Moving Schools Forward With BYOD

A Principal's Reflections

'The following is a guest blog post by Dr. Greg Farley. Greg is the Director of Technology at Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District and an Adjunct Professor and course developer at the Graduate Schools of Education at Monmouth University and Drew University. Greg also conducts workshops at K-12 schools and universities and mentors doctoral students and administrators in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

BYOD 285
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Taking A Step Back And Thinking Critically About Technology

The Web20Classroom

'I am probably going to take a lot of heat for this post. But maybe that''s a good thing. Perhaps more conversation is needed. I remember where I was when I heard the iPad announced. I was sitting in my office when I was still working at a school. I had the live blog from Techcrunch on one screen and Twitter on the other. Tweets were flying by with all sorts of comments about the name (both good and bad) and what the device could do.

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Animonths- Explaining + Animation = Explanimation

SpeechTechie

'When interactive whiteboards (IWBs) first arrived on the scene with their accompanying software, one of the best aspects was teachers'' easy access to recording features so that they could preserve each lesson as a video file and share it later via their webpages or other means. This assisted students who needed information repeated, and also made really good use of the visual teaching capabilities of IWBs.

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Reimagining Chickering & Gamson's Principles Post-Pandemic: Technology's Central Role in Modern Edu

This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.

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How to Become a Connected Educator: Developing an Effective PLN

The 21st Century Principal

'According to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall, “Teachers must learn to model connectedness and enable students to develop personal learning networks, made up of people and resources from both their physical and virtual worlds but first, teachers must become connected collaborators themselves.” With that, in their book The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, Nussbaum-Beach and Hall introduce the idea of t he teacher-modeler of connectedness , and throughout their

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@EdTechSandyK at #SXSWedu via Storify

EdTechSandyK

'Instead of doing the usual summary/wrap-up blog post for the SXSWedu 2012 conference, I decided to try a new-to-me tool I saw used a few times throughout SXSWedu week. Apparently, it went into public beta in April 2011 , but I''ve missed it or glossed over it since then. Storify allows users to mashup content from multiple social media sources such as Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to create a flow of events.

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What the flip?

Learning with 'e's

Everywhere I look I'm seeing 'Flip teaching' or 'Flipped classroom'. There's a lot of hype about this 'flipping' idea and it's getting me flipping irritated. What does flipping actually involve? Does anyone know, or is the term being misused or misrepresented? Even Aaron Sams, a highly visible proponent of the flipped movement admits that the term is ambiguous.

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Connect, Share, Learn

A Principal's Reflections

'It has been an incredible journey since I decided to become a connected educator back in March of 2009. As I sit here writing this post, I cannot help but reflect on the positive changes that have taken place at my school and with me professionally. Through connected learning and sharing, I have become better equipped to lead change at New Milford High School and to begin to transform the teaching and learning process.

Learning 248
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Behind the Bell: The Underlying Impact of Tardiness in K-12 Schools

Managing a K-12 campus with constant pressure to meet performance metrics is challenging. And tardiness can significantly limit a school from reaching these goals. Learn more about why chronic lateness matters, and key strategies to address the following impacts: Data errors caused by manual processes Low attendance and graduation rates that affect a school’s reputation Classroom disruption, which leads to poor academic performance High staff attrition and “The Teacher Exodus” Unmet LCAP goals t

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Checking Out Class Connect

The Web20Classroom

'I am always interested in easy ways to share content and collaborate on projects with others in quick and easy ways. So when I heard about Class Connect and it''s ability to do just that, my interest was piqued. First some back ground. When the founder, Eric, was in high school, bored, a teacher asked him what would make him interested in the class.

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Wrapping Up (Maybe) Animonths: Draw a Stickman, Episode 2

SpeechTechie

'I feel like I have possibly a few more posts on animation in me, but maybe not. I saw The Hunger Games movie this weekend and my head is so cloudy.I loved it (HUGE fan of the books) and am consumed with thinking about it! It''s affecting my executive functioning.so we''ll have to see. Anyway, I was excited to recently receive an email from the folks at hitcents.com (I must have put myself on their mailing list) announcing the 2nd Episode of Draw a Stickman.

iPad 72
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4 Ways School Administrators Can Use Dropbox

The 21st Century Principal

'Dropbox is on my short list of must-have school administrator web tools. It offers users and easy-to-use application and any-device access. Dropbox is my virtual file cabinet that follows me around 24 hours a day. But the truth is, this web app can offer school administrators so much more beyond scrapping flash drives and DVDs. With a little thought, it can streamline quite a few things we do.

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21st Century Learning in the Low-Tech Classroom #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 Concurrent Session Stephanie Sandifer, Houston A+ Challenge [link] Session resources posted at: https://21stclinltclassroom.wikispaces.com/ Also search Twitter for info based on session hashtag #21cLT Presenter would love to not have to do this session - many of the solutions she offers here are bandaids. We can''t let limited access to technology prevent us from addressing what needs to happen in the classroom.

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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

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Connected Educator Series

The Electric Educator

'Earlier this month at the 2012 MACUL conference I was asked to sit on a panel of educators to share how we have integrated technology into our curriculum. The panel was assembled by Dan Spencer who is also the producer of the Connected Educator video series sponsored by REMC. This series is being expanded to include even more great stories of educators from around the state of Michigan and the innovative things that they are doing in their schools.

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Global Competencies and the Common Core

A Principal's Reflections

'I attended a session at the 2012 ASCD Annual Conference early on Saturday morning entitled Common Core and Curriculum 21: Global Competency in Literacy, Math, and Science. The session was facilitated by an organization called Facing the Future. As we move to the Common Core it is crucial that we sustain a renewed focus on engaging students using global issues across multiple disciplines to keep them hooked and in position for achievement.

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#ASCD12-A Presentation On Creating Social Media Policies For Schools And Districts

The Web20Classroom

'Earlier today I had the honor and pleasure of presenting at the Annual Conference for ASCD. It felt like more of a homecoming as the conference this year was in Philadelphia, a city I have been to several times over the past 2 years for conferences and meetings. The presentation was the featured morning session and livestreamed. I presented with Sam Walker , an Instructional Technologist at Kimmel Farm Elementary School in my district.

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Animonths: Use Splashtop Remote to Access Flash Animation

SpeechTechie

'There are a lot of great interactive animated activities online that were created using Adobe Flash, the multimedia platform that was once the medium of choice to add interactivity to webpages. When iPhone and, subsequently, iPad came on the scene, there was quite a lot of hubbub about Apple''s decision to not support Flash on these devices. It turns out that inclusion of Flash really drained the devices'' batteries, among other problems.

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The Roses and Thorns of an LMS Strategy: How to Flourish with the Right LMS

Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions

The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.

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6 Must-Have Mobile Device Apps for the School Administrator

The 21st Century Principal

'Ask yourself what makes an app on a mobile device useful, and the answer is that the most useful apps have these four characteristics: The app is available for and syncs across multiple devices. This means users can use the app on their iPad, Android phone, or even their Kindle Fire. Because of this feature, data created or stored by the app is available on any one of the devices used.

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Create an Interest List for Professional Learning on Facebook

EdTechSandyK

'I was asked to be a guest this evening on the Tightwad Teacher podcast. The topic was The Connected Teacher. The podcast was live streamed, but it will also be edited and posted in final format next week. In prep for the podcast, I created a little tutorial on how to create an interest list on Facebook to leverage Facebook for professional learning.

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Library 2.0

Learning with 'e's

What does the future hold for our university libraries? Are they obsolete or are they essential? The library has long been seen by many as a very traditional, conservative institution, and is often portrayed as a place where rows upon rows of antiquated book shelves slowly gather dust. Yet a visit to the university library today will reveal a substantial investment in technology to streamline research and provide users with a more seamless and rewarding experience.

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Putting What I Learned Into Practice: Getting People on the Bandwagon.

A Principal's Reflections

'One of my goals when I present on leadership, change, and transformation is to inspire other school leaders to begin to blog. I remember years ago my initial hesitation to blog until Ken Royal encouraged me to submit a guest post on his blog at the time almost three years ago. With that being said please welcome Paul Vieira , Principal of East Bridgewater High School (MA), to the blogosphere.

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Building the Foundation for a Modern K-12 Classroom

K-12 looks different these days. But one thing remains the same: you need a reliable learning platform that serves as the foundation for teaching and learning––for all students, in a variety of learning experiences. Discover how the Instructure Learning Platform supports today's K-12 classroom through: A central, consistent, connected hub of the digital learning environment.