July, 2022

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Educators Need Each Other to Thrive: Why Educator Networks Matter

Digital Promise

“Changes come from the power of many, but only when the many come together to form that which is invincible… the power of one.” – Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One. Educators are a resourceful bunch. Despite the evergreen challenges to the teaching profession—most recently exacerbated by a global pandemic and the trauma and tragedy of another mass school shooting—educators still show up and find ways to engage, meet the needs of their students, and provide powerful learning experiences tha

Edcamps 315
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How Family Engagement Leads to Student Success

Waterford

What is one of the proven predictors of academic achievement? Studies show that a family’s engagement has a direct positive impact on a child’s learning success. When families are engaged in their children’s school lives, students have the home support they need to develop a lifelong love of learning. Encouraging family engagement is more than common courtesy.

Secondary 359
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9 Ways to Add Tech to your Lessons Without Adding Time to Your Day

Ask a Tech Teacher

I update these suggestions every few years to remind teachers there are easy ways to techify your lessons even on a tight schedule. I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments about how you do this in your classes: Because I teach graduate classes for educators, I talk to lots of teachers all over the country. It’s become clear that for most of them, adding technology to their lessons means layering more work on top of their already overburdened lesson plans.

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Build a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness in K–12 Schools

EdTech Magazine

Before St. Vrain Valley Schools began closely examining its cybersecurity posture, its staff didn’t have the best cyber hygiene. “Unfortunately, many teachers would take their keyboard and write their password on the back,” says Michelle Bourgeois, the Colorado district’s CTO and one of EdTech’s 2022 K–12 IT influencers. Educators would also use personal passwords for their district accounts, she adds, increasing the risk of cyberthreats such as credential stuffing.

Education 524
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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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Transitioning to a Transformational Mindset

A Principal's Reflections

The concept of how one’s mindset plays a crucial role in growth and change is nothing new. However, there are different ways to look beyond just fixed vs. growth. I shared the following in Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms : A mindset is an attitude, disposition, or mood with which a person approaches a situation. In short, it’s a belief that determines the decisions we make, actions that are undertaken, and how situations are handled.

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5 Steps to Find the Right Morning Routine for You

The CoolCatTeacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. I've seen many productivity gurus do it — experiment on what works for them. What foods, vitamins, morning routines, and more give them the most energy. I've learned from their experiments but as I adapt my own routine this is what I've learned — what works for them, might not work for me!

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The Joy of Watching a Lesson Come Alive

User Generated Education

Number one on my love list of teaching is spending time with my fantastic students. High on my list is also my love of designing and creating learning activities for my students. I get such joy of seeing my designs come to life in the hands of my learners. Recently, I designed a pinball machine using a pizza box, Strawbees, Makedo screws, and an optional micro:bit scoreboard.

Study 363
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HS Financial Training Classes

Ask a Tech Teacher

Such an important topic, especially as we see kids aren’t graduating with basic knowledge of budgeting, paying bills, and more. CNBC has a great article on one of their blogs on this subject you’ll appreciate: High schools, scrambling to prep Gen Z for the real world, are teaching students to make and manage money. We at Ask a Tech Teacher have written often about financial literacy.

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How Esports Is Helping Students Improve Their Grades and Build Leadership Skills

EdTech Magazine

“If you play video games, you are welcome,” says Jacob Dees, instructional technology and esports coach for Apollo Junior High School in Richardson, Texas. Launched online in the early days of the pandemic, the esports club not only served as a social lifeline for students in lockdown but also became the springboard for an impactful school program. Their online gameplay was so successful that when participants returned to campus full time, educators at the school doubled down on esports.

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Get Students into the Learning Pit

A Principal's Reflections

In life, I would wager that the majority of us prefer the path of least resistance. After all, this is human nature. While we avoid challenges for many reasons, our mindset often keeps us from pushing ourselves if we are comfortable where we are at or we see a more straightforward path forward. Through an inherent fear of failure, mental blocks materialize to keep us in a safe place – free from dealing with potential adversity.

Learning 474
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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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What is a Digitizer?

ViewSonic Education

What is a d igitizer? In its broadest definition , a digitizer refers to any accessory that converts analog information (touch, light, sound…) into a digital signal. Today, however, the term is most ly used to designate drawing tablet s , which digitally record writing, drawing, screen touches, and similar inputs. Keep reading to find out more about digitizers, their main features and technology , or explore ViewSonic ’s Pen Display solutions. .

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Methods and tools to strengthen teacher collaboration and raise student achievement

Neo LMS

Teacher collaboration has always been essential, but even more so during the past two school years as we faced new challenges in our practice. With all of us experiencing transitioning learning environments, we had to be flexible in our practice and open to new possibilities. When it came to professional development, in the absence of being together in the physical space, we had to explore and learn what worked the best.

Tools 350
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Physical Computing with micro:bits and Makecode

User Generated Education

I am quite fond of facilitating physical computing activities with my learners as I’ve discussed in Scratch and Makey Makey Across the Curriculum . For that post I created the following graphic to represent the benefits of physical computing. I think it is important to extend the use of coding and microcontrollers into creating physical objects for the following reasons: Standards Addressed.

Data 296
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Tech Ed Resources for your Class–K-8 Keyboard Curriculum

Ask a Tech Teacher

I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of

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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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Tech-Savvy School Librarians Provide Value to Modern Learners

EdTech Magazine

Ask librarians how technology has changed their work in recent years, and you’re likely to be kindly yet firmly corrected. “School librarians have always been at the forefront of technology in our schools,” says Jennisen Lucas, president of the American Association of School Librarians. “A lot of times, we are the first adopters.” Clunky microfiche readers, research databases, computers, 3D printers — all made their school debuts in the library.

Libraries 457
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Learner Paths are Rarely the Same

A Principal's Reflections

At times I find myself claiming that I am a visual learner. Hence, I try to have an original image to go along with most blog posts I write. While text adds needed details and depth, the accompanying visuals provide more context. They also do a great job capturing the attention of prospective readers. I am not alone in my affinity for pictures. Researchers at MIT found that the brain can process images as quickly as 13 milliseconds.

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What to Consider When Rolling Out 1:1 Devices

Digital Promise

A year ago, the American Rescue Plan provided billions of dollars in federal relief for K-12 education. Many districts used these funds to purchase devices for every student. However, these devices can’t just be given to students without a plan; they must be distributed intentionally so that students understand how to use them responsibly. Verizon Innovative Learning Schools have been doing just that since 2014.

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5 Tech tools every student should have

Neo LMS

Most young adults and older professionals today rely heavily on technology. In an increasingly digital world, there is almost no way to escape tech in its many forms and applications—and rightly so, as it is incredibly useful and can help us improve our capabilities and achieve greater things. That’s one of the reasons why there are many tech tools every student should have to help them learn at home and 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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What are you hiring for?

Dangerously Irrelevant

I completed a reference check for one of my former students today. They were applying for a teaching job. These are the check boxes that I had to complete: Clearly this school district is NOT hiring for innovation…. What are you hiring for? What messages are you sending your applicants? Related Posts. My thoughts on a proposed social media policy for school employees (Part 2).

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How to Teach Venn Diagrams to Elementary School Students

Ask a Tech Teacher

Venn Diagrams are one of the most visual approaches to showing students the logical relationships between sets and connectivity of data. It uses overlapping circles to show the wholeness of data and then where they overlap other data sets. It’s easy to find templates for them–in MS Office, Google Apps, Canva, and more. One of our Ask a Tech Teacher crew has organized the basics on how to teach Venn Diagrams to elementary-age students: What is a Venn Diagram.

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K–12 Schools Implement Connectivity Solutions to Narrow the Homework Gap

EdTech Magazine

It was several weeks into school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when Dave Peterson looked out his office window at Washington’s Sunnyside School District and saw something unusual: A young man was sitting outside his house, trying to connect to Zoom over a smartphone hotspot so he could sign in to class. Then his sister came out and did the same; then his younger brother.

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Leading When You Don't Have the Answers

A Principal's Reflections

There is no shortage of advice on how to lead effectively. The simple fact, though, is that the process is rarely easy. Decisions must always be made, and sometimes delegation and consensus—both powerful elements in building a positive culture—are not suitable courses of action. The bottom line is that the buck stops with the one who has the title or is in a position of authority, whether we like it or not.

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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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Teachers Partnering with Artificial Intelligence: Augmentation and Automation

Digital Promise

The post Teachers Partnering with Artificial Intelligence: Augmentation and Automation appeared first on Digital Promise.

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Creating & Maintaining Community with Teams During Tough Times

Education Elements

March 2nd is a day that will never be forgotten in Putnam County, TN. Our small community woke up to the sirens of an EF4 tornado that rocked our community and two weeks later our school system closed when the COVID pandemic hit home all across the state of Tennessee.

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How to Transition from Summer Break to the First Days of School

Waterford

The first day of school is right around the corner! Students aren’t the only one who feel jitters during back to school season. Teachers and families alike both anticipate and dread the end of summer break. If this is you, you’re not alone. These weeks leading up to and following a student’s return to school, however, can shape the rest of their academic year.

How To 246
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25 Websites for Lesson Planning

Ask a Tech Teacher

Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using for lesson planning: Organize/Create lesson plans. Alma –create standards-based lessons and gradebook, with analytics. BlendSpace –blend a variety of digital materials into one canvas for students. CK-12 — and differentiate for student learning styles. Educreations. Explain Everything –screencasting, interactive whiteboard.

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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.

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Google’s Adaptive Learning Technologies Help Amplify Educators’ Instruction

EdTech Magazine

The average U.S. high school class has 30 students, according to research from the National Council on Teacher Quality, and while each student learns in their own way, practice and specific feedback are repeatedly shown to be effective in modern classrooms. With interactive tools such as practice sets, students can receive one-to-one feedback and support without ever leaving an assignment.

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The Ever-Changing, Ever-Evolving, Ever-Growing Definition of Today’s Teacher

EdNews Daily

By LeiLani Cauthen Are you a teacher? If so, are you also a classroom work foreman, logistics manager, guide, drill sergeant, discipliner, cheerleader, data entry clerk, cultural advocate, or analyst? Maybe you are all these things and more. Maybe, we need to look at educators in a new context of what teaching really is in most schools, and whether it should be given cultural, economic and technological change.

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How Mississippi Stakeholders Collaborated to Narrow the Digital Divide

Digital Promise

The post How Mississippi Stakeholders Collaborated to Narrow the Digital Divide appeared first on Digital Promise.

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Strong Teacher Retention Starts with Onboarding

Education Elements

During the next few weeks, districts and schools will begin the process of welcoming and onboarding their new teachers for the 22-23 school year. When done effectively, new teacher onboarding can allow new staff to gain clarity on their specific roles and feel welcomed into their school community.

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Transform Your Classroom with Apple

Speaker: Aaron Webb, Jamf

Apple empowers educators and students by design. Whether using Macs, iPads, or Apple TV, Apple devices encourage creativity and can simplify teaching with apps to make the classroom more flexible, collaborative and personalized for each student. To unleash the full potential of the technology and create the best learning environment, you need to understand the tools and resources available, and develop an education-focused, comprehensive plan, from equipment purchase to deployment, management an