Technology In Class

Weekly Gathering

Between The Lecture And The Discussion

I’m not against giving a lecture in class. Sometimes the information lends itself to lecture. I sometimes have to lecture briefly on formatting essays, for example.

I keep it short, however. I get them back in the driver’s seat constructing knowledge. Students are the ones that need to come up with the thesis. They’re the ones that have to come up with the topic. They’re the ones that have to discuss and present their ideas to the class. Even in those few moments that I lecture, I’m setting them up to construct their own knowledge.

My job is to come up with questions that help students construct knowledge. When they come up with thoughts to questions that challenge them to analyze, synthesize and evaluate what they don’t know that they know already, then they’ll never forget it. They made it, they’ll keep it. If I fill their heads with knowledge from a lecture, and every other teacher does that too, how much knowledge can stick?

Kideo Player! For Teachers and Parents

I came across the Kideo Player site recently and thought it was wonderful for teachers and parents of young children.

What is the site about? It’s simple, it makes Youtube safe for kids while being easy to use. They stream different (safe) videos that are just for kids. So the next time you need something to keep the kids occupied just go to the Kideo Player site, sit them in front of the computer.

We list all our resources on the TIC Recommends page, including this one

Budget Woes

We’re all facing budget woes as teachers. This financial crisis looms like the sword of Damocles. This is nothing new. Some schools face a budget crunch every year and have been for the past five years or more.

A retired teacher who loves talking about the old days (because I like hearing about them) told me once the school had no money to pay teachers. He wasn’t talking about lay offs. He said there was no money at all. It was time for a strike. If that wasn’t bad enough the strike happened during the 1973 oil crisis.

I haven’t heard anything as bad as that…yet. Many of us are in a pinch. We’re all wondering if our jobs are secure. I can’t imagine doing anything else besides teaching.

Maybe the politicians should get laid off. We gave them their jobs. We can take away their jobs.

This is an election year. I’ll be keeping tabs on who’s running for governor here.

You save our jobs you get our vote.

Jeopardy Labs (not PowerPoint!)

Do you like using Jeopardy as an activity for your classroom but don’t want to use some of the PowerPoint templates that are out there?

There is an alternative. The site is called Jeopardy Labs. On the site you can create your own free jeopardy game or browse ones that are already made. In order to create a free game you just have to give your template a password (no need to give an email or personal information) There is a “pay” option if you ever want to edit a game you created, the free ones cannot be edited once completed.

The games you create can be played from anywhere in the world, you can even add it to your blog, wiki, or website. For those of you looking for the traditional PowerPoint templates we have those here.

This review is also going to be located on our TIC Recommends page, along with many others.

The Traveler IQ Challenge

This is a cool map/geography activity. The Traveler IQ Challenge is actually on the TravelPod website (it’s a travel blog). The activity is easy to figure out. They give you a location and you have to “pin” where it is. If you get close you earn points, and the further away you are from the location you lose points.

Enough of the explaining, just try it and you’ll figure it out. What do you think? Not bad?

All of our resource reviews, as well as this one, are located on the TIC Recommends page.

Weekly Gathering

• A snapshot of Illinois’ budget woes for education.
• What does it take to build a better teacher?
• Librarians can save the world.
• Draft of the National Educational Technology Plan.
• Results of a teacher survey.

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Where Does “Like” Come Into Teaching?

Do you “like” your students? “Like” in the sense that you enjoy being around the age group that you teach. You enjoy their company, you’re interested in the things that they’re interested in, you listen to them, you get to know them.

I like my students. Every year, every semsester I get asked by friends and family, “how are your students?” Every time I answer, “they’re the best group I’ve had since I began teaching.” It’s true in a sense probably because I get better at relating to my students and they then feel more comfortable simply opening and sharing in class. That builds an intractable bond between us.
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Free Math Activities at Math Live

Mathematics is a difficult subject to make engaging for students. Incorporating technology can also be challenging, believe me, I tried teaching Math for two years.

Math Live offers a lot of valuable activities, these are the two I found most useful:

1. Lessons: These are really well done animations of a variety of topics: Numbers, Patterns and Relations, Shape and Space, and Statistics and Probability. Each lesson also comes with a worksheet (PDF) that students can use.

2. Glossary: These activities work well with a SMART board if you have one. Again, the range of topics here is huge.

Any Math teachers find Math Live useful? I’d like to hear from you.

Success

I’ve had students graduate and go on to successful, fulfilling careers, perhaps, in terms of position and monetary compensation, more successful than I.

Nevertheless, their success fuels and reinforces my calling as an educator. When I bump into a former student who’s doing well in life, his or her success only makes me want to continue teaching all the more. I don’t want to “move up” so to speak. I want to perfect my skills as a teacher and visionary for the ones that are with me right now. I’m in it for life.
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