Pedagogy for the 21st Century
I would have graduated early if I had the option.
What’s the future of the printed word?
What do you think about teacher evaluations described here?
Fewer than half of UK children read for pleasure.
History of taxes in the U.S.
Continue reading ‘Weekly Gathering’
I had an idea the other day.
Let me set up the scenario. You’re a substitute teacher with a smartphone, or at least Internet access at the school where you teach. You teach at a school regularly. You know the teachers in your school and they know you.
With that in mind, why not set up a private twitter account and tweet student progress in lieu of teacher absense?
You can set up the twitter account, run it by the administration, put the account address in teachers’ mailboxes. Then you can tweet student progress or degeneration in real time. Of course you wouldn’t use last names even if it is private, but the teachers will know who you are talking about judging by which period you are tweeting about. In this way, the absent teacher can check on his or her students in absentia.
Definitely clear it with the administration first. Assuage their fears by assuring them that it’s secure. The worst they can say is “no.” If that is the case, they’ll be pleased with your initiative. If they do say “no” you can always set up the twitter feed privately with another teacher that you are on good terms with. The teacher could then message you from his or her twitter account as long as you are both following each other.
Continue reading ‘If You’re a Substitute Teacher With a Smartphone…’
Recently we featured the University of Nottingham’s Periodic Table of Videos, a great resource. Another resource they have is called Sixty Symbols, which is a site similar to the period table in that there is a video explaining each of the symbols of physics and astronomy. I can’t tell you enough how impressed I am with their site, very well done and thorough.
If you know someone that teaches science, send them this post. The Periodic Table of Videos alone is something any science teacher would enjoy.
This review is also going to be filed away in our TIC Recommends page.
Looking for a free and fun way to teach students another language? Maybe you just want to relearn a language or reinforce what you already know. Digital Dialects is for you. It offers free to use interactive games and activities for learning languages.
A very thorough site, they have several languages including the following to name a few: Spanish, Croatian, Arabic, Chinese, German, English, Polish, French, Korean, Italian, Swahili, and Irish.
Take a look, you won’t be disappointed. I’ve always wanted to learn Dutch because it sounds so cool. I tried speaking a little when I went there, but they’re just so excellent at English that I gave up quickly.
This review/resource will be filed away on our TIC Recommends page as well.
Teachers tend to have certain things that they say when they’re getting students’ attention, when they pause, or when they editorialize. Below I’m going to list a few words and sounds that I hear too much under each category. I hope we can expunge some of these words and sounds from our vocab (at least in the contexts below) and replace them with more professional sounding utterances.
Getting Students’ Attention.
1. um
2. uh
3. Alright
4. OK
5. People!
6. Everyone
When Teachers Pause.
1. um
2. uh
3. ah
4. yeah
5. like
6. ya know?
When Teachers Editorialize.
1. um
2. uh
3. like
4. or something
These are common sayings I hear from teachers. Of course I can’t complain with impunity. I’ll need to work to take the plank out of my own eye before I take the speck out of someone else’s. One thing I believe we can all agree on is to stop using the “um” and “uh” to fill in silences. I know we’re trying to keep the students engaged so silence can be dangerous, but we need to cut out the ums and uhs where silence will suffice. Try it sometime.
Share this idea with your students so they know that what you’re up to. They’ll be ready for those silent pauses.
Model this for your students. As professionals, let’s get rid of the above quirks that we have and raise our linguistic consciousness. Notice what you say. Be mindful.
There are a ton that I am missing. What other linguistic quirks do we have? It’s time to air them out, expose them, and kill ‘em.
The Periodic Table of Elements is found in science classrooms around the world, usually hanging somewhere on the wall. In my experiences students memorize more than really understand what the elements are or how they are used. The University of Nottingham can help; they have a free Periodic Table of Videos page that features a video for each element. The videos go beyond basic knowledge by showing samples and discussing their uses. I hope you find as useful as I did.
All our reviews are also located on our TIC Recommends page, including this review.
In the past we have reviewed sites that have educational games on them (here and here). Academic Skills Builders is different though, among all the games and actvitites they have for language arts, math, and geography there is one thing that sets them apart from the rest: You can play them with the Nintendo Wii! How cool is that.
Two more features of the site that are beneficial is the “standards” section, it is where you can locate games according to standards by state (USA). Also, this research tab is a good read regarding some research about games and learning.
This review is also located on the TIC Recommends page, along with many other reviews and resources.
As the Internet becomes more widely accessible and only grows in that accessibility, the ability to think will only become more essential.
Information on just about anything is available to students. The teacher is no longer the authority figure with all of the knowledge. If I slip up and say that William Carlos Williams died in 1953, a student with a smartphone can double check that and see that he in fact died in 1963. Students don’t need me as a source of information. They can find all the information they need on any topic. If, for example, students wanted to learn to build a website they could watch the video tutorials and begin. I’ll only need to be there for troubleshooting purposes.
Continue reading ‘Why Thinking Always Wins’
Looking for a video that is more authentic than a “mainstream” movie? You should try a documentary. Sure, there are no flashy editing or graphics but there is a personable feel to them that Hollywood just can’t reproduce. Real people and opinions.
SnagFilms is a site that has nearly a 1000 free documetnaries ready to stream. You might not find something for the classroom but I guarantee you will find a few for yourself.
Continue reading ‘Watch Free Documentaries’
