teachers
Managed Instruction vs Teacher Autonomy
Urban districts trying to ensure consistent rigor in every classroom have implemented programs of managed instruction--a common curriculum, shared lesson plans, pacing guides, periodic assessments, and associated professional development. While these programs can feel stifling, they often lead to incremental improvement.
One Game Fits All?
Is gamification the solution to student engagement? Gamification – the addition of game elements such as points and badges to non-games like ad campaigns, household chores, or public education – would seem to offer schools the perfect blend of engagement, entertainment, and education.
Humanizing Online Learning with VoiceThread
If you are an online instructor who is aching to break out of the social limitations of the text-based discussion forum that still dominates online courses, learn how VoiceThread can help.
Infographic: The History of Education
The folks at Boundless who last brought us the EdTech Buzzwords Infographic are back with The History of Education. The graphic takes a look at how formal education began, changes along the way, current day and predictions for the next twenty years. Do you agree with the predictions?
Design Your Digital Classroom
I will be presenting a workshop titled Design Your Digital Classroom at the Illinois Computing Educators Conference on February 26th and 27th. I’m looking forward to #ICE13 once again this year because of the energy that surrounds an event like this. It’s so much fun to work with educators who are excited to participate and eager to leverage the power of technology as a tool for learning.
Prototyping Education as a Platform
I wish school were different for my children. As a mom living in a school district with excellent schools, high test scores and property values, research-based practices, and warm, thoughtful educators who care about my kids you would think I would be satisfied. But like generations of parents before me, I want more for my kids than what I had.
Why do you teach? And, why do you stay?
Some enter the teaching profession because of an amazing teacher, or several amazing teachers. Some feel teaching is simply what they were meant to do. Some become teachers to contribute to the common good. Others become teachers because of one, or many, bad experiences.
3 Tech Tools for the Sped Classroom
Being a Special Education teacher is something that takes patience and a warm heart. These teachers are truly in it for the love of seeing a student develop as a person socially and mentally. However, they seem to be in need of and short of resources more than most other classrooms.
How Active, Digital Learning Fosters Business Skills in Students
The array of social technologies open a wide swath of possibilities for active learning, particularly in the online and blended teaching space.
Teachers Inspiring Teachers in a New Age of PD
A major shift in the force of education has emerged as teachers have become self-directed, independent designers of their own learning. Embracing social media, blogging, and learning from one another in digital spaces, they have forged a new era of professional development that is changing classrooms from the ground up. Simultaneously, and perhaps because of their online interactions, teachers also have begun to re-energize the professional learning in their brick-and-mortar professional spaces.