Okay.
Raise of hands. How many of you use EDSITEment? How about ThinkFinity?
When I ask teachers around the country this question, I often get a bunch of blank stares. If you do use these two sites, sweet. If you don’t, you need to jump on board. Cause they’re both awesome sites for teachers. Continue reading EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources
This past year my school district purchased several iPad and MacBook carts for our school and really pushed technology in the classroom. I wanted to create a way for students to complete current events products using this new technology that went beyond simply searching for an article and printing it off. What I found was a great website called Smore where you can create a variety of online flyers. Continue reading Technology and Current Events
When I started teaching last year I assumed that students would know how to read a map, use an atlas, and find locations on a globe. What I soon realized was that most of my students couldn’t even tell the difference between a map of South America and Africa at first glance, because they have almost the same shape. My goal for this year, spending the first several weeks practicing using all three of these resources until the students know that just because they look the same doesn’t mean that they are. Continue reading Just because they look the same doesn’t mean they are . . .
I always set a goal for myself to begin working on improving some part of my professional knowledge with the goal of either writing a new article or a curriculum piece by the end of the summer. My usual elaborate plan typically involves reviewing the key literature and updating my research base in June, then reading new works and ideas in July, and finishing writing in August.
Even when I was in the secondary classroom, my summer would be focused on rereading books I had encountered to glean additional information and picking out two or three new sources of information (invariably, it would be on the American Civil War. However, I want my experience to be invigorating and stimulating, not dull and monotonous. Dare I say, I even wanted it to be entertaining. Continue reading Summertime Professional Development . . . sort of!
