Automation + Pedagoguism
Greg Schwanbeck (Physics teacher):
Getting students to sign up purely on the basis of being able to have me “nag” them about study reminders and the like would have been a hard sell. But by pitching Remind101 with the promise that there would be fun bonus opportunities involved, I got a very high response rate—more than 90% of students in my physics classes signed up.
Web 2.0 + mobile devices + ‘think outside the box teaching’ = greater learning opportunities!
I can’t wait to try Remind101 next school year!
An email I received recently. Short and to the point. Gold.
In random order they are:
1. Pathfinder (Mac)
2. TextExpander (Mac, iOS)
3. Evernote (Mac, PC, iOS)
4. nvAlt (a fork of Notational Velocity) (Mac)
5. Pixelmator (Mac)
6. Adobe Acrobat Pro (Mac)
7. GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto (Mac & iOS)
8. Keynote (Mac & iOS)
9. Safari (Mac, PC, iOS)
10. Keyboard Maestro (Mac)
I have worked with most of these apps in the past and in some cases I use them daily. However, I am not at ‘Ninja Master’ skill-level. I have linked to each app so that you can learn about them. I plan to do an extensive review of how I will use as a teacher throughout the year.
Happy New Year!!!!
*I will also only write out the year Twenty Tweleve as opposed to putting it in number form.
I have been researching websites that review iOS apps for education and found Mobile iEducator blog. It has several reviews that are categorized by school age. Good stuff!
Kyle Spencer for The New York Times:
Caroline Pratt’s original unit blocks were made of smooth, splinter-free maple, though cheaper sets are now available in birch, beech and rubberwood (experts say it costs about $1,000 to outfit a classroom). Sets usually include 5.5-inch-long rectangles as well as pillars, columns, triangles, curves and longer rectangles.
This non-expert says Wal-Mart and Target sells blocks for a lot less.
The Differentiator is an online tool to help you with writing your objectives for your lessons. You start by choosing the thinking skill listed by levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning and end with the group size the objective will require. It is a great time saver and is free.
Good tips and nice use of JotNot.
How many times have you been in a meeting or presentation and you want to ask a question but the opportunity does not present itself? Or maybe you are too embarrassed to ask?
This is the backchannel. James Socol for TodaysMeet:
The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn’t coming from the presenter.
The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you’ll ever get.
TodaysMeet leverages that backchannel and brings it to the forefront of the presentation. Many times questions can be answered by somebody in the audience. This is the perfect tool.
It is very similar to Twitter in that it provides real time communication. the cool thing about TodaysMeet is that you can join without having an account and a URL is created so it is easy to find.
Next time you are in a meeting or presenting to a group, try TodaysMeet. Get your audience involved.
Now go teach!
School meetings are usually as good as their weakest link and many times that honor goes to the conductor of the meeting.
I worked at a school where the meetings were long, but not as long as the looks of confusion and bewilderment as we all walked out after two hours.
I once partook in a three hour power session on uniform policies! The last two hours were discussions on belt buckles. It was a drag.
Here are a few suggestions for spicing up the way information is shared:
Giving information such as policies and procedures? Dropbox!
Q&A’s? Corkboard.me, Google Docs!
Weekly news? Email a PDF newsletter or better yet, place it in a Dropbox folder!
Want to inspire of give accolades? Phone call, text, email, written note, newsletter, face-to-face!
PLN? Twitter, Google Docs!
Nothing says “thank you!” better than letting staff go home after a long day of work.
For those of you that have to attend first days of school debriefings and want to show off your tech savviness to admins and colleagues, create a free Corkboard.me url and send the link to everyone in your meeting.
Questions and notes can be taken on virtual sticky notes in real time and saved. There is unlimited note taking and there is also no sign up required.
It takes the awkwardness of having to get up off the chair to post your concern on the big poster titled “Parking Lot” taped to the wall. You will be saving a few tree in the process.
Remember cork board.me is free but a premium service is on the horizon.
Now go teach!
*UPDATE* Get you Pro Corkboard.me account here. It has several cool features like the ability to embed onto other websites and password protection. The best one is the ability to customize the URL (https://corkbaord.me/yourcustomurl). Looks like a great deal!
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
