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Mapping skills are already integrated into social studies and science curricula, but web-based resources also bring new possibilities for using maps to create student projects like storytelling, research, data mining and design.
So you’ve built a rudimentary website for your classes. There are many ways to enhance your website to make it more useful and more visually appealing. Here are just three suggestions.
Whether you’ve been teaching two years or 20, there are many good reasons to put your teaching presence on the Internet and have your own website. And don’t worry: creating a website has gotten much easier thanks to Google Sites.
There are new tools for creating videos in the classroom that make the process easier and faster while still producing exemplary results.
Videos are a great way to engage the visual learner, but there are a few pointers to keep in mind when showing video clips to your students. Always preview the entire clip you plan to show from start to finish. You don’t want any surprises. Enhance the learning experience further by having discussion questions before, during and after the clip.
I used to be surrounded by paper: piles on my desk, reams in my bag, Xeroxes and printouts, folders, chart paper, Post-its, index cards ... the list is familiar to every teacher. My life looks much different today, however, after I drastically reduced paper use in my classroom through digital tools.
Teaching vocabulary is often seen as a necessary evil. There’s no doubt that vocabulary is a crucial skill, yet it’s often taught through repetitive exercises and rote memorization that leads to boredom for teachers and students alike. The resources below can breathe new life into the dreaded vocabulary lesson.
Looking for a new way to encourage your students to write and express themselves creatively? Microsoft Photo Story, a free program for Windows-based computers, allows students to combine images, text and voice-over to create a compelling narrative in a movie format.
The Internet has made available primary documents and multimedia material that can enrich and enliven the teaching of history. By studying the thousands of documents, letters, photographs and video and audio recordings of historic and everyday events archived on the Internet, students connect to the past in ways that were not possible 20 years ago.
Today, thousands of podcasts are posted on the Internet every week, and millions of listeners download them on their iPods, smartphones, computers and tablets. Podcasts are an excellent professional development resource for teachers, and the creation of a podcast can be a valuable and engaging classroom exercise.
The tablet computer, especially the iPad, brings new meaning to assistive technology as free or low-cost third-party applications make the tablet an excellent tool for teachers working with special education students. With Apple adding the touch screen to smartphones and the iPad, the computer now is also a tactile and kinesthetic experience.
Though it’s too soon to know if iPads will become widely adopted in schools, a major driver will be the availability of inexpensive apps (applications) that focus on the learning needs of students and the teaching priorities of educators. More than 20,000 education-related apps have been created for the iPad.
Fraser Speirs, an influential Mac developer and a technology director at a Scottish school, recently wrote in his blog speirs.org that “the iPad is not the future of education. It’s the present of education.” Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is promoting the use of iPads in schools, says his company believes that the tablet can “change the way teachers teach and the way kids learn.”
The era of children bearing backpacks stuffed with heavy textbooks may soon be over. Instead, they will open their leather binders and flick their fingers across the screens of their e-book readers. Those of you who already read using a Kindle, Nook or other electronic book reader understand the convenience, the interactivity and the easy portability of these devices.
The ability to recognize and process printed text is heavily dependent on comprehending spoken language. Fluent readers should understand the meaning of both printed and spoken language. That’s why teachers of our youngest readers should take advantage of Internet sites that offer interactive, read-aloud storybooks and activities that foster literacy.
Free Technology for Teachers (www.freetech4teachers.com) is a must-see for teachers interested in integrating technology into their classroom practice. The blog by Richard Byrnes, a Maine social studies teacher, is chock full of the latest and greatest Internet tools for teachers.
If glaciers move faster than your computer’s hard drive, then malware, viruses or assorted temporary files may be bogging down your operating system resources. A clogged or infected hard drive will eventually grind to a halt unless you do something about its health on a regular basis.
Does your computer’s fan work overtime? Do keys on your keyboard stick? Is it a feat of patience to control your mouse? Is there a smudge mark in the middle of your screen? Well, maybe it’s time to clean up that computer so it looks and works like new again.
Researcher Donald Leu created a website on the fictitious “tree octopus” to test students’ information literacy skills. His findings revealed that students did not have the tools to evaluate information they found online. “These results are cause for serious concern,” he says, “because anyone can publish anything on the Internet.”
Summer seminar: The Cullman Center Institute for Teachers offers three week-long summer seminars with brilliant writers and academics at the New York Public Library's landmark building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
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