Learning in Progress

Who are you? You fill the seats of our classrooms every day. I am told, you are “neurologically processing information in a fundamentally different way than the “older generations”. I am “paper trained” logical, linear, left to right, top to bottom, beginning to end. You are "media trained"VISUAL nonlinearTRANSFLUENT scrollingHYPERLINKED. In the last year - as of today at about 1pm -  there were well over 300 BILLION mobile YouTube view You were watching a lot of those -- Over 30 billion photos were added to Instagram You posted a lot of those photos -- In the month of August alone there were almost 80 million of you playing Fortnite And let’s not forget the videos you are watching about it and the dances you were practicing from it and the conversations you were having about it. You love with your whole heart, so we see that we must protect it. You put your everything into your day, and we push you bey...

Post also appears on FTEdtech   In our most recent edition of "PD While You..." you can learn plenty of new ways to engage your students.  From math to choice boards.  Find the links you need below. TED Talk: The Puzzle of Motivation  by Dan Pink As our 5th graders head into a season of Genius Hour with FTGenius , find out the "Why" behind that, and think about maybe using the resources available for your own class.  We have versions of Genius Hour available for 2nd-5th grades.  Look for FTGenius Interactive Notebooks in the FTIS Elementary EdTech Group under the Interactive Notebook file. Classroom Screen: A Quick Alternative to Smart Notebook Check out Classroom Screen , a tool I saw both Allyson Jones and Maria Schuman at WES using.  In about 30 seconds they can post an agenda, add a timer to keep the class moving and create a QR code on the fly. Getting Appy With It: FlipGrid FlipGrid is a video discussion tool that students can ...

Second in my "PD While You..." series.  The image is hung in "strategic" places around schools:)  Originally shared here . Links to Get You Right Where You Need to Go Three Rules to Spark Learning - TED Talk inspiring curiosity and creativity    Make Learning POP ! Check out the resources for My BrainPOP.  You will need the code from the print flyer to set up your account.  But you can have your kids making movies just like the real deal BrainPOP videos in no time! Check out this playlist to get you started:   Learn how to make a BrainPOP movie here - perfect for letter writing! Gettin Appy With It - Solve Me Mobiles get your students thinking in algebraic terms with fun puzzles Do This Tomorrow ! Toontastic 3D is an amazing storytelling tool for kids to use - check out this example my 3 year old made:) The Secret Sauce - Begin with the End In Mind - Using Legos! The Five Things Challenge - a practic...

I couldn't narrow it down to four actual things - but there are four topics to explore!  Pick something and play this summer to help refresh after a long school year. Hover over the image below for hot links to things to check out.  

This post was originally published on FTIS Edtech Background For a number of years we have been using "Best Practice" strategies developed by Robert Marzano to help students graphically organize their work and organize their thinking so that they can retain information at higher levels.   When it comes to teaching vocabulary, researched, Best Practices, from Marzano include the following strategies:  Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. Ask students to construct a picture, pictograph, or symbolic representation of the term. Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their vocabulary notebooks. Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another. Involve students periodically in games that enable them to play with terms. To target these strategies, many teachers use a weekly format o...

Here are the latest tips I shared with my teachers. Click [ here ] for the link to the Smore page .

These were the tips I shared with my faculty today. Links are in brackets. A Few Classroom Management Tricks and Tools t’s that time of the year when the barometer is dropping, the moon is full ( ok it’s not, but it feels like it ) and of course we just had our first snow—in November!   It’s the perfect storm for the kids to be a little more “enthusiastic” ( and by enthusiastic we all know I mean wound up ).   This might be the perfect time to revisit procedures or introduce some new   things that will get your students’ attention and help them manage their own enthusiasm. First, check out Angela Watson’s post “ How to Get Students to Follow Directions The First Time ”, on the Cornerstone by clicking [ here ]. In the post, Watson suggests, 9 ways to get your students to stop and listen to directions.   Some of my favorites are “the 3 before me rule” and the “magic word”,   which I would likely make sloth or even better the phrase “Goonies Never Say Di...