news & tips for teachers
Technology in the Classroom
Using Technology: Second-Graders Inspire Their Teacher – and Each Other
April 12th, 2013
For second-grade teacher and blogger Erin Klein, technology in the classroom is always about responding to the world kids already live in. At least that is how it started, and how it evolved. Klein was teaching kindergarten when she noticed how her …
IPads and Other Tablets in the Classroom: How to Get it Right
April 4th, 2013
Education technology leader Kathy Schrock has long believed all students should have their own devices. Schrock, a fan of portable technology since the days of the PalmPilot, argues that handheld devices and software have become so economical and widespread that schools finally …
The Power of Social Media to Engage Students Online
March 11th, 2013
Teachers should want to be where students are engaging. Today that means being online, said Lisa Nielsen, New York City Department of Education’s director of digital literacy and citizenship. Nielsen is also the brain behind the Innovative Educator blog and co-author of …
Twitter: Bringing the World into Your Classroom
January 31st, 2013
Illinois Teacher of the Year Josh Stumpenhorst has done something unusual in his sixth-grade language arts classroom. He’s let the world in. For many teachers, opening the classroom through social media networks like Twitter or Skype can be scary. But it doesn’t …
Common Core and Technology: Can Schools Afford the New Standards?
January 30th, 2013
By Marcus A. Hennessy, CEA (ret.) Teachers and administrators in a lot of K-12 schools are wondering where they’re going to come up with the money to implement the technology components of the new Common Core Standards. Schools’ budget dilemmas were just …
There’s an app for that: Educators must plan for a successful launch
December 11th, 2012
Educator Randon Ruggles is a big fan of using apps for tablets and smartphones as educational tools, but acknowledges that they can be a source of frustration. “I see a huge disconnect with what could be done and what’s going on in …
Gamifying Education: Think Differently, Start Small
November 30th, 2012
Gamification, that is in education applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them learning the 3 Rs more fun and engaging, is more than just a buzzword, another task to check off. Experts argue that it can improve learning and …
Digital “Gamification” in the Classroom: A Growing Teaching Trend
November 15th, 2012
By Marcus A. Hennessy, CEA (ret) A middle school in New York applies The World of Warcraft (WoW) in-School Project to bolster at-risk students’ skills in digital literacy and leadership. The University of Colorado’s departments of Computer Science and Education, and its …
Using Smartphones (and other PDAs) in Class: These Days, it’s Cool!
November 13th, 2012
By Marcus A. Hennessy, CEA (ret) A few years ago, as Blackberries, iPhones, and Androids began to flood the smartphone market, middle and high school teachers tended to discourage their students from using them in class. And for good reason: aside from …
Teacher’s Guide to the Flipped Classroom
October 2nd, 2012
At one time, education was a passive experience in which students sat in class listening to lectures or reading books. While lectures and textbooks are still part of the educational system, they have taken a backseat to flipped learning. In this educational …
Turning Japanese, I Really Think So
July 12th, 2011
Several months ago, my son began a new obsession: Japan. It all started with news reports of the earthquakes and tsunami. He’s always been interested in geography, but this gave him a specific place – one he previously knew nothing about – …
Mr. D Sticks in my Memory
July 12th, 2011
During Teacher Appreciation Week, I thought it would be fun to share about a teacher from my own past. Robert D’Andrea was my social studies teacher in seventh grade back in New Jersey. Like so many people around me during the earlier …
What If I Say Pretty Please? (Getting My Colleagues to Use Google Docs)
February 16th, 2011
About four years ago, I set up two Google Apps domains at my school. I just kind of did it, under the “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than seek permission” model of technology implementation. It’s free, and it wasn’t going to hurt …
“Feel” and “Create” Your Way to an A
December 10th, 2010
Not long before Thanksgiving, my seventh and eighth grade students handed in their completed photography movie projects. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that, in a frenzied flurry of activity, culminating in all but one of my eighty-five upper level …
BragVest and other iPhone/iPad apps for Scouting
November 30th, 2010
My son and I are brand-new to Cub Scouts this year. He just earned his Bobcat rank and is happily working his way toward Tiger. We started a new Pack at the school where my son attends, and I am the Pack …
What in the World Are You Using the Lab For?
November 23rd, 2010
I have a colleague who teaches all of our seventh grade social studies classes. She’s also an English teacher, and she’s been in the education profession for many, many years. One might think she’d be hesitant to use technology with her students, …
Instant Gratification to the Rescue!
November 9th, 2010
Ever want to know what your students are thinking? Worried that many of them are not really grasping the key concepts some days? Need to find out if they really WERE listening when you were explaining the expectations for a project? Feel …
Your Father’s Famous Four Questions (Part 4)
October 24th, 2010
In a recent blog post, I shared four questions that parents typically ask their children before letting them out the door. These questions came to me from Lori Getz, who writes about them in detail in the Parent Resource Center of her …
Your Father’s Famous Four Questions (Part 3)
October 10th, 2010
In a recent blog post, I shared four questions that parents typically ask their children before letting them out the door. These questions came to me from Lori Getz, who writes about them in detail in the Parent Resource Center of her …
Your Father’s Famous Four Questions (Part 2)
September 23rd, 2010
In my last blog post, I shared four questions that parents typically ask their children before letting them out the door. These questions came to me from Lori Getz, who writes about them in detail in the Parent Resource Center of her …
Your Father’s Famous Four Questions (Part 1)
September 23rd, 2010
Last month, I had the fantastic opportunity to participate in CUE’s first-ever Rock Star Teacher Summer Tech Camp in central California. The days themselves were amazing, but an added bonus was the time spent at Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, where we …
Lesson Learned (Again): Always Make a Backup
September 8th, 2010
A few summers ago, I learned a very tough lesson. There I was, working on a PowerPoint for a presentation I was giving the next day for my summer job, when the computer froze. Annoyed, I did a hard restart of the …
How Does an Artist Paint a Teardrop?
August 12th, 2010
I am going to show you something my friends Ken Shelton and Jerome Burg shared with me some time ago. I don’t want to take credit for something I neither created nor discovered. I just want to share it, because it is …
How Geeks Spend Their Summer Vacation
August 1st, 2010
First of all, let me tell you right up front that I can’t remember my last summer vacation. Oh wait, I remember now. In 2003, when I was pregnant with my son, I spent almost the entire month of July in Britain, …
Big Brother is Watching (You Take Pictures)
July 28th, 2010
So, a few weeks ago, I met my friend Burt after a long two days at Google (the subject of another blog post, I promise), and we were talking about a LOT of things, but he mentioned to me the EyeFi SD …
Who Says You Can’t Create on an iPad?
July 13th, 2010
A few months ago, I got an iPad, primarily with a mind for seeing how it could be used effectively in education, both by students and instructors. The early buzz had a lot to say about how this new device was primarily …
Ten Most Important Features of a Learning Management System
June 22nd, 2010
I am a teacher, and I have been one for almost twenty years (in a number of school settings), so I can say this confidently and without apology: educators are difficult people to work with. In faculty meetings and lunchrooms, they behave …
This Day In Your Life Has Been Brought to You By…
June 15th, 2010
…the many advances in technology that didn’t even exist five or ten years ago. We’ve gotten to where we’ve got it too easy. Today was the big day in which my son and I drove up to San Francisco International Airport to …
Sometimes You Have to Stop Relying on the Technology
June 8th, 2010
Today I took my fifth grade students outside to go geocaching on our campus. It was mostly just a fun activity to kill time, since my grades for them were due last Friday and this was our final class meeting of the …
Freedom Is Not Free
June 2nd, 2010
Ever since I visited the memorials around Washington DC just over two years ago, this slogan has been emblazoned upon my consciousness. On that same trip, with a really great group of seventy or so eighth graders from my school, we also …
Really Graduating from a Virtual Program
May 26th, 2010
This past weekend, I took my family to San Diego for my Masters degree graduation. We took Friday off school and work and flew down Thursday night. We spent Friday at Legoland, visited with friends on Saturday, got dinner with my cohort …
His Name is Pedro, and We’re in Love.
May 18th, 2010
Last Wednesday, I attended a workshop. Nay, I witnessed my life change right before my eyes. It was then that I met… Pedro. Pedro is my new iPad. Okay, so I am totally a gadget geek. I am not ashamed. I know …
Second Life and the Autism Spectrum
May 11th, 2010
Last week I wrote about my graduate school class on Multi-User Virtual Environments, which in our class has meant Second Life. It got me thinking about how these alternative realities can be used to help people negotiate THIS reality. I just finished …
Learning That’s Out of This World — Really!
May 5th, 2010
Again I am a little late meeting a writing deadline. But I can explain! I have been taking a graduate school class on multi-user virtual environments (think Second Life), and I think I am addicted to building stuff. For this class, we …
Learning to Outline with Inspiration
April 27th, 2010
It seems as though students never really get the hang of outlining. I’ve known teachers who have had students outline the chapters of their history books. We have students write outlines for term papers and research reports. They go through the motions, …
Track a Pelagic Predator, From the Privacy of Your Own Home
April 19th, 2010
Today, I was sitting across from a colleague I have known for many years, as we co-taught her students in my computer lab. Next week is Ocean Week at our school, and she teaches fifth grade, the subject matter I spent five …
Better Late Than Never Spring Break Edition
April 9th, 2010
I have been a bad, bad blogger, and I know it. I missed this week’s blog. I have some excuses, none of which are really good enough, but wait until you hear how I have been spending my Spring/Easter Break. First, you …
Because You Can Never Have TOO MUCH Technology
March 30th, 2010
This week at my school, we’re going to finally open the time capsule it took us the better part of a month to actually locate and dig up. It was buried on campus twenty years ago by a class of seventh graders …
Pictures Don’t Lie . . . Do They?
March 23rd, 2010
Last week, I shared about my experience with MixBook, and a few weeks before that I realized that I have five different cameras on me pretty much all the time. Last night, I was messing about online – as I do – …
MixBook: If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, What is a Picture Book Worth?
March 16th, 2010
Every year in early March, my eighth graders return from their Washington DC trip with hundreds of photos and a mission: the annual DC Trip Portfolio. They’ve visited Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and New York City as well as our nation’s capital, and they …
Pardon Me While My Head Explodes
March 9th, 2010
I’ll try not to get any brain on you. I just attended the annual CUE (Computer Using Educators) Conference in Palm Springs for the first time in my life. Now, I’m no stranger to conferences, but this one was definitely one of …
Irregular Learning for Spectacular Results
March 2nd, 2010
My fourth graders have been working on a really cool project lately. And I don’t just say it’s really cool because I came up with the idea. At the beginning of last school year, the fourth grade teachers and I discussed the …
Say Cheese!
February 23rd, 2010
I don’t know what made me think about it today, but as I was heading out to my car with my son after school, I realized in a sudden flash of . . . I don’t know? realization? . . . that …
Twitter to the Rescue Once Again
February 16th, 2010
The other day, I decided to look into how I could get my son an opportunity to look through a telescope. He’s been really into space and planets lately, and he knows that Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton (overlooking our city) has …
Giving Up Some Of My Own Time Has Its Payoffs
February 10th, 2010
This past weekend, I had to work. Well, no, I chose to work. In fact, I had three days in a row in which I gave away some of my time; and the payoff I got out of it was much more …
Using Technology To Encourage an Open-Minded Palate
February 2nd, 2010
I love food. I love trying new things, and I enjoy sampling cuisines other than the standard fare most of us eat on a regular basis. One look at me, and you won’t be surprised. I. LOVE. FOOD. Really. So, as I …
Building Your PLN Based On Your Own Special Interests
January 26th, 2010
Today during my lunch break, I needed to stop by the bank. As I drove the mile and a half along Piedmont Road in northeast San Jose into Milpitas, I passed a flock of wild turkeys (also known as a rafter or …
A Hobby That Can Become So Much More
January 20th, 2010
My blog is a little late this week because I spent most of the holiday weekend deeply entrenched in the past. After my son’s treasure hunt birthday party on Saturday, I engaged in a different kind of treasure hunting for the remainder …
Update on the Virtual Missions
January 12th, 2010
A couple of months ago, I shared how a young fourth grade teacher at my school got hooked on the idea of doing the annual California missions project using Google SketchUp instead of the traditional plaster-and-red-painted-lasagna-noodles method. She frequently has her students …
You’re Getting E-mails About WHAT?!?!
January 5th, 2010
Just the other day, while we were still on Christmas Break, I got a couple of forwarded e-mails from one of my upper elementary teacher colleagues. Two students in her class got e-mail messages – which were blocked by Gaggle’s filters from …
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