All Blog Posts (9,941)

In order for teachers to understand the content they are teaching, they need to understand that there are basic units of the subject matter that are built upon. These basic units are the building blocks of the content which over time are linked into a greater understanding of what is being taught. Dr. Payne breaks content into the "what", the "why" and the "how". She states that too often, teachers spend too much time on the "what" and not enough time on the "why". As a math teacher, I find…

TellTable: Collaborative Creative Storytelling on a Multi-touch Table, from Microsoft Research,…

Wrapping my head around f8…

This year, I formatted my language arts class based on a modified Four Blocks Literacy Model in attempts to create a balanced literacy program that meets the diverse needs of all my students. Although the true four blocks model takes place in a single block class session, I am forced to teach my blocks throughout the week within 52 minute class periods. In a typical week…

I have an area on a wall in my classroom I call the "Parking Lot." It's a place where students can "park" their ideas, concerns, or questions about my language arts class. Here are some of the student responses from my 8th graders currently in the lot:

• Can we arrange our desks in a big circle?…

An update to last April’s post about free web-based IWBs.

Last April, I wrote a post about a few Online Interactive Whiteboards that I had checked out. That post remains one of my most popular posts, so obviously this is a topic of interest to a lot of people.

I figured it was time for an update, to check out new tools, and to see if there…

web 2

The videos we watched for Computers in the Classroom showed me that today's students feel disconnected from and isolated within their own learning. I think as administrators and teachers become bogged down in "teaching to the test" in order to maintain passing rates or to score high on those tests, students become lost in a curriculum that is uneventful and meaningless.

Teachers and instructors need to find ways to engage their students. They need to make learning more…

Chapter 8 addresses the use of technology and social media tools to solve social dilemmas. Given my field, the title caught my eye, especially the section entitled, "Self Help We Don't Approve Of." It goes on to described an online bulletin board set up by a teen magazine to talk about subjects important to teen girls. Eventually the magazine shut down the bulletin board because a group of girls were swapping tips on being anorexic. Although the bulletin board was successful and useful to…