Thomas Stanley's Blog (8)

Get your class started in the right direction!

When you welcome students to an online environment it is important to make them feel as though they are in a personal and friendly environment. Start by having them post in the text chat or a discussion area of a synchronous session such things as characteristics that fit them as a person and why. Most young people are good at the social posts and this will allow them to feel comfortable at the start of the class. Here is an…

Here are some basic ideas for teachers to make your online classroom a collaborative one.

Let’s start with a basic guide to help students be successful collaborative online learners.

     Online learning depends on you, the student; it is imperative that you become an active learner. What is an active learner? It’s a person who takes full responsibility for her or his own learning. You will need to complete assignments before the deadline, turn in assignment…

Since the possibility of moving classes into the online world here are some helpful hints for teachers to use in their online classrooms. 

The interactive online and blended-learning classroom

By Thomas E. Stanley 

Series of ideas used to help make the online classroom more interactive

Topics: 

• Subject matter…

One of the greatest activities of a teacher’s life is to see students engaged in the subject matter. Watching your students focus on the key concepts of social studies and having to use the facts to justify their ideas is just an amazing experience. Recently, one of my former students thanked me for getting him turned on to learning social studies, I told him my job is to light the fire, yours is to make it happen. By the way he has, a state senator, U.S. Ambassador, and more. That…

      Have you ever asked your kids or grandkids the question, “How was school today?” There answer is almost always, “BORING!” Here’s an idea that just might change that answer. A lot has been written recently about the importance of getting your students to do critical thinking. Whether you are reading TeachThought, Edutopia, or We are Teachers it all calls for students to take the next step in learning. The goal of this article is to help teachers understand the process of critical…

Making Current Events a Critical Thinking Activity

We have all done it as social studies teachers on Fridays’ in a current events article….a” bring newspaper article or magazine article about our town, state, national or international events. Be sure to read it over and then discuss it with the class or in a small group. It was a dry assignment and the kids did not like it or really learn from it. So how do you change this to make it  a fun experience. Over the last few years…

     Both the online and the face-to-face classroom need to be places where students experience a wide range of learning. A process called the 5 Points of the Star was created to do just this. While I was helping to build the Clark County School District's Virtual High School and working extensively in the blended learning classroom, I believed that students needed a wide range of learning as a part of an online experience. Because of the new developments in educational technology it is an…