Elana's Instructional Technology Blog

•    Establishing norms/guidelines for student blogging (student blogging contracts, parental involvement, inclusion of district AUPs or "acceptable use policies," etc.)

                      Before students begin blogging independently, they need to be given a tutorial by their teacher about the responsibilities associated with using social media, and the ethical and safety concerns social media can present.  They should become familiar with the school’s…

 10 More Ways To Use Blogs In Your Classroom

1. Quote of the day discussion blog. I will post a quote of the day and students can analyze the quote and discuss what it means and lessons they can apply from the quote.

                                                        Place to find a quote of the day on every topic: …

            According to Education Week (2010), “The term ‘21st-century skills’ is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today's world.”  While the exact skills and resources can be debated, all educator’s agree that 21st century classrooms provide students with the resources and knowledge that they need in order to be…

How could Google Apps help you to be more efficient as an educator?

Google Apps will be extremely useful to me as an educator. My school just got an education account to Google Apps this week and is encouraging all of us to use it in our teaching on a regular basis. As a literacy department, we have decided that all of our students are going to use Google to create blogs where they will reflect on what they have read every other week. They will also post to one another on their blogs,…