CUE 2016: Top FIVE… for now

Almost the End of CUE and here is what made my short list!

  1. Slack– a communication platform for teams and collaboration. Allows separate channels with different audiences and very useful search features. Great video-worth the 2 minutes!
  2. Drawp for School: Student friendly way to draw, type, record BUT what makes this program unique is the seamless method of sharing and the ability for teachers to assign work.
  3. Custom Search Engine by Google– Create your very own search engine with websites or domains that you approve! MY SAMPLE 
  4. Search for a Primary Source with Google Newspaper Archives It shows images of newspapers from a specific day- so many primary resources at your fingertips!
  5. Discovery Education STEM resources-Free curriculum and professional development for STEM

Hope you will have a chance to check these out.

My Favorite App…

Drumroll please! My favorite app is the CAMERA. Some don’t even think of this as an app because it is embedded in your iPad, but it has the power to unlock student thinking and creating. Just this one APP and its ability to integrate with every other app makes it invaluable.

Just the other day, I saw a classroom grappling deeply with a math concept. Students were discussing in pairs, manipulative were out, papers were recording information and WHAT did I think about? If only students had their iPads out!!

Students were making their THINKING VISIBLE and we weren’t capturing it.

How easy would it be to capture this deep student thinking, share this thinking with others, and FACILITATE NEW LEARNING? How would this demonstrate we VALUE student thinking and ACTIVELY PROMOTE thinking vs. products?

Sometimes the simplest things are overlooked as we try to find just the right APP or “integrate technology”. At the end of the day we have to stay focused on our goal of facilitating student thinking, valuing students’ process, and building on student understanding. 

As we move to the Next Generation Science Standards, the Engineering components scream for video. It doesn’t have to end up as a finished, polished iMovie with music, transitions and all the bells and whistles. Students build something, capture trials, replay the video to identify strengths and weaknesses of the design, and then rebuild and try again.  This brings real world solutions into the classrooms.

Regardless of YOUR favorite App, shifting our focus on technology as the finished product to technology enhancing the learning process is critical to technology integration. So ask yourself, how can I capture more student thinking to push learning forward?

Applying Teaching Strategies in the TECH classroom

This week I attended a training that taught the Reader’s Workshop strategies as developed at Columbia University. The trainer was modeling a lesson on how to use “Think Alouds” when reading a book to your class. It was a strategy I had learned in my Master’s program and it made me miss my days of teaching reading!

But what really struck me was how much this strategy needs to be utilized when teaching technology. I have always known that in order for reader’s to understand how to read, they have to be guided with modeling and given SEVERAL opportunities to practice this SKILL.

This week when I was teaching the beginning research skills I took this to heart. As I designed the lesson I asked myself the following questions: How can I model what I am thinking as I research/search the internet? How can I give the students an opportunity to practice this skill? How can I apply the reading strategies they are learning to this different format of “reading”?

To develop students use of technology, sometimes we need to think less about the technology and more about the thinking, strategies, and practice we are giving students to build they SKILLS they will need for the 21st Century.

iPads and THINKING ROUTINES

One of my favorite things about using iPads is how easy it is for students to MAKE THEIR THINKING VISIBLE!! I found a link that has lessons using Voice Thread and Thinking Routines. I tend to use EDUCREATIONS instead of VOICE THREAD, but the applications are great and get me thinking of even more ideas!

http://eastech.blogspot.com/2011/12/thinking-routines-ipad.html

Check out the website. I’d love to hear ways you are using iPads for THINKING ROUTINES!

Technology is THE LEARNING PROCESS not just THE PRODUCT

After teaching a lesson today I really saw the DIFFERENCE between TECHNOLOGY as THE PROCESS and not just THE PRODUCT!

The teacher I was working with hadn’t had the time to “prep” her class on the topic “Explorers” that we were going to use as the topic for iMovie. We decided to just jump in and we both quickly discovered the beauty of developing a lesson this way. The students were so motivated to get working on the iMovie that they were excited to start the RESEARCH and to LEARN so much more about their topic! Can’t wait to see what the students will learn through this PROCESS!