Arts Education

When I first learned about Cornell notes , it was love at first sight. I loved them so much that I decided to change all the notes in my class to Cornell notes. I drew many vertical lines on my chalkboard, created SMART Notebook templates, and wrote a helpful handout to guide students in their use of these notes in my class. I talk about note-taking on day 2 at school, accompanied by said helpful handout, and then send the students off to read their first assignment and take their new special notes. By day 3, the rebels are already refusing to use this method. By day 10, many have realized that there won't be notebook checks, so they abandon it too. By day 30, I am really not using it either. At least not all the time. These days on Twitter, it seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a tweet about #sketchnotes . I recently poured over sketchnote novateurtrice Sylvia Duckworth 's Sketchnoting for Beginners and downloaded a couple apps, including Paper by Fift...

A Science Framework for K-12 Science Education , the blueprint for the Next Generation Science Standards , made it immediately clear that engineering practices would be highlighted as critically important when they were included as one of three dimensions of science learning in the Standards. Upon reading the framework, I panicked a little. Sure, I have included inquiry and discovery experiences in my classroom for years, but engineering? What in the world would I have my students engineer? I found a great resource in eGFI (engineering, go for it!), brought to us by the American Society for Engineering Education . The eGFI brand includes an interactive website with many lesson plans and ideas, a magazine, an e-newsletter, and more. The recent edition of the e-newsletter announced a program for teachers to earn an engineering certificate through the graduate school at Tufts University . This afternoon I attended a webinar to learn more about the program. The faculty at Tufts University...

It's time to begin or renew your subscription to the New York Times Replica Edition .  Are you using this terrific resource? The New York Times Replica Edition is a replica of the daily newspaper and 30 days of back issues that can be read on a computer or iPad. You can also listen to articles, browse a picture gallery, or print articles in an 8.5" x 11" format for easy use with students. In addition to all the benefits you can get from reading this newspaper, there are many other excellent educational tools at the New York Times website. There are teacher resources , including curriculum guides, lesson plans, daily activities, and more. There are also replica edition activities , including a neat graphic organizer for keeping track of the arguments on a debatable issue . You might also visit the New York Times Learning Network , a free site for teachers that hosts new lesson plans every day September-June plus archived plans and other interactive features like polls and ...

Last Tuesday Richard Byrne, of Free Technology For Teachers fame, published an open letter on his blog regarding the way Ed Tech companies talk down to teachers, especially during product pitches and educational sessions. In his essay, he explains that when companies assume that we know nothing, will work for a pittance, and are not experts in our field, it destroys the very credibility they trying to build. I agree wholeheartedly! Hallelujah and amen!  I'd like to take his ideas one step further by suggesting that in working with our colleagues, we also stop talking down to and about them. I would offer a few reasons why we should do this. I'm sure it's the optimist in me - my son describes me as extraordinarily optimistic for no particular reason - but I believe that teachers make the choices they make in the classroom because they want to do what is best for students. Sure, there are a few who have cashed in their chips and are making hashmarks until they can exit, but...

This morning I read that Russel Tarr has created another fantastic webtool at ClassTools.net .  This one allows users to create a review game inside a game of PacMan.  As a child of the 80s, my curiosity was instantly heightened.  I clicked the link for later, thinking it would take me a while to investigate and try it out.  I was wrong.  This afternoon I created a game in under ten minutes. Like my other favorite ClassTools ( random name generator , breaking news generator , and SOLO hexagons ), the creation of something usable only takes as long as it takes to type in information.  Step 1 is to input questions and answers in a screen that looks like this: I typed in just 10 questions because I was anxious to preview. It's a very simple screen with some help and examples. I typed in my 10 questions followed by an asterisk and the correct answer. Step 2 is to click submit. It's that easy! You can also upload a CSV file with questions and answers. Befor...

Almost a year ago I wrote a post about Flippity Flashcards .  I had just completed a two day course on Google Apps for Education at a local college and I introduced Flippity Flashcards in the class.  It was far and away the favorite tool we used during those two days. Flippity Flashcards is a great way to make flashcards using a Google Sheets template.   Steve Fortna created the template that is available for free at flippity.net .  Once you have the template, you type in the text you want on the flashcards (images and videos are also possibilities) into the spreadsheet.  Then go to the file menu and drag down to Publish to the Web.  Copy and paste a link to see your flashcards magically appear.  Many teachers were initially apprehensive about spreadsheets, but everyone thought the flashcards were easy to create and they loved the results. Today and tomorrow I am teaching the same Google Apps class at the same college.  Today I showed Flippity Fl...

In May I wrote a post comparing Nearpod , Peardeck , and The Answer Pad in response to a reader comment about which tool is the best.  I promised a similar post about Kahoot , Socrative , and Quizizz .  Here it is! Below is a chart I made comparing many key features.  Please don't confuse YES and NO with an endorsement of a feature or lack thereof.  These are all three great tools that offer a lot of cool teacher options.  Which one you choose may come down to what you are trying to do and which one you personally like the best. A few things worth mentioning: I didn't know Kahoot had the option of scrambling questions and letting students move at their own pace, but according to their FAQs, they do.  I also didn't know why they have the questions and answers on two different screens, but when I read about why , it made a lot of sense. I just recently looked again at Socrative and I was really impressed at the changes they have made.  The interfac...