As you begin another school year, I wanted to share some of my favorite iOS apps and utilities. Many of these tools can be used by you as you develop lessons and units, and by students as they utilize the resources found in the Discovery Education collection. I do my best work in coffeeshops. Besides being
August 2016: Pokémon Go in the classroom
How can you utilize the game “Pokemon Go” in your classroom in a meaningful way? Student excitement about this game can be easily harnessed to support all kinds of fun and pedagogically-sound lessons and activities! Before we start, and if you have not yet played the game, there are some vocabulary words you might need.
July 2016: Sketchnoting Revisited
Back in December of 2013, I posted a blog entry titled Sketchnoting: A Primer . I had recently been introduced to the topic of sketchnoting and this mode of visual notetaking was just starting to be talked about and tried in schools. That article provided some of the research behind why one should sketchnote, including the important work
June 2016: Make the Web work for you
Want to make the Web work for you? Then IFTTT is the tool you must use! IFTTT, If This Than That, is an online tool and mobile app, IF, that allows you to connect two online-connected services you already use and link them together to automatically precipitate an event or complete a task. This linking is called a
May 2016: Stop Motion Animation in the Classroom
Who remembers making flip books when we were younger? We created them by drawing a small image at the bottom corner of a book page and drawing it again, a bit changed on the next page, and so on, and then “flipping” the pages to see the items move. First popular in the late 1860’s, the
April 2016: Virtual Reality in the Classroom
We hear a lot of talk about the use of augmented and virtual reality in the classroom to support teaching and learning. Here is a simple explanation showcasing the difference between them. Augmented Reality One way to experiment with and learn more about augmented reality is with the use of the iPad and the app Quiver (previously known
March 2016: Tools for the SOS (part 2 of 2)
As I wrote about in the February 2016 issue of Kathy’s Katch, the Spotlight on Strategies Series (SOS), located on the Discovery Education site, includes a wealth of pedagogical and practical strategies for the use of the digital resources from Discovery Education in the classroom. Each weekly strategy is different– some are for introducing a topic, others target
February 2016: Tools for the SOS (part 1 of 2)
The Spotlight on Strategies Series (SOS) on the Discovery Education site includes a wealth of pedagogical and practical strategies for the use of the digital resources from Discovery Education in the classroom. Each weekly strategy is different– some are for introducing a topic, others target collaboration, and still others provide a path to an assessment project or
January 2016: Fostering Creativity in the Classroom
In 2013, Adobe conducted a survey entitled “State of Creativity in Education: An Adobe Survey” with over a thousand educators representing thirteen countries in the Asia Pacific area. The infographic below includes some of the data from that survey. I am sure these responses would hold true for any area of the world. The statistic that struck
December 2015: Presentation Tips and Tricks
Discovery Education Streaming includes tons of resources that can be used by teachers and students for projects and presentations. In addition to editable videos, there are images, clipart, and songs, sound effects and other audio clips. To make a presentation get noticed and stand out, there are some basic methodologies you should think about. COLORS