Sharing your successful practices with others is an important part of the role of a educator. Traditionally you have probably shared your ideas, tips, tricks, and findings in-person with your grade level team, your district team, and with face-to-face audiences at regional and national conferences. However, with the current crop of digital apps and tools,
September 2017: Put the “make” in your makerspace
When my son was in high school, our high school had really old technology. There were no CD/DVD players, just videotape machines. So, when his friends were done creating their great multimedia projects on DVD using their home computers, they would come to our house to move the project from DVD to videotape. We had
August 2017: Augmented reality in the classroom
Last year, I wrote a blog post dealing with the use of virtual reality resources to support the instructional process. I started the article with an explanation of the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality, which I feel is important to include again since, this time, the post will be about the use of
July 2017: Using fidget spinners to target literacies
Fidget spinners were the end-of-school-year passion for students. A fidget spinner is a small device, usually with three “arms” and a ball bearing center. The basic spin has the user holding the fidget spinner between the thumb and forefinger of one hand and spinning it with the other hand. The ball bearing in the
June 2017: Promoting inventiveness in the classroom
We are all familiar with invention—the process of creating something new and useful. But what about the creativity factors that play a large role in this process? The form of creativity leading to invention is called inventiveness. How can you lead your teachers or colleagues to promote inventiveness in the classroom? The Belin-Blank Center for
May 2017: Resources to support STEM
I like this definition of STEM from WhatIs.com: STEM is an educational program developed to prepare primary and secondary students for college and graduate study in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In addition to subject-specific learning, STEM aims to foster inquiring minds, logical reasoning, and collaboration skills. I prefer this definition because, in
April 2017: Celebrating Earth Day every day
Earth Day 2017’s campaign is Climate and Environmental Literacy, which they hope leads to student attainment of these literacies by 2020. The Earth Day Network site has a downloadable toolkit for educators who are planning an event, as well as a place to register their project and locate other projects in the area. The site also includes downloadable
March 2017: Traditional literacy ideas and resources
I have identified thirteen literacies I feel our students need to succeed. (See Kathy’s Katch blog posts from from September 2014 to June 2015 to learn more about them.) One of the skillsets is the “traditional literacy skills” of reading and writing. Because March is NEA’s “National Read Across America Month“, I thought I would concentrate
February 2017: Ignite your passion and share
As educators, we are very passionate about teaching and learning. We each have our areas of expertise, and now, with accessible tools that make it easy to create a presentation, podcast, video, or animation, we can share our passion and expertise with others. One popular model for sharing is the Ignite model. Ignite talks are
January 2017: Bring the world into your classroom
The overview of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) includes a three-dimensional framework that has students actively engaging in scientific and engineering practices, using these concepts across the scientific domains, and the inclusion of a focused core curriculum of instruction and assessments to ensure students attain the information they need to succeed. One interesting method of communication, amateur radio, also