Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Motivating and Differentiating for our Students

Motivating and engaging our students is always a challenge, however, slowing the boat down and connecting with your students is a great place to start.  Take a look at the link that I've shared, feel free to use it, it's filled with some great videos to share with your students and colleagues while also providing you with some questions to guide your thinking and discussions.  I'd be interested to hear what you have to say.

This is freakin' awesome!

Please take two minutes and see what Google is trying to do.  I'd bet that before watching these videos that you didn't think that this was a thing.  It certainly is!

Project Understood

The Times They Are A Changin'

The world was a different place many moons ago in 2013, well maybe not that different but still it's been a few years.

Please take a minute to listen to Jane's dilemma?  Are you like Jane?  Do you have any ideas for Jane?

So Please Forgive Me

C'mon give me a break, it's been a while, but I'm back.  I was trying to see what else was out there and how I could share my rants and thoughts with the world but I ended up right back where I started. So Stay Tuned!

So... Now What?

So you have all these great tools.  You've figured out where you'd like to go with them.  Now you'd like to know how to get marks out of them.

Well...
1. Start of at the Ministry of Education website.  Take a look through your curriculum documents of choice.
2. Decide on your learning goals and collaboratively come up with your success criteria.
3. Figure out how you'd like to assess them.  Don't worry, we have a few suggestions.

• Success Criteria
• Rubrics
• Self Assessments
• Peer Assessments
• Checklists
• Anecdotal notes 

Now you're wondering where can I find all these wonderful tools... Well, you're going to have to Google-it for yourself.  There are thousand upon thousands of sites that can offer assistance and depending on your style, you'll want to evaluate each one for yourself.  Good Luck!

Teaching Kids News

Teachers struggle with integrating news and current events into their day-to-day happenings.  It is a website built by educators for educators. Teachingkidsnews.com is a great Canadian site that reports primarily on events that are of interest to students.  As an added bonus for you, they have attached curriculum expectations as well as extension activities for each article.

Web 2.0 - Didn't You Realize That We've Been Upgraded?

Web 2.0 is nothing terribly new, it is something that we have just taken for granted.  Where we use to surf the Internet for information, get what we need and log off.  Now with web 2.0 we are interacting within those virtual spaces. It's pretty cool when you think about it, your students take this for granted.

Check out these Web 2.0 Tools.  You can use any and all of them in your classroom.

Blogger.com / Wordpress.com
Both of these sites are blogging sites where you and/or students can host a blog where you can post pictures, links, interesting articles, personal reflections (do you see where we are going with this?). Blogging fits very nicely into to all parts of your curriculum.

Kidblog.org
Not sure about using the links above, then try kidblog.org.  It is more secure site where you can create blogs for all of your students.  It is very easy to use but limited in its capabilities.

Wordle.net
Create word art for a topic that you are studying.  Easy to use, clear instructions.  Your students will eat this up.  Be sure to have them print it out and display their wordles in your classroom.


Glogster Edu OUTDATED • Please avoid
Similar to a blog, a glog can add a little more je ne sais quoi to your work.  Visual appealing and it allows the students to create and manipulate as they see fit.

Bitstrips for Schools / Comic Life UPDATED • Pixton
Two ONE great comic strip building site, both their advantages and limitations.  Student love creating comic strips and they can even learn while they are at it.  There is a lot of American content but there is so much that you'll be able to do with your students of all ages.

Prezi.com
Gone are the days of boring Powerpoint presentations.  Have your students create some dynamic presentations with the click of a button.

Voki.com
Get your students speaking (but not in their own voice).  Through the use of this program, students are able to type out messages and have them said out loud.  Great tool for ESL learners or for those that are looking for something different.

We'll stop there for today, however, the list goes on forever.  Google Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers and don't be afraid to explore and try new things.