When it comes to technology, most schools don’t assign separate grades for “computing.” Most of us in the EdTech world probably wouldn’t suggest doing that anyway. Technology should be integrated rather than being treated as an add-on; it is just part of “what we do” in the classroom, and not a separate subject.

Image by Scott Robinson

If you’ve looked into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), you may have found that there are several standard points indicating that students should learn about models as well as work with them. You have probably already recognized the importance of models since they are an effective way to explain complex phenomena, yet there are a lot of misconceptions as to what a model truly is.

They say “April showers bring May flowers,” but it also brings an array of new learning opportunities to share with your students! Here is our collection of engaging themed content for April:

April Calendar and Activities: Our April calendar is filled with activities to start each bright and sunny day all month long. Students can practice skills using the featured calendars, morning meeting activities, attendance chart, daily graphing activities, math activities, and more. It’s also the perfect opportunity to try the new wide format calendar with your students!

Technology advances quickly, and some educational groups are on the cutting edge. Here are some exciting new developments that focus directly on teachers’ needs in the classroom:

Whether it is a school-owned computer or a student BYOD cell phone, classroom management with devices can be challenging. Most students probably see their own device as a gaming/texting/social media gadget—and not as a learning tool. So when teachers ask students to use their devices to learn, and not to play, it can be very challenging. From social media and games to learning tools, most students are highly adept at flipping from one thing to the next, such as hiding apps they shouldn’t be on and masking their social media action. Because of all this, monitoring and managing can be difficult from the outset.

We know how mind-numbing it can be to search and apply for grants and funding for your classroom. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to get gadgets into your classroom without actually taking money out of your own pocket. We decided to make it a little bit easier by showing you some opportunities that you can take advantage of. Here is a short list of ways to receive funding for technology in your classroom:

My school district—along with many others across the nation—is moving toward a more paperless work environment. This is a great idea on many levels as it boosts cost savings, can be environmentally friendly, and is many times more efficient.

These same things are true of the classroom environment. It is a great concept to go paperless, but what does that really look like for an organization? There are some learning management systems that can be used to help with this, such as Moodle, Google Classroom, Blackboard, SuccessNet, and many others. If adopting an LMS is not possible due to budget, time, or training, here is a trick to increase efficiency: To head toward a more paperless system, consider using hyperlinks.

Which Interactive Solution Is Right for Your School?

Interactive technologies offer an effective, engaging, and easy way to provide teacher-led instruction. Whole-class tools are designed to put students at the center of the educational environment, so they’re more engaged, more collaborative, and more motivated.

There’s a wide array of choices when it comes to whole-class technology, which you can read about in our recent blog articles: portable IWBs, interactive projectors (standard and laser), touch boards, and flat panel displays. Some of the most important considerations are what will work for your classroom configurations and for the teaching and learning styles of your educators and students.

One of the advantages to being a building principal is that I get to see what takes place in classrooms all around the school. I love seeing a great strategy in one classroom, then going to the next classroom and sharing it with another teacher. I think we can all agree that there is not nearly enough of this kind of sharing and collaboration in education. 

In our school, we have been studying different approaches to formative assessment in the classroom. We looked over about twenty-five different ideas for how to formatively assess, then I asked teachers to try one of the concepts in their classroom and provide me with feedback about the strategy. 

Asking students to write is one of the most difficult tasks we require. It tasks the writer with managing multiple cognitive functions all at one time: idea creation, organization, word choice, grammar rules, voice, correct sentences, and focusing on a topic. Whew. Writing this myself is taking a lot of hard work!

Because of the load that is placed on the writer, students are more successful when some of the individual tasks are broken down and isolated for them. Teachers do this in a variety of ways. We have them spell check at the end so they can focus on the ideas at the beginning. We have them review their sentences for run-ons or incompletion. We help them to organize in paragraphs. And most importantly, we try to help them with original and complete ideas.