Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

8 ways to improve your digital teaching

When good digital teaching means good digital learning

PLCs-communitiesEd. note: Innovation In Action is a new monthly column from the International Society of Technology in Education focused on exemplary practices in education.

digital-teachingWe all remember that one dedicated teacher from our early years. While they might not have had access to the same technology we do, they brought the world to us with images, stories, and play-pretend. They likely would’ve been one of the first to Skype with amazing people across the globe, competitively Kahoot, or have us build word clouds to help us learn vocabulary. They were full of life and encouraged us to find our personality.

In short, they were great teachers. Good teaching is the result of the conscious engagement between the teacher and the students, in an environment fostering inquiry, discovery, and creation. Good teaching is what makes digital age environments meaningful to students. Good pedagogy is the key to learning, regardless of the tool.…Read More

6 Minecraft lesson ideas for your Common Core math class

From graphing paper to algebra puzzles, one teacher shares tons of practical lesson ideas for turning math class into “Mathcraft”

minecraft-math

Ed. note: For more Minecraft lesson ideas, see Jim Pike’s lesson plans on order of operations and area and perimeter, featuring explainer videos and more, on the website Educade.

Last year I taught third-grade math in a whole new way. Combining elements from the wildly popular sandbox game Minecraft, I had students thinking visually and creatively about mathematical models and theories that went way beyond a typical third-grade curriculum, transforming math class into what I like to call Mathcraft.…Read More

Six tips for classroom technology success

An industry advisory panel of educators shares strategies to help teachers – regardless of their tenure – implement education technology in the classroom

lego-technologyThe LEGO Education Advisory Panel (LEAP) advises LEGO Education, the education division within the LEGO group, on how to meet the needs of educators and students. The panel consists of 50 educators, across all levels of education, who are experienced with the trials and triumphs of using unconventional teaching tools in the classroom.

Drawing from our experience using a wide gamut of education technology, we compiled the following list of tips and tricks to help teachers —regardless of their tenure —implement education technology in their own classroom.

1.  Be sure to teach the concept that failure is an important and expected part of the process. What we learn from each failure or mistake is the important part and will lead to the next version, or improved iteration in the problem solving process.
– Beth Brubaker, grades 1-8 Project Specialist, North Idaho STEM Charter Academy…Read More

8 simple tools for creating engaging infographics

Kelly Maher, a mathematics and technology teacher and technology coordinator, shares several infographics generators to help illustrate complex information

information-infographicsInformation graphics, also known as infographics, provide a way to express complex data, ideas, or other information graphically.

Human beings are visual and adept at identifying patterns and trends quickly. Therefore, infographics often aid our understanding of otherwise dense, multifaceted, or complicated material.

Anyone can use infographics to further their understanding of a topic, and you can also create your own for use in teaching or presentations. Here are some infographics generators to consider the next time you need to teach a difficult concept or illustrate intricate information.…Read More

10 teaching with technology mistakes you don’t want to make

Are you tentative about how to go about integrating technology in your classroom? Are you already doing it, but want to make sure you’re doing the right thing by your students? Teaching with technology can be fun and engaging, but it’s easy to make a few errors in your approach that can lead to unfortunate consequences for your students, or discourage them from fully participating, Emerging Ed Tech reports. Here’s a set of issues you would do well to avoid when assigning technology based work to your students (note that many of these apply to students of all ages)…

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7 things we should start teaching in schools ASAP

Americans typically learn a lot of things in school–spelling, math, why plants are green–that are actually useful in our day-to-day lives, the Huffington Post reports. But they also learn a lot of other things–cursive, long division, how to play “Hot Crossed Buns” on the recorder–that are probably not. No, we didn’t waste our time with those lessons. Learning something new isn’t ever a net loss. Playing the recorder provides building blocks for understanding music, and writing cursive has been shown to increase reading comprehension, for example. But it is worth reconsidering what we teach in the classroom and figuring out which lessons could better prepare students for life after graduation…

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The best measure of success and how to teach it

Can you predict academic success or whether a child will graduate? You can, but not how you might think, reports Edutopia. When psychologist Angela Duckworth studied people in various challenging situations, including National Spelling Bee participants, rookie teachers in tough neighborhoods, and West Point cadets, she found: “One characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn’t social intelligence. It wasn’t good looks, physical health, and it wasn’t IQ. It was grit.”

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Teaching isn’t rocket science. It’s harder.

One of the biggest misconceptions about teaching is that it is a single job, writes Ryan Fuller for Slate. Teaching is actually two jobs. The first job is the one that teachers are familiar with; people who have not taught can pretend it doesn’t exist. The tasks involved in this first job include lesson planning, grading, calling parents, writing emails, filling out paperwork, going to meetings, attending training, tutoring, and occasionally sponsoring a club or coaching a sport. The time allotted to teachers for this work is usually one hour per workday. But these tasks alone could easily fill a traditional 40-hour work week…

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25 teaching tools for the digital classroom

Over the years, many of us have personally experienced the growth of technology in today’s classrooms, TeachThought reports. Instead of taking notes, students are now occupied by surfing the Internet, scrolling through Facebook, and messaging their friends on their smart phones, tablets, and laptops. Instead of focusing on the instruction, teachers are constantly required to interrupt class in order to remind those students again and again, that class time is for learning, not texting. However, as today’s students are using more technological devices, it is imperative that teachers have access to the resources to keep pace with the growing tech culture…

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Nation desperate for youth interest in teaching

Duncan, stakeholders launch new national campaign on how teaching is more than a paycheck. Will it work?

teaching-youth-interest-Duncan Let’s face it: Being a teacher doesn’t sound all that glamorous to many of today’s students. However, with many teachers facing retirement in the next few years, as well as the lack of youth interest in teaching, the U.S. may face a significant teaching shortage. That’s where Make More comes in.

Make More is an integrated campaign to recruit “the next great generation of teachers.” The campaign was inspired by recent data revealing that half of the nation’s teachers will retire over the next decade, but only nine percent of top students consider the profession a viable career.

“The campaign was motivated by the fact that only 9 percent of students in the top third of their class are considering the teaching profession. They perceive teaching—inaccurately, but pervasively—as contrary to their ambitions,” said Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “The PSAs show students that the entrepreneurial and engaging, inspiring and impactful, financially and emotionally rewarding opportunities they seek in a career can be found in the teaching profession.”…Read More