Technoloducation

Our school has recently adopted the Common Core standards for mathematics and language arts. Fortunately, the entire education world is ready, and resources are abound. LearnZillion is one of those resources. 

“We started LearnZillion at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. because we wanted to solve a problem. We knew what lessons our students needed but we didn’t have enough time to teach each student the right lesson. To create more time, and to share best practices across classrooms, E.L. Haynes’ teachers began to capture their expertise on screencasts. We posted them on a homemade website and coupled them with a short quiz to help us track student progress. Soon the idea grew.

What if teachers from across the country could contribute to the site? What if new teachers could learn the new Common Core standards from the wisdom of experienced teachers? What if students could get a playlist of lessons that matched their needs? What if, over time, the video lessons got stronger and stronger, as more teachers contributed and the data showed which lessons had the biggest impact? Thanks to funding from the Next Generation Learning Challenge, NewSchools Venture Fund, Achievement Network, and others, we are about to find out!”

Combining the ideas of Kahn Academy and , LearnZillion allows teachers to share and benefit from aligned resources that can be used to target the needs of individual students. 

Do you see a use for this in your classroom?

TeachingChannel honestly has so much on it, that there is no proper overview that I can write up in a newsletter article. It just must be seen for itself. 
In their own words,
“Teaching Channel is a video showcase — on the Internet and TV — of innovative and effective teaching practices in America’s schools.
With the help of the Tch community, our mission is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all K-12 students across America.

In order to accomplish this mission, we have three simple goals, all of them reliant on input from teachers:

• Build professional learning resources that teachers want
• Deepen and improve opportunities for teacher learning
• Elevate and celebrate teachers in our society

Our videos are produced by a unique team of professionals—a collaborative effort between video production experts, education advisors, and the classroom teachers themselves.

Our video library offers educators a wide range of subjects for grades K-12. The videos also include information on alignment with Common Core State Standards and ancillary material for teachers to use in their own classrooms.

Teaching Channel Presents, a weekly one-hour program featuring Tch videos, airs on PBS stations in nearly 75 million homes across the United States.”
Do you see something truly inspirational or interesting on Tch?

We know bullying is an important thing for us to be aware of. We know it’s bad. We want our kids to know that bullying is bad. We want them to be good, moral people. Can we define bullying clearly, not just for them, but for ourselves? What is the line that separates the mocking that can be defended as necessary for inclusion and something we can point to as abuse? Do we treat bullying differently for boys than we do girls? Do we evaluate child interactions based on our own remembrances of childhood, even though there is evidence that the impulsive reflex for caring is responsive to more victims today, and increases with each passing generation? What is the limit of our reach? Are we expected to monitor online use of our students to deter cyberbullying? Is bullying, which in large part is governed by empathetic and psychological development, an area for which the school system is responsible? What do students already know (check out this video of kids telling you directly), and where do we even start? Stopbullying.gov is a website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as a resource for kids, parents, and teachers. The site helps define bullying, offers ideas for approaching the issue with students, and instructs how to respond when you become aware of the problem. They approach bullying as a community issue, and even take into consideration the role that the internet can play in preventing bullying (tweet #stopbullying to share how you take action against bullying) as a counter to the commonplace vulnerability kids generally face through social networking. Check elsewhere on this blog for a more involved post about bullying.

Just for Fun

Teaching can tend to take our lives over. When we aren’t grading and planning outside of school, we’re looking for professional development to improve our craft. I’m carving out some important me time in the next couple months, and I might try to get the hang of something I’ve always wanted to learn - web and application design and development. Treehouse compiled over 700 training videos and keeps you on track by awarding badges for your skill progression. Badges work for my Battlefield 3 addiction, so I’m feeling pretty confident about this better use of my time. There’s no question that the skill could come in handy as the line that separates education and technology becomes continuously blurry. It has a pretty hefty price tag, so I still need to determine its full worth.
Are you interested in trying this out? How about other methods for learning outside of school? What will you do over the break to keep yourself spry? What motivates you?

Collaboration Tool

Did you know that the Prezi you love has a collaborative editing feature? Like many other online workspaces - Mindmeister, LiveMinutes, and Vyew - Prezi allows users to simultaneously collaborate and edit presentations in real time. Now, PowerPoint is officially a relic by comparison. They also now have an education community and you can sign in with your teacher email to access more features for less money. Just make sure to avoid these Prezi mistakes.

Do you think you can use Prezi to help kids create together online? Am I too harsh on PowerPoint?

Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems (LMS), or course management systems (CMS), allow teachers to post course materials, link to resources, host lessons and discussions, allow students to submit assignments, allow collaboration and communication between and with students, and depending on the platform, do a whole lot more that matches the necessity of blending technology with education today. The real issue is finding a platform that works for you, creating a culture of its use for yourself and your students, and being consistent and realistic about its presence. The other real issue is that the fight for your allegiance is an all-out war at the moment, with different platforms scrambling for funding from education powerhouses and venture capitalists - then one must consider the struggle many will have in the future with ensuring longevity through the use of models that do not yet led themselves to direct profit. So how do you pick a horse in this kind of race when the finish line is so far away, and that horse has to carry your current and future students on its back?
About two and a half years ago, I stumbled across Edmodo. It was a relatively new system that allowed for communication with students, and allowed them to submit assignments. The beauty of it was (and is) that it had several safeguards in place to ensure that students use the system safely and responsibly. Oh yeah, and it’s free. This was the answer to an attempt I made the year before to reach my students where they spent most of their time - online - by creating Facebook groups. Facebook is insecure, and legitimately blocked at many schools (yes, I know they’re trying to wedge into this market too, but I’m not buying what they’re selling). Edmodo became a method for extending our face-to-face lessons while helping students use the web responsibly.
Edmodo has become the status quo at our school ever since. The kids are great with it, and it is rare that they need support with the system or consequences for inappropriateness. Even still, I’m making the change that I hinted at about a month ago.
It can be difficult to choose from among the free LMS platforms - ,, and  (formerly Coursekit) - that seem to be current leads in the race (Blackboard does have a free version, but I’m not confident it will take off).
Edmodo is becoming a goliath with 7.4 million users and serving over 80 thousand schools. It’s safe, secure, interactive, personalizable (on a school or district level), has dedicated support that’s quick and eager to respond, works across multiple devices, allows for teachers to network and collaborate, hosts its own professional development workshops and certificates, and even has its own annual, online conference. 
Lore is a newcomer, but it’s already getting a lot of support from major financial backers, and is billing itself as an elegant, alternative that allows courses to be more useful and engaging. It’s targeting higher education (and aiming directly at Blackboard), but plans to extend its reach throughout the learning continuum, so that teachers and learners can build portfolios of growth from elementary through university learning. 
Schoology, like Edmodo, has carved out its niche of users over time, and like Lore, is getting a lot of attention from financial backers. It isn’t as beautiful as Lore (although certainly prettier than Blackboard), and it isn’t as secure as Edmodo. So why is this the winner for me? Side by side comparisons make me feel more confident that Schoology is in this race for the long haul, and many of the best features of Edmodo and Coursekit are available with Schoology. They have improved consistently and are good at getting the name out there to the key determiners of survival - bigwigs with big wallets. I can tailor the security settings enough for the students I teach - high school students. For this level of teaching, it also provides a big need that Edmodo just doesn’t - discussion boards. Lore is pretty, but it isn’t compartmentalized and gritty enough that my kids will take it seriously. I’ll always have much love for Edmodo, and I still think it’s the absolute best for students in grades 3-9. Also, since most of my middle and high school uses Edmodo, I have to consider how a change will affect that culture, which is why the change to Schoology will only be for my AP students. 
Check these platforms out and let us know your thoughts. Does one of these (or one not mentioned) stand out to you as a future winner? What will determine (or has already determined) your choice?

 is a non-profit organization founded in California.  CK-12’s mission is to produce free online textbooks for students and teachers.  The books currently available for free download are K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math.  Check this site out to see if there are any resources for you and your students. ~Jason

At the beginning of the year, Kristy shared a website with me that I have found quite interesting.  has a paid subscription area for most of the material, but also has selected articles available for free.  You can sign up for the weekly newsletter which usually has around 4 items that you can access from this newsletter without the paid subscription.  The articles have literacy suggestions for students in elementary and middle school and features articles from people such as The Sisters (authors of The Daily Five). ~Ruth

I wouldn’t normally include something that’s already been sent out by others (passed along through PYP recently), but this program just seems too good not to tell you about/remind you of. Choose campaigns to support, read online books, and get books donated. The available books are children’s books, but there’s a bit of a kid left in all of us. 

IBtv is a brand new resource, where schools and teachers can upload videos of the IB community in action. There are many inspiring and interesting stories to be captured and this site is dedicated to showcasing videos from around the world. If you have an IB related video that you think should be featured on IBtv, please get in touch! Don’t forget to let the rest of us know about it, too!

The Global Engage website supports members of the IB community, and particularly teachers, in engaging with our global world. You will find information, resources, ideas and opinions, links, and suggestions for action concerned with global issues - and reports of actions taken by the IB community. Check it out, and if you think you have found a great use for it in the classroom, share with us!