A 7th grade teacher assigns her class a 2-week research project on art history. She wants her students to use all different types of sources for their research. As she explains the project to her students, she is met with 30 blank stares. One student gasps, “You mean we have to look up the books at a library?” Another one asks if it’s okay to do all of his research online. A girl in the back raises her hand and asks, “Can I interview my Dad for the project? He works at the art museum.” Students today have an unprecedented amount of access to raw information. Just about everything written down today ends up on the Internet. They can look up material in a matter of minutes that used to take people hours of research in the library. This easily accessible mass of information coming at them from all directions might make it easier to find content for a research project, but they need to learn the correct research techniques so they can critically analyze the information they read and correctly cite their sources to avoid plagiarism.
Students have been doing research projects for many years, and they have been learning how to correctly cite the articles, reference books, and primary sources they use in their research. Internet research throws a little twist into the process, though, since students first have to determine if the information they are using is valid. We have to help our students learn how to sift through the information to find what is true and what is important. There are lots of lessons and guides available on the Internet to help you teach these skills to your class. The “Research and Information Fluency” section of the free CyberSmart! Curriculum from Common Sense Media is a good place to start. Lessons from this curriculum are catalogued and searchable on The Gateway. The direct link to the CyberSmart! curriculum is here.
Students doing a lot of online research for a project may get caught in the “cut and paste” craze, compiling information from many different sources into one document. That method is okay for information gathering, as long as they are keeping track of where each piece of information came from, so they can quote it in their final project. If they are not careful to re-write everything they paste, they may be unintentionally plagiarizing someone else’s work.
What is plagiarism, anyway? Here is Wikipedia’s definition. Students may not understand the importance of citing sources and not copying someone else’s work, so it is important that they learn what plagiarism is. Joann introduced three good resources in her column about plagiarism and how teachers can introduce the topic in their classrooms. There are also some valuable lessons on the subject from CyberSmart! Try Whose is it Anyway and Considering Copying. The Learning Network by The New York Time always seems to have good lessons, too, and their plagiarism lesson for grades 6-12 called A Way With Words is no exception.
If students don’t understand what plagiarism is, they will have a hard time avoiding it. This could be a major problem later in their school years as they begin to do more research. If we can help them understand the importance of giving credit where credit is due, we will be helping them to succeed in college and beyond.
~Peggy's Corner - 1/20/2011~
Saturday, January 22, 2011
You Quote It, You Note It
What do Coldplay, historian Stephen Ambrose, and Beatle George Harrison all have in common? They’ve all, at one time or another, been accused of plagiarism. Despite this dubious distinction and the scandal it brings, plagiarism is alive and thriving in our society, thank you very much. A recent Education Week survey found that 54% of students surveyed admitted to plagiarizing from the Internet for class assignments, while 47% of students believed that their teachers sometimes turned a blind eye to evidence that their students were cheating. In 1989, another survey found that 97.5% of American high school students admitted to allowing other students to copy their work.
The statistics on student plagiarism and cheating are disturbing, and are not confined to American students. Studies in England, Israel, Canada, Denmark, and other nations have called cheating by their students of “epidemic” proportions. While many western countries view plagiarism as a moral transgression, however, other countries take a more benign view of the matter. In Japan and China, for example, plagiarism is not considered to be particularly unethical. Nonetheless, recent studies have shown that plagiarism in Japan might be due partly to a lack of understanding of proper attribution, rather than a systemic cultural acceptance.
Plagiarism has long been a canker on the intellectual landscape, and many students feel powerless to resist the siren song of readily available content provided by others. The Internet presents an especially tempting bounty of fast and convenient pre-packaged prose and ideas. So, just how does a teacher, or a school system, stem the tide of plagiarism, when even such luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Charles Darwin, and William Shakespeare have been found guilty of lifting lines and ideas from other writers?
Firstly, you might want to keep that little trivia tidbit to yourself. There’s no need to create an opportunity for your students to point out that these historical giants cheated and did just fine. More importantly, do your students understand the different types of plagiarism? Do they understand how to cite sources properly, and how closely they can safely paraphrase another writer’s work without trespassing into plagiarism territory? What’s the cultural climate at your school? Does your school promote academic integrity as a true expectation, and reward intellectual and academic honesty? It’s impossible to create honest students in a vacuum; the entire faculty must guide students through the ins and outs of plagiarism and the proper citing of sources. Intellectual honesty and high expectations breed more responsible students.
My picks this week focus on resources to help your students learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it. We’ll also be featuring additional resources on plagiarism, including lesson plans, tools to check for plagiarism, and more on The Gateway’s Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the week.
Research Building Blocks: Cite Those Sources!
Subjects: Language Arts
Grade: 3-5
Children are naturally curious—they want to know "how" and "why." Teaching research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson is taken from a research skills unit where the students complete a written report on a state symbol. Here, students learn the importance of citing their sources to give credit to the authors of their information as well as learn about plagiarism. They explore a Website about plagiarism to learn the when and where of citing sources as well as times when citing sources is not necessary. They look at examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing. Finally, students practice citing sources and creating a bibliography. This lesson is a product of ReadWriteThink, which offers free resources in reading and language arts instruction. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing
Subjects: English/Language Arts
Grade: 6-8
This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism, This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism. This lesson was produced by ReadWriteThink, where all lessons are reviewed by at least two teachers prior to publication. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Plagiarism Workshop
Subjects: English
Grade: 8-12
This Webquest provides an introduction to the issue of plagiarism, including an overview of copyright laws and fair use provisions. A demonstration of techniques to avoid plagiarism, focusing on paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources, is also included. This online workshop was developed by Janice Cooper, a teacher at Northern Valley Regional High School in New Jersey, and is aligned to New Jersey state standards.
~Joann's Picks - 1/20/2011~
The statistics on student plagiarism and cheating are disturbing, and are not confined to American students. Studies in England, Israel, Canada, Denmark, and other nations have called cheating by their students of “epidemic” proportions. While many western countries view plagiarism as a moral transgression, however, other countries take a more benign view of the matter. In Japan and China, for example, plagiarism is not considered to be particularly unethical. Nonetheless, recent studies have shown that plagiarism in Japan might be due partly to a lack of understanding of proper attribution, rather than a systemic cultural acceptance.
Plagiarism has long been a canker on the intellectual landscape, and many students feel powerless to resist the siren song of readily available content provided by others. The Internet presents an especially tempting bounty of fast and convenient pre-packaged prose and ideas. So, just how does a teacher, or a school system, stem the tide of plagiarism, when even such luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Charles Darwin, and William Shakespeare have been found guilty of lifting lines and ideas from other writers?
Firstly, you might want to keep that little trivia tidbit to yourself. There’s no need to create an opportunity for your students to point out that these historical giants cheated and did just fine. More importantly, do your students understand the different types of plagiarism? Do they understand how to cite sources properly, and how closely they can safely paraphrase another writer’s work without trespassing into plagiarism territory? What’s the cultural climate at your school? Does your school promote academic integrity as a true expectation, and reward intellectual and academic honesty? It’s impossible to create honest students in a vacuum; the entire faculty must guide students through the ins and outs of plagiarism and the proper citing of sources. Intellectual honesty and high expectations breed more responsible students.
My picks this week focus on resources to help your students learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it. We’ll also be featuring additional resources on plagiarism, including lesson plans, tools to check for plagiarism, and more on The Gateway’s Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the week.
Research Building Blocks: Cite Those Sources!
Subjects: Language Arts
Grade: 3-5
Children are naturally curious—they want to know "how" and "why." Teaching research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson is taken from a research skills unit where the students complete a written report on a state symbol. Here, students learn the importance of citing their sources to give credit to the authors of their information as well as learn about plagiarism. They explore a Website about plagiarism to learn the when and where of citing sources as well as times when citing sources is not necessary. They look at examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing. Finally, students practice citing sources and creating a bibliography. This lesson is a product of ReadWriteThink, which offers free resources in reading and language arts instruction. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing
Subjects: English/Language Arts
Grade: 6-8
This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism, This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism. This lesson was produced by ReadWriteThink, where all lessons are reviewed by at least two teachers prior to publication. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Plagiarism Workshop
Subjects: English
Grade: 8-12
This Webquest provides an introduction to the issue of plagiarism, including an overview of copyright laws and fair use provisions. A demonstration of techniques to avoid plagiarism, focusing on paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources, is also included. This online workshop was developed by Janice Cooper, a teacher at Northern Valley Regional High School in New Jersey, and is aligned to New Jersey state standards.
~Joann's Picks - 1/20/2011~
“Special” Education
Although classes are divided by grade level to ensure that the students are as similar as possible, there is often a challenging variety of ability levels, learning styles, and personalities in each classroom. Some students may come into your classroom with labels, IEP’s, and even instructional aids that are intended to help teachers best serve their needs. Other students will need special teaching techniques for their optimal learning, even though they haven’t been identified as a special education student. As I researched resources for special education, it got me thinking about the goal of this type of education. Successful special education is individualized for each learner’s needs. Wouldn’t it be great if we could create this type of individual instruction for every student? All education should be special education…It’s a lofty goal, but definitely food for thought.
In the meantime, teachers with identified special education students in their mainstream classrooms need tools and resources to create a successful learning environment for these students. Most teachers don’t have a whole lot of time to devote to customizing every lesson for the special education students in their class, and the way they divide their planning time may determine which type of student is most successful in that classroom. With the right tools, teachers can modify their classes to meet every student’s needs more easily. They can customize their teaching without using up all of their free time.
Joann discussed special education resources in her post this week, and she will continue to post valuable resources throughout the next week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Staying connected with other educators and educational resource providers on these social networking sites can be a great way to stay up to date on the best current ideas and techniques of teachers around the world. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can search for #spedchat on Twitter to follow the weekly special education chat session and related posts throughout each week. If you want to take part in this live discussion, it takes place at 8:30 PM EST every Tuesday. Looking through the links on a chat thread like this can turn up all kinds of interesting tools and ideas. The discussions and resources I found there could be very useful for a teacher with special education students integrated into a mainstream classroom, an instructional aide, or a teacher in a self-contained special education classroom.
The Gateway is full of tools and resources you can use in both special education and mainstream classrooms. As always, you can use the Standards Suggestion Tool to check the resource’s state standard alignment in your state, or the alignment to the Common Core Standards. I highly suggest starting your search for quality resources here. There are a lot of other tools and resources throughout the web that will be very useful to you as well. A great collection of these tools can be found on Jerry Blumengarten’s Cybrary Man’s Educational Websites: Special Education. His links include a huge collection of helpful websites, blog posts, and articles relating to the subject. I particularly liked the fact that he included links to Gifted and Talented websites. This type of special education should not be overlooked as teachers are trying to customize their teaching to meet the needs of all the students in the class.
Each educator has different struggles with best serving the special education students in their classes. We would like to help you find the resources you need, so if you have particular questions or needs, please let us know by posting comments on our blog site, Facebook, or Twitter. We choose each weekly topic to fit your needs, so please let us know!
~Peggy's Corner - 1/13/2011~
In the meantime, teachers with identified special education students in their mainstream classrooms need tools and resources to create a successful learning environment for these students. Most teachers don’t have a whole lot of time to devote to customizing every lesson for the special education students in their class, and the way they divide their planning time may determine which type of student is most successful in that classroom. With the right tools, teachers can modify their classes to meet every student’s needs more easily. They can customize their teaching without using up all of their free time.
Joann discussed special education resources in her post this week, and she will continue to post valuable resources throughout the next week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Staying connected with other educators and educational resource providers on these social networking sites can be a great way to stay up to date on the best current ideas and techniques of teachers around the world. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can search for #spedchat on Twitter to follow the weekly special education chat session and related posts throughout each week. If you want to take part in this live discussion, it takes place at 8:30 PM EST every Tuesday. Looking through the links on a chat thread like this can turn up all kinds of interesting tools and ideas. The discussions and resources I found there could be very useful for a teacher with special education students integrated into a mainstream classroom, an instructional aide, or a teacher in a self-contained special education classroom.
The Gateway is full of tools and resources you can use in both special education and mainstream classrooms. As always, you can use the Standards Suggestion Tool to check the resource’s state standard alignment in your state, or the alignment to the Common Core Standards. I highly suggest starting your search for quality resources here. There are a lot of other tools and resources throughout the web that will be very useful to you as well. A great collection of these tools can be found on Jerry Blumengarten’s Cybrary Man’s Educational Websites: Special Education. His links include a huge collection of helpful websites, blog posts, and articles relating to the subject. I particularly liked the fact that he included links to Gifted and Talented websites. This type of special education should not be overlooked as teachers are trying to customize their teaching to meet the needs of all the students in the class.
Each educator has different struggles with best serving the special education students in their classes. We would like to help you find the resources you need, so if you have particular questions or needs, please let us know by posting comments on our blog site, Facebook, or Twitter. We choose each weekly topic to fit your needs, so please let us know!
~Peggy's Corner - 1/13/2011~
Inclusion
In 1975, the U.S. Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, or the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This landmark law required all publicly-funded schools to provide evaluations and equal access to education to physically and mentally disabled children. The Act was revised and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990. Other countries, such as Sweden, had already recognized the importance of promoting educational equality among students of varying intellectual capabilities, and soon other nations began to follow suit with new legislation to address special education.
When I was in elementary school, special education students were present, but not much seen. Their classrooms were located in another part of the school, tucked away in a wing near the gymnasium. They seemed a bit mysterious, and our only glimpses of them were during lunch or at recess. The segregation started to fade in middle school, when special education students started increasingly appearing in mainstream classrooms, sometimes trailing aides, sometimes not. Now, of course, inclusive classrooms are the norm in many school districts. As a result, the typical classroom teacher now encounters children with a wide range of abilities, including those with special needs. Despite the challenges raised by their disabilities, special needs students can, and often do, thrive in the inclusive classroom. Lessons may need to be modified for their needs, and learning disabled students generally need more time to complete tasks.
Inclusive education can present significant challenges to teachers, particularly if they lack the presence of a special education teacher or aide in the classroom. Communication between the regular classroom teacher, special education teachers, and parents is key in order to ensure that everyone has the same expectations for the student and his/her learning environment. Most studies point out the benefits of inclusive classrooms to both special needs students and regular students, particularly regarding improvements in social skills, compassion, and tolerance.
My selections this week all focus on lessons or activities to be used with special needs students with varying abilities. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring many more lessons and other special needs resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check in.
Connecting Letters and Memory
Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 1-6 Special Ed
This lesson plan is for those students who have difficulty in recognizing the oral letter to the visual letter. Some students may know the alphabet song but still may not know the letters by sight. This lesson is offered by Teachers.net, which offers lesson plans, job postings, and other resources for teachers.
Water, Weather, and the World
Subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Life skills
Grade: 1-12 Special Ed
This is a multi-sensory thematic unit which closely examines water and its properties; pollution and conservation; weather and safety; and water’s impact on the earth through hands-on scientific exploration and experimentation. This unit is intended for low functioning students with special needs, however, teachers for kindergarten through second grade may find this information appropriate for their students. This integrated curriculum unit will span many subject areas such as math, language arts, daily living skills, and art. This unit is a product of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example, in schools across the country.
Real Estate Project
Subjects: Writing, Reading, Math, Life skills
Grade: 6-8 Special Ed
This unit on real estate is intended for special education students in grades 6-8, but can be used with regular education students as well. The unit addresses reading, writing, math, technology, and life skills. This resource was produced by the Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) Association of Michigan, which provides media and technology resources to educators in Michigan.
~Joann's Picks - 1/13/2011~
When I was in elementary school, special education students were present, but not much seen. Their classrooms were located in another part of the school, tucked away in a wing near the gymnasium. They seemed a bit mysterious, and our only glimpses of them were during lunch or at recess. The segregation started to fade in middle school, when special education students started increasingly appearing in mainstream classrooms, sometimes trailing aides, sometimes not. Now, of course, inclusive classrooms are the norm in many school districts. As a result, the typical classroom teacher now encounters children with a wide range of abilities, including those with special needs. Despite the challenges raised by their disabilities, special needs students can, and often do, thrive in the inclusive classroom. Lessons may need to be modified for their needs, and learning disabled students generally need more time to complete tasks.
Inclusive education can present significant challenges to teachers, particularly if they lack the presence of a special education teacher or aide in the classroom. Communication between the regular classroom teacher, special education teachers, and parents is key in order to ensure that everyone has the same expectations for the student and his/her learning environment. Most studies point out the benefits of inclusive classrooms to both special needs students and regular students, particularly regarding improvements in social skills, compassion, and tolerance.
My selections this week all focus on lessons or activities to be used with special needs students with varying abilities. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring many more lessons and other special needs resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check in.
Connecting Letters and Memory
Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 1-6 Special Ed
This lesson plan is for those students who have difficulty in recognizing the oral letter to the visual letter. Some students may know the alphabet song but still may not know the letters by sight. This lesson is offered by Teachers.net, which offers lesson plans, job postings, and other resources for teachers.
Water, Weather, and the World
Subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Life skills
Grade: 1-12 Special Ed
This is a multi-sensory thematic unit which closely examines water and its properties; pollution and conservation; weather and safety; and water’s impact on the earth through hands-on scientific exploration and experimentation. This unit is intended for low functioning students with special needs, however, teachers for kindergarten through second grade may find this information appropriate for their students. This integrated curriculum unit will span many subject areas such as math, language arts, daily living skills, and art. This unit is a product of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example, in schools across the country.
Real Estate Project
Subjects: Writing, Reading, Math, Life skills
Grade: 6-8 Special Ed
This unit on real estate is intended for special education students in grades 6-8, but can be used with regular education students as well. The unit addresses reading, writing, math, technology, and life skills. This resource was produced by the Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) Association of Michigan, which provides media and technology resources to educators in Michigan.
~Joann's Picks - 1/13/2011~
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
What the Tech? Why Implement Technology in My Classroom?
Cell phones at each desk? An iPad for every student? Students solving math problems on computers instead of with paper and pencils? Classes going on virtual online field trips to all kinds of exotic locations? Technology in the classroom can look like all these scenarios and more. Implementing new technology in schools is a hot topic right now, but how important is it?
Educators have the important responsibility of teaching students to embrace lifelong learning by surrounding them with opportunities to learn in many different ways. Including many types of technology in your curriculum can bring you closer to this goal by helping equip your students with the knowledge to use these tools, in school or at home. After graduation, students will have plenty of opportunities to continue learning as long as they have the skills to access the learning and the drive to continue to learn. Implementing new technology tools may feel overwhelming, especially if you are wary of teaching your students with tools that you may not fully understand yourself.
The National Technology Education Plan from the U.S. Department of Education outlines the importance of using technology in education and includes a variety of examples of ways educators have successfully integrated technology throughout different subject areas. If you are like many busy teachers today, you have aspirations of bringing all kinds of great tools and technology into your class…if you could only find the time. Reading the “Learning: Engage and Empower” section of the plan is a very good place to start. It won’t take long, and it may even have some ideas you can quickly implement in the small amount of free time you have available. Joann has collected more technology ideas and we will be featuring them throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Why should you worry about implementing technology anyway? Here are three reasons that I gleaned from the plan:
1. USE THE TOOLS STUDENTS KNOW AND LOVE. Students are surrounded by technology in just about every aspect of their lives. They love it, and many of them race home from school to spend time on their computers, play on their game systems, text on their phones and more. Why not make these activities part of their school day as well?“ According to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 8- to 18-year-olds today devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media in a typical day—more than 53 hours a week (Kaiser Family Foundation 2009). The opportunity to harness this interest and access in the service of learning is huge.” National Technology Education Plan
2. IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO TEACH A CHILD. Educators are not always experts in every subject they teach. They can teach their students everything they know, but there might be someone else out there who can bring a different insight into the subject for your students. “Technology provides access to a much wider and more flexible set of learning resources than is available in classrooms and connections to a wider and more flexible set of "educators," including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom.” National Technology Education Plan
3. STUDENTS TAKE OWNERSHIP OF REAL-WORLD, PERSONALIZED LEARNING. “Personalized learning supports student learning in areas of particular interest to them… Technology also gives students opportunities for taking ownership of their learning.” National Technology Education Plan
Now you have some reasons to implement technology into your teaching, but how do you figure out what kind of tools are right for you and your students? I enjoy reading blogs by other educators and being involved in discussions with other teachers on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. I have come across so many great tools this way. It’s amazing how much you can learn from other people who you may never meet face to face.
One blog, Free Technology for Teachers, by Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) features free resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology. His blog was especially useful to me this week, since he featured 11 tech resources for a particular subject each day. I was especially intrigued by his recommendations of 11 science tools to try in 2011, but his resource suggestions in the other subject areas are definitely worth checking out, too. Be sure to browse through his blog to find tools that might work for you.
Another blog where I often find great websites, resources, and tools is iLearn Technology by Kelly Tenkely (@ktenkely), an educator with a passion for integrating technology into every classroom. She is constantly posting new ideas to try with students of all different ages. I have found games, ideas, and web tools on her blog that I might not have discovered otherwise.
I may be biased, but I think The Gateway to 21st Century Skills: Making the Most of Online Resources is also a valuable blog to follow in your journey to bring more technology into your classroom. Our blog is an archive of the columns we post on The Gateway every week. Each weekly topic includes free resources to support learning in that area. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll get even more resources and tips every day, and you can request topics that you would like to see us cover. We are here for you, and we want to make your teaching journey productive. We will continue to post, re-post, tweet, and re-tweet great technology ideas on our social networking sites. When Joann comes across good resources for technology integration, she catalogues them on The Gateway as well so you can always search for them there.
In Joann’s post this week, she urged educators to get “ConnectED.” What better way is there to do this than to connect with other teachers online through blogs and social networks? This type of collaboration brings you a much wider community of educators than you can find in your school or district alone. In his interview with Tech & Learning, John Wilson, NEA’s Executive Director, stressed the importance of working together to bring technology into our classrooms. How do you feel about the technology in your classroom right now? Where do you look for support when you are trying to implement new tools? Do you have any advice for other teachers who want to connect with other educators to bring the education of their students to a new level? Please join our conversations and help us all learn to use tools that make our classrooms an ideal learning environment for our students.
~Peggy's Corner - 1/6/2011~
Educators have the important responsibility of teaching students to embrace lifelong learning by surrounding them with opportunities to learn in many different ways. Including many types of technology in your curriculum can bring you closer to this goal by helping equip your students with the knowledge to use these tools, in school or at home. After graduation, students will have plenty of opportunities to continue learning as long as they have the skills to access the learning and the drive to continue to learn. Implementing new technology tools may feel overwhelming, especially if you are wary of teaching your students with tools that you may not fully understand yourself.
The National Technology Education Plan from the U.S. Department of Education outlines the importance of using technology in education and includes a variety of examples of ways educators have successfully integrated technology throughout different subject areas. If you are like many busy teachers today, you have aspirations of bringing all kinds of great tools and technology into your class…if you could only find the time. Reading the “Learning: Engage and Empower” section of the plan is a very good place to start. It won’t take long, and it may even have some ideas you can quickly implement in the small amount of free time you have available. Joann has collected more technology ideas and we will be featuring them throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Why should you worry about implementing technology anyway? Here are three reasons that I gleaned from the plan:
1. USE THE TOOLS STUDENTS KNOW AND LOVE. Students are surrounded by technology in just about every aspect of their lives. They love it, and many of them race home from school to spend time on their computers, play on their game systems, text on their phones and more. Why not make these activities part of their school day as well?“ According to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 8- to 18-year-olds today devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media in a typical day—more than 53 hours a week (Kaiser Family Foundation 2009). The opportunity to harness this interest and access in the service of learning is huge.” National Technology Education Plan
2. IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO TEACH A CHILD. Educators are not always experts in every subject they teach. They can teach their students everything they know, but there might be someone else out there who can bring a different insight into the subject for your students. “Technology provides access to a much wider and more flexible set of learning resources than is available in classrooms and connections to a wider and more flexible set of "educators," including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom.” National Technology Education Plan
3. STUDENTS TAKE OWNERSHIP OF REAL-WORLD, PERSONALIZED LEARNING. “Personalized learning supports student learning in areas of particular interest to them… Technology also gives students opportunities for taking ownership of their learning.” National Technology Education Plan
Now you have some reasons to implement technology into your teaching, but how do you figure out what kind of tools are right for you and your students? I enjoy reading blogs by other educators and being involved in discussions with other teachers on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. I have come across so many great tools this way. It’s amazing how much you can learn from other people who you may never meet face to face.
One blog, Free Technology for Teachers, by Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) features free resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology. His blog was especially useful to me this week, since he featured 11 tech resources for a particular subject each day. I was especially intrigued by his recommendations of 11 science tools to try in 2011, but his resource suggestions in the other subject areas are definitely worth checking out, too. Be sure to browse through his blog to find tools that might work for you.
Another blog where I often find great websites, resources, and tools is iLearn Technology by Kelly Tenkely (@ktenkely), an educator with a passion for integrating technology into every classroom. She is constantly posting new ideas to try with students of all different ages. I have found games, ideas, and web tools on her blog that I might not have discovered otherwise.
I may be biased, but I think The Gateway to 21st Century Skills: Making the Most of Online Resources is also a valuable blog to follow in your journey to bring more technology into your classroom. Our blog is an archive of the columns we post on The Gateway every week. Each weekly topic includes free resources to support learning in that area. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll get even more resources and tips every day, and you can request topics that you would like to see us cover. We are here for you, and we want to make your teaching journey productive. We will continue to post, re-post, tweet, and re-tweet great technology ideas on our social networking sites. When Joann comes across good resources for technology integration, she catalogues them on The Gateway as well so you can always search for them there.
In Joann’s post this week, she urged educators to get “ConnectED.” What better way is there to do this than to connect with other teachers online through blogs and social networks? This type of collaboration brings you a much wider community of educators than you can find in your school or district alone. In his interview with Tech & Learning, John Wilson, NEA’s Executive Director, stressed the importance of working together to bring technology into our classrooms. How do you feel about the technology in your classroom right now? Where do you look for support when you are trying to implement new tools? Do you have any advice for other teachers who want to connect with other educators to bring the education of their students to a new level? Please join our conversations and help us all learn to use tools that make our classrooms an ideal learning environment for our students.
~Peggy's Corner - 1/6/2011~
ConnectEd
Over the past few weeks, Peggy and I have been writing about topics raised in an interview with NEA’s Executive Director, John Wilson. We discussed global literacy and methods to stretch school dollars in a challenging economy. This week, we’ve decided to focus on another of the issues raised by Wilson – the importance of technology in education.
The Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education recently released the National Education Technology Plan, a document that outlines recommendations in five major areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. My interest was most piqued by the concept of “connected teaching,” where teaching is a team activity unrestricted by physical constraints. Connected teaching demands full classroom connectivity, so that educators and students can truly connect in real time to digital resources, other classrooms, other teachers, and professional experts. For example, learning about dinosaurs is fun, but learning about dinosaurs using an online video feed from an actual dig, and having the ability to ask questions of a real-life paleontologist in real time is invaluable.
We all know that technology changes at a breakneck speed, and classroom work, preparation, and grading often don’t leave a lot of extra time to invest in staying technologically current. Yet technology is increasingly at the core of our daily lives, both at work and at leisure, and this is especially true for students. It makes sense, then, to use current technology in as many innovative and effective ways possible to engage our students. Teachers can foster collaboration by using class wikis, blogs, learning management systems, and custom social networks such as Ning or Grouply. Some teachers are using in-class surveys and polling tools such as http://www.surveymonkey.com SurveyMonkey, Polldaddy, twtpoll or clicker to encourage more class participation and to encourage increased student engagement with the content. Polls, for example, can be used to stimulate class debate about class subject content or current events.
Mobile phones, once thought to be the nemesis of every teacher, have turned out to have some great benefits to the classroom. Teachers can record study guides, lessons, foreign language pronunciation drills, and other material using free applications like iPadio. Some enterprising teachers have used iPadio to deliver content to their students even when school is closed for a snow day. In turn, students can create podcasts (phonecasts) from their cell phones on a host of topics, including interviews, oral readings, music composition, and the like. Cell phones can also be used in art class – renowned artist David Hockney is currently using his iPhone to create paintings using the Brushes application.
There’s a lot of current buzz about QR codes, which are those little black and white squares that look like miniature crossword puzzles. They are increasingly cropping up on courier packages, magazine ads, catalogs, museum plaques, and a host of other items. Using cell phones, users can scan the QR codes to place an order or connect to additional information about a product or place. Some smart phones are already QR code-enabled; if not, you can download an application for free from various Web sites. The possible applications for QR codes in the classroom are endless: add QR codes to maps to quickly access additional information about a geographical region, its economy, and its culture. Increase vocabulary knowledge in your foreign language or ESL classroom by affixing codes to objects, so that when the students’ phones read the codes, up pops each item’s name in the target language. Add the codes to Powerpoint presentations to increase interactivity and connect to additional information, and so on and so on.
Connected teaching demands increased use of technology in the classroom, and the resources below can help you get started. We’ll also be featuring many more lessons and ideas on this topic throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Have fun!
Tales of Things
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.3792780075
Subject: Language Arts, History, Social Studies
Grade: 4-11
This lesson plan uses QR codes in the classroom as a social studies/history/literacy project. Students can use QR codes to link any object or image directly to a 'video memory' or an article of text describing its history or background. The goal is to help preserve memories and information about various objects or images. Their movements can then be tracked, as well as any subsequent stories. This lesson was produced by INTERFACE Magazine, a publication for educators to learn about information and communication technologies.
The Science of Fringe #309: Exploring Protein Modeling
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.7851378410
Subjects: Forensic science, Biology
Grade 9-12
In this lesson, students learn about 3-dimensional protein models and how their use allows scientists to predict biological behavior. They will also use computer visualization and online resources to guide them in constructing physical models of proteins. Smartphone users can simply point their devices at the QR codes embedded in the lesson plan for a quick link to the show. This lesson was produced by Science Olympiad in conjunction with FOX Broadcasting Co. Science Olympiad is an American science competition that provides challenges to nearly 6,500 students.
The Wonder of a Wordless Book
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.7437062435
Grade: 3-5
In this lesson, students will develop and write a creative story from a wordless book. They will record the stories and export them into podcasts to be presented to the class. This lesson was produced by Digital Wish, a non-profit whose mission is to modernize K-12 classrooms and prepare students for tomorrow's workforce. Teachers create wish lists of technology products for their classroom, and donors then connect with their favorite schools and grant classroom wishes through online cash or product donations.
Joann's Picks ~ December 30, 2010
The Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education recently released the National Education Technology Plan, a document that outlines recommendations in five major areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. My interest was most piqued by the concept of “connected teaching,” where teaching is a team activity unrestricted by physical constraints. Connected teaching demands full classroom connectivity, so that educators and students can truly connect in real time to digital resources, other classrooms, other teachers, and professional experts. For example, learning about dinosaurs is fun, but learning about dinosaurs using an online video feed from an actual dig, and having the ability to ask questions of a real-life paleontologist in real time is invaluable.
We all know that technology changes at a breakneck speed, and classroom work, preparation, and grading often don’t leave a lot of extra time to invest in staying technologically current. Yet technology is increasingly at the core of our daily lives, both at work and at leisure, and this is especially true for students. It makes sense, then, to use current technology in as many innovative and effective ways possible to engage our students. Teachers can foster collaboration by using class wikis, blogs, learning management systems, and custom social networks such as Ning or Grouply. Some teachers are using in-class surveys and polling tools such as http://www.surveymonkey.com SurveyMonkey, Polldaddy, twtpoll or clicker to encourage more class participation and to encourage increased student engagement with the content. Polls, for example, can be used to stimulate class debate about class subject content or current events.
Mobile phones, once thought to be the nemesis of every teacher, have turned out to have some great benefits to the classroom. Teachers can record study guides, lessons, foreign language pronunciation drills, and other material using free applications like iPadio. Some enterprising teachers have used iPadio to deliver content to their students even when school is closed for a snow day. In turn, students can create podcasts (phonecasts) from their cell phones on a host of topics, including interviews, oral readings, music composition, and the like. Cell phones can also be used in art class – renowned artist David Hockney is currently using his iPhone to create paintings using the Brushes application.
There’s a lot of current buzz about QR codes, which are those little black and white squares that look like miniature crossword puzzles. They are increasingly cropping up on courier packages, magazine ads, catalogs, museum plaques, and a host of other items. Using cell phones, users can scan the QR codes to place an order or connect to additional information about a product or place. Some smart phones are already QR code-enabled; if not, you can download an application for free from various Web sites. The possible applications for QR codes in the classroom are endless: add QR codes to maps to quickly access additional information about a geographical region, its economy, and its culture. Increase vocabulary knowledge in your foreign language or ESL classroom by affixing codes to objects, so that when the students’ phones read the codes, up pops each item’s name in the target language. Add the codes to Powerpoint presentations to increase interactivity and connect to additional information, and so on and so on.
Connected teaching demands increased use of technology in the classroom, and the resources below can help you get started. We’ll also be featuring many more lessons and ideas on this topic throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Have fun!
Tales of Things
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.3792780075
Subject: Language Arts, History, Social Studies
Grade: 4-11
This lesson plan uses QR codes in the classroom as a social studies/history/literacy project. Students can use QR codes to link any object or image directly to a 'video memory' or an article of text describing its history or background. The goal is to help preserve memories and information about various objects or images. Their movements can then be tracked, as well as any subsequent stories. This lesson was produced by INTERFACE Magazine, a publication for educators to learn about information and communication technologies.
The Science of Fringe #309: Exploring Protein Modeling
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.7851378410
Subjects: Forensic science, Biology
Grade 9-12
In this lesson, students learn about 3-dimensional protein models and how their use allows scientists to predict biological behavior. They will also use computer visualization and online resources to guide them in constructing physical models of proteins. Smartphone users can simply point their devices at the QR codes embedded in the lesson plan for a quick link to the show. This lesson was produced by Science Olympiad in conjunction with FOX Broadcasting Co. Science Olympiad is an American science competition that provides challenges to nearly 6,500 students.
The Wonder of a Wordless Book
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-12-17.7437062435
Grade: 3-5
In this lesson, students will develop and write a creative story from a wordless book. They will record the stories and export them into podcasts to be presented to the class. This lesson was produced by Digital Wish, a non-profit whose mission is to modernize K-12 classrooms and prepare students for tomorrow's workforce. Teachers create wish lists of technology products for their classroom, and donors then connect with their favorite schools and grant classroom wishes through online cash or product donations.
Joann's Picks ~ December 30, 2010
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Grant Writing and YOU, a Winning Combination
As we enter the new calendar year, teachers at the midpoint of the school year are dreaming up ways to improve their teaching to make their classrooms even better during the second semester. By January, we have gotten to know our students and their learning habits really well, and we are learning what works best with each group. With this knowledge, we can come up with some great ideas to bring in the classroom, but many of these ideas will never be able to come to fruition without funding. Our posts this week are focusing on an important issue for teachers during tough economic times: how to get more money for your classroom.
Many of our posts here on The Gateway focus on doing more with less. We want to help you bring new tools and ideas into your teaching without spending any extra money. Most of the resources catalogued on site and the recommendations in our columns and on our Facebook and Twitter sites can be used free of charge. As you try these resources in your class and begin to collaborate with other educators, you might start thinking of even bigger ideas to implement. Some of these ideas will require money, which can be hard to come by sometimes.
If your plans require new classroom supplies, fancy new tech gadgets, or even professional development training, you may want to consider applying for a grant to cover the costs. This process can seem very intimidating, so be sure to read Joann’s post this week: “A Modest Proposal: Education Grants,” a kind of grant-writing 101 to guide educators through the process. The links she shares include samples of how to write grants, lists of places you might be able to find grants, and testimonials from teachers who have been successful at obtaining grant money for their classrooms. There is also a nice overview and discussion of writing grants on Teacher Tap. Another teacher wrote a blog entry for the NEA Foundation about the grant-writing experience.
Reading these articles might give you a better idea of how grants can help in your classroom.
Searching The Gateway and the internet can help you find even more helpful resources. If you don’t find what you are looking for in Joann’s post or the links above, try one of these three links from The Gateway. The first two are collections of grant resources from The Educator’s Reference Desk. One has links to general grants and the other has links for technology grants. The third link is an example of a professional development grant from EDSitement.
As educators, we need to be proactive in securing funds from our communities to ensure that our students are receiving the best education they can get. We would love to continue this conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the year. If you have ideas or success stories to share with others or questions to ask teachers who are more experienced with grant-writing, please let us know.
~Peggy's Corner - 12/30/2010~
Many of our posts here on The Gateway focus on doing more with less. We want to help you bring new tools and ideas into your teaching without spending any extra money. Most of the resources catalogued on site and the recommendations in our columns and on our Facebook and Twitter sites can be used free of charge. As you try these resources in your class and begin to collaborate with other educators, you might start thinking of even bigger ideas to implement. Some of these ideas will require money, which can be hard to come by sometimes.
If your plans require new classroom supplies, fancy new tech gadgets, or even professional development training, you may want to consider applying for a grant to cover the costs. This process can seem very intimidating, so be sure to read Joann’s post this week: “A Modest Proposal: Education Grants,” a kind of grant-writing 101 to guide educators through the process. The links she shares include samples of how to write grants, lists of places you might be able to find grants, and testimonials from teachers who have been successful at obtaining grant money for their classrooms. There is also a nice overview and discussion of writing grants on Teacher Tap. Another teacher wrote a blog entry for the NEA Foundation about the grant-writing experience.
Reading these articles might give you a better idea of how grants can help in your classroom.
Searching The Gateway and the internet can help you find even more helpful resources. If you don’t find what you are looking for in Joann’s post or the links above, try one of these three links from The Gateway. The first two are collections of grant resources from The Educator’s Reference Desk. One has links to general grants and the other has links for technology grants. The third link is an example of a professional development grant from EDSitement.
As educators, we need to be proactive in securing funds from our communities to ensure that our students are receiving the best education they can get. We would love to continue this conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the year. If you have ideas or success stories to share with others or questions to ask teachers who are more experienced with grant-writing, please let us know.
~Peggy's Corner - 12/30/2010~
A Modest Proposal: Education Grants
It’s no secret that we’re in the midst of the worst recession since The Great Depression. While some news outlets have reported that the recession is, in fact, over, many people haven’t felt financial relief yet. The economic meltdown was years in the making, and it’s an unfortunate fact that recovery will likely take some years more. By now, we’re all pretty tired of the unpleasant – but necessary – financial belt-tightening demonstrated by our local communities. Town and city budgets are stretched thin, and all public departments have been hit hard.
In his recent interview at the Global Learning Resource Connection meeting, National Education Association Executive Director John Wilson spoke of the challenges of providing quality education in an anemic economy. Schools nationwide have been particularly affected by the economic downturn, and some communities have resorted to closing and consolidating schools in an attempt to reduce budget gaps. In my town, we’ve had to cut jobs (teachers as well as staff), delay building maintenance, and slash education programs due to a shortage of funding. The schools have responded to the financial crisis by being proactive in finding ways to help reduce finances without sacrificing quality. For example, nearly all school-to-home communications in the district are now conducted online rather than via paper copies, Styrofoam lunch trays have been replaced with lower-cost (and greener) biodegradable paper models, and bus routes have been redrawn and consolidated. Still, gaps between what many schools need to simply maintain level service, and the budgets they have to work with, persist.
This week, Peggy and I are focusing on resources and ideas to further stretch your classroom dollars, and perhaps help you find extra money for your classroom or school. Grants are one way to help fund projects or programs, and although time-consuming, can be well worth the effort. The resources below all offer tips and guidelines on how to pursue and write grants, and throughout the week we’ll be featuring daily resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages on locating, identifying, and pursuing educational grants. There is money out there – go get it!
Show Me the Money: Grant Writing
Subjects: Writing
Grades: K-12 teachers
If you can write a lesson plan, you can write a winning grant proposal. This article helps you to get started. This resource is a product of Teachers.net, an education portal with lesson plans, chat boards, employment postings, and more.
Grantwriting Tips
Subjects: Writing
Grade: K-12 Teachers
This resource explores the ins and outs of grant writing, and provides ideas and links to fundraising sources. This article was produced by Lone-Eagle, a consulting company that trains people, offers online courses, and incubates new businesses.
Proposal-Writing Outline
Subjects: Writing
Grade: K-12 teachers
This outline assists users in writing a grant proposal and implementation plan. This article was produced by Lone-Eagle, a consulting company that trains people, offers online courses, and incubates new businesses.
~Joann's Picks - December 30, 2010~
In his recent interview at the Global Learning Resource Connection meeting, National Education Association Executive Director John Wilson spoke of the challenges of providing quality education in an anemic economy. Schools nationwide have been particularly affected by the economic downturn, and some communities have resorted to closing and consolidating schools in an attempt to reduce budget gaps. In my town, we’ve had to cut jobs (teachers as well as staff), delay building maintenance, and slash education programs due to a shortage of funding. The schools have responded to the financial crisis by being proactive in finding ways to help reduce finances without sacrificing quality. For example, nearly all school-to-home communications in the district are now conducted online rather than via paper copies, Styrofoam lunch trays have been replaced with lower-cost (and greener) biodegradable paper models, and bus routes have been redrawn and consolidated. Still, gaps between what many schools need to simply maintain level service, and the budgets they have to work with, persist.
This week, Peggy and I are focusing on resources and ideas to further stretch your classroom dollars, and perhaps help you find extra money for your classroom or school. Grants are one way to help fund projects or programs, and although time-consuming, can be well worth the effort. The resources below all offer tips and guidelines on how to pursue and write grants, and throughout the week we’ll be featuring daily resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages on locating, identifying, and pursuing educational grants. There is money out there – go get it!
Show Me the Money: Grant Writing
Subjects: Writing
Grades: K-12 teachers
If you can write a lesson plan, you can write a winning grant proposal. This article helps you to get started. This resource is a product of Teachers.net, an education portal with lesson plans, chat boards, employment postings, and more.
Grantwriting Tips
Subjects: Writing
Grade: K-12 Teachers
This resource explores the ins and outs of grant writing, and provides ideas and links to fundraising sources. This article was produced by Lone-Eagle, a consulting company that trains people, offers online courses, and incubates new businesses.
Proposal-Writing Outline
Subjects: Writing
Grade: K-12 teachers
This outline assists users in writing a grant proposal and implementation plan. This article was produced by Lone-Eagle, a consulting company that trains people, offers online courses, and incubates new businesses.
~Joann's Picks - December 30, 2010~
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