Tag Archives: edtech

Jul 08 2025
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Culturally Resonate Teaching, Ed Tech, lesson ideas

ISTE 2025: Three Big Takeaways from an Energizing Week of Learning, Connection, and Innovation

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the annual ISTE conference in San Antonio with 15,000 other educators. It was four days that left me energized, inspired, and more hopeful than ever about the future of education. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, coach, librarian, or school leader, ISTE is more than just a technology conference. It’s a vibrant space for dreamers and doers, where ideas come alive and innovation meets practical impact. I’m still processing all the incredible sessions, conversations, and moments of surprise, but three big takeaways have stayed with me that I believe every educator should hear:

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1. AI is Everywhere—And It Can Empower, Not Replace

There’s no denying it: artificial intelligence is reshaping education. But instead of focusing on fear or replacement, the conversations at ISTE centered around empowerment—for both teachers and students. From tools that support writing and feedback to platforms that personalize instruction or streamline lesson planning, AI is not about doing less teaching. It’s about creating more space for the parts of teaching we love: building relationships, sparking inquiry, and nurturing creativity.

I attended panels and playgrounds where educators showcased how they’re using AI thoughtfully and ethically in their classrooms. What stood out to me most was this: the human element remains essential. AI is only powerful when guided by thoughtful, reflective educators. If we stay curious and collaborative, we can help shape AI’s role in education rather than react to it.

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2. Connection Is Not a Luxury—It’s a Lifeline

ISTE reminded me how vital connected professional learning is. It’s one thing to attend a webinar or scroll through an idea on social media—but nothing compares to the spark that happens when you’re learning with and from other passionate educators in real time. Whether it was chatting with an edtech founder like Nitesh Goel of Padlet at the expo hall, hearing teachers share their classroom wins in a poster session, or attending Pearson’s Denim & Diamond Party, the connections were authentic and energizing.

We need each other—not just for new strategies, but for encouragement, collaboration, and sustaining the joy of teaching. If you’ve been feeling isolated or burnt out, get connected. Follow conference hashtags, join a local ISTE affiliate, or dive into a new PLN (professional learning network). The ripple effects are real.

3. Imagination and Play Are Not Extras—They’re Essential

In a world of standards, testing, and tight schedules, it’s easy to let creativity and play fall to the side. But ISTE 2025 made one thing clear: play is powerful pedagogy. I saw educators designing escape rooms to teach history, coding video games to explore math concepts, and using virtual reality to take students on immersive field trips. The sessions that centered joy, creativity, and storytelling were the ones that drew the biggest crowds—and for good reason.

One of my favorite moments? Watching a group of middle school students showcase passion projects they built with AI tools and digital storytelling platforms. Their eyes lit up as they shared what they learned, and I was reminded that imagination isn’t just an add-on. It’s the spark that keeps students—and teachers—engaged.

Final Thoughts

ISTE 2025 was a reminder that the future of education isn’t something we wait for—it’s something we co-create. With AI, with community, and with creativity at the center, we can build classrooms where every learner thrives.

If you’ve ever considered attending ISTE, let this be your sign. Come for the tools, stay for the people, and leave with renewed purpose. I know I di

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Jul 18 2023
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Culturally Resonate Teaching, Ed Tech, lesson ideas, literacy, Teaching Reading, Universal Design Learning (UDL)

10 Digital EdTech Tools and Strategies to Support Diverse Readers

As another new school year is upon us, there are great educational technology tools to access and support the diverse readers in your classroom. Some are new and noteworthy, while others have been around for awhile and continue to update and enhance their features. Here are my ten go to’s to help support student readers and deepen comprehension.

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  1. Actively Learn

I have been in love with this reading platform since it was in beta. Purchased by McGraw Hill a few years ago, this reading platform has all the scaffolding tools to best support struggling, on grade level, and ENL readers. The differentiated tools available on Actively Learn include:

  • Sync with Google Classroom
  • Translate in 4 different languages
  • Reads aloud text
  • Insert notes, videos, & links 
  • Customize texts and questions

2. Newsela

Another reading platform that provides leveled text by lexile is Newsela. Some articles are available in Spanish. Newsela is primarily nonfiction texts and have lots of content connections to science and social studies.

3. Learning Ally

For students with dyslexia and other reading deficits that cause them to read below grade level, leveled readers may not be enough. While they help students learn to read, if used exclusively, they also limit students’ opportunities to acquire grade-level content. Learning Ally provides audio books with human-read audiobooks complete with word highlighting. The highlighted text allows readers to follow along with the material while listening to a human voice, increasing engagement, retention and comprehension. This is a paid subscription but worth it. There are many other free audio texts include ESL-Bits.net (K-12 Audiobooks for ESL audience — lots of classics available) and Storyline Online which includes tons of picture books read by actors.

4. NaturalReaders

This AI text to speech tool converts text, PDF, and 20+ formats into spoken audio so you can listen to your documents, ebooks, and school materials anytime, anywhere. There is a website or Chrome extension. I love this tool to help students when they cannot find an audio version of a text to help comprehend.

5. ReWordify

When students have to comprehend a primary source or a reading above their reading level. Again, this is a mother AI tool that allows you to cut and paste a text and ReWordify will simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension.

6. Diffit

Since we are on an AI trend, this tool is AwEsOmE!! Teachers use Diffit to instantly get leveled resources for any lesson, saving tons of time and helping all students access grade level content. You want to create your own leveled text sets, this is the tool for you. I have already used to to create different reading passages to help build background knowledge and improve reading comprehension for struggling readers. What is even cooler is that you can copy and edit any of the text to best support your students.

7. Edpuzzle

Our students are visual learners and what better way to help students understand and comprehend a topic with a great video. TedEd, YouTube, National Geographic, and Khan Academy all over videos that help explain concepts and build knowledge. Visual texts are a great entry point to build background knowledge or reinforce a key concept. When we immerse students in visual text they are able to connect, visualize, and learn deeply. With Edpuzzle you can insert questions throughout the video as a check for understanding and to track students thinking as they are watching.

8. Padlet

Padlet is a virtual bulletin board that allows collaborators to simultaneously create and organize posts of any content type, whether it be text, documents, images, videos, audio, or links. This is a great tool for students to share their thinking about a reading of a digital, print, audio, or visual text. Teachers might also utilize it to scaffold or jigsaw materials which students respond to right on the Padlet.

9. Flip

Previously known as Flipgrid, Flip is a closed video discussion platform for students to share their insight via audio and video. I have seen teachers utilize Flip for book discussions, reading reflections, read alouds, and even readers theater. Students need a code or specialized link in order to access the video platform since it is not public on the internet. Teachers can also change the settings to preview all the videos before they are made public to the classroom.

10. Canva

Canva is not new but a fantastic digital creation tool that has reinvented itself for education providing templates and inspiration boards for teachers to use to disseminate information and for students to create their own stories and reflections to their reading.

Of course this list can go on but I wanted to share educational tech tools that can optimize student learning potential. It is always helpful to break down readings in manageable tasks, teach with visuals, build multimodal text sets, and know your students to create learning opportunities that support their skills, abilities, cultures, and identity.

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Jun 28 2023
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Culturally Resonate Teaching, Ed Tech, lesson ideas, literacy, SEL, Universal Design Learning (UDL)

#ISTELive23 Takeaways

It is exciting after two years of online and hybrid conferences to get back to in-person professional development lead by some of the most amazing, intelligent, and enthusiastic educators, tech coaches, and technology leaders in the industry. Three days of epic learning at #ISTELive23 in Philadelphia is like a shot of green juice to infuse your thinking and teaching practices. Here are ten takeaways that are still spinning in my mind as a return home and think ahead to the new school year.

  1. AI is Everywhere. We are not just talking ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Blocking it or admonishing it is not the way to go, we need to help students “critically evaluate AI responses and communicate and collaborate with AI effectively” (Holly Clark, 2023). I see AI and ChatGPT as an amazing assistive technology tool for our students and teachers to utilize as a critical thinking tool and writing scaffold. Check out this visual from Holly Clark’s presentation on shifting writing instruction with ChatGPT (Ms. Clark had 8 sessions in total and I attended three all which addressed AI)
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2. UDL is a Framework to Support All Students, Optimize Teaching and Learning. UDL is an approach focused on the inclusive design of the whole learning environment. UDL aims to ensure all students have full access to everything in the classroom, regardless of their needs and abilities. Student’s supported to self-direct learning and monitor progress. This means teachers should implement more choice in the classroom. Choice in learning, choice in process, choice in products.

3. STEM is Embedded Across Content Areas. STEM is not just for the sciences anymore. Let’s integrate STEM in some unlikely places: social studies and ELA classes. Let’s build with KEVA Planks and Legos to recreate historical landmarks. Use Ozobots to reenact chariot racing in Ancient Greece. STEM is a process and using journaling helps students to think and reflect about the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that overlap with these contents.

5. SEL Is NOT An Add On. We are already doing social emotional learning in our classrooms, let’s just be more intentional in how we talk and use SEL to help students learn about themselves and engage with content materials. This is part of my presentation where I aim to help teachers think about what they are already doing to and how to include life skills and life long guidelines into the curriculum to help students develop the key skills to be successful in school and in the world.

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6. Digital Storytelling is a Key Genre to Read and Create. Students are knowledge constructors and creative communicators. We do not only read and write in print format anymore so why only have your students read and write print texts – let’s create audio, visual, and digital formats too. Check out Jessica Pack‘s new book from ISTE Publishing on Moviemaking int he Classroom: Lifting Student Voices Through Digital Storytelling. One of the MainStage speakers at #ISTELive23, Jessica provides a variety of lessons in her book that are easy to follow and can be modified to fit into multiple areas of an educator’s curriculum.

7. Technology Mantras:

It’s about relationships

Learn from failure and fail forward

It’s not about perfection

Change occurs over time

One thing at a time

Curriculum drives instruction, not technology

8. Collaboration and Cooperative are Life Skills. Group work is necessary in all aspects of our lives from our families, to work and school. To make it work teachers need to be intentional with scaffolding group work for effective collaboration. Breaking down tasks in manageable parts is key and providing students will small deliverables helps group work be more successful. Reflection is a key component of group work as well.

9. Trustworthy EdTech Platforms that Have Elevated their Game: Edpuzzle & Kami & Canva – Oh My!

Edpuzzle has this new “Teacher Assist” that automatically grades open ended questions and generates questions for your content!

Kami as taken a page from Nearpod and Peardeck to provide more awesome features like trim YouTube videos in Add Media, sort assignments by date and or student names, plus Kami in integrated with Google Classroom and Microsoft Word & PPT. If you have’t checked out some of the awesome templates in Kami, take a look. I am loving the Cornell Notes template.

Canva has reinvented itself this year and wins the Miss Universe Educational App award from me. I cannot live without Canva for graphic design, presentations, and social media posts. Canva is the new Swiss army knife edtech tool that not only stands alone, but also works with other awesome educational platforms like BookCreator & even Quizizz. Plus, all educators get a free pro account!

10. Membership and Participation in ISTE is Life Changing. Looking to connect with incredible educators and get inspired with teaching practices and edtech, your membership to ISTE will engage and excite you with amazing professional development and professional learning communities. Whether you have an awesome tech coach in your district or you are in a PD desert, connect with the incredible members of ISTE, it will impact you infinitely.

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Feb 14 2023
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Ed Tech, lesson ideas, literacy

4 Ways to Utilize Padlet for Active Learning

Padlet is trustworthy and versatile virtual post board that can be shared with students either in class or as an extension to learning. The most common uses for Padlet include a discussion board, pose a question for warm ups and exit slips and all students respond. Here are four ways that I have been using Padlet in order to create more learning experiences that put students at the center sharing their knowledge and understanding.

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Using Padlet as a curation tool helps students access materials in which to examine, respond, and reflect. I first came across this use of Padlet as a digital gallery for reading and writing when I was taking a writing workshop with Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. All the mentor texts of a memoir unit were posted on a Padlet and participants were allowed to choose the one that captured our attention. Teachers can allow students to choose which mentor texts to examine and study the craft moves and then write in the same style of the mentor text. Students can then talk in small groups what they noticed, learned, and even share their writing pieces for additional feedback.

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Similarly, the teacher might use a Padlet for a scavenger hunt and post a topic or topics and have students curate images, text, and videos to support or illustrate the topic. When students are studying film shots, after a mini lesson on different film shots students were challenged with curating images to represent each of the shots.

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Creating a digital gallery and then having students reading and respond to the text helps collect and collaborate on textual analysis. When students were studying propaganda in dystopian fiction and history I created Padlet of propaganda. Students read, viewed, and or listened to each Gallery item. Then, students chose a Critical Thinking Prompt to analyze and examine the texts presented in this Gallery. As always, student responses (comments) must include TEXTUAL EVIDENCE to explain the connections and analysis that you used to support your claims. There was even a bonus.

BONUS: Use the Google search engine to identify images, drawings, news articles, quotes, EVEN connections to Animal Farm that connect or draw parallel between one of the featured Gallery Items and your research. Click on the (+), to add your research/contribution to the Gallery Wall. 

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Lastly, if you are someone who conducts literature circles and or book clubs in your classroom, having students post their discussion highlights and insights on a Padlet helps to gather what students are reading and discussing in the book chats. Students can lead the discussions rather than a teacher posting the question and students responding. The key is that student voice and choice are at the forefront.

There are countless other ways for teachers and students to use Padlet for learning and showcasing understanding. If educators want student to use higher order thinking skills like evaluate, analyze, and synthesize, here are four ways you can promote higher order thinking using Padlet to elevate your lessons.

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Jul 15 2020
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12 Tech Resources for Teaching English

Matt Miller (@JMattMiller), author of the Ditch that . . . series wrote in his book Don’t Ditch That Tech (Burgess, 2020), “Technology can super charge learning.” Technology provides active learning, student centered, differentiated opportunities for students to showcase learning and understanding. Before you integrate any technology, consider the goals for the unit, lesson, and individual students. Then think about how technology might integrate to support those goals and provide opportunities to transcend learning.

As we get closer to the start of another school year and many of us do not know what that will look like in the midst of COVID-19 – in person teaching, hybrid models, blended learning, or 100% remote learning. Here are twelve tech resources for teaching English (and other content areas) to super-charge learning whether we are in the classroom or working from a distance.

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Reading Platforms:

Actively Learn – My favorite reading platform by far because of its customizable aspects. Students are able to read digital, print and videos within the platform and answer reading comprehension questions. Standards aligned and tons of free content or you can upload and design your own. Many differentiated aspects to support ENLs. struggling readers and high fliers. Syncs with Google Classroom.

Newsela – Similar to Actively Learn but now is a paid platform with tons of nonfiction articles. Differentiates by changing the lexile scores of reading passages to make information accessible to everyone.

Insert Learning – This Chrome Extension allows you to insert instructional content to any page! Create your own differentiated assignments that are customized to individual students. It’s free!

Edpuzzle – Yes, this is a video platform that allows a teacher to insert a video and include comprehension questions throughout the video to check for understanding. We live in a visually saturated culture and students need to be able to “read close” visual texts.

Creative Communicators:

TeleStory is an App that allows students to create and broadcast your own TV show! Record a music video, teleport to an alien planet, film a high-speed-chase, or perform on a reality TV show. This is a great way for students to get creative in how they showcase their ideas, learning, and knowledge.

Flipgrid is a free platform that Syncs with Google Classroom for students to amplify their voice by sharing and showcasing ideas, reflections, and information verbally.

Storybird is a creative writing platform for students and provides a writing curriculum for teachers.  This paid platform supports Google Classroom and has more than 600 writing challenges and art from around the world to inspire and support students authors.

Buncee is a great tool to create, present, and share multimedia. Teachers can use it for lessons to share content and students can create their own engaging presentations or portfolios.  Nearpod and Peardeck are similar to Buncee for sharing information for classroom presentations or a flipped lessons.

Showcase Learning & Assessment:

I have already mentioned Flipgrid and Buncee which students can utilize to document, communicate, and visualize their learning. Here are a few others that allow students to be creative and show learning and understanding.

Powtoons is a comic creation tool where students can create their own storyboard, comic book, or graphic novel.

Padlet collects responses from students in text or visual format. I have also utilized padlets for book reviews, sharing poetry and reading responses.

StoryMap.KnightLab.com is like Google Lit Trips  where a map is utilized to tell a story. You can tell stories with photographs, works of art, historic maps, or a narrative.

I work in a Google School and I use Google Suite daily. GSuite offers lots of different tools that can help students showcase their learning from Google Jamboards for collaboration and brainstorms, longer writing on Google Docs, presentations in Google Slides or think outside of the box with Google Drawings to create infographics, graphic organizers or illustrations.

 

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Jul 09 2020
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5th Annual LIT Conference: Learning with Innovative Technology Conference 2020

Friday, July 10th marks the 5th Annual Learning with Innovative Technology Conference hosted by SUNY Empire State and the Saratoga Springs City School District. The conference website boasts, “This conference is designed for educators of all types and anyone interested in the use of technologies in education. The conference is packed with presentations from educators all over New York State who have something to share in the field. Participants will walk away from the conference with new and fresh ideas to bring back to your school and classroom.”

I will be presenting two sessions in the morning and below are the slide decks to access the information shared throughout my sessions.

Session I:

Session II:

 

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Jul 08 2020
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25 Podcast Assignment & Project Ideas

Podcasts are a great tool for learning and to showcase learning. With cloud based podcast platforms like Anchor and Spreaker, creating a podcast is simple and accessible to all. I have curated twenty five different podcast assignment and project ideas for students whether working remotely or in the classroom. Each one can be adapted per grade level and content area taught.

1. Myths Around the World – Mythology is part of the curriculum in elementary school, middle school, and high school when students study ancient cultures. First students can read and listen to creation myths and hero myths from around the world to understand the elements of mythology. Taking examples from Greek, Native American, Indian, and Chinese mythology, students then write their own creation or hero myths. Students create their own mythical characters and write descriptions about their origins. Students can work collaboratively to write and then record their original myths for a class podcast series.

2. What On Earth Science Debates – Earth Science teacher in New York, Deb Davis has her 8th grade students research and prepare opening debate speeches around controversial topics in earth science: fracking, genetically modified foods, Keystone Pipeline, space travel. Students prepare an evidence file collecting valid and reliable research to utilize for their debate. On the day of the debate, students record the entire debate and create a podcast channel for the science debates. Parents and other students can listen to the debates and evaluate them for solid evidence and effective arguments.

3. Let Me Tell You My Story – Based on content area of the class, this podcast requires students to conduct interviews of people about their experiences living during a specific time period (history connection), or career exploration, or stories about community development. 

4. Book Versus The Movie – Which was better, the book or the movie? Students can debate and discuss the qualities of a book turned movie and which they would recommend.

5. RadioLab Style Informative Inquiry – I love the Radiolab Podcast and have written about having students create their own Radiolab style podcast on this blog and in a chapter of Teaching Literacy in the Digital Age. The podcast is organized like an informative essay with three body paragraphs, evidence to support the claims, and enhanced with sound effects and interview clips. Students can have lots of fun discussing  key topics in science or be more light hearted by debating who is the better super hero: Batman or Superman.

6. “Tribe of Mentors” – So I am a podcast junkie, and Tim Ferriss’ is one of my all time favorite podcasters. His podcast series includes interviews with celebrities, athletes, scientists, and more. Have students interview the people who they consider influencers and forward thinkers to share expertise and insight how to live your best self.

7. Create a suspenseful podcast like Lethal Lit to tell a mystery, horror or gothic tale in a series of episodes that lead the listeners through the mystery with red herrings and lots of suspects.

8. Need To Know – What are the things that you need to know before you graduate from high school (or elementary school or middle school). This podcast can be a series of short podcasts about what people should know once they leave school. For example, maybe  balancing finances and how to fold your laundry. Have students brainstorm a list of things that they think are imperative to know to help them navigate their lives beyond school.

9. Personal Narratives and Memoirs are great for podcasting and storytelling. Check out The Moth Radio Hour for examples for storytelling that makes you laugh and cry.

10. Poetry Podcast – Have students write their original poetry and then podcast their work to share with others. Students might also consider podcasting their favorite poems and discuss the elements of the poem that make it memorable.

11. On This Day  – Create a short podcast to introduce important events that happened on the specific day recording the podcast. The podcast can be based on history, scientific findings, or famous feats.

12. Wonderopolis: The Podcast – Wonderopolis is a fantastic website with daily wonders about our world curated on its website. Students can create their own wonders and then create a podcast to share their wonder findings.

13. Newscast – Students can take their school newspaper to another level with a podcast. Allow students to share movie reviews, news about school, and highlight school related stories on the podcast.

14. Let Me Help You – Students can create a podcast to teach others about technology. Allow students to podcast short and easy to follow “How To . . .  Tech” lessons for older adults. This can be adapted to any content or subject matter. For example, I can really use a math podcast to explain aspects of geometry and algebra.

15. Choose Your Own Adventure – Remember the choose your own adventure books from the 1980s? What if students worked together to create their own stories that listeners were able to select where they want to story to go next. This could be an entire class or grade level project with each student writing and podcasting their “chapter.”

16. In The Know – Students can research all about animals, diseases, or sports and create an encyclopedia podcast that catalogues all about these topics.

17. The Best Recipes – Students can share family recipes on a podcast to create a collection of delicious dishes to share with others.

18. The Best Book I Ever Read Podcast – Here is a way to collect book recommendations and showcase students favorite reads. Students can access the podcast to find out what to read next. Think of it like a podcast for GoodReads in Classroom 2A.

19. Reader’s Theater – Have students create an “old time” Prairie Home Companion show with sound effects and original music.

20. The Story Seeds Podcast is a collaborative podcast among kids and authors. Each episode “captures the magic that happens when kids ages 6-12 meet and collaborate with beloved storytellers who grow original short stories inspired by their story ideas.” Have students create their own story seeds or borrow one from the show and create their own story magic to podcast.

21. Investigative Journalism – The Serial Podcast brought attention to an unsolved murder mystery and also the excellence of a podcast. Have students be their own investigative journalists and go hunting for the truth about local legends or unsolved crimes.

22. Reel vs. Real – Whether you are a Mythbusters fan or not, watching movies and shows online you might question the science of car races, explosions, or the reality of people’s lives in the moves. Have students analyze the films to discern fact from fiction.

23. Making the Invisible Visible – Many times history and characters are one sided and we rarely see or hear about those who are silenced. eclipsed, and ignored. Let’s bring them to the forefront by having students research and create podcasts that are history or literary based and give voice to those who were kept voiceless.

24. You’re Wrong About – This is actually a podcast series now and the idea is genius if you have students create their own podcasts to research and discuss things that adults are wrong about.

25. What this song means to me – For music fans, have students choose their favorite songs and podcast their close reading and analysis of what the song means to them. They might also address the craft moves of the artists and the key elements of the song.

Want More? Check out Building Book Love blog post which highlights many awesome podcasts that you can listen to, share with your students, and inspires more podcast creation ideas.

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Jun 30 2019
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#ISTE19 Round Up

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The annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia was an amazing event. After my own presentations I had the opportunity to attend a few panels, playgrounds, and peruse the exhibition hall. Tech Education is vibrant, diverse, and this year, pedagogy at the forefront. ISTE is about utilizing technology to create inclusive spaces to transform learning and help every student and teacher succeed.

Here are some highlights from this year’s conference

“Personalized learning pathways empower students to pursue their passions while encouraging them to take more responsibility for their education.” — NESSC

Education As Choose Your Own Adventure – Choice is key helping students learn, dig deep, and apply their understanding. Offering students options by product, tech tool, and process personalizes learning and allows all students to meet the learning targets. Author and educator Matthew Oberrecker states, “when learning is truly personalized, each student has a voice in the learning process.  Within this framework lies a core vision for 21st century teaching and learning: a symbiotic relationship between pedagogy, technology, and 21st century skills.” Choice and voice are at the forefront of education whether addressing students or teacher education. Choice boards, badges, non-linear classroom experiences, flipped learning are a few ways to differentiate and personalize learning.

 

 

Get App-y – There are so many apps and Chrome Extensions that can help assist our students to be better researchers, writers, and readers. Using a grammar extension like No Red Ink or Grammarly can help our students write more fluid and correctly. Using text to speech extension like Voice Note II can help our struggling readers and writers. Using ad blockers like Mercury Reader can eliminate distractions and leave only text and images for an easy reading of any site. These extensions and apps provide opportunities to support all learners. Assistive Technology Education, Mike Marotta exclaims, “By leveraging the power of this common browser, we can make significant customization to meet the needs of [not only] struggling students [but all our students].”

AR & VR – In my book Personalized Reading I write about augmented reality and virtual reality as an entryway for building background knowledge and expanding world knowledge. Both AR and VR allows you to explore gaming and simulations or virtual environment experiences. Metaverse Augmented Reality, Quiver for Education, Nearpod, CoSpaces and Merge Cube apps like Explorer, Dig, and Mr. Body create immersive experiences. It is not just about providing these experiences, but allowing students and teachers to create and personalize interactive learning. Check out Jen and Brian Cauthers’ resources for all things mixed reality.

Robots – I am so excited for the literacy connections between robots and my ELA class this year. I am actually getting a flock of Finch Robots from Hummingbird Robotics for my classroom in the upcoming school year. There are many robotics companies in the market today but it is the applications and connections to the learning standards that are key. In order to empower our learners as creators, designed, and engineers they will need to learn to code, build, and think outside of the box. Robotics can help us meet these objectives. Robots provide exposure to STEM activities, involving computational thinking and exploring solutions to real-world problems, along with tapping creativity. Sphero, Sphero mini, Ozobot, and Coding Mice are other robots where no coding experience necessary to use these tools.

Digital Citizenship – Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE, said it best in his passionate plea to #ISTE18 attendees at the opening keynote in Chicago! “Digital citizenship, it turns out, is not a list of ‘don’ts’ but a list of ‘dos’,” Richard Culatta says. “And never has it been more important than it is now.” He returned to this idea in this year’s #ISTE19 since digital citizenship is essential in our world today and must be seamlessly infused it into the instructional day. BrainPOP, Common Sense Education and the Digital Driver’s License provide digital citizenship curriculum to empower students to create their own digital content to show how they’ve internalized the themes and importance of digital citizenship including the opportunity to create their own movies, text- and block-based coding projects, and personalized concept maps.

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Aug 10 2018
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Teachers are Busy Bees: #HiveSummit

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#HiveSummit is a free, 14 day virtual educational conference that started on August 1st. Organized by author and Gamification guru, Michael Matera @mrmatera,  the Hive Summit brings some of the best and the brightest minds together to do what bees do best… work hard for something sweet! The objective of this virtual conference is to help teachers jumpstart the school year with successful practices and positive energy. All the Presenter Bees” talk about ways to design learning experiences that promote engagement and student learning.

The nine presenters and their key ideas are posted below. If you are reading this before 8/14/18, register for The Hive Summit to view the videos and learn more.

Rabbi Michael Cohen @TheTechRabbi – Designer Educator, Creativity Instigator, and Director of Innovation

Rabbi Michael Cohen, a keynote presenter at #ISTE18, speaks passionately about design thinking and the need for creativity in the classroom. He was keen to say that creativity needs to be cultivated in the classroom; creativity is not something you have or get. In our world today students need to have the time and space to tinker, make, and create in order to figure things out, explore, and experiment. The Tech Rabbi shared one activity to ignite creative thinking and problem solving in the classroom: 30 Circle Challenge. For the 30 Circle Challenge give students 3 minutes to turn as many circles into recognizable objects as you can. This isn’t about: your artistic ability or filling 30 circles. This activity is about fostering meaningful conversation and a discussion about our awareness of creativity. This is a concrete way to model thinking outside the box.

Carrie Baughcum @HeckAwesome – Doodler, Teacher, YouTuber

Carrie is awesome and I am not only saying that because she was a contributor in in my book Gamify Literacy. Carrie is a special education teacher and sketch note advocate. In her talk she shares the learning experiences that sketch noting promotes for ALL student learners. Below is a video from Carrie’s youtube channel that introduces sketch noting as a learning tool.

 

Rick Wormeli @rickwormeli2 – Teacher, Author, Education Consultant

“A teacher’s job is to ensure students learn,” so begins Rick Wormeli’s presentation. And there is no where in research or life where someone has said that grading motivates learning. Rick talks about standards based grading and having teachers look closely at their own grading practices. We need to teach what we need students to learn and
create tasks that answer the critical question: “Do you have evidence you’ve mastered the stuff?” Standards based grading is more effective than percentages and extra credit. The key questions to ask are: Have students hit the learning targets or not yet? “How do I get students to learn this…” and Does every student need to demonstrate mastery at the same time? 

Tara Martin @TaraMartinEDU – Curriculum Coordinator, Lead Instructional Coach, Author

This week I finished reading Tara’s new book Be Real: Teaching From the Heart which was honest and insightful about teaching. The reality is that technology can never truly replace teachers because it is a teacher’s compassion, energy, and passions who make them memorable. Tara believes in being REAL:

 

  • R Be Relatable
  • E Expose Vulnerability
  • A Always be approachable
  • L Constantly Learn through real-life experiences

When you bring your realness to the table (and it’s enough), you make the world a better

 place. Tara is all about becoming the best version of yourself. No one else has exactly your talents and your experiences that you draw from. You’re the only “expert” at being you. Everyone has a purpose.

 

Matt Miller @jmattmiller – Teacher, Author, Speaker

It is important to be a maverick teacher– take risks. If you model taking risks (and potentially failing) for your students, you empower them to have a voice and choice. Don’t focus on technology, rather focus more on how it can be used to effectively reshape instruction. How can we leverage technology to make the most out of every class moment? Assemble a toolbox of a wide variety of tools and ask, “What tools do I need to do…” Technology is an opportunity, not a thousand dollar pencil. Think how you can remix apps and utilize technology in ways that are relevant to your students’ learning from global collaboration to rethinking the way you use Google Slides.

 

 

 

Michael Matera @mrmatera – Teacher, Author, Speaker

Most of what I know about gamification, I learned from Michael Matera. “Gamification entails applying the elements of a game, or mechanics, to non-game situations.” It’s a way teachers can overlay a game on top of already well-developed content and instruction. If you’re willing to give gamification a try, start small: gamify a lesson– then a unit– then a course. Use board games, television game shows and video games as models and mentors for building your own games. Gamification is about building on different game elements – many teachers allow the game to unfold as the school year blossoms. Three key things to think about when implementing gamification: Theme, Teams, and Tasks. As Michael states, “Play isn’t a pedagogy, it’s a way of life.” Bring play into your classroom to boost learning and have fun.

 

Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur – Regional Technology Coordinator

Sarah talked about building a professional learning network. This is key for teachers since teaching can be an isolating job. Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, and Voxer have allowed teachers to connect with like minded people to share, collaborate, connect, and learn from one another. I know personally how twitter has become a game-changer for my teacher and professional learning. There are endless ways to connect with other professionals globally. Authentic connections can change your life trajectory.

Joe Sanfelippo @Joe_Sanfelippo – Superintendent, Speaker, and Author

Joe has amazing positive energy as an administrator that I wish I was around him more to experience his ideas and passion for his school community. Based on his book, Hacking Leadership, Joe talked about the three main components he practices to cultivate a positive school community:

 

  • Be Intentional About Your WHAT & WHY – Share out about the good things that are happening in your school or classroom– there is power in sharing the good intentionally
  • Open Doors – By “sharing the good,” you have the opportunity to change the school narrative and create a culture of sharing instead of a culture of competition
  • Build Staff – Place value on all parties trying things outside of their comfort zones– value on the journey and the growth will reshape school culture. Joe shared that every day he writes 2 positive notes to share. He said that teaching is a thankless job but when someone stops and says thank you it means so much more. Administrators needs to recognize and thank their teachers more often.

 

Dave Burgess @Burgessdave – Author, Speaker, Game Changer

I have to say that I have been a Dave Burgess fan for many years and use his book Teach Like A Pirate with my graduate students as a required reading for Literacy in the Content Areas. I want my students to remember to infuse passion in all of their lessons. Dave promotes doing awesome stuff in your classroom. Teach like a pirate isn’t about choosing one method– it’s about incorporating others’ great ideas into your method. How will you make a first impression with your students? How are you going to get them excited about your content area and school? Be bold and take the best of everything to create a classroom where students cannot wait to return. “We want to educate makers not memorizers.” 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mar 28 2018
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Mash Up March: App Smashing for Effective Feedback

When students are writing, Google Docs is a great tool to help brainstorm, draft, edit, and revise their work. I have been thinking about the most effective ways that I can offer effective feedback on their writing throughout the writing process beyond the Comments feature on Google Docs. Here are a few apps to utilize when giving feedback on student writing.

Flipped Lessons with Exemplar Writing – I often share an exemplar essay from a student from the previous year as a model and mentor for student writing. Using the SMARTBoard or Document Camera I am able to show the writing model and talk through the craft moves the student made that make it an exemplar paper. But, I can also make a recording of this and provide students with easy accessibility to the model essay, annotations highlighting the key writing moves, and explanation why the essay an exemplar. Using Google Slides, Google Drawing, and Screencast-O-Matic, I am able to record this lesson and have it available for students to view any time. Additionally, students can respond to the elements of the exemplar they notice, like, and want to model in their own writing with Padlet. Padlet is a collaborative platform or “board” for students to share feedback, answer questions, respond to a prompt, or brainstorm together.

MultiModal Feedback – Google Comments allow teachers to add comments on Google Docs. This is helpful to address specific concerns and highlights on a student’s essay. Additionally, the extension Checkmarks is an easy commenting tool that has popular pre-made or custom comments. Another possibility is to add vocal feedback with extensions like Read & Write or Talk & Comment. Teachers or peer editors can record their comments on these apps and the writer is able to listen to helpful suggestions to make their essay clear and concise.

App Smashing the Entire Writing Process – Using a semantic map tool like Popplet or Bubbl.us can help students in the beginning stages of writing to jot down ideas what they will write about and gather necessary textual evidence. Then, to help students build an outline, they might demonstrate their thinking using Explain Everything or using a voice recording app like Audacity. When students are writing Google Docs is a trustworthy tool. Then, reading aloud their essay to get peer feedback and check for correct grammar and usage, students can read and respond to each other’s writing on Flipgrid. Students can compile all their work on Thinglink posting links to showcase their writing process.

 

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