Offering Your Students Choice = Student Success

If you read my blog or follow me on Twitter, you know that I run an inquiry based program (most of the time).  I also let my students choose what apps they use when explaining their learning.  We all have favourite apps that we use.  My students do too.  I give them the opportunity to try different content creation apps out and have them available.  The ones they choose to use is up to them. It has been a frog frenzy in...

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A Day In The Life Of A Connected Classroom

I had a group of teachers visit my classroom last week. They were there to see how we incorporate technology in meaningful ways into the primary classroom. I had a couple of teachers ask me if I had a schedule of what we do throughout the day to give to them. Alas a blogpost is born. So, here it is, a day in my room without you actually having to visit me! (I am taking the day that my visitors came in and writing what we did that day) 8:30...

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Why Have A Class Twitter Account?

I wanted to share some of the ways my class uses their classroom Twitter account.  Up until this year, I tweeted the things we do in our classroom on my personal Twitter account.  However, I wanted my students to take ownership of the learning.  Instead of me tweeting about them, I wanted them to tweet about what they were doing.  I also wanted them to gain the connections of other peers as I have through my professional Twitter.  Twitter has helped me become a better educator.  I have made so many connections,...

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Do We Need To Go Back To Teaching Our Kids The Basics?

Today, I was appalled as I read the front page of my local Newspaper.  The article was titled, "Are our kids still learning the basics?"  It went on to say that many parents are unhappy about the lack of weekly spelling test, grammar worksheets and multiplication time table sheets.  That students need more "drill them" activities that they don't get at school anymore.   Will only drill and pain and repetition make our students...

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Have You Tried The Aurasma App?

I went to Edcamp Detroit last weekend and Erin Klein shared a free app that she has used in her classroom with a lot of success.  The app is called Aurasma.  The app allows individuals to create and publish their own augmented reality experiences they call "Auras."  I'm sure you are thinking the same thing I was thinking when Erin was talking about this app, "Sounds cool, but what does it do?"  Students and teachers can...

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