Teaching and Learning


10 Ways to Motivate the Undermotivated

Ten ways to motivate the undermotivated

Adding elements of surprise and choice into our classrooms is a great way to motivate the unmotivated.

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5 steps to student-centered learning

Strategies to boost joy and ownership of learning

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10 Creative Ideas for Back-to-School

Kick off the year with activities that build agency, promote responsibility, create community, and develop creativity.

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Use Big Ideas in Social Studies for Hispanic Heritage Month Activities

Standards-based themes to help focus student work at each grade level

interlocking puzzle pieces

Build Questioning Skills in Math

How to build student questioning and inquiry throughout a range of mathematical practices.

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Operationalizing Flexible Professional Learning

Move from sit-and-get workshops to flexible and more powerful professional learning

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Model the Change You Want to See

Professional learning formats that match instructional goals

graphic design with hearts, swirls, and nature

Fostering Gratitude

6 creative ways to get students to show and practice gratefulness

Student centered cartoon

Less us, more them!

Raise expectations and standards in our classrooms by granting more responsibility to the learner.

Diverse students

Get started with differentiated instruction

Teaching the same way to students who do not have the same readiness, motivation, or learning style isn't going to result in their gaining the same knowledge or skills.

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Preparing for a Secure Financial Future

Why educators need to invest and what to know to get started.

Student director

A student's turn to flip

Students become the teacher to build understanding and comprehension

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5 Ideas to Better Engage with Your Students

Connect deeply, give responsibility, and watch them shine.

Creative Personalized Learning

Creative personalized learning

Transforming a classroom into a personalized learning environment means including student voice and choice.

5 Ways to Create an Impassioned Classroom

5 ways to create an impassioned classroom

Experimentation lessons from the life of Walt Disney.

Paper

The beauty and the value of paper

Beautiful paper books created by children add permanence to such memories and can last a lifetime.

Rubric

Get started with rubrics!

Rubrics describe what high performance looks like and help establish responsibility for it.

Digital primary sources

Digital primary sources

Use digital primary sources to entice students to question and analyze.

Flip

Flipping the elementary classroom

Provide more time for personalized and small group learning

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The Case for Gaming in Learning

Taking a digital game-based approach to learning

Students using technology

From acceptable use to responsible use

Extend, expand, and enhance learning opportunities beyond the school day.

Encourage student voice and choice.

10 ways to encourage student voice and choice

Build personalized learning environments by putting the learner first.

Sharing with grandparents

Make parents an integral part of academic success

Foster strong school-to-home connections and make parents an integral part of their student's academic success

One Tech Period

Make the most of one tech period a week

Make the most out of your limited time in the computer lab.

Devices

Meet the needs of digital learners with BYOD

How Santee School District uses BYOD to supplement classroom technology and empower new forms of teaching and learning.

EdJourney

Roadmap to the future of education

Three months, 10,000 miles, and 64 visits to innovative schools results in Grant Lichtman's new book, EdJourney.

IDEA

Make a difference through your service

If they combine compassion, effective leadership, perseverance, and hard work, kids can make a positive difference in our community.

Portfolio

Change the face of assessment

Student-created digital portfolios can help us both evaluate and showcases student achievement and student learning over time.

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Landing your First Teaching Job

7 steps to ending up in the right place

Action Research

Your first action research cycle

Here is a quick-start guide to help you get going with your first action research process!

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Grow Your Teaching by Presenting

How sharing your ideas and teaching journey builds your capacity as an educator

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6 Tips for Submitting a Successful Presentation Proposal

Ideas to help you craft a submission they cannot wait to accept.

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Making Poster Sessions a Success

Tips for getting the most out of attending or presenting a poster session.

Cup of Time

Find more time for technology integration

With proper time management, educators can accomplish a lot more than we might think.

Helping all students learn

Technology can help all students flourish

Build communication skills in students with physical disabilities.

Big 6

Combine the Big6 with making

Take the information gathered from the Big6 process and synthesize it for authentic assessment.

Whiteboard

Whiteboard interactivity!

Ideas for using Pixie on an interactice whiteboard

Summer School

Foster technology integration in summer school

Engage struggling readers and writers, and provide tools and training for the teachers leading the classes.

Digital Portfolios

Building digital portfolios

A digital portfolio is a window into student learning.

Helen Barrett

Lessons from a digital portfolio pioneer

The power of digital portfolios comes from their student-centered nature as students critique their own work and reflect on the learning process.

Action research.

Embrace action research

Understand what is happening in your classroom and identify changes that improve teaching and learning

Reach ALL students

Reach all students with digital media

Use UDL to reach all students in their classrooms despite the great diversities that exist.

David Thornburg

Empowering students to learn and solve problems

An interview with futurist David Thornburg

Pixie Party

Got Pixie? Throw a Pixie party!

A Pixie party can convince teachers to learn new ways for students to demonstrate knowledge.

Dick Sagor

Dick Sagor shares the value of action research

Empower teachers to find the information we need to reach our goal of leaving no child behind

Speaking

Find and measure hidden objectives

In order to say there is an improvement, you have to measure before, after, and maybe even in between.

Phillip Kovacs

Match policy with local initiatives

An interview with Dr. Philip Kovacs

Super simple

Keep it super simple, and meaningful

We can keep things simple, but if they do not resonate with you and your students, the learning will not be as powerful.

Team planning

Strategies for effective technology implementation

Effective technology implementation starts with a strong vision and a bit of initial success.

choices

Let it go: Giving students choices

Empower students by giving them choices in how they learn and how they demonstrate that learning.

Greek temple

Making modern myths

To help students better understand ancient Greek themes, pairs of students create a modern myth using Wixie.

Museum interior

Museum Makers: Bringing History to Life

Students work as Museum Makers to build a living bridge to history.

Student project

Students explore ancestry in "Suitcase Stories"

Students use Pixie to create suitcase stories to show their family history.

Student project

Exploring history through animation

Develop, use, and refine writing and technology skills with students creating animations.

Student project

Teaching Across the Curriculum with a Race Around the World

Students compete in a digital race around the world and develop videos about locations explored during the race.

Student project

Diving in to digital projects

Use creative digital projects to engage students in the curriculum and develop content mastery.

Student project

Students work to improve local parks

Students in Brooklyn create unique PSAs to support their local parks.

Keyboard

Create a memorable learning archive

Portfolios encourage lifelong learning as students build, maintain, share, and publish a record of their performance over time.

Student project

A tool for authentic learning

Students display more meaningful retention of knowledge through collaboration and ownership of their projects.

More sites to help you find success in your classroom

Wixie

Share your ideas, imagination, and understanding through writing, art, voice, and video.

Rubric Maker

Create custom rubrics for your classroom.

Pics4Learning

A curated, copyright-friendly image library that is safe and free for education.

Wriddle

Write, record, and illustrate a sentence.

EDU ToDo

Interactive digital worksheets for grades K-8 to use in Brightspace or Canvas.

Creative Educator

Professional Learning

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