Friday Four – May 11
For most teachers, spring is mixed bag on several fronts. The end of the school year is in sight, which means that summer is right around the corner; yet there are still classes to teach and lessons to prepare, not to mention the papers to correct. If you are an AP teacher, your students have already taken or are about to take the AP exam which comes with its own flavor of stress and anxiety. Did we get through the entire curriculum? Are the students prepared to score well after all the time and effort spent to this point? If you teach seniors and are like me, you vacillate between wanting to see them graduate today and sad to see them leave after watching them grow and mature right before your very eyes over the past year or more. In my experience, Spring is a funky time no matter how you slice it. So…here is a funky assembly of interesting items I ran across this week for you. Enjoy!
- Here is a short little video produced by Commoncraft that “explores the tools, policies and people that seek to make Wikipedia articles factual and high quality.” Thanks to Richard Byrne @rmbyrne who runs the freetechforteachers.com website for this item.
- If you are planning your summer schedule and are looking for some FREE professional development, join me this August 10 at edcamp Connecticut at The Ethel Walker School. Edcamps are known as “unconferences” where the agenda is set and driven by the people who show up. Watch the video below to get a sense for what an edcamp really is.
- As most of you probably know, I am a big fan of Twitter and have found it to be the single most beneficial professional development tool, hands down. Here is a piece from Edutopia.org that makes the case for why we as educators should engage with Twitter this coming summer. You could even use Twitter to share the ideas you pick up at the edcamp in August!
- My final item this week is actually three separate links that address the effective use of technology in the classroom. Technology for technology’s sake is a bad idea. I think these three pieces do a nice job of looking at the topic from different perspectives.
- Success stories of integrating tech into the classroom
- Blog post from Tom Whitby @tomwhitby “How we teach trumps what we teach“
- EdWeek blog post “The Next Generation of Teachers Infusing Technology“