Generally, teachers don’t expect gifts. Teachers care about children and want to educate them in preparation for the world beyond school. That’s enough of a reward for most educators. That said, your student’s teacher is awesome! So you want to do a little more to show you appreciate how your teacher goes above and beyond the call of duty. A great gift during Christmas or at the end of the year is a way parent, and learners can show their […]
Category: Educators
In 2001, a former student named Lorin Anderson with her colleagues, revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom’s was initially published in 1956. The goal: To be more user-friendly for teachers to use Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom. The original taxonomy was a teaching framework explaining how people learn new skills, knowledge, and understandings. 6 Levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy The six levels in cognitive development illustrated by Bloom’s Taxonomy from the lowest level to the highest are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and […]
Ever since we had the opportunity to review KiwiCo’s entire line of educational subscription crates, we’ve been waiting to see what new product they would come up with for this holiday season. The wait has ended. The Atlas Crate has arrived. Is it as good a value as the other subscription boxes made by KiwiCo? More importantly, is it as fun? Read on to find out. Find Out More About the Atlas Crate I’ll begin by sharing some information about […]
Last Updated: October 30, 2019 Using a telescope and exploring the skies can be a hugely rewarding, enjoyable and fascinating experience for kids of all ages. With a huge selection of telescopes for beginners out there, it’s sometimes hard to choose the right one that will bring the moon, stars, and planets up close and personal. Don’t worry! You’ll find our picks below, along with a list of the items to watch out for when you are buying a telescope […]
Music teaches kids lots of skills. Learning to play music requires commitment and discipline and if you splash out on an instrument, you need to know your child is going to put time and effort into practicing their skills. Children can learn rhythm, beat, pattern recognition and even math from music. Musical instruments for kids can also help to cultivate social skills while collaborating to make music together. Parents rarely have to be convinced of the merits of teaching their children the alphabet […]
#Supermuch started by accident in January, 2018 at a CUE Rockstar TOSA camp in Agoura Hills, California. As two of my co-presenters (Ann Kozma and Cate Tolnai) and I were getting into the car to head to the event, I attempted to say, “I am super excited for this weekend!” What came out of my mouth was, “I am supermuch excited for this weekend!” We shared a good laugh and started describing everything about the rest of the car ride as #supermuch. We determined […]
I recently attended an Apple Educators’ Institute in Texas and there are always a few things that resonate with me post conference. One in particular was the spotlight session by Stephanie Thompson on the use of Equity Maps. As an English teacher, I am constantly getting my classes to work in groups. But at the back of my mind, there is always the question of equity. Who is participating fully? Who is being excluded? Who is overlooked and has given up trying […]
I like to learn. That’s a vague and simplistic statement, but true, nonetheless. I’ve been learning my entire life. I love to eat so trying new foods is always a fun learning experience. Learning how to grow different fruits and vegetables, and prepare different dishes is also fun. My family lives in the country and has had outdoor cats for years, but within the last couple of years, I had to learn what it was like to be the owner […]
Ants are amazing creatures. They scurry around all day long, searching for food, building the nest, caring for their young and protecting the queen. In many ways, an ant colony is like an industrious human city: everyone has a job to do and they get on with it. Older ant farms were very simple. They consisted of sand between two pieces of glass. Newer ant farms use brightly colored gel to create a stable ecosystem for the ants, so they […]
Most people hate the sound of alarms. I’m one of them – it’s why I evangelize the use a light simulation alarm clock that usually wakes me up with light before the alarm goes off. But for some people, loud noise is a problem anytime of the day. Buzzers and loud bell rings can cause anxiety and worse in this part of the population. There are other times where you want a timer, but it’s just not appropriate to have […]
I caught him. I felt like some character from a mediocre cop show. I had sleuthed it out. But, that feeling stayed with me for an instant. Less than an instant, if that’s possible. The feeling that immediately took its place and stayed with me for quite some time was burden. Knowing something you didn’t want to know. And at the same time understanding that you sort of knew it all along anyway. There is sometimes a great chasm […]
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I discovered NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) when I was still at school. If you ever desired writing a book but aren’t sure if you could, then NaNoWriMo is something to consider. Each November thousands subscribe to reach the goal of writing 50,000 words. The goal is to get your first draft written—no editing. It’s to motivate you to transform the idea in your head onto paper. You win if you reach […]
Creating a thriving After-School program means we look beyond the externals—beyond academics, beyond behavior control, and beyond maintaining attendance. Going below the surface will keep your finger on the pulse of your site’s culture and your children’s actual experience within your facility. Everything bubbles up from the core values of each individual within the site. How we interact with every single child matters—whether with family, friends, or within an organization. When we get down to that level, we come to […]
Last Updated: August 18, 2020 When everything works well, classroom projectors are the epicenter of the best digital learning spaces. A shared portal to engaging media where every student can be focused and actively involved. When they don’t work well, classroom projectors are the source of endless frustration, muffled curse words and a hindrance and distraction to learning. Given that even the cheapest projectors still cost hundreds of dollars we want to share with you the most popular and best […]
Technology and education is a winning combination that truly helps teachers. These teaching tools streamline the process, help to manage the different aspects of teaching, and create teaching materials that would almost be impossible to do manually. New EdTech tools are constantly launched, or older versions are upgraded with new features. With their busy schedule teacher don’t always have the time to research new EdTech tools. To assist teachers, we’ve created a list of essential EdTech Tools. Lesson Preparing EdTech […]
When I was little I dreamed of traveling to space and touching the stars. My father would wake us up in the middle of the night to hike through the woods or walk along the dirt road to see the meteor showers put on a late night show for us. We would come back home and enjoy cups of hot cocoa and either regale each other with how many shooting stars we had seen or slurp our marshmallows in a […]
When I was a classroom teacher I tended to reflect “on the fly.” I’d take a quick assessment and make adjustments on teaching materials, strategies, and temperature of the class. I’d either reteach or make notes for changes for the following year. When I attended professional development opportunities, I’d often reflect through the conversations I had with colleagues at the event and/or after I returned to school. I rarely spent any lengthy time during the reflection process. When I moved […]
Dreaming big dreams and desiring to achieve something worthwhile is natural to people. Setting the concrete goals to achieve these dreams is a skill that everybody of all ages needs to learn. It’s not natural for adults; neither is it natural for kids. A study done at Dominican University showed that people who had written goals, were committed to achieving the goals and had an accountability system in place, achieved more than those who didn’t have written goals. Like any […]
The below ‘S.M.A.R.T.’ template is published under Creative Commons. Feel free to share on your own blog, school site or social network. Over a 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln said “a goal set properly is halfway reached.” However, it’s harder to set a actionable goal rather than express a feeling or dream about the future. The attached SMART Goals Worksheet can be used to help set a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Utilizing this framework, […]
It’s the first day of a new school year, and with it comes an entirely fresh group of students in your classroom. Each of these children have their own story – their own unique dreams, fears and goals. And you know none of them. Over time, you certainly will uncover these nuggets of information. But one way to speed up the process is to have students take some time on the first day of class to answer a series of […]