Archive Page 2

Grab Bag Links 05/30/2008

Published May 30, 2008 Links 0 Comments

  • ZAC

    ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) is developed specifically for children with autism and autism-spectrum disorders. It allows the child to interact with and play the many games and activities, as well as experience independence using it. ZAC also offers a forum for teachers, parents, and caretakers to share resources.

    tags: technology, search, tbot

  • Red Zebra

    “Red Zebra assures parents of early readers that their little one’s search for, say, a unicorn image brings up only G-rated sites. Results are presented like a fan with images of each screen, so your child can scroll through and click on the site that offers the closest match.” [via Edutopia]

    tags: technology, search, tbot

Grab Bag Links 05/19/2008

Published May 19, 2008 Links 0 Comments

  • dida-delivered

    “dida” stands for “Diploma in Digital Applications.” It also stands for awesome interactive training in a wide variety of programs and applications. From word processing and email basics to Video editing and vector graphics, these trainings won’t work perfectly for computer lab busy work, but they will introduce key concepts and procedures without a lot of the typical first-time frustration. [thanks Graham Macleod]

    tags: technology, tutorial, tbot

Grab Bag Links 05/15/2008

Published May 15, 2008 Links 0 Comments

  • Welcome

    Mary Garcia runs the extended learning program out in Vail, AZ. I met her and her husband at the Tucson Apple Store just before her students arrived for a showcase of their digital work. Some of the projects are posted on her site. What a cool idea: reserve the Apple Store for two hours on a weekday, invite students and families to view student projects, and then play with awesome computers.

    tags: technology, tbot

Triple A Treatment

Published May 7, 2008 Classroom Community , Classroom Management 0 Comments
Tags:

One of the most effective methods of classroom management is triple A treatment:

  • Acceptance
  • Approval
  • Affection

Students want to like you as a teacher, but even more, they want to know if you like them.

Acceptance happens as students recognize they belong in your class. Give them this sense by greeting each student at the door every morning and thanking each one at the end of the day, putting their work on the walls around the room, giving them jobs that help the class to run smoothly, and designing class rules and procedures together. A class meeting once a week does wonders for building acceptance in the teacher-to-student relationships and among students.

Approval is communicated first and foremost through your words.

“I’m glad to have you in my class.”
“You add such good ideas to our discussions.”
“Your assignments are always in on time.”
“You’re so good at making your classmates smile.”

Extending extra approval to the students early in the year will give them the sense that you really like them and you really enjoy being around them. Calling a student’s parents to tell them about a good test score or other achievement will go a long way with that student. Students on the teacher’s good side will bend over backwards to stay on that good side. Of course, it helps when you actually like your students. When a student misbehaves, focus on the sin, not the sinner. “You’re a good student, and you made a bad decision this time. I know you’ll do better next time.” Don’t withhold punishment, and don’t punish by withholding approval.

Affection seems difficult to express in school these days. Use strategic touches like a pat on the shoulder or a high five to incorporate affection into your interactions. I give my students the choice of a high five, hand shake, or fist pound every morning as I greet them at the door. Special connections during the year like birthday notes to individual students and stickers on good test scores let a student know that you notice him and care about him. Again, don’t punish by withholding affection. Affirm the student after she completes her consequence so that you end the interaction on a positive note.

Consider a student’s emotions like a gas tank. A student running on empty is a management crash waiting to happen. We have to fill up that tank with positive emotions and experiences, because students (and adults) often make decisions based on emotion. If their tanks are filled up on positive emotions, students will be more likely to make positive decisions, even in tough situations.

Grab Bag Links 05/01/2008

Published May 1, 2008 Links 0 Comments

Grab Bag Links 04/27/2008

Published April 27, 2008 Links 0 Comments

Grab Bag Links 04/25/2008

Published April 25, 2008 Links 0 Comments

  • Scholastic, Helping Children Around the World to Read and Learn | Scholastic.com

    Publisher and book fair juggernaut Scholastic comes through with some solid content for classroom teachers. In just a few minutes I found a to-do list generator, plenty of printer-friendly organizational tools and worksheets, and loads of lessons. They’ve even posted SMARTboard notebook files for download. Yeah, you have to pay to get everything, but there’s enough free stuff to keep us public educators interested.

    tags: reading, classmanagement, printables, tbot

  • Pew Research Center: Writing, Technology and Teens

    Amanda Lenhart discusses survey results concerning school writing, personal writing, and writing in social networking. Could this be used to promote blogging/texting/chatting standards instruction in schools? If schools don’t teach students to use social networking and web 2.0 tools effectively and efficiently, who will?\n\nOf interest is this quote: “A considerable number of educators and children’s advocates worry that James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, was right when he recently suggested that young Americans’ electronic communication might be damaging ‘the basic unit of human thought — the sentence.’” This seems a little bit like saying if teens got a hold of new type of watch, they might damage the space-time continuum.

    tags: writing, web2.0, tbot

  • The Math Worksheet Site.com

    This site generates drill-and-kill worksheets for the basic math operations. PDF output is easy to print and give to students, or use on an interactive whiteboard for division practice.

    tags: math, tbot

Grab Bag Links 04/16/2008

Published April 16, 2008 Links 0 Comments

I’m in this month’s Edutopia

Published April 10, 2008 Links 0 Comments

I guess I should blog a link to little blurb that I wrote for Edutopia Magazine. I commented on an online article, and they plugged it in to this month’s print version. Kind of cool that blog comments can live beyond the ten minutes I spend typing them.


Feedback: Technology as a Tool | Edutopia

 

links for 2008-04-07

Published April 7, 2008 Links 2 Comments

« Previous Page — Next Page »