Top 10 Tips for Using Blogs in the Classroom

1. Parents can access a teacher's blog in order to find out more about their student's homework assignments, class projects, participation and more. 
2. Student can use a teacher's blog to collaborate and share ideas in forum discussions.  
3. Teachers can monitor forum discussions to measure their students' comprehension, misconceptions, and participation. Teachers can also give feedback to students using forums. 
4. Blogs can be accessed from anywhere.  If a student is sick, out of town, or absent for any other reason, they can check the blog for class notes or information about upcoming assignments. 
5. A blog works as a kind of portfolio for students and teachers who want to keep track of their lesson plans, or academic work. 
6. Both students and teachers improve their technological skills by using blogs.  This will everyone as the world become increasingly technical. 
7. Students may be more open to blogging than they would be keeping a traditional "response journal." Along these lines, teachers wouldn't have to collect response journals to check students' work.  It would be as simple as clicking on a URL.  
8. Building a classroom blog where students showcase their work might help build community and increase the likelihood that students will do their best work. 
9. Students can use a class blog to access links to all kinds of learning websites and facilitate global connections.
10. Blogs facilitate creative, student centered learning opportunities.  For example, students can use blogs to post podcasts, screencasts, YouTube videos, surveys, and polls.  Opportunities for learning are endless when teachers use blogs.   

10 Tips for Using Educational Apps in the Classroom

1. Applications facilitate real student interaction with learning.  For example, a geography teacher could use google earth on a smart board to illustrate various maps, landscapes, topography, population density, weather patterns, etc. Using iPads, students can follow along and engage in their own inquiry.
2. Certain applications make excellent classroom management tools.  Students will understand, in real time, how they are doing in the class in terms of behavior and participation. 
3. Students can take and submit quizzes using different applications.  These are often time stamped to ensure students complete their work on time. 
4. Students can connect their tablets to the class smart board and write information on the board without coming to the front of the classroom.  Likewise, the teacher can continue writing on the board while moving around the classroom to monitor behavior and make sure students are on task.
5. Certain applications make it simple for parents to track their student's progress over the school year using nothing but an iPhone. 
6. Applications like Evernote allow students to take and access notes from anywhere.  If little Jimmy heads to the Bahamas on family vacation for two weeks, he can easily access the notes from class. 
7. Applications like Skype are useful for connecting students from different parts of the country and world.  For example, students in France studying English could connect in real time with students studying French in the United States.  
8. Students can use applications like dropbox to submit and share projects and assignments. 
9. Students can use mind mapping applications to work collaboratively on homework assignments. 
10. Students can use applications like Explain Everything (like iMovie only more simple) to make short videos of themselves explaining recently learned concepts so they don't forget.  

Here is a review of a useful application called Grammar Up I wrote for my Technology & Education class:

Grammar up application from Bensama

Top 10 Tips for Using Video Editing in the Classroom

1. Few things are more appealing to students than watching images move across a screen.  Why not harness that natural fascination by turning it into an instructional strategy? 
2. English teachers can use video and video editing to teach narrative structure.  Consider inviting  local filmmakers (like Spy Hop in Salt Lake City) to come to class and discuss how movies are created.  
3. Students could create a movie trailer advertising a novel or play from the current unit. 
4. Students could interview people in the community who have expertise a particular unit you are studying. 
5. Students can add video editing to their list of technological skills and abilities.  This will increase their confidence and benefit them in college or their careers.  
6. Video editing projects are challenging and require students to think creatively, be detail oriented, and make hundreds of small decisions.  
7. Video projects provide students with an excellent opportunity to develop their collaboration skills.  
8. Students can share their videos on Vimeo and Youtube.  The public nature of the project will likely inspire students to do their best work. 
9. Integrating a variety of technology into your teaching is just good practice. 
10. You can use video/video editing to document the school year in your class.  This will help to build a sense of pride and community in your students. 

Here are three videos I worked on over the last couple of months:

In this video, my wife and I are playing with our nephews and their parents in the snow.  

The video below was an assignment for my Technology & Education class.  We were given a bunch of raw video and told to turn it into some kind of story.  The camera work is quite shaky, but I didn't film it... so...

This last video was a collaborative project also for Technology & Teaching.  My fellow students (Bruce, David, Brett) and I visited West High School and interviewed teachers about their use of technology in the classroom.  

Disability Categories: Legal Definitions, Characteristics, and Teaching Strategies

* Here you will find legal definitions, characteristics, teaching strategies, and additional resources for working with students with disabilities.


Scroll through the slides for useful information on each of the 14 Disability Categories listed in the following order:


Speech and Language Impairment, Other Health Impairments, Hearing Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Autism, Specific Learning Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Multiple Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities, Emotional Disturbance, Developmental Delay, Visual Impairment Including Blindness, Deafness, and Deaf-Blindness.

Disability catagories from Bensama

English Language Learner Resources for General Educators

New York Core: A Guide For Educators of English Language Learners

*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.

This PDF is from the New York Collective of Radical Educators.  It includes information on how to identify English language learners and how to properly assess their levels of English proficiency.  It also describes the three major ESL teaching models (pullout, push-in, self-contained)  and includes a list of classroom and literacy strategies.  It also has a section titled "ELL MYTHS"  dedicated to helping general educators get over the kinds preconceived notions about English language learners that were picked up from old stereotypes and outdated research.  I highly recommend this site.


Top 10 Tips for Teachers Working with ESL/ELL Students

*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.

On the website, each of these 10 tips are discussed in more detail.

1.  Don't assume that students know how the American educational system works.
2.  Learn about gestures from other cultures.
3.  Provide extra vocabulary help with every lesson.
4.  Work on your language skills.
5.  Give the students extra grammar practice.
6.  Try and incorporate aspects of your students culture into your lesson plans.
7.  Capitalize on holidays.
8.  Check your own attitude.
9.  Have realistic expectations of your ELL student.
10.  Become familiar with ESL websites.

Adjusting Lessons for ESL/ELL Students

*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.

This site includes a list of very practical strategies that general educators can employ in order to ensure that ELL students are successful.  They suggest giving ELL students a copy of your teaching notes, giving them graphic organizers, giving them weekly quizzes in order to check comprehension, creating flashcards, selecting appropriate literature, and much more.

English Grammar Checker 

This site allows students to copy/paste text that they've written and receive a free grammar check. It's simple to use and does not require registration.  

Purdue Owl ESL Resources

This site is fantastic for people who are interested in both theoretical and practical information as it relates to English language instruction. The site includes several links to organizations, journals, and language policy developers, as well as online teaching and reference materials.

Boggles World ESL

This is a really useful site for elementary school ESL teachers looking for songs, worksheets, phonics activities, and complete lesson plans.  If you need some ideas for a lesson and get stuck, a visit to Boggles World should get things moving.  Also, many of the worksheets are themed around various holidays and seasons and tend to be quite fun.

Waygook.org

This site is an online community of EFL teachers in Korea who work together to develop and share instructional materials.  I used it constantly while I was teaching English in Korea.  There are literally thousands of lesson plans available on this site for all ages and ability levels from elementary to university.  Moreover, there is a forum devoted to Theory & Practice, where teachers share challenges and offer experience and instructional strategies.

Dave's ESL Cafe

Dave's ESL Cafe is a similar to Wagook.org, in that it's a community of English language teachers who share ideas, challenges, resources, and instructional strategies.  On their homepage you will see a section titled "Stuff for Teachers."  In it you will find forums dedicated to assessments, bilingual education, elementary education, secondary education, teaching students who are deaf, ESL management, etc.


General ESL Resources

This site includes links to 52 other sites covering a wide range of activities, grammar lessons, flashcards, worksheets, listening exercises, quizzes, and more.  I'm sure this site will be useful for both teachers and ELL students alike.


Building Systems of Support for Classroom Teachers Working with English Language Learners 

This is an 80 page report from the University of Washington's Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy.  The report discusses the increasing responsibility that general education teachers have as the United States becomes even more linguistically diverse.  The focus of the paper is on creating "systems of support" meant to help general educators as they work to serve English Language Learners in their classrooms.  I've included the abstract below.

ABSTRACT

Recent immigration is dramatically altering the context of public schooling in the United States and in Washington state. Nationally, one in seven students speaks a language other than English at home. How states, districts and schools respond to this growing cultural and linguistic diversity continues to be a question of central importance for the future of education. As the numbers of English language learners (ELLs) increase, general education teachers are expected to assume greater responsibility for their learning and educational progress. As such, teachers must learn to adjust and adapt their instruction to address special learning needs and to work collaboratively with other educators, parents, and community members toward the goal of helping all second language learners succeed in school.

This report examines the assistance and support classroom teachers receive to work effectively with linguistically diverse students. In particular, we address the ways these efforts can form a “system of supports” for classroom teachers. In order to research these issues, we undertook a study of four districts in Washington state that serve different populations and proportions of English language learners. Through interviews, classroom observations and document analyses, we examined how these districts were addressing pressing questions about the education of ELL students and how to support the classroom teachers who work with them.

10 Tips for Creating Awesome Webquests

1. Use your state's Common Core Standards as a basis for setting student objectives within your Webquest. 
2. Create some kind of narrative or adventure that students must follow as they work through your Webquest.  This makes it more fun for everyone. 
3. Don't use too many links to the same source.  It will get monotonous for students if they spend too much time on the same site. 
4. Make sure your tasks are varied.  For example, if your first task requires them to read a lot, then the second task should involve watching a video clip.  Try to include as many different kinds of tasks and activities as possible. 
5.  Use Blooms Taxonomy as a reference when creating your Webquest.  The beginning of the Quest should be simple and straightforward.  As students progress, the tasks should involve more thinking, synthesizing, and creating.  
6. Make sure you let students know how much time they will need to complete the Webquest.  
7. Include lots of images, charts, graphs, etc. on your Webquest.  It will make it more fun and interesting for students. 
8. Use clear navigational directions for students.  Even though you've been to the sites in your Webquest many times, your students have not.  
9. If you plan to use the Webquest you created again, go through it and check the links to make sure they all work and that websites haven't changed. 
10. Include the answers to your questions at the end of your Webquest along with a credits and references page.  Webquests are great for substitute teachers when you can't be in class.  It helps them out a lot if they have the answers.  Also, it's just good practice to give credit to your sources.  

Five Thoughts on Why You Should Use Webquests:

1. Increasingly tech savvy students find them interesting because they can be done entirely on the computer.
2.  Teachers can use them to appeal to students with multiple intelligences. Students working on a webquests will encounter images, video, music, written and spoken language, and more. I'm sure teachers could also incorporate kinesthetic activities using interactive games and other applications.
3.  Webquests are perfect if you've become ill and need a substitute to take over for the day. 
4.  Webquests are perfect if students want an opportunity to earn extra credit. 
5.  Webquests are simply a lot of fun.

Below is an example of a Webquest I created for my Technology & Teaching class this semester: 

Literary devices webquest pdf from Bensama

(SERGE) Special Education Resources for General Educators

http://serge.ccsso.org/index.html

It is our responsibility as general educators to ensure that all of our students succeed, including our students with disabilities.  The Special Education Resources for General Educators website (SERGE), is an excellent place for general educators to seek out the information and activities they need to address the classroom needs of students with disabilities.  

The content of SERGE is organized around seven essential questions for classroom educators.  These include questions such as "How can I be sure that my students will succeed in the curriculum I am teaching?" and "What are effective ways to assess what my students are learning?" 

Under each essential question you will find very practical suggestions on how you can improve your instruction.  You will also find several follow up questions which offer factual information, suggestions for classroom activities, advice on successful collaboration, as well as additional resources.  Some of these follow up questions deal with very practical concerns such as "What is my role as a general educator in 'Response to Intervention' (RTI)?"  Other follow up questions address the kinds of puzzling things we've all asked ourselves before, like "Why are certain populations over-represented in special education?"  As an M.A.T. student, I find SERGE to be an invaluable website and I expect to visit it often as I begin my career as a general educator.