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