Mr. B EdTech Blog

http://betterlesson.com/community/unit/10707/reading-short-stories-to-understand-plot-character-author-s-purpose?from=search This lesson includes one of my favorite stories, Flowers for Algeron, so I had to repost.

http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/9676 Video Tools for Formative Learning Educannon – Creating a classroom movie is always fun. This tool allows the placement of videos in a formative loop allowing the teacher to check for student understanding as videos are watched. Zaption – Link videos to this wonderful tool designed to place formative learning with in a video activity. Collect information on student progress as they access from home or school. Edpuzzle – Explore this formative video tool that allows the teacher to track and view student understanding. Use a video from just about any source on just about any device. Allows for important student metacognition during the course of the activity. Blubbr.tv – Now teachers and students can create their own video based trivia games. Allowing the trivia to be based on content standards can bring a whole new form to learning. I have used EduCannon and EduPuzzle. Both are great if properly used!

These interactive word clouds can help get you some great information on the latest news, trends, and tips. http://www.shellyterrell.com/edhashtags.html Here are a few that I found interesting. #Gafe (Google Apps for Education)  https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafe #Collabed  https://twitter.com/hashtag/CollabEd #iPaded  https://twitter.com/hashtag/ipaded #edtech  https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash

https://www.graphite.org/app/hopscotch-school-edition-programming-for-kids-make-games-stories-animations-and-more From: Graphite.org Grades 4-9 Price: $9.99 PROS - - Simple drag-and-drop coding blocks offer a powerful learning experience. CONS - - So many options and relatively little guidance may leave some kids feeling overwhelmed. BOTTOM LINE - - With a pinch of patience and a lot of passion, this introduction to computer science and its underlying principles is highly accessible.  

Google Hangouts , long since tied to Google+ (as most of Google's other features are including Gmail, YouTube, and Blogger). now has its own site. No google+ needed. hangouts.google.com This is a great tool for communicating with Chromebooks, and any device you have Chrome or Google's apps on.

I  My ! Teaching the Emoji Generation from Shelly Sanchez Terrell

http://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/dylan-wiliam-advises-forget-rubric-use-work-samples-instead/ In the book Embedding Formative Assessment , authors Dylan Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy suggest replacing rubrics with work samples. Citing reasoning such as, "Rubrics rarely have the same meaning for students that they do for teachers." I agree with this statement. I have seen plenty of rubrics as a student and as a teacher. Many are not specific enough for students. This forces students to guess what the teacher is looking for. Rubrics should be specific and layout exactly what is required to attain the rating listed. As for work samples, there are many good research studies that support using a student work sample to assess student learning. The problem is many teachers (in my experience) have evaluated student work samples with rubrics... May be worth investigating in the book mentioned in this article.