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iLearn Spelling Course Training Series
The Tech Coaches are excited to announce a training series for the elementary spelling course! We have had an overwhelming response to a spelling course created and shared throughout the district. What started out as a pilot for 4 fourth grade classrooms is now...
Feedback is Not an Option…
…it’s an imperative. If you’ve paid even scant attention to any of the educational research conducted over the last 30 years, you are aware that giving students specific, timely, actionable feedback has the most significant impact on student learning of any strategy known to humankind.
Embracing Google
It’s not a secret anymore. The answers are out there. Whether it’s a high-level writing prompt or a simple multiple-choice question from the publisher’s question bank, the reality is the same: if it’s been used at all before, the answers are likely posted somewhere on the internet.
Student Online Publishing Raises the Stakes for Writing
For some students, publishing work online raises the stakes a little bit. Because it will be viewable by more people than just their teacher, many students put forth the extra effort to make things look good, care a little more about their grammar, and spend a little more time on the presentation.
Q: What Cool Tech Tool Should We Start with? A: None.
No tool or strategy, regardless of whether it is high tech or an engaging activity, is ever the right place to start planning a lesson.
Revamping a Webquest
…as students began working, we noticed that all they had to do is google the exact question and the search returned the work of students who had done the webquest before and had published their answers online. Were they cheating? I’m not so sure. After all, we were asking them to search for answers online–and that’s exactly what they did. Were they cheating themselves in the long run? That’s more likely. But not because they were finding answers…
Bryant’s Online “My Learning Plan”: Year 2
Over the next couple weeks, students will begin creating pages on Mahara, Dearborn’s ePortfolio system. These MLP pages will include their NWEA scores, their academic goals for all of the core areas and extended core, and their personal goals. And each team of teachers is currently thinking of ways to help students showcase even more of who they are using these pages.
Calling it Learning When it Isn’t
Simply putting technology in the hands of our students is not magically going to increase achievement. Neither is having them go through the motions of all the other strategies we try to employ. Just being “engaged” doesn’t mean a student is being enriched.
Elementary Moodle Courses Available – A Year in Review
Using iLearn (Moodle) for critical thinking skills, oral language development, vocabulary building and more at the elementary level just became easier! I have been busy creating some iLearn (Moodle) courses that elementary teachers can use immediately. Below is a...
![Go [Digital] Eagles!](https://techcoaches.dearbornschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/05/IMG_0016-400x250.jpg)
Go [Digital] Eagles!
This year, I've been working with an amazing team of sixth grade ELA teachers at Bryant Middle School to make the transition to implementing My Learning Plan on a digital platform using Mahara. Previously, the team was introduced to Mahara and some of the...
Good with Technology
Here's another one of my analogies for you: Being "good with technology" : integrating technology :: being good at cursive : writing ability The fact of the matter is that most people in the professional world are "good with technology". It's pretty much a...
The Path of Least Resistance Around Our Pedagogy
I used to tell people that 80% of my job was finding creative ways to prevent kids from cheating. That was a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s how it feels sometimes, doesn’t it? We want kids to internalize their learning. We want them to be good, conscientious pupils, just like we were. We want them to forgo all of the modern conveniences–cell phones, the internet, Google–and just learn it for themselves like we did.
Cool Tech Tool: Google Docs Revision History Analytics
Many teachers who have used Google Docs with their students have taken advantage of the Revision History tool, which allows you to see specific changes made to the document by various editors. To get a better picture of how much members of a group are contributing to...
Effective Peer Assessment that Transcends Technology
Over the past two years, several teachers in Dearborn have been integrating technology to help their students engage in effective peer- and self-assessment. Utilizing the Moodle Workshop module, students have assessed their own work and that of their peers with...
The Best Curator in the Room
"To select, organize, and present, typically using professional or expert knowledge." That's Google's definition of the word curate--a 14th century term that comes from the Latin word curare, which means to care. And who really does? Well, teachers do. For centuries,...
Demolition Crew
Teachers across our district work tirelessly to crush barriers to student learning. Armed with a desire to do whatever it takes, many rightly equip themselves with a tool set that includes technology in order to make themselves extremely effective at...
Technicolor for Today & Ode to an Unused Book
Now here's a test I'd actually like to take. Recently, Dr. Olga Dub at Woodworth assessed her students on their understanding of the rock cycle. To do this, Dr. Dub created a Moodle quiz complete with quality images in full color, as well as a variety of question...
Glue, Glitter, and Gold (Part 2)
As I mentioned in Part 1, we can spend a lot of time adding things on to our lessons that make them shine...at least for a while. It's often just glitter. Here today, gone tomorrow--along with all of the time we spent putting it together and learning how it all...
Digital Alternatives to Reading Logs
We All Make Mistakes I recently read an article published on Shaelynn Farnsworth's blog, entitled 6 Alternatives to Reading Logs. It piqued my interest because I remember assigning reading logs in my classroom, and how that plan didn't always work out so well. When I...
iLearn Courses for Elementary Students- Activities Teachers Can Use in Their Classrooms RIGHT NOW!
Ready-Made, Ready to Use Courses Over the past month, I have been busy creating a few courses that teachers could use right now. These courses were designed to be imported into a current iLearn course, so they can be edited to fit individual needs, or they can be...
Interactive Review: How Dearborn Social Studies Teachers are Changing the Game
Over the past two weeks, I have been working with a team of outstanding high school social studies teachers, including Mr. Hussein Beydoun, Mr. Marc Golles, Mr. William Harrison, Mr. Pete Kotsogiannis, Mrs. Katie Meyers, Mr. Jamie Nack, Ms. Fatmeh Rida, and Mrs....
Technology for Lifelong Learning
Our Goal
The goal of instructional technology coaches is to help teachers become effective at using technology to provide the most technology-rich, positive learning environments possible. To this end, we believe effective teachers…
- Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.
- Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.
- Model digital age work and learning.
- Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.
- Engage in professional growth and leadership.
from Standards for Teachers.
