Recent articles
4 strategies for boosting creativity
02/19/2019
Topics: Creativity
Creativity is more important than ever in the innovation age, where it’s not so much what we know but how we use what we know.
At San Lorenzo Unified School District, our 12-hour teacher tech academies are centered on the 4 C’s: collaboration, communication, creativity and critical…
5 resources to connect your students to real scientists
02/11/2016
Topics:
A challenge that science educators face is the need to create meaningful and relevant connections between their content and the scientific community. The task is neither new nor any more important than it was decades ago. In the past, teachers organized field trips or invited class speakers…
Start small when integrating ed tech
02/12/2016
Topics:
My sister, a first-year fifth grade teacher, just received a class set of iPads from her school district. When I heard this news, I was thrilled for her — after all, there is so much you can do! The possibilities are truly endless!
Sarah’s reaction, though, was filled with…
Do digital learning right
02/16/2016
Topics:
We all know it’s not about the technology but about what you do with it — or more specifically, what your students do with it to bolster critical thinking, collaboration and communication.
What’s not as easy to grok is knowing how to use ed tech to achieve that deeper…
6 ways to create a more engaging classroom
02/23/2016
Topics:
Most classrooms today still share one similarity with classrooms of more than a century ago: rows and rows of desks.
“Often when I’m leading a session, I’ll show a picture of a classroom from 1950 – and then we’ll look around and realize we’re in a classroom like the one…
Your students can create virtual reality expeditions
03/01/2016
Topics:
Virtual reality (VR) is on the verge of gaining a foothold in schools thanks to affordable viewers like Google Cardboard. And with…
Gameful lessons focus on the learning, not the product
03/09/2016
Topics:
Game-based learning traditionally involves either playing games, such as Minecraft, to master content or concepts, or using programs like Scratch or Gamester Mechanic to learn coding.
A third, less-talked-…
6 tools to spark a love of reading
03/02/2020
Topics: literacy, Tools, devices & apps
There are dozens of digital tools that are transforming reading — and we’re not just talking about e-readers and tablets. Innovation in literacy-focused edtech goes far beyond the format — whether it’s a physical book, a comic book, an ebook or audiobook — and focuses on enriching the…
Manage your Minecraft class
03/17/2016
Topics:
Minecraft is an extremely popular game for kids and adults. Whenever I mention the game to a new group of students, their eyes light up and they ask me, “You play Minecraft too?!” The buy-in is instantaneous.
The advantages of using Minecraft in the…
5 surprising results of a self-paced classroom
11/05/2019
Topics:
"It's like they've been spoon-fed until now."
"How are they going to meet deadlines when they're adults?"
"What does it take to get students to think for themselves?"
Until recently, these were the words my colleagues and I would utter…