So You Want To Teach?

20 Free Tech Tools for Learning and Communicating

karen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:40:45 +0000

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net.

Nearly everyone is familiar with Moodle, the learning management system that allows teachers to communicate and share learning resources online. But Moodle isn’t the only free platform that can accomplish these tasks. There are many other free tech tools and sites that offer similar capabilities. Here are 20 tools worth exploring.

Engrade – Over 150,000 teachers use Engrade’s suite of tools to manage their classrooms online. The tools allow teachers to post assignments, grades, and attendance books on the web. Engrade can also be used to connect and privately communicate with administrators, parents, and students.

21Classes – 21Classes makes classroom blogging easy, safe, and secure by providing free virtual classrooms and blog portals. Class homepages can be used to communicate with students and the fully-functional blogs can be easily monitored and customized.

Vyew – Vyew is a free collaboration and web conferencing platform that allows users to chat and share information in real-time. Teachers can use the tool to upload course content and other elearning materials.

VoiceThread – VoiceThread offers a secure network for K-12 teachers and students to collaborate and share information online. Items that can be shared include images, documents, and videos.

Mindomo – Mindomo is a web-based tool that can be used to collaborate and create mind maps online. The free version of Mindomo offers professional functionality, import/export features, and private maps.

Empressr – Empressr is a rich media presentation and storytelling tool. Site visitors can browse through current presentations to find learning materials or create their own private and public presentations.

SlideShare – The world’s largest presentation sharing community, SlideShare allows users to create and share slide shows and presentations. Materials can be kept private or made public. SlideShare supports Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and audio files.

Eduslide – Similar to SlideShare, Eduslide allows anyone to find, create, and share educational materials online. Materials can be presented through wikis, blogs, slideshows, and more.

Vcasmo – Vcasmo is a multimedia presentation tool that works especially well for academic teaching. It supports a variety of file formats and allows synchronization with videos and music.

LectureTools – LectureTools is a suite of tools that is free for instructors at any U.S. or Canadian university or college. The tools can be used to share slides, learning objects, and podcasts and to monitor students’ understanding of educational materials.

LearnHub – LearnHub is a social learning network where teachers can contribute their knowledge and learn from people all over the world.

Connexions- Connexions was created for people who want to share their knowledge online. Users can search through educational content that has been created by other people or upload their own learning modules.

TeacherTube – Described as a sort of “YouTube for teachers,” TeacherTube is an online community for sharing instructional videos. Teachers can post educational videos for students or for other educators.

WiZiQ – Created for teachers and learners, WiZiQ is a free platform that allows users to collaborate on virtual classes, online tests, and other educational content.

Tech & Learning – Tech & Learning is an award-winning publication that has served the K-12 education community for more than 30 years. This online resource offers blogs, articles, webinars, forums, and other tools that teachers can use to communicate and educate themselves online.

TeachAde – TeachAde is an online community for teachers and other education professionals. Members can contribute and collaborate on lesson plans and teaching materials. TeachAde also encourages members to share opinions and ask questions.

TheApple – TheApple is an active community of current and future teachers. Members can chat online, share lesson plans, explore professional development resources, and much more.

TeachStreet – TeachStreet is an online learning community. This unique site also allows teachers to promote themselves and their courses online.

GroupTweet – Teachers who like to communicate via Twitter will enjoy this free Twitter app which allows groups of users to chat privately via Twitter.

PodBean – PodBean is a great place to find educational podcasts and publish your own podcasts online. Podcasts can be published in three easy steps and promoted through iTunes and other handy tools.

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How Do We Show Our Students That We Love Them?

Joel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:25:55 +0000

When I was struggling to find hope early in my career as a teacher, I came across a few pieces of advice given by King Solomon from the Proverbs:

He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. — Proverbs 13:24

This one jumped out at me as I realized I overlooked way too much misbehavior. I came to understand that by continually letting the students misbehave because I wanted them to like me was actually counter-productive and instead it made them respect me less. More than that, it showed me that whereas I thought I was being loving, I was actually being hateful.

That helped me a whole lot as it set me on a course to control my classroom for the first time ever.

Recently, I relaxed a bit in that again and while it’s not as bad as it used to be, it’s not what I know it should be. I began to realize this more and more over the past couple of weeks. It was emphasized this week as I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink. I began to implement some changes on Thursday and things are much better.

The biggest problem
What I noticed was that I have found it all too easy once again to yell at the kids for not doing what I expect them to do. Why don’t they do it? Well, because they don’t really know my expectations. So I began working on the three basic rehearsal skills that I used to teach to my 6th graders but thought the 7th graders would know by the time they got to me. They didn’t really know them after all.

The rehearsal skills

Do not turn and talk to your neighbor when you are not playing
Sit still and quiet when the band director is working with another section
Always stop at the stopping point

With these three skills established (and I continually reinforce and remind the students of them), things immediately began to get better.

So what?
All of that would be fine and well, and it gives me more peace and helps me relax more. But it doesn’t really feel like everything is right in the world if that’s all I change.

Dig deeper
When I get to that place where things don’t feel like they are right, it’s probably because they’re not. That’s one lesson I took away from Blink. Even though I may not know why it doesn’t feel right, I have to trust that there’s a reason. So I began to dig deeper. And what did I find?

He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil. — 1 Peter 3:10-12 (emphasis added)

and

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. — Ephesians 6:4

and

A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger. — Proverbs 15:1

and

He who has knowledge spares his words,
And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace;
When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. — Proverbs 17:27,28

and

The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger,
And his glory is to overlook a transgression. — Proverbs 18:11

and finally

He who covers a transgression seeks love,
But he who repeats a matter separates friends. — Proverbs 17:9

So all the while I thought I was being loving by trying to keep students from doing a single thing wrong. I wasn’t being loving, I was merely provoking them and being nit-picky.

Moving forward
I wonder how many students have dropped out of band through the years as a result of my zeal to be right. I wonder how many kids have bad memories of me simply because they were testing the limits and got caught in the crossfire. I’m afraid I don’t really want to know the answer! But even if I did know the answer, it wouldn’t do any good now. What will do good is for me to analyze where I am now, and be sure that it lines up with the knowledge I currently have. I need to be constantly adjusting my teaching philosophy in response to whatever new knowledge I have. I need to be constantly striving to overlook minor problems and be sure that the ship is heading in the right direction.

I close with an excerpt from Blink that sort of points me in the direction I want to take my teaching:

“The first thing I told our staff is that we would be in command and out of control,” Van Riper says, echoing the words of the management guru Kevin Kelly. “By that, I mean that the overall guidance and the intent were provided by me and the senior leadership, but the forces in the field wouldn’t depend on intricate orders coming from the top. They were to use their own initiative and be innovative as they went forward. Almost every day, the commander of the Red [Van Riper's] air forces came up with different ideas of how he was going to pull this together, using these general techniques of trying to overwhelm Blue Team [the enemy] from different directions. But he never got specific guidance from me of how to do it. Just the intent.”

Once the fighting started, Van Riper didn’t want introspection. He didn’t want long meetings. He didn’t want explanations. “I told our staff that we would use none of the terminology that Blue Team was using. I never wanted to hear that word ‘effects,’ except in normal conversation. I didn’t want to hear about Operational Net Assessment. We would not get caught up in any of these mechanistic processes. We would use the wisdom, the experience, and the good judgment of the people we had.”

I have very simple rules. Don’t talk during rehearsal. Stay seated and don’t move around more than necessary during rehearsal. Don’t play extra notes during rehearsal. Now if only I can get myself to talk and micromanage less, I’ll be on the right track.

How do I show my students that I love them? By taking them to the place I want them to go without forcing them to be the people I think they should be. Let them retain their own personal identity, and things will run much more smoothly than ever before.

A big thank you goes out to Sarah of UrbanMusicEducation.org who recently reminded me of some of these things as well, even thought she doesn’t know she did!

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85+ Cool Sites I Found In October Via Twitter

Joel — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:49:42 +0000

I have been getting more and more into sharing information via Twitter recently. With 1,300 RSS subscribers, and only 850 Twitter followers, I know that not all of my readers are getting all of the links that I share. I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the links that I came across last month and shared on Twitter. If you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, you should start: @sywtt

Also, if you’re on Google Wave and would like to add me, feel free! My address is soyouwanttoteach.com@googlewave.com

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10 Books That Rocked My World

Joel — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:40:25 +0000

Over the last decade, I have read a handful of great books that forced me to think and consider a lot of things about the way I was living. I’ve mentioned some of these books before on the blog, but this week I read another one of those kinds of books and thought I would share more with my readers about some of these amazing books.

1999 – How To Win Friends And Influence People (buy on Amazon)
Back when I was in college, I didn’t know much about social interactions at all. I was horrible with remembering names, I didn’t really make much eye contact, and I just sort of needed this book to really open my eyes to the incredible power that I had to really impact the lives of other people.I remember some of the people I knew in school laughing at the fact that I was reading a book about making friends. Since I occupied leadership positions through high school and college, most people just assumed I knew something about how to establish relationships. I didn’t. This book helped me get started in the right direction more than anything else I had ever done. It was also my first real experience with reading outside of a formal or even informal educational setting.
2000 – The Bible (buy on Amazon)
I grew up attending church, but never really had much of an understanding of what exactly the point was, besides because my parents made me go. In the fall of 1999, I began to realize the need to get back involved in church and in the spring of 2000 I made the decision to go to church every week. Over the course of that spring, there were some challenges I went through, but around March, my eyes finally opened to the truth of the gospel:

Jesus lived a sinless life, took upon Himself my sin, paid the penalty for my sin (death), thereby atoning for my sin. He conquered death, rose again, and ascended to heaven, thereby clearing the way for me to spend eternity in heaven with Him.

When that became clear to me, I wanted nothing more than to read everything I could in the Bible. I remember there were times that I’d have 10 minutes between classes, and I would go sit outside and read a few more verses in the Bible, just soaking it all in. It was an amazing time in my life!
2001 – Mere Christianity (buy on Amazon)
After
2001 – Tortured for Christ (free from Voice of the Martyrs)
I remember reading Tortured for Christ while I was student teaching and just being blown away by the things that the author Richard Wurmbrand went through in prison. Up to this point, my only real understanding of Christianity was what I had seen in the American church. I was shocked by his accounts of torture and mistreatment that he underwent at the hands of the communist government in the Soviet Union.Around this time, I also read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (buy on Amazon) and read of the horrible treatment of Christians throughout history. The amazing thing is to read of the reactions of these martyrs despite the atrocities inflicted upon them.
2004 – Spiritual Leadership (buy on Amazon)
As I came to the understanding that my role as a teacher was one of remarkable leadership, I was struck by the weight of that realization. My pastor recommended J. Oswald Sanders’ book Spiritual Leadership and through a series of succinct chapters, he digs deep into the heart of what it means as a Christian to be a leader in the world.
2006 – The Total Money Makeover (buy on Amazon)
One afternoon in the spring of 2006, I came home to discover that my power had been shut off. I was usually pretty good about paying bills, but because of my work schedule and my habit of living on the edge financially, I had overlooked one late notice too many. At that point, I made up my mind that I would no longer live that way.After some research online, I kept coming across this Dave Ramsey guy. I had heard Dave Ramsey on the radio a few times before, but never read his book. I immediately subscribed to his podcast and picked The Total Money Makeover up the next time I was at Barnes & Noble. I read it in a matter of a few days and began implementing his Baby Steps as quickly as possible. Since then, I have yet to have another incident with the power being shut off or not being able to buy something because my credit card is declined. The feeling of power is a great thing!
2006 – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (buy on Amazon)
After listening to Dave Ramsey for a while, I realized it was time for me to jump in deeper into the personal development books and the one that kept seeming to pop up more than most any others was 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. So I bought a used copy (Dave’s impact on my life) and began reading. It was pretty meaty and difficult to get through at times, but I plowed through the book in the summer of 2006 and it profoundly changed the way I approached many things.
2007 – Revolution In World Missions (free from Gospel For Asia)
While this book is available for purchase from Amazon, it also available for free directly from the publisher, so I’m once again not including an Amazon link to this book. The basic premise is that Americans are blessed financially beyond most of the world’s comprehension. So much of that money gets wasted when we send people overseas as missionaries and could be far better spent by simply sending the money overseas and letting native people minister to the natives of their nation. As a result of reading this book, I began contributing to help support three missionaries in India. These men live on $90 a month. Can you imagine anyone from the western world trying to live anywhere for an entire month on less than $100?
2008 – The Pursuit of Holiness (buy on Amazon)
The Pursuit of Holiness is one of the many gift books that I have received over the years. I got it, placed it in a bookshelf, and almost completely forgot about it. Then one afternoon I was looking for a new book to read and picked it up. What a monumental book! Jerry Bridges says some things in here that fundamentally challenged what I had accepted as true up to that point. To say that I underwent a slight change in regards to my view of the holiness of God as a result of reading this book would be a vast understatement.
2009 – Blink (buy on Amazon)
I bought Blink one week ago and finished it yesterday. Blink is about the immediate feeling we have about seeing someone or something. It is about the power of making snap decisions based on understanding rather than waiting to make decisions based on knowledge. I found no less than five things in the book that will directly impact the way I teach from now on.

So have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts? What other books would you recommend for me or other readers?

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Latest Carnival of Education Posted

Joel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:59:52 +0000

I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening.

I’m hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren’t a ton of submissions. Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today? It’s too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com.

EDIT: It’s now too late to submit…but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11 anyway.

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7 Steps To Financial Freedom

Joel — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:16 +0000

This is a video of Dave Ramsey presenting his 7 Baby Steps. Following the summary video are 10 more videos with more specific details. If you haven’t heard Dave Ramsey before, you need to subscribe to his podcast. Now.

The Baby Steps Intro

Budgeting

Baby Steps

Debt Snowball

The Emergency Fund

Retirement Investment

College Savings

Pay Off Mortgage

Be A Giver

Build Wealth

Live Like No One Else

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The Adaptive Unconscious: You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression

Joel — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:44:06 +0000

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink (purchase on Amazon). Dave Ramsey has been recommending his latest book Outliers (purchase on Amazon) on his radio show lately but when I got to Barnes & Noble, I realized Blink was available in paperback and so was therefore quite a bit less expensive. I’ve heard Dave recommend it before, so I decided to go with the less costly alternative.

I began reading it this afternoon and came across the following paragraph on pages 12-13:

Whenever we meet someone for the first time, whenever we interview someone for a job, whenever we react to a new idea, whenever we’re faced with making a decision quickly and under stress, we use that second part of our brain [the adaptive unconscious]. How long, for example, did it take you, when you were in college, to decide how good a teacher your professor was? A class? Two classes? A semester? The psychologist Nalini Ambady once gave students three ten-second videotapes of a teacher — with the sound turned off — and found they had no difficulty at all coming up with a rating of the teacher’s effectiveness. Then Ambady cut the clips back to five seconds, and the ratings were the same. They were remarkably consistent even when she showed the students just two seconds of videotape. Then Ambady compared those snap judgments of teacher effectiveness with evaluations of those same professors made by their students after a full semester of classes, and she found that they were also essentially the same. A person watching a silent two-second video clip of a teacher he or she has never met will reach conclusions about how good that teacher is that are very similar to those of a student who has sat in the teacher’s class for an entire semester. That’s the power of our adaptive unconscious.

Now while the focus of the book is more on the power of intuitive gut-based decision-making, the takeaway for educators is pretty amazing.

It follows pretty much the same logic as a comment I recently saw on The Yellow Board where one younger band director was complaining about his classes this year that are out of control. The response one reader gave was basically to begin class looking to send 5 kids to the office. The poster added that whenever he did that, he did not have any trouble with the class whatsoever.

I think I’m going to try that approach with my woodwind class of 65 on Monday!

“65 Students?” You might ask. Yes. Some would say that is a huge disadvantage for the students in that they don’t get much individual attention in class. I have actually found that to not really be the case. Malcom Gladwell agrees with me. We have after school sectionals, and while there are a few students who demand more attention than others, most of the kids in that class actually tell me it’s one of their absolute favorite classes. Even the ones who didn’t like band last year!

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7 More Taylor Mali Videos

Joel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:10:59 +0000

A couple of years ago, I saw a few videos on YouTube of Taylor Mali reciting some of his poetry. I reposted one of them last night, and thought I would dig around and see if I could find some more. Here’s what I came up with.

The Impotence of Proofreading

On Girls Lending Pens

Reading Allowed

I Could Be A Poet

Speak With Conviction

Miracle Workers

Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh-Grade Viking Warrior

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Video: What Do Teachers Make by Taylor Mali

Joel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:42:04 +0000

By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

He says the problem with teachers is, “What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite company.

“I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor,” he says.
“Be honest. What do you make?”

And I wish he hadn’t done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won’t I let you get a drink of water?
Because you’re not thirsty, you’re bored, that’s why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, “Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?”
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

I’m sure this transcript has made the rounds of educational institutions worldwide, but when I saw it, the passion that Taylor Mali emits during the presentation is awesome.

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15 Free Ed-Tech Resources to Implement in the Classroom

karen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:56:32 +0000

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.

Teachers who are looking for technology to implement in their classroom can find many different resources online. From presentation apps to educational microblogs, the Internet has everything teachers need to improve learning experiences and productivity in the classroom. Here are 15 free ed-tech resources worth exploring:

Empressr – Empressr is a free, online presentation tool. It can be used to upload photos, audio, and video. Uploaded information can be shared publicly or with a select group of people.

Web-Chops – This unique web app makes it easy for teachers to share portions of the web with their students. Web-Chops allows you to collect and organize content from the web and transform it into your own custom pages.

Mindomo – Mindomo is a versatile mind mapping tool that makes it easy to create, organize, and share your ideas. It is a great brainstorming tool for the classroom.

Writewith – This easy-to-use web app can be used to collaborate with multiple people online. Writewith users can upload a document, assign tasks, chat, and track all changes.

ThinkFold – This structured outlining tool allows you to collaborate with others in real time. Thinkfold is a good way to brainstorm, organize notes, and turn plans into action.

Bookgoo – Bookgoo is a free web app that can be used to highlight and annotate student documents that were created on or uploaded to a classroom PC. This handy online tool is also great for students who want to share work with each other and get instant feedback.

SlideShare – SlideShare is the world’s largest presentation sharing community. It can be used to upload class presentations, share class lessons, embed presentations into a blog, and find interesting slideshows.

Edmodo – This microblogging site was created specifically for teachers and students. Edmodo can be used to share notes, files, assignments, grades, and events.

Edublogs – Edublogs is free blogging platform for teachers and students who want to start their own education-related blog. Special features include 20MB of free space, import/export capability, and blogger tutorials.

Flash Card Machine – The Flash Card Machine can be used by teachers and students to create and share flashcards online. Cards can be organized and built into customizable sites.

KeepandShare – KeepandShare is a secure file sharing network that’s perfect for the classroom. Students and teachers can store and share files, photos, documents, class calendars, and more.

Google Docs – This free web based suite of tools from Google gives classrooms the ability to collaborate and share assignments online. The suite includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool.

Zap Reader – Zap Reader is a speed reading program for reading text on a computer. You simply insert the text into the web based program and start reading. Zap Reader users can read up to 300% quicker without losing comprehension.

Evernote – This free web app allows you to capture notes, lists, reminders, research, and more. Evernote can be accessed with any Internet capable device, making it easy for students and teachers to access research and notes from home.

Eduslide – Eduslide is free software that can be used to create and publish educational content online. A few of the things you can create include slideshows, chat rooms, wikis, and testing modules.

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