Reading 2.0

Many educators are worried about how technology is affecting the amount of reading that students are doing. They notice that:

  • Students are struggling to read and comprehend longer texts.
  • Students are struggling to read deeply.
  • Many students report that they don’t read outside of school at all.

There are a few contributing factors to this, technology being one and high-stakes testing being another. (more…)

Why Should Teachers Use Twitter in Education?

Twitter like all other social media is a virtual Aladdin’s cave. It is a gateway to riches. But just like in the story, this Aladdin’s cave is also booby-trapped. Use it right and you will come away with the genie of knowledge ready to do your bidding. Use it wrong and you will be a casualty of wasted time. So, ‘rub’ it just right. Long back, we had taken a look at how to use Twitter for business. Many of the methods hold true for learning (more…)

6 Ideas for Connected Classrooms

by 

Bev Berns @B_Berns (Iowa), Kim Powell (Michigan) @powell4thgrade live and work in different states supporting their teachers. That has not stopped them from connecting and creating projects for teachers everywhere (including theirs). In fact, I believe that they are redefining what regional support staff should be doing: Making connection (more…)

10 Advanced Tips & Tricks For Google Forms

If Google Forms is not yet your go-to form maker, it’s time for us to change your mind. You may think you know everything there is to know about Google Forms, but thanks to Google’s use-it-and-you’ll-work-it-out attitude, perhaps you don’t. There are a lot of powerful tools hidden away in places you may not ever find unless you know what you’re looking for. We’re here to make sure you know all the top tricks of (more…)

Teachingnology

What are we up to?

TTTLogo.2012-13We @Teachingnology are all teachers and we want to spread the word of technology in classroom. It is very common for us to find teachers who are interested in learning how to get technology into their classes but  just don’t know how to start. The reason for creating this blog is that we want to share great  ideas and experiences of other teachers. The posts we share are collected on the web and most of them have been previously tested in real classes. We hope you can have a nice experience with it, and when you do that, let us know! Follow us on twitter @teachingnology!

8 ways to improve pronunciation

8 easy ways to improve your pronunciation!

Here are 8 things you can do to really improve your English pronunciation.

1 Set a goal!
When it comes to pronunciation, the most important thing is that people can understand you. You’re never going to sound like a native speaker. But that isn’t a problem. English is a universal language with hundreds of different accents (both native and non-native ones). So, aim to make your accent as clear and understandable as possible.

2 Listen!
Listening is the key to improving your pronunciation. Basically, the more you listen to English, the more you’ll understand; and the more you understand, the easier it’ll be (more…)

22 Ways To Use Twitter For Learning

Last year we created a “twitter spectrum,” an image that clarified different ways that twitter could be used in the classroom in (hopefully) authentic ways.

TeachBytes has followed that up with an excellent graphic of their own that uses a pure Bloom’s Taxonomyapproach.

The specific ideas range from “remix trending tweets with video and music” to creating concept maps showing the relationship between tweets.

We must admit to going back and forth over the exact fit of a social media platform like twitter in a formal (or informal) learning environment. Clearly it’s a great way to skim and monitor information streams, but just like we wouldn’t use sing Shakespearean sonnets to toddlers at birthday parties, using twitter as an in-depth critical thinking tool requires a bit of squinting, even as an Avante-garde 21st century learning tool.

Unless you’re using it as a (more…)