The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading comprehension. Book reports can be a contributing factor to 'readicide'. "Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools." http://stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm. So, how can we as teachers continue ...

Being a first year teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. There is new curriculum to learn, unfamiliar school policies, classroom management challenges, and new teammates. Technology can help to ease some of these first year growing pains. 1. Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter. Twitter is an excellent place for new teachers to connect, collaborate, share ideas, ...

One of the major benefits of using technology in the classroom is the ability to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student in every lesson. Just as every student grows and develops at different rates, they learn in different ways and at different speeds. Technology makes it possible to pace lessons appropriately for each student's learning level and can ...

If you want to spice up your lessons and get your students motivated, using the internet is a great way to get started. There are many free sites that offer fun and games for students that teachers can use as educational tools. Some applications focus on reading and science, while other offer tools that you can apply to just about any ...

What is it? I have posted before about a website called Free Rice. This vocabulary game has the added benefit of donating rice to help end world hunger. For each correct answer, Free Rice donates 20 grains of rice on your behalf. This isn’t the only website with a cause. Aid to Children is a vocabulary game like Free Rice — ...

I’m asked all the time how I can stay current on all the latest technology that my students are involved with. The answer, as I shall explain, is simple and takes only three steps (maybe four). It’s true confession time. I learned about face-book from a soccer player. He couldn’t get off the site long enough to participate in class. MySpace ...

If you're wondering what "Web 2.0" is, then keep reading! It's time you learned what you're missing and how many great (and free) applications that you can utilize. Make reading, language arts, and even communicating with parents easier and more enjoyable. Below are five great ways you can get started found by Teaching featured writer, Kelly Tenkely. If you are already ...

I am a computer teacher at a large private school. I teach 545 students every week in kindergarten through fifth grade. During my off hours, I am a technology integration specialist, helping teachers utilize technology to increase student learning. A Typical School Day: 7:00 Leave the house, I am SO lucky to live minutes away from the school, on nice days ...

One of Teaching’s members, John Slattery of Santa Fe, NM, touched our community with his post of how he helped get 50 laptops donated to children in third world countries. This story warms the heart and reminds us that simple actions can have profound effects. You may have heard of the fabled "$100 laptop" that's been generating buzz for several ...

The internet is one of the most popular and valuable tools for finding and sharing information. Educators can take advantage of all the internet has to offer students with many sites that were designed for classroom use. From catching a bad internet character in a game to social networking with tweens in mind, these sites offer teachers good direction and ...

Using blogs for educational purposes can seem like a no-brainer to some, while to others it seems like the worst idea for the classroom. Many educational institutions have strict guildelines when using (or not using) blogs for teaching purposes. Featured writer, Katt Blackwell, discusses with us why she's been told "no" and what you can do about it. h4. Using ...

It can be challenging to find time to engage one-on-one with each student daily, but active learning is important for student comprehension and retention. When you can't reach every student every minute, let technology step in to help. There are several free websites that offer curriculum integration with videos, games, and interaction in a variety of subject areas. Some of these ...

The signs of technological revolution are everywhere - kids with their cells and ipods; teachers with their laptops, digital presentations, and parents and teachers and kids with their blackberries. The possibilities of course, are endless….. Since we are teachers working in a digital age, we also need to think a bit more digitally in both the user and learner sense of ...

The hot currency to kids in my classes is ‘free’ computer time - as in, time on a computer DURING class, where they can choose their own activity. In my experience, so many teachers look down on this as simply a waste of computer lab time and a teacher not doing his/her job - I look at it very differently. A ...

Fold a US Candidate is a fun site that has paper foldable puppets of the US candidates for the 2008 election. This is a fun site to get your students interested in the upcoming election. (I am very entertained by this right now!) Both presidential nominees are featured as well as their wives. There is also an election day count down ...

Join NASA’s Return to the Moon by sending your name to the moon. Names are being collected online by NASA and will be placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its next mission to the moon. Students who sign up will receive a certificate showcasing their support of this historic mission back to the moon. The purpose of LRO is to map ...

I have found this year that I have been making a lot of progress on my own personal teaching style. It’s my 6th year to teach, and I begin what could be seen as the downhill slope of teaching. Now that I am pretty adequate at getting children to be and stay quiet throughout class so that I can teach them, ...

Amol Patel, biology teacher at Heritage High School in Leesburg, Virginia was a first-year teacher when he discovered that the use of podcasting can transform instruction in the classroom. The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Fellow initially implemented podcasts as a solution to poor attendance. “I made podcasts of lectures, including the best questions asked in class, so that students who missed ...

The internet is the way of the future for technology-savvy educators. Creating a website for your class can be a worthwhile tool to connect and share with members of the class, parents, other teachers and the world! Post news, photos, links and other useful tools. If you want to create a website for your class but don’t know where to ...

The latest issue of "Technology Counts" released a study that grades state schools on technology in three different areas: access to technology, use of technology and their capacity to use technology. It seems that no one mentions education these days without talking about the use of technology, so the study drives home how far education has come. Since 1994, schools overall ...