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‘A’ Is for Apps: Teachers Share Top Digital Tools of the Trade

 

With well over 2 million combined active apps in the popular app markets, more and more teachers are turning to mobile devices for today’s teaching, learning and assessment needs. On September 16, 2014, NPR featured Elissa Nadworny’s article about schools adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives and the apps they may find useful.

Image:  Anthony Sigalas via Flicker 
Image:  Anthony Sigalas via Flicker 

Posted by: Ryan Schaaf

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Nestled between Julia Auster’s fantasy football app and Facebook Messenger is a relatively new bucket of apps: the education tools she uses in the French classes she teaches at Robert Adams Middle School in Holliston, Mass.

Auster isn’t alone.

With more students bringing their own tech into the classroom, teachers are finding that apps aren’t just fun — they’re valuable tools to help manage student behaviors, to communicate with parents and to connect learning with social media. In short, they help inform how and what to teach.

And the best part: Many of these apps are free.

As the new school year gets underway, NPR checked in with school technologists and teachers to see what digital tools they’re using.

Remind

One of the most popular mobile apps we heard about was Remind. Think of it as a combo of sticky note and class newsletter for the digital age: Remind allows teachers to send messages — via email, cellphone, iPad or Android device — to an entire class with the push of a button.

Teachers are using it to notify parents and students about homework, highlight upcoming school events or let parents know what’s going on in class.

An estimated 18 million people have downloaded Remind, the company says, with 200,000 to 300,000 new users coming on board per day. In states like Texas and Mississippi, the company says, 1 out of 4 teachers uses Remind.

Remind has recently added a voice messaging function, which Michael Buist, a fifth-grade teacher at Knox Gifted Academy in Chandler, Ariz., loves. His class is currently readingWhere the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. To tell the class and their parents about the next reading assignment, Buist recorded one student, 10-year-old Robert Turner, reading a paragraph.

“We’re so happy with all this technology,” says Sarah Turner, Robert’s mother. “Robert has dysgraphia, a handwriting disability, so doing things with technology has really helped him.”

ClassDojo

ClassDojo might be described as a way to help students find their classroom mojo. The app lets teachers recognize both positive and negative behavior in real time during class.

Good behavior — like working hard, helping others, asking a good question — earns points and a high-pitched game-show chime for all to hear. Poor behavior — like disrupting class, being off task or wasting time — results in a loss of points and a sad, out-of-tune bass sound. The kids choose fun avatars — a purple bear with yellow lips and horn, a one-eyed furry gray creature — and parents who sign up for notifications receive updates on how their children are doing.

ClassDojo works on cellphones and tablets, as well as outdated Web browsers like Internet Explorer 8. And that’s by design.

“We want teachers to be able to use ClassDojo regardless of how much money their school or district has,” says Manoj Lamba, ClassDojo’s marketing lead. The company estimates that at least one teacher at one-third of all U.S. schools uses the app.

Libby Gronquist credits ClassDojo for getting her through her first years of teaching eighth-grade social studies at KIPP Liberation College Prep in Houston.

She connected ClassDojo to the class speakers so everyone could hear the app’s sounds — good and bad.

“It made all my students hyperaware of their behavior,” says Gronquist. “They all wanted that positive sound to be theirs.”

Since the app debuted three years ago, it’s developed new features that enable messaging and photo-sharing between parents and teachers.

Brenda Johnson was introduced to ClassDojo last year when her son Austin, 10, was a third-grader at Penngrove Elementary School in Rohnert Park, Calif. She says the app gave her a better understanding of what was happening in the classroom and helped spark conversation at home.

“Austin needed it. He’d come home from school and want to know how he did,” says Johnson. “If he hadn’t done well we could talk about it, so it became a conversation about his behavior.”

QR Code Readers

Teachers are also trying to break the QR code — that’s “quick response” code, a kind of digital bar code.

Among them is Ed Campos, a math and tech teacher at Visalia Charter Independent Study high school in Visalia, Calif. He recently emailed parents requesting they download QR code readers in preparation for the school’s upcoming open house.

To show off his students’ digital work, Campos plans to leave QR codes throughout the classroom so parents can scan them with their smartphones to access online portfolios.

Campos, a self-declared tech fanatic, incorporates technology into the majority of his assignments. Student work includes Google presentations and video testimonials; they will also use a website — QRStuff — to create QR codes that lead their parents to their online work.

“We’re using QR codes to link the physical to the digital,” Campos says. He recommends i-nigma as his QR code scanner of choice.

Twitter

Other teachers are employing the mobile apps their students are already using to reinforce classroom lessons and encourage kids to continue their discussions online.

Students of Nicholas Ferroni, a history teacher at Union High School in Union, N.J., send tweets sprinkled with emoji that describe historical events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 or the British Stamp Act of 1765.

He’s also embracing his students’ digital lives in other ways, such as asking them to create memes using photos related to what they’re studying in class. For example, a student paired a picture of a typewriter with the line: “Macintosh … I am your father!” The students can then share the images on their own social media platforms.

Ferroni also uses everyday apps such as Vine, Facebook and Instagram, and recommends Poptok, a game structured like Candy Crush that teaches 1 of 11 languages.

Socrative

As its name suggests, Socrative relies on questions: In its simplest form, Socrative is a polling app. Teachers set up questions — multiple choice, short answer or true/false. Students use their version of the app to receive questions and submit answers.

“Socrative is a very easy, simple way to get a feel for your classroom,” says Chris McEnroe, an English teacher at Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass.

McEnroe uses the app — which is also free and multiplatform — to find out everything from what students’ favorite flavor of ice cream is, to their thoughts on a character in an assigned reading.

The app tracks and records the answers, and can generate reports based on the results. When shared, McEnroe says, the results connect students with similar views.

His biggest teaching challenge, he says, is trying to get an emotional reaction from his students. He finds he gets those introspective answers when students can respond to questions through their smartphones.

“Reaching students on their phones, a space where they are alone and it’s personal, is a way to do it that the students don’t find threatening,” he says.

The answers also help inform how McEnroe interacts with students and designs future class discussions.

“In addition to opening communication, digital tools create data for teachers to make teaching decisions that suit the individuals in front of them,” McEnroe says.

The information is particularly helpful for students who seem reserved or disinterested. These types of digital tools, McEnroe says, “have completely changed my approach to students.”

 

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Lack of Sleep Increases Risk of Failure in School Among Teens

For adolescents, adequate sleep is crucial for proper growth. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that teens need a little more than nine hours of sleep each night. Previous researches have highlighted how lack of sufficient sleep puts teens at the risk of cognitive and emotional difficulties, disciplinary problems, negative moods and lack of attention at school.Their latest study, led by researchers at Uppsala Universitet, highlights other problems linked with lack of sleep. This September 24, 2014 Science World article by Benita Matilda reveals that adolescents who suffer from sleep disturbance or habitual short sleep duration are unlikely to progress academically as compared to those who receive sufficient sleep.

Posted by Sherwen Mohan

Original Source 

A new Swedish study links lack of sleep among adolescents to an increased risk of failure in school.

For adolescents, adequate sleep is crucial for proper growth. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that teens need a little more than nine hours of sleep each night. Previous researches have highlighted how lack of sufficient sleep puts teens at the risk of cognitive and emotional difficulties, disciplinary problems, negative moods and lack of attention at school.

The latest study, led by researchers at Uppsala Universitet, highlights other problems linked with lack of sleep. They reveal that adolescents who suffer from sleep disturbance or habitual short sleep duration are unlikely to progress academically as compared to those who receive sufficient sleep.

The finding is based on the evaluation of more than 20,000 adolescents, aged between 12-19 years, from Uppsala County. They noticed that risk of failure in school increased if the adolescents slept for less than 7 hours per day. .

“Another important finding of our study is that around 30 percent of the adolescents reported regular sleep problems. Similar observations have been made in other adolescent cohorts, indicating that sleep problems among adolescents have reached an epidemic level in our modern societies,” said Christian Benedict, lead researcher of the study.

Recently, a study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh found that increasing the amount of sleep helps teens improve insulin resistance and prevent the future onset of diabetes.

The study was documented in the Journal Sleep Medicine. It was supported by the Swedish Brain Foundation and Novo Nordisk Foundation.

©2014 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.

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Embracing Student Creativity with a Wonder Shelf

This wonderful article by Rafranz Davis was originally published in Edutopia on September 24, 2014. She writes about creating a “Wonder Shelf” – a shelf full of digital and non-digital discovery tools for students to play with. What a wonderful way to move beyond self discovery to self directed learning.

Posted by Sherwen Mohan

Original Source 

As a high school math teacher, it was important for me to create a learning space that welcomed on-demand wonder and exploration. I knew that I planned to have a few essential hands-on math tools, and in the last few years, I also knew that I needed to have other items that were essential for providing kids more creative freedom. With a few containers, manipulatives, and supplies, along with some technology, I created a space that my students would go on to name “the wonder shelves.” What you are about to read was not an overnight process, but one that grew over an eight-year span.

Components of the Wonder Shelves

A few years ago, the wonder shelves housed our classroom math manipulatives sorted into individual or group containers. I knew that I wanted our learning tools to be accessible as needed, but I also knew that I needed to keep them organized to save time. Using disposable food containers individualized by purpose or tool, I created a system for organizing tools that kids could explore during lessons, after lessons, and sometimes before or after school.

As I got to know my students, I began learning about their other interests outside of class. I found that many were dabbling in the creative arts, so I added quite a few things specific to those pursuits during the course of the year. Our shelves grew to hold art pads, sketchbooks, air-dry clay, molding tools, various markers, art pencils, beads, string, Legos, K’nex, and glue.

While this may sound a bit much for a high school algebra 1 or geometry class, it was amazing to see students use their downtime to explore their interests, create, and learn. On many occasions, I found them creating items specific to areas that we were studying, like making bracelets or necklaces that involved recursive or geometric sequences, and then challenging their peers to determine the equation. They created structures using Legos and K’nex to build us a geometric city where we explored concepts like taxicab geometry, angle pair relationships, and even measurement.

Through our school’s Upward Bound Math and Science program, which I sponsored, we inherited a Lego Mindstorm kit and that opened up an entirely new world to students in the area of robotics. We had no idea how to actually program the robot, but the Mindstorm kit didn’t sit idle on the shelf. We learned together, and in the process, we developed meaningful relationships that enhanced our growth in and out of class.

When I received classroom technology like laptops and iPads, they were housed on the wonder shelves and not locked away in a cabinet. Doing this created a space where learning extended to whatever students could create and interact with on a device. I was pleasantly shocked to turn on an iPad and see a stop-motion creation using clay to illustrate changes in volume of a cylinder — and this was something that I hadn’t assigned! When you give kids space and access to explore, this is what can happen.

Our latest addition was a MakeyMakey after I learned about it through Twitter. I never told the kids what it did. They looked it up on their own, and before long, it became the hit of the wonder shelf as if their daily goal was to try “crazy” ideas and test them. These were the moments that the early-morning Edmodo alerts came through. Kids wanted to make sure that I was there!

From Wonder Shelf to Makerspace

What I created in my classroom space was a place where kids could explore learning and create. Until this summer, it never occurred to me that what we had developed was in essence the “theoretical” definition of a Makerspace. As I talked about this space over the summer, many teachers asked how we did this with administrative holds on creativity outside of the curriculum. Simply put, my students and I had designed in-class learning that adhered to our goals. What kids did when they met those goals or on their own time was fair game, and this space gave room to the idea of learning beyond our standards.

The wonder shelves also meant that my students, with a majority of them falling into more marginalized populations, were provided experiences that they would not have had in any other learning venue.

Do you have a wonder shelf or something similar in your classroom? Please tell us about it.

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Six Alternatives To Book Reports

This article written by John Spencer on his blog on September 22, 2014 offers some interesting ways to engage students in writing book reports using digital tools.  

Posted by Sherwen Mohan

Original Source 

When I was a kid, I hated book reports. I hated filling out a form describing what I read. I wasn’t a fan of artsy crafty alternatives, like cereal box projects or dioramas. What I did love, though, was geeking out on what I read. I loved arguing about who was better, what they should have done, etc. I loved making mash-ups and fan fiction. So, with that in mind, I have created some visual writing ideas that are alternatives to the standard book report. This allows students to explore their favorite trends in books.

What makes this fun is that kids get to rethink the role of the setting in the book. Sometimes it helps to start with a simpler question like, “How did the setting shape the character?” However, this is a more creative variant of that question. I love the notion of universes colliding and characters exploring their shared experiences.

I’ve always thought it would be cool if Ira Glass would interview the entire Weasely family. The antagonist is arrested at the end of the book. Write a question-and-answer interrogation. 

Write a review. Consider things like the plot and pacing (did it keep you engaged?), the characters (did they actually develop and were they realistic?) the setting (was it a place you would wand to be?), and the author’s writing style.

A Few More 

I have a few other ideas that I’ve never tested out. I’m not sure if they would work well. Create a TED Talk from the perspective of one of the characters.

Enter the world of your story and write an editorial about the character’s actions.
Look at the Periodic Table of Storytelling and identify the tropes.
Write a movie pitch for your book. Explain how the movie will be similar and different and why it might work well in that format. Just add ninjas. Retell the story with ninjas. How does that change the work?

If you find the visual writing ideas intriguing, they are part of a larger social publishing platform called Write About. We haven’t launched yet, but when we do, we’ll be taking student publishing to a whole new level.

John Spencer is a teacher, author, speaker, and incessant doodler. He is the co-author of Wendell the World’s Worst Wizard and the co-founder of Write About. He is passionate about helping students develop into better writers and deeper thinkers.