Tellagami came across my radar again last week. And the timing was right. I had a few minutes to download the app on our iPod Touches and within a minute I had created an avatar that appeared to be standing in Abbot School computer lab, dealing with printing issues. (Check him out here.) OK- not [...]

Always wanting to learn and connect with others in the field of technology integration, I joined a MOOC yesterday. (I would expect a lot of raised eyebrows at this point wondering what I am talking about…) What is a MOOC? It stands for Massive Open Online Course. And I’m one of about 1400 people worldwide [...]

As the end of the school year draws to a close, I’m trying to be proactive in the area of future software purchases and upgrades. What will we need next year? And most importantly, in what do we really need to invest those limited budget funds? If we upgrade our Macs to OS 10.7, one [...]

Looking for a visual and interactive way for students to display learning? Give SpiceyNodes a try. This free service lets the user create nodemaps (a.k.a. webs or concept maps) about a topic. What takes this tool beyond traditional webbing and graphic organizers of the past is the user’s ability to customize for an audience’s experience.  [...]

Do you find researching with elementary age students to be a real challenge? (If yes- keep reading! OK- and if you don’t have time to read, at least watch the demo video at the bottom of this post!) Just setting students loose on a search engine is not an option. Even though we have a [...]

I wanted to share something that we are piloting at grade 4 in our school: online math logs. Four nights per week, students are expected to complete a two minute timed math fact practice sheet. These sheets must be returned to school. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and the school district is looking [...]

When I taught first grade we used to go on a hunt around the school for things that we were studying. For example, if our focus in math was right angles, we would grab our clipboards, papers and pencils and walk around the halls, library, cafeteria, office, playground and where ever in the school twenty [...]

I feel like I’m bursting at the seams with new ideas and approaches to share with teachers, but there is never enough time during the school day to grab their attention. And a jam packed curriculum makes things a very hard sell these days. But I know that teachers want to learn. I know that they [...]

Many teachers, students and parents are not thrilled with reading logs. Why? Paper reading logs are flat. On the norm, they only show a list of book titles. Therefore, there is not a lot of investment. Students (often with the prodding of parents) fill out these sheets to fulfill an obligation. At the end of [...]

Will Richardson’s article “Publishers, Participants All” in the February 2011 Educational Leadership really struck me this week. We all tell our students and children not to talk to strangers. Safety is paramount whether we’re on the street or online. However, if we really want to get students embedded in a global community of sharing, we [...]