Last month, I saw a post about TED-Ed Clubs on Richard Byrne’s blog, Free Technology 4 Teachers. Hoping to host such a club next year, I applied. (According to the TED-Ed Clubs site, you may still apply.) This post isn’t actually about TED-Ed Clubs, since Richard and the TED-Ed site have that pretty well handled. … Read more
One of the sessions I attended at TCEA 2014 in Austin last week was called, “Global Collaboration in Elementary.” It was presented by Matt Gomez (@mattBgomez), and largely featured Twitter interactions his kindergarten students had experienced with other classes around the world. That’s right – Kindergarten. I work with gifted students in K-5, and I … Read more
Twisted Sifter has a great article that includes pictures of “40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World.” Not all of them are appropriate to show students, but some of them would be great to use for incorporating some Depth and Complexity into the classroom. Here are a few, and some suggestions. … Read more
If you have students who are working on Genius Hour or any kind of biographical research, you may want to have them check out “My Role Model” from the Academy of Achievement. This tool allows the user to choose from three different categories: what you want to achieve, what kind of personality you have, and … Read more
One of the booths I visited at the massive ISTE expo this week was the Brainpop booth. I got my picture taken with Moby, the famous Brainpop “mascot”, but, trust me, you don’t want to see it. This one is much better (Moby is on your right): I haven’t shared a lot about Brainpop on … Read more
The genius behind Zen Pencils is Gavin Aung Than. Zen Pencils is a “a cartoon blog which adapts inspirational quotes into comic stories.” I admire Than’s talent immensely, and I was so thrilled when I discovered his site. Like many people, I collect inspiring quotes, and when Than’s graphics accompany them, they are true art. You … Read more