Book Creator in the Classroom

Using Evernote to create a Student Checklist

I ran across an article today sharing an interesting way for teachers to use Evernote.  I personally cannot live without Evernote.  There are so many different ways it can be used.  The article "I Have Finally Found It!" shares how teachers can create a student checklist and then share it with others, which means more than one person can access the checklist at once.  Think about how many times throughout the school year a teacher could use a checklist... field trips, fundraisers, receipting money, fire drills, etc.
Take a minute to check out this article if it sounds like something you might find helpful!

Popplet: Mind Mapping on iPads

Mind Mapping with iPads

Horry County Schools is in the process of rolling out 1:1 iPads to all middle school students in our district.  Popplet is one of the apps we are encouraging teachers to use.  It is a great tool for mind-mapping, brainstorming, etc.  I ran across this post earlier this evening on TeachThought titled "10 Mind Mapping Strategies for Teachers."  It has some great ideas to get those wheels turning and to help teachers think of different ways they can begin to use mind mapping tools, such as Popplet, in their classroom.  

Within the article, there is a suggestion to use mind maps as a form of assessment:

Assessment: A great way to use Mind Maps for assessment is to ask students to express their ideas about a topic in a Mind Map before and after a class. Students will retain the information better and it will also reassure teachers that students remember and understand the knowledge.

I was intrigued by a few of the ideas and had to share!
:-) Danielle

by andrea.leyden

Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess

A Look at Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess

Throughout our careers, we all have "those days" at some point, no matter how positive we start the day.  I love the way Dave Burgess approaches such moments.  As educators, we quite often have to teach content we are not excited about delivering.  When those dreary feelings of despair sneak up on us and we discover that we are delivering our lessons without passion, it is time to reevaluate our future lessons.  Just because the content is not exciting to us, we can use the moment to teach what Dave refers to as "LCLs." In his book, Dave refers to LCLs as life-changing lessons, and he proceeds to give several examples showing how he took the normally mundane lesson and instilled LCLs.  As educators, most of us are in the profession to make a difference in the lives of children.  What better way than to sneak in an LCL that might possibly be a revelation to a child in the middle of teaching lattice multiplication!  Great read and I know you are all curious about how exactly teachers can be compared to pirates... pick up a copy of Teach Like a Pirate for a bit of summer inspiration!