Future of Technology

While this video is a few years old, it makes you think hard about the effects of technology on our world today. It is amazing to think that when this video was created in 2007, the "future" is what we now consider the present. This means that with the advancements in technology since then, the data in this video shows less of an effect from technology than there is today. Enjoy the video!

Literactive: "Teaching Children to Read"

Photo Credit: www.literactive.com

Literactive is an interactive website that is great for helping students learn to read and practice literacy skills. The activities can be used by single students or as a group or class on a Promethean or Smart Board. The websites provides resources and activities for teaching Reading and ESL. It is truly a great resource to be used in the classroom! It's even better because kids will love it!

Kerpoof!

Logo image from: www.kerpoof.com

I think a very important part of teaching is taking advantage of all the new technology available to teachers. This includes many interactive, educational websites. One of these is Kerpoof. I am currently observing in a Kindergarten classroom in an inner city school. All the classrooms have Promethean Boards. We use ours a lot for instruction and to reinforce students' learning through practice activities. Kerpoof is one of the websites we use for spelling. However, there are many other activities that can be used on Kerpoof. There are also activities to practice other skills like writing and drawing. Teachers can also access lesson plans, activities, and other ideas for the classroom. It is a mostly free website. There are some parts of the website that require a membership fee. It is a great tool to use in the classroom, especially if a Promethean Board or Smart Board is available.

Area and Perimeter

The link below is an interactive website guide to Area and Perimeter. It is useful for students individually and also to be used as a class on a Promethean Board. It first teaches how to calculate area and perimeter and then gives problems where students can enter the answer to check it. For students struggling to learn area and perimeter, this is an alternate, hands-on way for them to learn and practice!

http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html

60 Educational Apps

This presentation is quite useful for teachers, especially ones with iPhones, iPads, or other similar products! It lists 60 educational apps, describes each of them, and shows pictures of each. It shows many neat tools that can be used in the classroom with the students or just by the teacher.

60 Educational Apps in 60 Minutes on Prezi

Prezi and Technology in Education

Recently, a new type of media, called Prezi, has become popular. It is very similar to PowerPoint, but quite different at the same time.

The first example of a Prezi talks about how technology is related to education. In my opinion, the points made in the video are very accurate.

Prezi+iPad= on Prezi

The second example is a great idea for a project in middle school. Students design a middle school of the future, creating models or floor plans describing the sizes of the building, rooms, parking lots, etc. and determining the layout and technology of the building. It's a very neat project that allows students to be creative and complete it the way they feel is best!

Middle School of the FUTURE Design on Prezi

Guess My Number Games

Here are two games that you can play with your students to help them with their adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing of numbers. They are tricky because no matter what number they pick, you will always guess right, so you will always win!

Picture from: www.dailyclipart.net

1st game:

1. Choose a number

2. Multiply it by 2

3. Add 10 to the number from step 2

4. Divide the number from step 3 by 2

5. Subtract original number from the
number in step 4

6. Answer will ALWAYS be 5

2nd game:

1. Pick any 2 digit number

2. Add the two digits together

3. Subtract the number in step 2 from the
original number

4. Add two digits of the number in step 3 together

5. Answer will ALWAYS be 9

Need a little encouragement today?

This video is a great reminder of our purpose as teachers and our reasons for choosing this difficult profession. It is a very inspirational and motivational video. Enjoy...