Lets Talk About: Social Media Practice Spaces

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I have been an advocate for the use of social media in schools for a long time.  As a professional, using social media is a great way to learn and grow and connect with others who are like-minded.  While social media can be a great tool, we’ve all heard of people who used social media … read more »


Six Sites for Rhyme Time

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“There’s something so wonderful about writing in rhyme where it isn’t just the meaning of the words, it’s the music to the words and the shape and the sound.” Gary Ross Learning about rhyming words is one of the earliest skills taught to young readers. Exploring rhymes helps students understand how language works through sounds … read more »


What’s the Buzz: Instructional Technology Frameworks Part 1

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After the VSTE annual conference, I’ve done a lot of thinking about frameworks. One of the Keynote presentations introduced a framework that was new to me and then questioned the continued use of structures like SAMR. I had to do some reflection, because here at TeachersFirst we use the SAMR model a lot.   I … read more »


Cartoons and Comics Aren’t Just for Newspapers Anymore

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Did you know the first cartoon appeared in a U.S. newspaper way back in 1754? Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette featured the political cartoon “Join or Die” on May 9, 1754. The picture showed the American colonies as a snake divided into eight pieces and presented the political point of view that the colonies should unite. … read more »


Teaching in the Middle

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They say that it takes a special person to teach in a middle school and most days during my career as a middle-school educator I would wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.  Here’s why— the brain is said to be fully mature by the age of 25.  This leaves a challenge for all K-12 educators, but … read more »


6 Tools to Incorporate Technology into Winter Olympics Lessons

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The Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics takes place in PyeongChang, South Korea on February 9 with the featured walk of athletes from around the world. A record of over 100 medals in 15 disciplines will include four new events – big air snowboarding, freestyle skiing, mass start speed skating, and mixed doubles curling.  … read more »


What’s the Buzz: Project Based Learning

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The science specialists in my old school division were all about Project Based Learning.  They went to special training and then gave workshops.  They wanted everyone to convert to this great way of inspiring students through authentic learning.  It was a real struggle for the specialists though.  We had low performing schools in a number … read more »


Rediscover Padlet!

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Did you know that Padlet has added many new features this year? If you haven’t visited this site recently, you may want to take another look. If you have never used Padlet, it is an online collaborative bulletin board that now packs a real punch! This Padlet demonstrates the use of this tool in a … read more »


Tech Tools for Social Learning

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Do you remember our “chats” (I use that term very loosely considering it was a one-sided blog post!) about the social learning theory?  If not, brush up here or here.  Ok, now that you’re an expert, let’s continue down that educational path.  We discussed the importance of collaboration within your classroom, but there are many … read more »