Using Social Media in the Classroom

I've just finished reading the book Social LEADia by Jennifer Casa-Todd, which encourages teachers to move their students from digital citizenship to digital leadership. Using social media in the classroom benefits students because it allows them to make their voices heard, pursue their passions, and make connections with people all over the world. If students encounter negative or uncomfortable situations on social media while in the classroom, teachers can help their students to deal with the situation, providing them with tools to deal with these kinds of issues on their own in the future.

Using Technology in Math Class

When using technology in math class, we want to make sure that we're not just replacing paper worksheets with digital versions. When we choose apps and programs, we should ensure that they address the mathematical processes, such as problem solving, connecting, and communicating.

Using Technology to Facilitate Assessment

When collecting evidence of student learning, we should have a balanced mix of observations, conversations, and products. Unfortunately, many of us focus primarily on products. Technology makes it easier for us to record and organize observations and conversations.

Creating a Digital Classroom

Google Classroom and Google Sites make it possible to put your entire classroom online. You can post announcements, course content, videos, weblinks, and links to files from Google Drive. Students can access course materials from anywhere, and parents can keep up with what's going on in your classroom.

Remind and Twitter allow teachers to communicate with students and parents in a very accessible way. You can post announcements, reminders, and examples of student work.

Digital Citizenship

As teachers, we want to encourage our students to be good digital citizens. To do this, we need to understand what digital citizenship entails. This presentation introduces the elements of digital citizenship. It also provides links to resources with articles, lesson plans, videos, and games.

Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint has many of the same features as Photoshop, and can be used to draw or edit photos. This is what I created using a few of the drawing tools.

Check out this video to find out more about the tools I used to create this image.

Rich Problems in Math

In my math classes, I try to use investigations and rich problems whenever possible. Here is a video that talks about the value of rich problems.

Dan Meyer
Math class needs a makeover