Learning in the Lou

Check out this charter school whose mission is framed around gaming in the learning process. Part of their Board is made up of game designers! They are Grades 6-9 and share some basic descriptions on immersion themes they cover with students, from how to use Mathematics to save a trapped professor to the example below, where they play Law and Order producers to illustrate their understanding of the Bill of Rights... Power and Perspective in History: Grade 7 Exploration

photo by:    goofcitygoof ( Alexandra Jones ) So you are still using apps and need a few (55) new ideas?  Take a look at this post I found on twitter the other day.  It lists 55 different apps and I hope these might spark you with some new ideas. The 55 Best Free Education Apps For The iPad Here are a few that jumped out at me. Virtual Manipulatives! TED - One of my favorites - Sugata Mitra: Build a school in the cloud   This will absolutely change you in a short 22 minutes. Google Search - Try the voice search option.  It is out of this world.

We are so fortunate to have such a rich mixture of devices in our classrooms every day.  Some of them are brought from home while others are provided by the district.  Here are a few ideas to help you maximize these tools. Here is one that I think really sticks out. Today's Meet An easy way to open up a backchannel conversation during your class.  I have seen this used in elementary to high school. Three Good Ways to Use Todaysmeet in Your Classroom - an easy post with three solid ideas Usings Todaysmeet in My English 8 Classroom - a very powerful example of how you could actually use this tool right away in your classroom

This web based resource provides many learning tools for you and your class.  This post will focus on how to create individual logins for your students giving them personal access to thousands of videos. Visit Discovery Education Enter your username and password **Don't have an account?  Contact Sandy in technology or one of the LiNC team. Hover over  Classroom Manager Click My Classes Click Create a Class Enter a Class Name Click Save Click Return to Previous Page Click Edit on the class you just created. Click Add New Student  Click Add New Students  once you have added all your students. Click Save . Note: It would be wise to keep the username and password the same as their district Google account. That is it! Now your students will have access to the Discovery Education resources. What do the kids see? They can use the same login page. Have them start exploring the Resource Center . Th...

When working with Twitter, I have to remind myself that the cringe-worthy grammar and mechanics displayed by students are simply a result of the 140-character limit... check one one teacher's mission to use this social media tool to improve grammar with her elementary students. The #Grammar911 Project

Google+ has recently launched its Connected Classroom , an awesome way to explore places like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Seattle Aquarium. Browse the calendar to see any upcoming events that may align with your learner outcomes. Keep informed by joining the Google+ community  or signing up for newsletters and emails .

The amazing part of technology is that is it always updating with new features to help us out.  Here is the latest from Google. There is a new sign in page. No more black bar across the top of the screen.   Look in the upper right corner for a series of small squares. Click on the squares.  There will be a drop down menu of items to select.   Click on your +NAME to access your Google+ account.