It’s the end of the school year.  Your students are anxious for the summer break, and you are even more anxious than they are!  The high stakes tests are over and there is not enough time left to start another big project.  For some students and teachers, they immediately begin thinking “MOVIE TIME”!  Watching movies are passive and do not engage students in any real form of learning though, and many administrators and parents frown upon this practice.  Read more... (770 words, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

Are you an educator who would like to use the internet and other technologies in your classroom, but don’t know where to start?  I found a terrific resource that helps you figure it all out through “assignments”.

The website is Classroom Learning 2.0.  This blog is designed as an online “class” with various assignments (that do not get turned in for a grade) to help you learn how to use the technology and become more tech savvy in the process.  This free course is provided courtesy of the California School Library Association.  Read more... (196 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)

As promised, this is the second part of The Classroom of Tomorrow.  The first article dealt with how the classroom of tomorrow would look given the current educational climate.  There is hope though that the educational climate in the United States is changing to allow for more educational reform which could open up the possibility for dramatic changes in America’s schools.  What follows is my vision for how the classroom of tomorrow could look, if the necessary education reforms were to be enacted to allow for these changes to occur.  Read more... (1119 words, estimated 4:29 mins reading time)

This article is the first of two posts about the classroom of tomorrow.  Click here for the second part.  The first part will focus on the classroom of tomorrow given the current educational climate in the United States.  In the current system, there are certain things which will not be able to be changed given the various rules and regulations imposed upon K-12 public education by the government.  The second part will focus on the idealized vision for the classroom of tomorrow, which will only be possible if the current educational climate in America changes in such a way that true reform in the way education is handled in America will be allowed to prosper.  Read more... (1429 words, estimated 5:43 mins reading time)

College Students Taking Online Classes

The number of college students taking online classes continues to increase.  By 2014, it is expected that more than half of all college students will take at least some of their college course work online.  With the growing trend of college students taking online courses, is America’s K-12 school system poised to take the same steps and move to the internet to teach some of their classes?  Read more... (995 words, 1 image, estimated 3:59 mins reading time)

At the end of January I wrote an article about the iPad and it’s potential impact in education.  Since that time I have done more research and pondering on the topic.  I have also convinced my wife to allow me to purchase one when it goes on sell.  I can hardly wait!  Read more... (1854 words, estimated 7:25 mins reading time)

I came across an excellent article written about a few teachers who use cellphones in their classroom.  I totally agree with what they are saying here.  Due to my school’s policy I am not able to use cellphones in my classroom, so I cannot speak from experience.  There are huge educational benefits of allowing students to use cellphones in the classroom.  Of course there will always be the cheating and other things as well; but these things existed before cellphones anyways.  To read more about using cellphones in the classroom visit this Yahoo! News article.