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Simple Student Collaboration on Google Docs
In my first post, I discussed an easy way to get your class started with google docs. Once they get the hang of logging in and creating documents, the next step is to start collaborating on projects....
View ArticleIdeas from the Google Apps Summit
I’m just getting back from this weekend’s google apps summit at the American School in Japan. To get ready for a big switchover to google apps, my school sent more than 20 teachers. With eight...
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On Messiness (or, MR LEWIS SOMEBODY ERASED EVERYTHING!!!)
One of the most interesting articles I’ve come across since starting COETAIL is Nikhil Goyal’s piece on why learning should be messy. As a third grade teacher whose room is often in a state of disarray...
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Enhancing Student Feedback with Digital Learning Logs
For several years I’ve given my students notebooks to use as “learning logs.” Each night, as part of their homework, they explain or reflect on something they learned during the day. It’s a great way...
View ArticleCourse 1 Final Project
Course one has come to a close, and though it’s a little late, I’m finally getting my final project posted. Thus far COETAIL has energized my teaching and provided several new ideas that I’ve already...
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Teaching lower elementary students to find “free use” images with google drive.
After an entire day of copyright discussion at our COETAIL class last month, I walked away with the same question I usually have: “What does this mean for my students?” When a roomful of teachers needs...
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Creating Homework Tutorials (flipped classroom light) on youtube
A month ago the renowned educational technology guru, Alan November, came to speak at my school in Tokyo. Though he was only visiting Seisen for a day, he pitched several ideas and encouraged us to...
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How coaches can get their teams to break down their own games
For both team and individual sports, most coaches would agree that videos are a powerful tool for helping athletes improve their performances. When I was in high school, this meant gathering the entire...
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3rd grade plant documentaries with imovie
A couple months ago our third graders created documentary films about plants to show their learning at the end of a unit of inquiry. For my class, it was the second go with imovie after making digital...
View ArticleTest Driving My PLN
One of our first lessons of COETAIL was the importance of connecting into a community of educators and building our PLN, or Personal Learning Network. For most teachers, a PLN comes mostly from...
View ArticleCourse 2 Final Project
As schools like mine move forward with technology, we need to have clear and well communicated policies in place to ensure that students, families, and teachers understand what acceptable use of...
View ArticleGetting Started with Youtube in 5 Minutes
Looking back on my blog posts from the past half year, at least half of them deal with youtube in some form or another. Whether publishing your students’ digital stories, or creating homework...
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Road Movies – a quick, easy, and free digital storytelling tool
A few weeks ago, after a 7 hour coetail session on digital storytelling, I went to some friends’ house for dinner. As I opened their apartment door, I was greeted by an iphone camera pointing in my...
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Videoscribe review – a whiteboard animation and presentation tool
When our Coetail face-to-face session spent a day discussing digital storytelling, I was already familiar with the topic. A year ago I attended a workshop with digital storytelling expert Jason Ohler,...
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Flipping the Elementary Math Classroom
Last Spring, after flipped classroom proponent Alan November visited my school, I briefly experiment with a “light” version of the flipped classroom. Rather than teaching my 3rd graders entirely...
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Flipped Classrooms and the Global Audience
When I tried flipping math lessons for my third grade class, the initial audience was my class of 18 students. In the video narration, I speak directly to this audience, saying things like: “Today in...
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How to create video tutorials (simple, quick, and easy)
I’ve recently been convinced that simple, video tutorials are a tool that any teacher, even the not-so-tech-savy, can use to increase student learning. Yet the number of teachers actually using this...
View ArticlePermission + Encouragement = Cool Stuff
We are three months into the school year, and for a while I’ve felt that it’s time to shift my students from consumers and users of technology to producers and creators. Last year I followed the same...
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Creating an Online Video Dictionary (made by kids)
Those of you clicking this link based on the ambitiousness of the title, please know that this is very much in the idea stage. Like many international school teachers, I have several students who speak...
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The “Kids-Teaching-Kids” Method of Implementing Technology in Elementary School
Rolling out new technology to a full class of elementary students is an intimidating task. No matter how well you model the tool with a projector, most students will not properly learn until they use...
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