5 Ideas to Make Lectures and Presentations Interactive

When I was a student, I had a problem staying awake in class. I felt bad and teachers were mad. Today, as a teacher myself, I discovered the blame was misplaced. I was sleeping because of boring lesson delivery. When I teach a class or an auditorium with hundreds, there is never any sleeping going on because I have an interactive and engaging delivery. Whether delivering a lesson to school children or providing professional development to adults, in today’s fast-paced, digital world, your audience deserves to have an interactive presentation where they are engaged.

Incorporate some of the strategies below and leave behind the days of sit and git lectures or presentations.

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
It's #SoMe - Great #BacktoSchool Activity for Digi... Aug 20, 2014,	2397
When tech teaches, what do teachers do? Aug 3, 2014,	2173
Inspirational Videos Help You Frame Focus + Follow... Aug 17, 2014,	2095
3 Ways Effective Principals Support Teachers Aug 13, 2014,	1931
7 Simple steps to setting up Google Hangouts on Ai... Aug 6, 2014,	1704

Seven #BacktoSchool Strategies for Strengthening Relationships with Students

A new school year is a great time to remember the importance of building and strengthening relationships with students. I recently had the opportunity to join Paula Denton who is an educator and author of the book, “The First Six Weeks of School” and author and inner city high school teacher Larry Ferlazzo in a conversation with Rae Pica, host of Teacher’s Aid on Bam Radio. We discussed some ways to build relationships with students.

Below are some ideas I shared as well as some I didn’t get to in the interview.

5 Tips for Submitting a Guest Post to a Blog

A fantastic way for educators, students, or companies to get attention to ideas or product is to contribute a post to a popular blog in your area of interest. However if you do, make sure you do your homework by keeping these tips in mind.

1) Comment on the blog

Don't just make a request out of nowhere. Be a participant in the blog's communIty. Add valuable and interesting comments to posts that interest you. The blog author should already be familiar with who you are because you are an active contributor who has smart ideas to share. If your ideas are strong enough, you won't even have to ask to submit a guest post. The blog author may reach out to you.

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
When tech teaches, what do teachers do? Aug 3, 2014,	2141
7 Simple steps to setting up Google Hangouts on Ai... Aug 6, 2014,	1690
3 Ways Effective Principals Support Teachers Aug 13, 2014,	1649
10 Reasons Cell Phones Should Be Allowed In School... Aug 24, 2010,	1613
10 Ways Social Media Can Improve Writing in Your C... Jun 22, 2014,	1586
Are #EdTech Resources Keeping Student Data Safe? F... Jul 27, 2014,	1237
Six suggestions for effective, large-scale technol... Aug 10, 2014,	1107

It's #SoMe - Great #BacktoSchool Activity for Digital Citizenship

Like it or not, today's students are not just citizens. They are "digital" citizens. This means that educators need to spend time with students on ensuring they know how to be responsible online.  

In NYC schools we have social media guidelines created by students and teachers to guide this work. You can see them at schools.nyc.gov/socialmedia. We also support educators and parents with professional development. The professional development includes a fun back-to-school activity called, "It's #SoMe." (Note: #SoMe is the hashtag for social media.)

Here's how the activity works.  

Inspirational Videos Help You Frame Focus + Follow Up Professional Development

If you are looking for inspirational videos to spruce up professional development at your school this year, you have to look no further than "The Brainwaves" video anthology which features videos on a myriad of topics from innovative educators.

The videos are free and generally run between 5 - 10 minutes. Should you decide to use them, you may want to follow these guidelines from WNET for using digital media in the classroom.

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. The question about Twitter makes it to the top again.  If you know someone at Twitter, please get them to comment with a straight answer :)

Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Does Twitter have a minimum age requirement? Jun 13, 2013,	2741
When tech teaches, what do teachers do? Aug 3, 2014,	2130
10 Ways Social Media Can Improve Writing in Your C... Jun 22, 2014,	1736
Don't blame social media if your students are dist... Jul 13, 2014,	1263
7 Simple steps to setting up Google Hangouts on Ai... Aug 6, 2014,	1636
Six suggestions for effective, large-scale technol... Aug 10, 2014,	1628
Are #EdTech Resources Keeping Student Data Safe? F... Jul 27, 2014,	1536

3 Ways Effective Principals Support Teachers

Innovative educators are often frustrated when administration will not allow them time for collaboration and professional study. At the same time,  innovative educators know that to succeed they need to have an effective principal at the helm. Principal effectiveness includes knowing how to provide teachers with these three things:

1. Time for collaboration
2. Time for professional development
3. A school wide system that supports positive behavior

These items require principals to find innovative ways to give their teachers time to learn.  Without that, even the most motivated of educators will have a hard time staying up to date and bringing innovative practices to their school.  If your school principal forgets, share the below infographic. It makes a great case for principals who may need a reminder every so often why you need to attend that amazing conference, ed camp, workshop, or Twitter chat.

Click below to check out the Infographic

Via:The Impact Effective Principals Have on Education

Six suggestions for effective, large-scale technology deployment

Guest post by Chris Casal (A more detailed version of this article was cross posted at The Casal Operating System)

If you haven’t heard, another story of technology gone wild was recently shared in this WNYC article “Why Hoboken is Throwing Away All of its Student Laptops.” As is the case with other failed technology initiatives in places like Liverpool, and Los Angeles, the problem is not the tech, but rather the ineffective deployment and implementation strategy.  

If you don’t want your school or district to end up in the headlines after purchasing technology, follow these six suggestions to make implementations more effective:

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Don't blame social media if your students are dist... Jul 13, 2014,	2885
Does Twitter have a minimum age requirement? Jun 13, 2013,	2610
10 Ways Social Media Can Improve Writing ... Jun 22, 2014,	2229
When tech teaches, what do teachers do? Aug 3, 2014,	1918
Are #EdTech Resources Keeping Student Data Safe? F... Jul 27, 2014,	1611
15-Year-Old explains the key to developing a #PLN Jul 9, 2014,	1381
7 Simple steps to setting up Google Hangouts on Air... Aug 6, 2014,	992

7 Not-So-Simple Steps to Setting Up Google Hangouts on Air

Google Hangouts on Air let you conduct a video conference with up to ten people that is live streamed and taped for later viewing. Earlier versions of hangouts, were quite clunky with a few glitches, but they've come a LONG way since I first wrote about them. Two great new features are that you can now do Google Hangout on Air events and you can get the embed code, YouTube link, and even link in advance.  This means you can embed the hangout right on your website, blog, or other online space.

I made the poster below to walk you through the 7 simple steps required to start a Google Hangout On Air. (Tip:  If you are having trouble viewing this in your browser, it may be easier to right click the image and download or open in a new tab.)  

Teaching with Tech Across the Curriculum

When I talk to students these days they tell me that when they want to learn something they're interested in, it usually is not teachers or parents they turn to. It’s Google, YouTube, or to others they find online (aka their PLN) who engage in their activities of interest.

These kids aren’t just playing on the computer either. They mean serious business. Teen Jack Andraka turned to Google when doing his research that led to his discovery of a new screening for pancreatic cancer. Teens like Courtney Gressman and Alex Laubscher are building networks using social media to pursue their passions and do work that matters to them and others.

Not only does access to the internet provide limitless access to resources but tools like the iPad (or other tablets) also change with the needs of the user. One device can transform into a piano, drawing canvas, book, publishing press, or whatever a student wants it to be... on demand.

This has come up in my world recently when a parent confess to me that she was unsure of her ability to support her child's learning away from school. To put her mind at ease we simply discussed what her child wants to learn, and then determined available resources.  

What follows are ideas for teaching with tech across subject areas:

The hottest posts that everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Are #EdTech Resources Keeping Student Data Safe? F... Jul 27, 2014,	3017
Got Chromebooks? Now what? Enlist the help of your... Jul 2, 2014,	2995
10 Ways Social Media Can Improve Writing in Your C... Jun 22, 2014,	2963
Don't blame social media if your students are dist... Jul 13, 2014,	2846
15-Year-Old explains the key to developing a #PLN Jul 9, 2014,	2536
The future is in their hands: Using cell phones fo... Jul 6, 2014,	2256
7 Strategies to Land A Job You Love in Education Jul 16, 2014,	1818