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.