Every Tuesday SmartBrief on EdTech runs Tech Tips, a column featuring suggestions and recommendations from school technologists and tech-using educators. This month, we are running a roundup of the top tips from the year. Today’s roundup includes tips for using technology during small-group instruction; working with digital tools Nearpod and Sway; and improving your professional development and coaching initiatives.
Tech Tip: How to blend technology, small group work
Technology can help students learn in small group settings, according to Tracey Dunn, a kindergarten teacher at Hopkins Elementary School in Mentor, Ohio. In this blog post, she describes how her students rotate among four stations. “The mix of teacher instruction and high quality digital content has brought together the best of both worlds,” she writes.
3 ways to use Nearpod with iPads in the classroom
Nearpod is a great tool for teachers who are using iPads in the classroom, according to Cathy Yenca, a middle-school math teacher in her fourth year of a one-to-one iPad classroom. In this blog post, she shares three best practices for using the interactive presentation and assessment tool, including to share student results.
Educator: Digital tool benefits project-based learning
The digital tool Sway is helping educators adopt project-based learning in the classroom, according to Connie White, director of learning design and innovation at Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga. In this blog post, White describes how the tool allows students to “creatively express ideas, organize and present material, and demonstrate learning.”
Tech Tip: Are you training cooks or chefs?
Professional development should awaken our inner “chef” — it should challenge the recipe of education and encourage new thought, according to Dan Ostergren, affiliate assistant professor of communication disorders at the University of Northern Colorado. Learn the difference between training cooks and chefs in this week’s tech tip.
How effective coaching can improve teacher performance
To create an effective coaching program for educators, school leaders must create a climate where teachers are comfortable collaborating and sharing ideas, educational coach Andy Mork writes in this commentary. Administrators must also be clear about their goals for coaching and choose the right people to lead sessions, Mork advises.
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