In recent years lots of teachers would have spotted students developing the habit and tendency to skim read online and the shallow comprehension skills that follow. In Economics we constantly give students resources to read over to supporting their thinking and their understanding of case studies, yet many students will read too quickly and superficially … Continue reading Super easy PDF commenting for better collaborative reading and comprehension
Quizlet remains as one of those Swiss Army knife style apps that you end up repurposing and going back to time and time again. Last year it got a significant revamp with the Quizlet Live game feature and now there is a clever addition called Quizlet Diagrams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bFcov4KAvw The new diagrams tool goes further adding a … Continue reading Yes, Quizlet got even better; now with diagrams
A year ago I spotted an interesting development for the International Baccalaureate programme tucked away in a blog post on their website. Substantial planning is underway for the migration of DP examinations from paper to on-screen. We are extremely excited about this important development for the IB. It means that exam papers will no longer be printed … Continue reading IB Diploma Onscreen Assessment – stepping into the unknown
This week's Economist magazine explored a question I have thought about a lot in my career. Is the ability to teach an innate skill that some have, and others do not; or is a skill that can be developed and taught? Our perception of whether great teachers are either born or made, leads to dramatic differences in … Continue reading What makes effective teaching?
Quizlet is fast becoming one of those Swiss Army knife apps that you end up repurposing and going back to time and time again. Like most teachers you probably got the email about their new Quizlet Live feature so I was keen to give it a go. In essence using Quizlet is a perfect approach to … Continue reading Quizlet – back to an old favourite
It that crazy time of the year, when we as a school begin pondering our goals for next year, whilst still trying to make progress on our ambitious plans from a year ago. It is also a landmark for me and the end of our 'iLearn project' which introduced the use of technology to our teachers … Continue reading Where to next..? Goal setting and the meaningful use of Technology.
Brainstorming or creating a mind map is a common process to help students develop ideas and to encourage ideation. In many classes, a brainstorm is used as the first planning step in a writing process which flows into drafting. Online tools such as mindmaps can be a simple way to enhance the planning stage of … Continue reading Essay planning and drafting with Mindmeister
Instructional Coaches are now common place in some schools and are a group of people who work with teachers to reflect on their professional practice and to help teachers grow and learn. At our school with have a series of specialists including Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Coaches. As one of the school's Digital Literacy … Continue reading The Reflective Coach – using data to drive your practice
I have perhaps become a little reticent of new Web 2.0 tools and the hype lots of them generate for a short period of time, before the next fun toy comes along. Something that I keep coming back to at the moment is a great collaboration tool called Padlet. (previously known as Wallwisher) I strongly … Continue reading Padlet – for collaboration and low stakes formative assessment
The Web Timer app extension to Chrome, is a great but simple tool to help both students and teachers reflect on how they use their time online. The extension sits directly in the browser so is just a click away and an excellent tool to help students take ownership of how they manage their time. … Continue reading Internet WebTimers and self reflection
Digging a Little Deeper 