Celebrate Pi Day

Teachers around the world celebrate Pi Day each March 14.  Although the concept of Pi is typically taught beginning late elementary school, this doesn’t prevent students of any age from participating in and enjoying Pi Day events Although younger students don’t understand the concept of Pi, they do know some information about circles. Using circles … read more »

5 Tools for Providing Authentic (and Effective) Feedback

Research has long proven that providing students with authentic and timely feedback improves student performance and learning. In fact, the authors of this study concluded that “Feedback is among the most critical influences on student learning.” Many sites and online tools offer help with providing feedback to learners; in fact, the number of choices may … read more »

Being Resourceful Part Two: Reliable Sources and C.R.A.A.P.

Evaluating resources, in any medium, is a critical thinking skill for information literacy, media literacy, or digital citizenship.  Of course, it is also part of educational state standards patterned after the Common Core.  They emphasize reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts. In a discussion of the key shifts in the standards, the … read more »

Tech Tool of the Month: Penzu

In the fall I had a chance to get reacquainted with Penzu. It’s a great tool for writing that allows you to create a free online journal. Individual entries can be public or private which allows you to share them in many ways. Using Penzu would be an excellent way to reflect or share your … read more »

Being Re-sourceful, When More Is Not Better, Part One

In today’s world of instant information, students often are overwhelmed by the myriad of resources available to support research assignments. When teaching students to use search engines, I emphasize the importance of asking the right questions, finding the best keywords, and, most importantly, using advanced searching techniques to retrieve limited results containing the information they … read more »