Two Great Places to Buy Posters for Your Class

September 15, 2014
One of the repeated emails I keep getting almost on a daily basis is about how to buy visuals and infographics I share here in EdTech and mLearning. Actually, there are two kinds of visuals and posters I feature here: posters I have made myself and these are offered for free for anyone who want to use them non-comercially ( some examples: 10 Social media skills for the 21st century teachers , Digital citizenship poster, How to critically judge online content) ). The other type of posters I share here are those which I come across online and which are CC licensed.To use these posters you need to contact their original creator. I always include a link to the original work which you can use to get in touch with its owner. However, if you are looking for some websites that officially sell posters here are  two I would recommend .

1- Shawn MacMeekin

This website sells some great educational posters ideal for classroom use. Most of the posters you will find here are the creation of anethicalisland whose infographics have been featured here several times.

2- Teachers Pay Teachers

You are probably already familiar with this platform. As its name indicate, Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where teachers and educators share and sell teaching and learning materials. You can browse through the different materials offered here by grade, subject, and price. There is also a section for posters which embeds hundreds of educational visuals.

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New Google Docs Cheat Sheet to Use in Class

September 15, 2014
Here is a new Google Docs cheat sheet that is ideal for classroom use. This free downloadable document is created by the awesome Shake Up Learning . If you still remember, I have recently featured some of their wonderful Google Drive visuals here in this blog.When I first saw this new visual I thought about teachers who are going to use Google Docs with their students for the first time. This could be a very good introduction to some of the features of Google Docs.

Using this cheat sheet students will be able to learn about how to edit documents (both Google docs and Windows Word files).They will also learn about the different components of Google Docs menu and will explore the various functionalities nested in the Insert menu. To this is added another section that visually features items under the Tools menu and the Toolbar.

Visit this page to download or save a copy of this cheat sheet to your Google Drive. Enjoy.

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30+ Features of The 21st Century Classroom

September 14, 2014
Now that the new school year started and that students are back to their 'formal' learning mode and everything seems to be unfolding as planned, it is time to pause and think critically about the instructional design of your classroom. Think about your pedagogy and how effective it is; the teaching strategies you draw on in your instruction and the teaching materials you utilize to enhance students learning. Think about the technology you are using with your students and do a preliminary assessment of its efficacy. Does it really meaningfully add to your teaching or is it just a 'digital' alternative of traditional ways of doing things?

Reflecting upon these and several other similar questions will definitely help you see where you are with your teaching and , most importantly, provide you with a lucid picture of how your classroom is performing. To this end , the folks in Teachthought have designed this wonderful graphic that features 32 characteristics of high-performing classrooms. You might want to use it as a checklist to guide you through your reflective process. Have a look and share with us what you think of it.

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Here is A Good Teaching Resource for History Teachers

September, 2014
Teaching History is an excellent resource for history teachers. It provides them with a wide variety of materials and resources to improve history education in the classroom. Teaching History, which is funded by the American Department of Education, is designed specifically for k-12 history teachers to help them access teaching materials such as lesson plan reviews, videos, and teaching guides.

The content of Teaching History is organized into three main categories: Teaching Masterials: this is where you can browse through an array of lesson plans, and teaching guides to use in the teaching of history to your K-12 students. History Content: this is where you can locate quality historical resources and reliable content from across the web. Best Practices: this one introduces teachers to different strategies and approaches to engage students discussion of primary sources and encourage them to exercise historical thinking.


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Free Facebook Templates to Use in Class

September 13, 2014

Here is a neat tool that you can use with your students in class to teach a variety of topics. This tool is called Fakebook which is a web application created by Russel Tarr that simulates Facebook profiles. Using Fakebook, students will be able to virtually construct simulated Facebook profiles of historical figures,  chart the plot of a book, the development of a character, a series of historical events, the debates and relationships between people, and so on!

Faekbook is easy and simple to use. It also has a student friendly interface that students will enjoy working on.  To start using Fakebook, you simply need to enter a name at the top of the page, then proceed to add friends, posts, comments and profile information. You can also save your work and edit it later. Check out this page to see some of the ways others have been using Fakebook.

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New- You Can Now Make Free Voice Calls in Google Plus Hangouts

September 12, 2014
Google has recently added a new feature to Hangouts on Google Plus. With this new update, the Hangout app on iOS, Android, and the web will enable you to make voice calls to anyone around the world. However, only calls made in US and Canada are free, other international calls have various rates which you can check here (there is not much difference in rates between Hangouts international calling rates and Skype, and personally I prefer Skype for making overseas calls).

"To get started on Android, just grab the new version of Hangouts (v2.3, rolling out over the next few days), then install the accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS and the web, voice calls will be available the next time you open the app."

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6 Good Classroom Posters on Digital Citizenhsip

September, 2014
This is a short telegraphic post to share with you this new digital citizenship resource I learned from TechChef4U. Venspired ( a wonderful platform that provides educational posters) has this assorted collection of 6 posters on digital citizenship designed specifically for incorporation in classroom settings. Each of these posters highlight an axiomatic statement that represent the essence of what it means to be a digital citizen. Of course, as Vensdale stated, digital citizenship is not a set of posters to be hang in the classroom walls but is a culture that should be lived by everyone of us. Modelling is an essential component of digital citizenship for it allows students to see in action  the embodiment of the meaning of a digital citizen.

The posters come in different formats which you can access from this link but I would love you to read Venspired introduction annexed to these posters, it's really an excellent read. Enjoy

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5 Great TED Talks on The Importance of Listening

September 12, 2014
Listening is an important skill that, unfortunately, is not given its due worth in school curricula. Listening is the key to understanding, a better understanding. It is a way of communicating and appreciating the world around us. The kind of listening am talking about here is what sound expert Julian Treasure called conscious listening. This is a mental process that consciously receives and decode auditory input. Stephen Covey talks about empathic listening (from empathy) and listed it as the fifth habit of highly effective  people. Empathic listening according to Stephen is an entirely different kind of listening; 'it is listening with the intent to understand, to really understand'. He added "empathic listening gets inside another person's frame of reference. You look out through it, you see the world the way they see the world, you understand their paradigm, you understand how they feel." (p. 251 in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

Teaching our kids and students to listen both empathically and consciously is integral to the healthy growth of their intellectual, social, and psychological personality.To help you learn more about the importance of listening and how to do it much better, I am sharing with you  this wonderful selection of 5 TED talks all revolving around listening. Enjoy

1- Ways to Listen better

2- Want to help someone? Shut up and listen

3- Listening to global voices

4- Listen, learn then lead

5- How to truly listen

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3 Easy Ways to Integrate iPad into Your Google Classroom

September 11, 2014
Now that the Google Classroom is officially released to all Google Apps for Education accounts, those of you using iPad in their instruction would probably be wondering about possible ways to integrate this new tool with iPad. The video tutorial below will guide you through the process of how students and teachers can use Google Class on their iPad to create and turn in assignments.

Related: Teachers' Guide to Google Classroom

The process is pretty simple and is made of three main steps:

• Students use the suggested iPad apps to do their assigned work
• They then export that work to their Google Drive
• They turn it to Google Classroom by downloading it from Google Drive.

Here is a visual illustration of this process:

In this video tutorial, Greg Kulowiec  demonstrates this process using the following examples of assignments and apps students can work on:

• Use Explain Everything to create a screencast and turn it to Google Classroom
• Create video content through iMovie
• Use Book Creator to create an ePub file or a digital file book .
• Annotate a PDF using Notability app and turn it in to Google Classroom
• Turn in a written assignment as a Google Doc using the Google Doc app.

Watch the video to learn more

To learn more about iPads and Google Apps, EdTechTeacher will be offering a Google Apps & iPads Pre-Conference workshop at their November 12-14 iPad Summit in Boston where Greg Kulowiec will be the keynote speaker.

Courtesy of Edudemic

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11 Great YouTube Channels for Teachers

September 11, 2014
YouTube is undoubtedly one of the most popular video hosting platforms in history. The stats released by its administration a few months ago are just mind blowing. With more than 1 billion monthly visitors and over 6 billion hours of video being watched each month (which equals almost an hour for every person on Earth) and an average of 100 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube sets a record of being the first audio visual media with the largest reach ever.

As such, YouTube is definitely a treasure trove for us in education. It provides us with a varied and rich source of videos to use in class with students. However, searching for educational content on a platform that hosts millions of videos is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. This is why curated lists such as the one below proves helpful especially in helping busy teachers have easy and instant access to  handy YouTube channels that feature interesting educational content relevant for classroom use. To this end, I compiled this list that comprises some of the popular channels on YouTube that teachers and students can use for educational purposes.

1- Crash Course

In this channel, teachers John and Hank Green provide some excellent video explanations and tutorials on a variety of topics related to World History, Biology, Literature, Ecology, Chemistry, and US History.

2- TED Ed

You are probably already familiar with this channel. TED Ed features some of the best video lessons created by talented educators and in collaboration with professional animators.

3- Shots of Awe

With over 151 thousand subscribers, Shots of Awe is one of the most popular YouTube channels for academics, researchers, students and science lovers. Each week, Jason Silva uploads a video that takes viewers into the miraculous depths of human knowledge. He covers topics related to the evolution of human intelligence, complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a form of existential Jazz.

4- Asap Science

Asap Science is a Youtube channel dedicated for everything related to science and scientific  concepts. It mixes fun and learning in such a way that the explanation of scientific phenomena becomes a pleasure to watch.

5- SciShow

SciShow is another awesome YouTube channel I repeatedly featured here in this blog. SciShow contains videos that discuss scientific and historical concepts.

6- Keith Hughes

Keith's videos are really fun to watch. His channel HipHughes History features a "a series of upbeat, personable and educational lectures designed for students and lifelong learners. Videos primarily focus on US History and Politics but span across World History and general interest. So sit back and enjoy the antics of HipHughes as he melds multimodality into a learning experience."

7-  Khan Academy

The popular Khan Academy channel provides video lessons on a variety of topics and across different disciplines namely science, math, physics, biology and many more

8- NASA

NASA's YouTube channel includes hundreds of videos on space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research.

9- Smarter EveryDAY

Smarter EveryDAY is a wonderful channel where students get to learn about science through explanations of common sense phenomena.

10- Mental Floss

This is similar to Shots of Awe I mentioned above. It is a weekly show where John provides  some excellent videos on challenging topics and big questions.

11- Veritasium 

 "Veritasium is a science video blog featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science."

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3 Things Every Student Should Be Able to Do On Google Presentation

September 10, 2014
Google Presentation is one of the powerful presentation tools that students can use to easily create and share slideshows. Its simplicity and its practical performance features makes it an ideal tool for using in class. Besides the different guides and tutorials I published on Google Presentation, today I decided to sketch out 3 main things every student should be able to do. To this end, I am drawing on Susan Oxnevad 's videos that are included in this wonderful interactive ThingLink. Enjoy

1- Using the research tool in Presentations
Google Presentation has a built-in research tool that students can use to conduct a Google search without having to leave the page. They can also narrow down their search to look for only images, scholarly articles, quotes or anything else. Watch Susan's video to learn more about how students can use this integrated research tool to construct their knowledge.

2- Insert a Youtube video into Google Presentations
Videos can also be part of the content of the presentations students create on Google Presentation. There are two ways to insert a video in the presentation. The first one is through doing a YouTube search from within the presentation and the second one is by providing the URL of the YouTube video. Watch this video to learn more on how to insert a video in Google Presentation.

3- Insert an image in a Google Presentation
Students can easily insert images into their presentations using Google's search tool. The good thing about this service is that it helps students look for copyright friendly images. Watch this video to learn how you can use this tool.

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A Handy Visual Featuring The 7 Learning Styles

September 10, 2014
During the first month of the new school year, teachers get to know their students in terms of their learning levels, where they are at with their learning, their strengths and weaknesses, and, most importantly, their learning styles. I emphasized the last point because it is the key to a successful learning journey for students. When teachers identify the plurality of the learning styles in their classes they become in a better position to cultivate a learning environment where every student have their share in the learning taking place in class.

One of the most popular theories that inform pedagogy in this regard is Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory. This theory posits the existence of seven different areas of intelligence that characterize the learning style one is more comfortable with. The visual below provides a very great overview of these 7 learning styles. If you want to learn more about Howard's multiple intelligences theory I would highly recommend his seminal work "Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice".


Source: Blue Mango Learning

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Awesome Chromebook Comparison Chart for Schools and Teachers

September 10, 2014
Chromebooks are a very good and cheap solution for integrating tech particularly in schools running 1:1 programs. The great thing about Chromebooks is not only their lightweight but also their simplicity and practical performance features. Several school districts, particularly in this new school year, are opting for them. So if you or your school is planning to use them, you will probably need to see this collection of excellent video tutorials that provide a general overview of the different features and functionalities embedded in Chromebooks.

There is also this wonderful comparison chart created by software developer Danny Tuppeny in which he compares a set of variables for choosing the right Chromebook for you. These variables include :"brand, processors, specs and features like RAM or touchscreens, screen size, country-wise availability, battery, weight and more." 
Click here to access the full version of this chart.

Courtesy of Life Hacker

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6 Great Things You Can Do with Google Classroom

September 10, 2014
Google has recently announced the official release of Google Classroom in more than 40 languages. Google Classroom is a new tool in Google Apps for Education that helps teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and easily communicate with their classes.
As a teacher, here are some of the key features you need to know about Google Classroom.

Creating Google Class for your class

Google Class allows you to create multiple virtual classes for your students. Within these classes, you will be able to share announcements with students, create and distribute assignments with them, grade and provide feedback on students work, engage in whole or private discussions with students, and many more. For each class you create, a class code will be generated for students to use to access the class.

Watch this video to learn how to create a class in Google Classroom

Assignments
One of the neat features of Google Classroom is the Assignment functionality. Teachers can use this service to create and post assignments to their students. To share an assignment, just click on the assignment tab and provide a name for it, a short description and a due date. You can embed docs, Google docs, and YouTube videos in your assignments.

Google Drive integration
Google Classroom is seamlessly integrated with Google Drive making thus teachers' work way easier and more productive. When you create a Google Classroom, a folder named "classroom" is automatically created in your Google Drive account and the same happens in students accounts when they join in your class. Not only that, each new class you create will have a subfolder created for it by default in your Drive. And when you create an assignment, a subfolder is created for each assignment in your particular class to gather all students work handed in via Google classroom.

Sharing Assignments with students

Google Classroom has a wonderful feature for sharing assignments with students. When you create an assignment in Google Docs and upload it to your Google Class, you will be provided with three sharing options: first, students can view file, second, students can edit file, and third which is quite handy is to allow Google Class to make a copy for each student in class which saves you the hassle of making and distributing duplicate copies to students

When students log in to their Google Class, they will be able to see any pending assignments right from their home screen. To open the assignment , students can click on the title of the assignment or click on the link next to it to open it directly in Google Drive. Alternatively, students can find the assignment in their Drive under the subfolder that is automatically created for the assignment in the Classroom Folder.

Collecting assignments
When students finsih working on their assignments , they can click on the "turn in" button to submit their work. They can also leave a comment under the assignment for teacher to read. Once the assignment is submitted, students have the option to unsubmit their work by clicking on the "unsubmit" button. This will allow them to edit their work before resubmitting it back to the teacher. Even after the work has been submitted, students have the ability to post a comment under their assignment to inform their teachers about, for instance, any critical issues with their assignments.

Grading Assignments
Once assignments are turned in, teachers can log in to their Google Class and see the number of students who submitted their work and those who did not. Teachers can also grade students work right in Google Classroom by either choosing one of the numerical values provided there or by providing a customized value or by uploading grades from a CSV file. Grades will show up in students accounts in Google Class.

Watch the video tutorial below ( by EdTech Teacher) to learn about these and many other features that you can use on Google Classroom.

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3 Powerful Back to School Apps

September, 2014
Our back-to-school section here in EdTech and Mlearning is growing bigger and bigger with more resources being added to it every single week. Today, I am featuring 3 awesome web tools and mobile apps that you definitely have to try out with your students. I have also attached a video of Dottotech where he explains how you can use each of these tools. As a side note, Dottotech is a wonderful YouTube channel that provides ed tech tutorials on a variety of topics. I have recently discovered this channel through a tweet shared by a colleague and I find it really amazing.

Watch Dottotech's review of these three tools

1- Studious

' Studious is the perfect replacement for your homework planner which takes control of your assignments and when they're due.Organisation is a key tool in the arsenal of any student, but juggling multiple tasks can be a pain. Studious compiles all your work into one simple list.'

2- EasyBib

' Create accurate MLA, APA, and Chicago style citations in seconds by scanning a book bar code or by typing the name of a book. Build and manage your works cited. Once done, email your citations and then export your citations to EasyBib.com's popular bibliography management service.'

3- Remind

' Remind (formerly Remind101) offers teachers a free, safe and simple way to instantly text students and parents. Teachers can send or schedule reminders, assignments, homework, assessments, or motivational messages directly to students' and parents' phones. Interactions are safe because phone numbers are always kept private, and messages are sent with no open replies. Teachers, students and parents can see messages from all their classes in one place.'
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A Wonderful Google Form Guide for Teachers

September 8, 2014
Google Forms is one of the powerful tools you want to make sure you have in your teaching toolkit.There are different ways you can use it with your students in class. You can, for instance, use it to create quizzes, polls, questionnaires, and surveys. You can also use it to design permission forms, absence slips, classroom events forms…you name it. The great thing about Google Forms, besides being free and easy to use, is the fact that it is integrated with Google Drive which means that any form you create is automatically saved in your Drive and you can access it anywhere you go with Internet connection.

I have already created a couple of visual guides on how to create a Google Form but when I came across this excellent video tutorial I just couldn't let go of it without sharing with it you here. This is probably one of the best tutorials you will find out there on Google Form. Though it is a little bit long (13 minutes) but it is really  entertainingly' insightful. I love Dottotech's style of presenting and I am sure you will as well.

In this video tutorial, Dottotech will walk you through the different steps to create a form for your class. To this end, he created a sample sign-out form for you to see how you can design the lay-out of the form and select the questions to embed in it. Then once the form is ready , you will learn the different options to share it and see how to collect responses from the form. Enjoy

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10 Excellent Google Drive Templates for Teachers

September 8, 2014
The template gallery that Google Drive offers to users is one of the best places I often have recourse to to look for ready made templates to use in my work. The gallery features a wide variety of templates pertaining to different topics from templates on albums and flipbooks to templates for resumes and cover letters. You can refine you search either by type or category. You can for instance conduct a search for only Spreadsheets or Presentations templates by clicking on " Sdpreadsheets" or "Presentations".You can also sort these templates by frequency of usage. And if it happens that you have made your own template on Google Drive and you want to share it with other users, you can submit it using the "submit a template" button on the top right hand side.

The "Students and Teachers" section in this gallery features a plethora of useful templates that you can use in your class with your students. You can browse through the selection there and when you come across a template that you want to use just click on its title and then select " use this template".
Here are 10 excellent ready made templates ideal for classroom inclusion. These templates have been selected by Susan Oxnevad and embedded in this interesting post. CLick on any title below to access and use the template.

1- Student Report

2- Historical Facebook
3- Newsletter
4- Grade Report
5- Syllabus
6- Charts in Spreadsheets
7- Lesson Plan
8- Project Tracker
9- Class Notes
10- Essay Grading Rubric

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#fearlessDEN Delivering bold innovations is on the agenda for the Autumn 2014 meetup to be hosted by Trinity Mirror

At the next Digital Editors Network meetup on November 6th we’re asking innovators not only to show us things that will inspire, but also to share how they overcame the obstacles to make it happen - and how they boldly keep going on.

We're pleased to announce our host is one such fearless innovator: Trinity Mirror Regionals’ digital innovation editor Alison Gow.

Alison Gow of Trinity Mirror

“Back in 2008 we hosted a DEN in our Liverpool Echo offices; since then the network has grown considerably and so it's great to be able to offer a new invitation, this time to our Canary Wharf headquarters,” said Alison, who at the start of the year swapped the editor's chair at the Daily Post Wales, where Trinity Mirror piloted their Newsroom 3.1 concept, for the job of driving editorial innovation across all the titles in the UK’s largest publishers of regional newspapers. That’s no small challenge. 

“We've been accelerating the pace of change in Trinity Mirror in recent years, and the latest project, Newsroom 3.1, is probably the biggest editorial change in terms of culture and structure we've undertaken. So we're delighted to be the hosts for #fearlessDEN as the theme resonates with our understanding that evolution of the media industry, and development of ideas, is how we can ensure a strong future. 

“This is a theme that will probably speak to many people in the mainstream media; the leaked New York Times' innovation report underlined the undeniable demands of the legacy product and culture can impede the shift towards a more agile, digital future. 

“There is also the fear of failing and, worse, failing in a financially costly manner. Ideas can wind up stuck in the dreaded 'Paralysis by Analysis' stage and, while digital startups and entrepreneurs accept risk as an inherent part of what they do, for some digital editors the challenge is simply: "How do I convince my boss to take a chance on my idea?" 

“I suspect that at #fearlessDEN we'll get some answers that question.” 

So, mark clear your diary and register HERE now.  Over the coming weeks we’ll be working with Alison to put together a programme that will aim to answer those questions - and to examine the practical implications for your organisation, your team and you.   

Also:  Did the last DEN meetup inspire you to think or do things differently?If so, here’s your chance to share your story with others in the network in 140 words or less by completing this simple FORM. To thank you, we’ll enter you into a draw for a free lunch before or dinner after the meetup sponsored by Desk-Net.
If you'd like to contribute ideas, speak, sponsor or collaborate on the #fearlessDEN event, or host a future DEN meetup or workshop, don’t hesitate to contact any of the other convenors: François Nel at FPNel @ uclan.ac.uk, Nick Turner at nick.turner @ cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk, or Lucia Adams at lucia.adams @ news.co.uk

The Digital Editors Network is a community, not a conference. An initiative supported by the Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancashire, DEN  has since 2007 worked to link media innovators, whether they work inside, outside or alongside mainstream media organisations. You can connect with DEN by  joining our Linkedin group , or following us on Twitter @DENupdates or this blog .

8 Great Tips for Maintaining Good Communication with Parents

September 7, 2014
One of the primary things you need to work on especially during these first weeks of school is setting up an agenda or a plan of work on how you want to go about communicating with the parents of your students. This plan should include things such as objectives behind such communication, how often do you want to communicate with them, strategies and digital platforms you want to use to maintain such communication, other parties you want to include in this communication..etc.

 In an earlier post published here in EdTech and Mlearning, I reviewed 3 main web tools that teachers can use for free to communicate with parents. Two of these web tools (ClassDojo and Remind) enable teachers to exchange text messages with students parents without their numbers being revealed. Today, I am sharing with you 8 excellent tips to ensure an effective communication with parents. These tips are included in the visual below.

• Focus on the positive not just the negative
• Involve the student in communicating with their parents
• Be consistently in touch, not just when things are bad
• Livestream or Skype when needed
• Use technology: text, email, and more
• Ask parents their opinions
• Collaborate: find some common ground
• Bring parents into school. Get them involved

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A Must See Visual Featuring The Do's and Don'ts of Digital CItizenship

September 7, 2014
Here is a wonderful infographic I have always shared with teachers during the first back-to-school week. This graphic features 20 of the basic digital citizenship rules. These rules are framed in terms of Do's and Don'ts. You can use it with students to introduce them to the topic of digital citizenship and educate them on the different ways they can properly conduct themselves  on the web.

As a refresher, digital citizenship is "the norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use."It is the combination of technical and social skills that enable a person to be successful and safe in the information age. Just like literacy and numeracy initiatives which provide people with the skills to ' participate in the work force, digital literacy has become an essential skill to be a confident, connected, and actively involved life long learner.'

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Good Classroom Management Posters and Visuals for Your Class

September, 2014
Classroom management is one of our main concerns as teachers. Preparing a healthy and student friendly environment conducive to learning is a pre-requisite for any effective instruction to take place. From arranging the setting of the classroom itself ( e.g students seats, empty space, instructor space...etc) to dealing with the different unexpected events that would pop up during instruction, classroom management is an integrative process that requires some serious work primarily from the part of the teacher. It is true that new teachers with no previous teaching experience are more likely to have problems with managing their classrooms but having a long teaching experience does not necessarily mean one is immune to issues of classroom management. It definitely takes more than experience alone to run a classroom because teaching is an art that draws on several closely knit particles to make up the whole picture.

Over the last couple of weeks, I shared here a wide variety of resources, materials  and tips on classroom management and there was a lot of interaction with these materials. Today, I am adding another wonderful resource packed full of classroom management posters and visuals. This is a Pinterest board curated by Edutopia which provides an excellent array of tips on how to effectively kick off your classroom community. I invite you to have a look and share with your colleagues.

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Two Incredibly Useful Videos on Flipped Learning

September 6, 2014
Flipped learning is a learning trend that is gaining in momentum within the education community. Whether this is a new trend or not does not matter here what matters is the fact that web technologies and digital media is increasing the potential of flipped learning beyond measures. Flipped classroom or flipped learning is a methodology, an approach to learning in which technology is employed to reverse the traditional role of classroom time. If in the past, classroom time is spent at lecturing to students , now in a flipped model, this time is utilized to encourage individualized learning and provide one-on-one help to students.There are actually several pluses for using a flipped approach in your teaching:

Image source:User Generated Education

• Doing the 'knowledge' part at home provides students with ample time to think, absorb and reflect on their learning.
• Classroom time is devoted to more engaging and inquiry based activities
• Students become responsible for their leaning
• Classroom teaching becomes more student centred
• Flipped Classroom also "allows teachers to reflect on and develop quality and engaging learning opportunities and options for internalization, creation, and application of content rather than just fluff or time filling assignments."

Today, I am sharing with you these two wonderful videos that sum up the essence of Flipped learning. The first video is an explanation of what Flipped learning is all about and the second one provides an an example of how students are actually learning through the flipped learning model. Enjoy

1-  The Flipped Classroom Model

2- Flipped Learning

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