Choice Lit Topic: Digital Literacy
Thoreau once wrote we are in danger of becoming the “tool of our tools,” but it’s doubtful he envisioned a day when there would be so much technology hardware and software to distract and empower us at the same time. Teachers who are grappling with iPads, laptops, kid blogs and cellphones in classrooms share their triumphs and struggles here.
Results
Using Animated Short Films to Teach Inference
My students and I have just finished reading "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, a staple short story in the literary canon of the high school English curriculum. The story...
Fireflies: Then and Now
Summer is a recharging time for teachers; it is our time to be at home with our families and provides us with time to ponder teaching and learning. Last night...
Tech Tools for Our Youngest Learners with Kathy Cassidy (PODCAST)
Kathy Cassidy does amazing things with technology in her first-grade classroom. She chats with Franki Sibberson about her favorite tech tools in this podcast. You can learn more about Kathy's...
Producing Instead of Consuming: Using iPads Wisely with Students
There was a recent New York Times article with the title "Math that Moves: Schools Embrace the iPad". It was a small piece about how several school districts across the country are buying...
Refining the Weekly Class Newsletter
It was writing workshop time on a mid-October Wednesday, and the buzz of four children chattering in excited voices was a dead giveaway that something wonderful was about to happen....
Photovoice: Exploring Content Literacy with Images
How does your expertise function? During the past year, I posed this question to a study group comprising fifth- through eighth-grade teachers whose focus was on disciplinary literacies. We were...
Getting Started With Twitter
Years ago, I reluctantly signed up for a Twitter account. Shortly after the initial confusion and frustration, I became addicted. Many days Twitter is my free-time activity of choice. My husband tired...
Strawberries, Fun, and Student Blogging
Growing as a teacher and learner requires honest feedback. Who else could be more honest than students? During winter break, I reflected on my teaching practices in order to set...
Digital Handouts: An Alternative to More Paper and Meetings
"I want to contribute, I would just rather do something different than a presentation," Jane shared with me after one of her district meetings on English language learners (ELLs). She...
Teaching Blogging to Second Graders
Wikis, blogs, and social networking sites allow us to be creators and consumers of content -- two roles that even younger students are ready to begin understanding using the Internet....
Reading Preferences: Social, Pleasurable, and Sometimes Awkward
Like many people, I made a few resolutions as the new year was ushered in. One of those resolutions was to be better at tracking the books that I read....
Redesigning a Classroom: Putting Students First (and Technology in Its Place)
It takes time, effort, thinking, rearranging, and more thinking to design a classroom environment . . . and then every summer the cycle repeats itself. I set up a kindergarten...
Unexpected Gifts: Technology and Community in the First Days of School
The first week of school is exhilarating, exhausting, and full of surprises. My thoughts about school bounced me out of bed at 4:45 in the morning all week (not typical...
A District Film Festival: Giving Kids An Authentic Audience for Their Work
Last spring, students in the Parkway School District in Missouri attended their 2nd Annual Film Festival: "Lights. . .Camera. . .Parkway! Our World Through a Digital Lens." After receiving their...
5 Easy Steps for Starting a Blog
Blog. Blog because it is reflective. Blog because we need you to share what you know with us. Blog because it is good to remember how it feels to be...
Addicted to Twitter: How Did It Happen?
I have become addicted to Twitter, and this shocks me. I really had no intention of "twittering," and I certainly did not plan on making it a part of my...
The Reading Skills We Use When Searching the Internet
Our students are often much more technologically savvy than we are. They have grown up with tools that are fairly new to us. They often know how to teach themselves...
Expanding the Ways We Preview Books
Our 5th graders are moving to middle school. As incoming 6th graders, they are given a summer reading assignment by our district. As I was looking at the four books...
Twitter Me This: Using Cell Phones to Build Literacy Skills and a Reading Community
On any given day teachers can be seen lecturing in classrooms across the country. At the same time on any given day students can be seen, with arms outstretched, trying...
From Page to Screen: My Top Ten Film Adaptations of Children’s Books
My friend and I went to the movies last month to see The Time Traveler's Wife, the film adaptation of one of our favorite books. I had my fingers crossed. Watching...
Panels and Pages: Using Graphic Novels in the High School Classroom
My students love graphic novels, and as I’ve made more of an effort to read them myself, so do I. However, I have noticed that there is still a bit...
