Get Students Involved in Classroom Setup

As the new school year begins, it’s the perfect time to start redesigning your classroom. Eductopia blogger, designer, and educator David Bill has put together a three part video series on how to not only reorganize your classroom but to also get your students involved in the process. Bill suggests using techniques such as drawing a map of your current classroom and having students mark areas that they would change by giving students post it notes and having them right their suggestions and posting them around the room.  There were some great tips for repurposing materials that many teachers already have in their room to help organize supplies. Bill suggestions have put a new spin on how to get the classroom ready for the new year and I am excited to try several of his suggestions in my own classroom soon. 

8 Tips and Tricks to Redesign Your Classroom

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-tips-redesign-your-classroom-david-bill

Virtual Worlds Could Be the Future of Learning

Imagine a classroom underwater, on the moon, or in a medieval castle; with virtual worlds the fantasy is now becoming a reality. Used traditionally for online gaming, virtual worlds allow users to interact through avatars in virtual worlds of their own design.  Educators are taking note of virtual worlds and the unique opportunities they could provide learners.  Universities like Dartmouth are even experimenting with the uses of virtual worlds to train emergency response teams. The current generation of young learners are becoming more and more comfortable communicating through virtual avatars and the idea of creating virtual worlds where students from around the worlds will have the opportunity to interact and engage in constructivist learning is an exciting prospect.  To read more about virtual worlds and how they are changing the landscape of education read:http: 7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Worlds

What can Lulu do for you ?

Looking for a way to self-publish? Lulu could be your answer.  Whether you want to create and print a textbook or create content that students can digitally download, Lulu’s publishing services offers easy to use and relatively inexpensive options for people to self-publish their writings.  The flexibility offered by self-publishing opens the door for educators to tailor their course materials.  As an art educator I am particularly interested in the ability to print and develop comic books. Comics are a media that my students are particularly interested in; whether I create comics that are pertinent to art education topics for students to read in class or have student create and print comics of their own design Lulu allows for the creative process to take the next leap onto the published page. To learn more about Lulu and self-publishing, you can read “7 Things You Should Know About Lulu.”

“It’s Not Enough to Simply Teach; You Have to Tell Your Story.”

As teachers gear up to the return for another school year, discussions about education, its future, it’s funding and its importance seem to be going on everywhere.  While the media and Hollywood paint the educational system in extremes, there are hundreds if not thousands of stories within each school that tell of students experiencing success, finding inspiration and making a difference for their communities.  As teachers, it is important for us to share these stories.  Edutopia blogger, Suzie Boss writes about why teachers need to be great storytellers and lays out ways educators can shift the narrative and highlight a more personal education narrative.

She explains how teachers can use the Ignite Talks format to not only tell a story but also truly capture an audience with the slogan “Enlighten Us but Make It Quick”.   An inspirational story presented in the Ignite format may be the perfect way to start off this year’s back to school professional development.