TheApple

The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading comprehension. Book reports can be a contributing factor to 'readicide'. "Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools." http://stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm. So, how can we as teachers continue ...

As summer break approaches, we teachers start thinking about how far we have come during the school year with our students. We also dread that they will be on their own for the summer and may or may not be reading. Shelfari is a virtual bookshelf that you create to show off books that you have read and recommend. It is ...

If you're wondering what "Web 2.0" is, then keep reading! It's time you learned what you're missing and how many great (and free) applications that you can utilize. Make reading, language arts, and even communicating with parents easier and more enjoyable. Below are five great ways you can get started found by TheApple featured writer, Kelly Tenkely. If you are already ...

Middle Spot is a spectacular new search engine for teachers, librarians, and students performing research. Middle Spot lets you see your results, you can pan and zoom individual website results. Workpads allow you to save and annotate results and sort by collections. Workpads can also be shared with others (colleagues, students, or professional learning communities). What I love about Middle Spot ...

A Library for the World's Children URL: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ Intended for: Kids ages 3 – 13 and Adults As a reading and ESL teacher in Cairo, Egypt, I was constantly on the lookout for interesting books that would appeal to the diverse group of students that I taught. I liked to think I was pretty up-to-date on what was available online. Without ...

Being a first year teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. There is new curriculum to learn, unfamiliar school policies, classroom management challenges, and new teammates. Technology can help to ease some of these first year growing pains. 1. Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter. Twitter is an excellent place for new teachers to connect, collaborate, share ideas, ...

The internet is the way of the future for technology-savvy educators. Creating a website for your class can be a worthwhile tool to connect and share with members of the class, parents, other teachers and the world! Post news, photos, links and other useful tools. If you want to create a website for your class but don’t know where to ...

I have found this year that I have been making a lot of progress on my own personal teaching style. It’s my 6th year to teach, and I begin what could be seen as the downhill slope of teaching. Now that I am pretty adequate at getting children to be and stay quiet throughout class so that I can teach them, ...

There is a myth, a common misperception, that teachers’ use of technology is a relatively recent phenomenon.  However, the great teachers in my life have all had one thing in common; they all used the technology of the time to encourage and enhance learning. When I was growing up this rarely meant computer use—computers were still relatively new to education at ...

You can often hear the most interesting things on talk radio, particularly at the height of campaign season. This afternoon, Eduflack was surfing the AM stations and came across and interesting tale from primary season in Indiana. As he is barnstorming for his wife in the Hoosier State, former President Bill Clinton spoke on education. More importantly, he spoke on scientifically ...

The Wilderness Classroom Organization (WCO) is a non-profit organization that strives to engage, excite, and motivate students and teachers using an interactive, technology-based learning model that draws upon people’s innate curiosity and desire for exploration. Essentially, this is a program set up to “electronically” bring young people on virtual expeditions all over the world. We bring our educational content—photos, journals, videos, ...

The internet is one of the most popular and valuable tools for finding and sharing information. Educators can take advantage of all the internet has to offer students with many sites that were designed for classroom use. From catching a bad internet character in a game to social networking with tweens in mind, these sites offer teachers good direction and ...

h4. Feature Topic: Phonics *_iLearn Technology is dedicated to giving teachers practical tips for integrating technology into the classroom. All of the resources are free to use and simple to implement. This column is a weekly Friday feature, don't miss it!_* h4. Kindersay h4. What it is: Kindersay is a website for emerging language learners. This is the new See and ...

We’ve all said it. “Technology is the wave of the future.” There’s no denying that. It’s actually the wave of the present. I know that every teacher in academe today has heard that the need to use technology in the classroom is imperative now. If we are going to engage our students in the class discussions and the lectures, we need ...

One of our brethren has been released from his teaching position due in part to the reflective teacher writing that he posts anonymously on his teacher blog. Instead of being reprimanded, or even censured, he’s been fired. It seems so odd to me that anyone would look at this so important part of the teacher process as being anything other than ...

What it is:  Ideas to Inspire is a truly wonderful site and wealth of resources for teachers.  On this site you will find a collection of Google Doc presentations that include a number of ideas for engaging lesson activities in a variety of curriculum areas.  The collection comes from inspiring teachers from around the world.  You can find Ideas to Inspire ...

What it is: Lookybook is amazing me today. This site, still in Beta version, is a place where kids can go to read and view picture book in their entirety. These are quality picture books such as “Alphabeasts” by Wallace Edwards and Franklin books by Paulette Bougeois. After a book has been read, it can be reviewed, rated, shared and put ...

Click Clack MooI just want to share one of my favorite activities I did in my 4th grade keyboarding classes last year - you might be surprised to learn that it has NOTHING to do with computers! My family is really into reading and we have books scattered EVERYWHERE. I order about 5 - 10 books a month from my sister’s ...

I’m asked all the time how I can stay current on all the latest technology that my students are involved with. The answer, as I shall explain, is simple and takes only three steps (maybe four). It’s true confession time. I learned about face-book from a soccer player. He couldn’t get off the site long enough to participate in class. MySpace ...

h4. *What it is:* The Animalia website is based on the popular book and television series written and illustrated by Graeme Base. The website is just as impressive as the book with amazing illustrations and activities for students. On the Animalia website, students are introduced to the characters of Animalia, the goal of the Animalia site, Animalia news, and games and ...