Skills for Students

Here's an interesting read from Mind Shift and author Katrina Schwartz. It states we need to have better internet searching skills, reach a global audience, and show their learning. The author argues we should do all of this within the first 5 days of school.

Comics

Richard Byrne's Free Tech 4 Teachers had a post about a month ago explaining why comics can be a great way to get to know your students.  The post is titled:

Get to Know Your Students Through Comics

Its lists a few websites to use for comic creations (Comic Master, StoryboardThat, Make Beliefs).  Are there any other great comic creation websites?

Back To School Night

Heather Wolpert-Gawron posted an article to Edutopia about how to prepare for Back to School Night.  The post is titled:

A Checklist for Back to School Night

This could be a great resource for new teachers, but as she said, it took her 15 years to come up with some of these strategies.  It's tough to remember exactly what you did for one night a year ago, so this checklist could be helpful for any teacher.  Anything you would add to this list?

Teacher Discounts!

Edudemic recently posted about businesses that provide discounted services and products to teachers.  Many of these places I shop regularly and had no idea they offered teacher discounts. Here's their complete list of businesses.

Free Resources

Who doesn't love Edutopia?!?!  They're running an 8 week column titled, "8 Weeks of Free Teacher Resources for Back to School."  It's perfect for new teachers or for teachers wanting to fill up their toolkit.  Check back with Edutopia each week as they release new free resources.

Internet Safety Websites

I found this post on iLearn Technology.  They provide 16 websites to teach students about internet safety.  I'll definitely use some of these during my beginning-of-the-year tech boot camp.  Any sites you would add to this list?

Anxious about the new school year?

I just posted how parents can ease anxiety, so Edudemic posted how teachers can alleviate anxiety over the impending new school.

"7 Tips for Anxious New Teachers"

Back to School for Parents

I know parents have anxiety about their kids going back to school.  Edutopia provided resources for parents in their post:

"Back to School Resources for Parents"

Questions to Ask Parents

Edutopia posted an article about the questions to ask parents at the beginning of the school year.  The article, "7 Questions to Ask Parents at the Beginning of the School Year," provides teachers with strategies to create partnerships with their parents.  Do you have questions you already ask parents?  Do parents have questions they would like to add to the list?

Google Docs

I found this post, "10 Things Every Teacher Should Know How to do With Google Docs,"on the Edudemic blog.  These are just some tips and tricks for Google Docs, and with DPS using Google Apps more and more, it's important we understand how to use them.

Tips for New Teachers

It's that time of year, again!  Back to school!

Free Technology for Teachers (if you don't regularly follow Richard Byrne, he publishes a fantastic educational technology blog) shared 100+ Tips for New Teachers.

This could be extremely helpful during those New Teacher Orientations or for a mentor to share with his/her mentee.

Homework Resources

I stumbled across this article from eSchool News:

16 Engaging Homework Help Resources

Many of them are free and for Math.  Do you have an favorite homework resources?

Common Core Resources

With the new Common Core Standards, we all need resources, right?!?

Here's an article from eSchool News:

New Common Core Resources for Educators by Meris Stansburg

"The resources, housed on Activate Instruction, are part of an open platform where educators can browse, search, rate, add, share, and organize their favorite Common Core-aligned resources, and put them together in personalized playlists for students."

What resources are you using?