Genius Hour

TeachThought has recently jumped on board with the Genius Hour imitative, basically a way for students to complete an inquiry-based project around something they're passionate about. TeachThought provides 2 podcasts on providing ways for students to create higher level questions. Also, you can sign up for a workshop on creating a Genius Hour project for your students.

Teaching Channel

I was trying to find a website housing teacher professional development video. I stumbled upon Teaching Channel. It has tons of videos of teachers working with students in their classrooms. The videos can be discovered by subject, grade, or content. I found "Content" to be the most helpful. Users can find videos about classroom management, collaboration, differentiation, engagement, etc. Teaching Channel is a fantastic resource.

Twitter in the Classroom

Here's an interesting idea from Alice Keeler: create a classroom Twitter account. She explains how to create an account, how to create a class hashtag, what to tweet, and how to add your class to her list of classroom Twitter accounts. Follow Alice Keeler on her Twitter account or her blog, Teacher Tech.

Slides Q&A

Here's an interesting tool for Google Slides: Slides Q&A. It allows audience members/students to interact with your Google Slide presentation by voting or asking questions with any device (computer, tablet, phone). Here's a full review and video from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.

Google for Teachers

Another Google post!

Here's an interesting list of the 25 ways Google can make you a better teacher. Hmmm. By better, I think they mean more efficient, organized, and more engaging. Great resource!

Google Tutorials

Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers, provides users with tutorials for Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Many of the videos are screencasts he created, while some of them were collected from other educators. It's a great tools if you're looking to use GAFE in the classroom, start a blog, making conference calls, embedding Google Maps, or using Google Voice. t

Ditching the Textbook

Here's an interesting podcast on TeacherCast. It helps teachers move away from textbooks to using an online format. As a school, we've been looking into cutting out paper bill and moving homework online to save money, resources, and time for teachers.