In lieu of the usual shout-outs and kudos, I'd like to invite you back to the blog again tomorrow to check out our year in review!
Cool Tools
Google's Global Forest Change Explorer is an impressive aggregation of data culled from Google Earth and researchers about deforestation across the planet. The maps and layered images will for certain lead students to ask big questions!
If students have an Android phone, they can download Google's new Science Journal app and start gathering data from the world around them. Students can track anything from the volume of a dog's bark to how much light enters a tinted car window and keep records right on their phone. Since Google also recently announced that Android apps will be available on Chromebooks, there may soon come a time when our students' Chromebooks can be used for sophisticated data measurement!
EasyBib is offering free access to EasyBib EDU for teachers and their classes for next school year. This EDU account allows some class management features for teachers that you wouldn't have with using the standard version of EasyBib. Students can also have notebooks of their citations for different projects they may be working on, and an annotation tool seems to be in the works! If you are interested, sign up for access by filling out this Google Form here by August 1, 2016.
If you're a Planboard user (or, even if you're not...), Chalk.com has recently improved Markboard. The interface is a thing of beauty and the tool seems to have potential in making several types of student assessment/feedback more effective and efficient.
Professional Learning
Whether a 1:1 classroom will be new for you next year, or you've had some experience in a 1:1 room, check out the tips in 10 steps to a better one-to-one experience as you think of planning for next year.
In Professional development should make teachers feel urgent, not small and isolated a National Board Certified Teacher makes the case for increasing the professionalism of teaching through sharing best practices via web resources and video.
Check out High School of the Future for an in-depth look at Salt Lake City's Innovations Early College High School, where learning is hyper-personalized for every student.
Another important step in having students own their learning may be to have students lead parent-teacher conferences. Find out why and how in How to Shift to a Student-Centered Approach in Parent-Teacher Conferences.
As we think about continue to grow as student-centered teachers next year, you may find inspiration in the article Why Good Professional Development Is Crucially Linked to an Educator’s Attitude
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