Wednesday, October 26, 2011

7 Tools For Basic Effective Communication

The teaching tool I chose to write about in this blog are, the 7 tools for basic effective communication. This is a free tool that will give you tips on how to communicate better. Discover 7 tools to help you assess your communication skills, send clear messages, tips for using nonverbal behaviors and more! Using this tool, you will get tips for choosing the right communication method and considering other important factors that impact effectiveness. You will also learn effective listening and feedback skills from this tool.
This tool is a free membership for teachers that know integrating technology in the classroom will help their students. After you select to join this membership, you get instant access to a collection of:
Over 500 hours of technology how-to tutorials anytime anywhere
Live online webinars with today's top experts
All the help and support you'll ever need from your very own personal learning network
This site is also helpful, because of the rubric it gives you, that is also printer friendly. This rubric is a self evaluation rubric. It has check-boxes, in which you can check off how successful you have mastered some of the skills this site has taught you on communication during your lessons. This site is for teachers who are serious about their jobs, and want to continue to get better at what they do, to make the learning environment for their students better and better every year!

http://blog.simplek12.com/education/basic-effective-communication/

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Top Math YouTube Channel

I found this "Top Math YouTube Channel" tool very interesting, and potentially very useful for math teachers, or tutors. This tool shows students how to do certain studies of math, and shows it step by step on a YouTube video. I actually watched a couple of these videos, and I really think if I had videos to watch like this in middle school and in high school, I would have done much better in math, and understood the concepts better. For younger kids, just saying the word YouTube, makes them more interested in what they are learning about because its a fun program to run. I would like to watch videos like this, rather than watching my teacher lecture up in front of class for 50 minutes, or write math problems on the white board and have them solve them while you sit and watch. I think many students would tend to agree, they think they know the concepts or how to do problems while their teacher is explaining it to them, however, I think many students when they go to do the homework by themselves, they forget how to do what the teacher taught them that day, or do it incorrectly. This YouTube mathematics channel could help kids see problems in front of them while they try and do their homework by themselves, it would serve as an example for them. 
From a teachers standpoint, I would also think this would be kind of a fun task to experiment with, and see how your kids like it, and see how it easy it would be to create one of these videos and upload them to YouTube for your students to see. 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

iPad Apps for Education

With schools and teachers who have the funds and resources to afford an iPad, there are many different applications you can download to help our your classroom experiences. With iPad Webinars, you can share resources and collaborate with co-workers and colleagues better than ever before, and eliminate paperwork too. Another addition to this application is a remote that will that you can access your computer or iPads system network from anywhere. You can help your students not to get bored too with this application, by creating digital stories, and by having the access for your students to do multiple other activities on this app, and to have fun while learning.
http://blog.simplek12.com/education/best-ipad-apps/