Apps for Educators

Apps for phones and computers whether desktop, laptop or tablet are those mini programs that provide the user with the best experience based on their needs. Although there are so many recommendations for apps for educators out there, I am amazed at how few are used. 

Evernote

The definitive in note-taking, list making, curating websites and blogs, clipping articles to share with peers, writing a shopping list at home that is accessible in the shop and for many, the very engine through which they run their businesses. 

Evernote's beauty is in its cross platform simplicity, synchronisation and web browser add-on. Whilst perusing twitter feeds and the many websites and blogs that are recommended, find one that you enjoy and might want to share - with the add on to Chrome or Firefox or other browsers, simply press the clipping tool and the page is clipped into your Evernote notebook. From there it can be emailed to those with whom you wish to share it. 

Download onto your phone and at the airport you can retrieve your online flight details with the press of a button. It even synch's between different platforms so if you use a PC at home but have an iphone - Evernote shares the same info. 

Linked Social Media - A Cautionary Tale

How's your social media network coming on? Do you feel that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Youtube and Blogger are providing cpd as good as anything else (and in some people's cases - better)? Do you have Twitter and Facebook connected?

I am knocked out by the connections that these social media give me. I have an endless supply of up-to-date articles about the latest tech and reminders of good solid educational practice. I have an educational twitter account and a website and Facebook page called House of Teacher. Each is interconnected with the other which means that I can update one and the others update too.

But my enthusaism was unchecked. I had also unwittingly linked my youtube account to my twitter account. Two weeks ago I created playlists for each of my babies. Series of videos that would keep them quiet for twenty minutes after dinner. It was lovely. The children woudl sit at the computer and sing nursery rhymes, phonic songs and my two year old was learning the properties of shapes. Meanwhile my wife and I would have a quiet cup of tea after dinner.

As is usual with the advent of a second baby, my dedication to upkeep my tweeting wanes every few weeks. So it took me some time to return to my twitter account and even then it was only when I noticed the side bar on my blog telling all my followers that I had been adding these videos.

Now in this case it is pretty harmless, but the lesson is therein. Link your accounts by all means but think carefully, nay plan carefully - map out what you are doing and what is linked. That way you can be sure that you are showing, displaying, informing or telling what you want to tell and not opening up your whole life.

Educational Blog Recommendation

Blogs are hard to keep up to date with. Here are my recommendations of educational blogs worth reading.

Kathy Shrock's Kaffeeklatsch

The goddess of all things ed tech. Kathy reports on all the latest developments and often gets her hands on tech before it has been released.This is a good example of such an article.http://blog.kathyschrock.net/2012/09/wipad-ipad-wireless-projector.html?view=sidebar Kathy is a great exponent of PLN. That is using ed tech in a collaborative/networking way. This post is a great example of why to connect to good educational blogs and tweeters. http://blog.kathyschrock.net/2012/04/i-love-my-twitter-pln.html?view=sidebar

As well as her blog she is an excellent tweeter and well worth following.  @kathyshrock

Finally - have a look at Kathy Shrock's Guide to Everything

Use Your Favourites Toolbar Properly

You probably fall into one of two categories: those that never use there favourites and have to search for everything from scratch, those that use their favourites but it is just a huge long list of everything you have regularly looked at and all those other things you linked for no apparent reason. 
Use your favourites properly. Create a number of generic folders such as:

• Home
• Work
• Hobby
• News
• Children

And just add the things that you will need to access regularly. Alongside this you can add a folder of maybes or possibles - those websites that seem interesting and you might want to come back to but you can't yet decide. 

Favourites really comes into its own when you use the same browser across multiple devices - desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile - use one such as chrome with a signed in account and voila - websites are at your fingertip the same on every device. Therefore projects for work or for hobbies are not limited to particular times and devices. 

App for Educators

Apps for phones and computers whether desktop, laptop or tablet are those mini programs that provide the user with the best experience based on their needs. Although there are so many recommendations for apps for educators out there, I am amazed at how few are used. 

Twitter

The best example of the app, for everyone who knows, out there. Twitter feeds teachers and educators with everything they need to know. 

My own twitter feed can be found at @mcdermottrich

At a simple level teacehrs just need to search a few hashtags which include:

#edchat, #ukedchat or #education. These will provide a whole new world to teachers out there. 

Educational Blog Recommendation

Blogs are hard to keep up to date with. Here are my recommendations of educational blogs worth reading.

Harvard Business Review 

Business based magazine and blog articles that are as relevant to the management and leadership of schools as they are to the business world they are aimed at. Keeping employees happy or ensuring that communication is honest and efficient are principles that apply to both worlds. Articles aren't overly wrong and I find the titles help me to identify the ones most relevant to me. Intelligently written without getting into hyperbole and technicalities.

Recent post of note - http://hbr.org/2013/04/in-the-company-of-givers-and-takers/ar/1

The principle that people fall into the two categories of giving and taking and that boundaries have to be drawn to create a balance in employees.  

Essential Books for Primary/Elementary School

Over the last ten years or so I have become aware of how the fashions and fads that are new initiatives have diluted many strong traditional aspects of schooling. Going back further and the classroom was alive and rich in the depth of study through the use of class readers. This was the place of some of the very best cross curricular work. Texts used year after year led to revised effective programs that taught good literacy skills whilst allowing grammar to be taught in a context. To this end, my thoughts have turned regularly to what kind of books I would like to see embedded across a school and its curriculum.

A selection of Roald Dahl books from/including: The Fantastic Mr Fox, BFG, James and The Giant Peach, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Matilda, The Witches, The Magic Finger...

Beowulf - there are so many different versions but this one by Brian Pattern is accessible for children as young as seven.

Clockwork by Philip Pullman

Jabberwocky by CS Lewis

Poetry by Roger McGough

The Sound Collector by Roger McGough

The Listeners by Walter De La Mare

I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Goodnight Moon by Mary Wise Brown

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morporgo

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

The Mixed up Chameleon by Eric Carle

Oh Fabjous Day Collected by Sandy Brownjohn

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

The Guard Dog by Dick King Smith

The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith

The Rattle Bag edited by SeamusHeaney and Ted Hughes

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

Where's Wally? (various) 

Magazines and Comics - as many as possible in as many places as possible

Charlotte's Web by EB White

Percy the Park Keeper by Nick Butterworth

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

Traditional Tales including: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man,Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling - These need to be revisited many times so that children internalise their structures and devices. For six to eight year old children use with alternative versions such as Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs or Goldilocks by Allen Ahlberg.

Myths and Legends including: Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus,

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

 by Mark Haddon

Anything by Michael Rosen

Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Silly Verse for Kids by Spike Milligan

 

Five Children and It by E Nesbit

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Lots by Julia Donaldson like The Gruffalo and The Snail and The Whale.

Holes, There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett


 This is far from a comprehensive list and I have realised that it will need to be developed and refined over time. These texts should be incorporated through a number of platforms within the school including:

• class reader
• guided reader
• shared reader
• class library
• school library
• recommendations list
• holiday reading list
• extended reading list
• home reader