http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach A teacher-to-go blogs about teaching, technology, and education in general Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:06:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en TeachersFirst is blessed with a wonderful team of reviewers. The challenge we face is maintaining a consistent voice among so many teacher-writers. This same challenge rises in any collaborative student project where each student writes a portion of the content. How do we maintain a voice and writing style that ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/02/10/feedback-on-feedback-screencasting-mirrors-authentic-tasks/ Favorite question of teachers and parents of Bubba/Bubbette the teenager: What WAS he/she thinking? Answer: He/she doesn't know how to think. Recent research explains teen brain development, specifically underscoring the teen's underdeveloped prefrontal lobe as the culprit. Alison Gopnik's WSJ column makes the research meaningful for teachers by sharing ideas about what the ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/02/03/thinking-practice-tools-for-bubbas-teen-apprenticeship/ The day after the State of the Union, in the midst of presidential primaries,  and at the height of school budget (cut) announcements for the coming school year, I find myself itching to mimic Judith Viorst's classic poem. I even found a handy online form for students -- and teachers(?) ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/01/25/if-i-were-in-charge-of-the-world/ When an Apple falls from the Cupertino tree, the world listens to the earthquake and reports each aftershock. In the ramp-up to an anticipated Apple "event," the predicto-blogs and tech columnists crank out preshocks. Edtechers from every basket, including Apple core-owners, Apple picker-enviers, and rotten Apple sighters, all stop and ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/01/18/thursday-at-10/ Are you a teaching Twinkie? Twinkies are comfort food. There is something about the greasy slip from the cellophane wrapper, the burst of "creamy" filling (likely absolutely nothing related to cream), and the rush of sugar from that first bite. Twinkie aficionados have many approaches: squirting the cream out with ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/01/13/r-u-a-teaching-twinkie/ "The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen." -Pico Iyer, "The Joy of Quiet" in the New York Times, Dec. 29, 2011  Amen. I think a lot about what it means to be in ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2012/01/06/digging-into-the-joy-of-quiet/ Happy New Year! (See my Geogreeting* to you) This time of year, everyone offers carefully studied retrospectives,  the "Top Ten" this or that from the past year. I see so many amazing sites every year that I could never choose a top ten. Instead, I offer this random, personal collection -- ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2011/12/30/wows-from-2011/ TeAching is tech that has earned an "A." I hope to improve my peer teaching performance to earn that "A." Last week I wrote of my resolve to improve the way I share edtech expertise with tech-challenged teaching peers in 2012, to help the tech-challenged in a way that enables ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2011/12/23/five-insteads-edtechresolve-2012-part-2/ This is the traditional time of year for charitable giving. We try to share our good fortune with those less fortunate. Then we make resolutions to be better people on the New Year. Some of us are fortunate enough to have strong ed tech skills (and/or tech bravado) and can ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2011/12/16/edtechresolve-part-1-edtech-empathy-exercises/ We are all aware of our digital footprints these days, and we caution our students to be aware of the potential future impact of their digital droppings. I wonder, however, about the opposite problem:  the footprints we leave in sands to wash away with changing tides. How can we, as ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2011/12/09/digital-footprint-tools-and-ethics-revisionist-or-archivist/