Super-helpful educator Kathy Schrock discusses the importance of curation. Kathy was trained as a librarian who has been curating sources since 1995.  She found that people used her pages for assessment tools and apps the most on her website, which is chock full of curated sources. If you are curating resources, this is a must listen. Our guest today, Kathy Schrock, has been curating teaching resources for almost two decades. In this segment she shares insights, resources and advice for smart curation. Listen to Kathy Schrock talk about curating tools  Add Kathy Schrock  to your PLN @kathyschrock kathyschrock.net Kathy Schrock - Show Notes #57 - Curation Trends: Finding the Best Teaching Apps, Tools and Resources Kathy Schrock is an expert curator. She has been a teacher, a librarian, and a district technology director. She maintains a popular website full of curating sources aimed at helping teachers. She has been working with computers since 1972 and finds that mobile devices, apps, and site design are the current trends now. Kathy feels beginning educators should start find an application that can be used in several content areas. She usually recommends people learn how to screencast first, because that skill can be used for many different lessons. Then she recommends building a PLN (Personal Learning Network) with likeminded educators around the world. Kathy reminds educators to pay it forward and to give back to your PLN as well as being a consumer of sources. Listen on iTunes Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial.   The post Finding the Best Teaching Apps, Tools and Resources with @kathyschrock appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Lisa Durff is an educator who helps others and frequently volunteers for online education causes. Lisa is a kind-hearted servant-leader with a birthday on April 1. (The joke is on me — I logged into Google Plus and it said her birthday was today  October 5- Google Plus is wrong somehow. I’m still not taking this down because she’s amazing - so why not just say thank you anyway — reverse April Fools Joke) You’ll notice Lisa’s name on the Every Classroom Matters’ show notes. If you email me, she’ll probably set the appointment for us to talk. Lisa stepped in a few months a go to help me out. She’s my friend first and foremost. She also has a gift for handling details in ways I struggle. My Productivity Ninja Back in May while working to get more productive, I made a list of those things where I needed help. I read several books on finding a virtual assistant (VA) and interviewed some. But I was wary. A few years back I hired a VA to help me because I had too much email — she quit after 3 days because I had "too much email." As Kip and I talked, it came down to one thing: trust. Was anyone in my life who knows me and my weaknesses (and strengths)? Would he/she help me be better? So, I called my friend Lisa to see if she knew someone who could help me. She wanted to "help me out." Now, four months later- she’s helping me with my blog, email, and schedules appointments. Lisa helps me get more out of my days! Servant Leaders Make Us Better Lisa moderates for online conferences and helps anyone who asks. She’s living an epic life as she earns her PhD in education technology. Never Taking Credit Lisa is one of those rare individuals who never takes credit. She’s always pushing others in the spotlight. Lisa will email me to say "Vicki, you have to get this person on your show." That’s what she does — always pointing out others who deserve credit- never any for herself. Happy Birthday to You, Lisa Durff I just wanted to take this moment to wish her happy birthday. Because, you see, Lisa Durff is my present. She is a gift to me each and every day. First, because she is my friend and she is kind. Second, because she helps me be more professional and be as helpful as possible to as many people as possible. Noticing the Heroes Among Us Connect with Lisa Durff — will you wish her happy birthday? If you don’t know Lisa, will you consider thanking a person like her? Because, you see, that would actually make Lisa happier than if we thank her. That’s who she is. Happy Birthday, Lisa Durff. The world is better because you’re in it! The post Lisa Durff: Happy (Reverse April Fools) Birthday to a Servant Leader Among Us appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Being a teacher is pretty thankless but if a kind note every comes you way, it just means so much. Very grateful. I will treasure this one and aspire to be helpful and encouraging to an incredible profession who needs to again glimpse their own nobility in the mirror. BAM Radio Network has gone from 67,000 visitors a month to over 600,000 visitors a month just in the past year. That 600,000 is largely  educators. Every Classroom Matters has been part of this network for 18 months and over 100 episodes. This show is a work of heart because the true stars of each show are teachers, students, researchers, professors, and those who are really doing incredible things in the classroom every day. You might not see super-famous people on the show, but that is what makes it so great — real people are doing really awesome things everyday in education. We need to learn from each other. It was a joy to be at this year’s BAMMY awards, both as a 3iTalk speaker (more on that later) and (to my surprise) as a winner in the category of Best Education Talk Show Host on the network. This was an awesome category with four other shows sharing finalist spots. Please take time to listen to these incredible shows! All of these other hosts are my friends and a respected part of my own PLN. Joe Sanfelippo & Tony Sinanis - BrandED show Edtechchat Radio Hosts (Susan Bearden, Sharon Plante, Katrina Stevens, Tom Murray, Alex Podchaski) Don Wettrick - InnovatED Brad Currie, Billy Krakower, Scott Rocco - #satchat radio If you don’t know about Internet radio, I have a quick guide for how to listen. For a list of past shows and guests on Every Classroom Matters, we’ve made a list for you. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank: Errol Smith and Rae Pica - my mentors (Errol is also executive producer of the show) Jeannette Bernstein - my senior producer Lisa Durff - my production coordinator My family and Donna Miller - for tiptoeing around the house when I’m taping "the show" and knowing I was doing it because it was important to me. Every single guest who took their time to tell their story All of you who have made Every Classroom Matters part of your busy day. And a special shout out to a sweet listener who emailed me this week asking if things are OK. The BAMMYs had sidetracked the publishing of a few shows on the site but we’re back up and rolling today. Thanks again friends, for a show without listeners is just data taking up space on a server. The honor to the show is truly mine. I pray it is helpful to as many people as possible. Thank you all for your part in sharing the story of the show. Because every single classroom matters!     The post BAMMY 2014 - Best Talk Show Host Vicki Davis [Video] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

If you have one technology helping kids learn more than anything else, would you care for it? You bet you would. You’d lock it away. You’d polish it. You’d make sure no one messed with it. You’d take good care of it. Well you have that one thing. Study after study shows that one thing is teachers. Besides the paycheck and the staff meeting "thanks for all you do" — do you take care of them? A game my childhood friends and I played comes to mind. We had this "merry go round spinny thing" (as we called it) and we’d all get on and hold on for dear life. Then, a few ran furiously and pushed as fast as possible until they fell to the ground laughing. Whoever held on amidst the centrifugal force won. Usually we’d sling off like water off a dog’s tail. Sometimes injuries happened but mostly laughter. When school spins like the merry go round - we don’t laugh. We get faster and faster and sling in all directions. We just can’t hold on! The moment. The respite. The kind word. The act of service. These are things that stop the merry go round for a moment so we can catch our breath and hang on for another few spins. A sign left by some quick breakfast foods in our teacher’s lounge. 6 Sweet Ways to Motivate Teachers Motivate Teachers Tip #1 Understand What Teachers Need What I miss most from business is not the challenge - for I’m more challenged in teaching than I ever ways in managing a business. What I miss most about the business world was a) having an executive assistant and b) being able to close the door to get work done. I could DO something. Teachers most often need peace and quiet to get their work done. On work days, plan meetings at the end or the beginning, but let them actually WORK. Don’t let vendors come on campus and interrupt them. Give them a stream of uninterrupted time. Sure, some  teachers won’t "work"  but many will. Once every nine weeks, we have some elementary parents who come and watch classes to give the teachers a working lunch once every nine weeks. We are teachers but even teachers get tired. Motivate Teachers Tip #2: Encourage Teachers to Walk It Out I see Mrs. Adkins in our learning lab — approaching 90 — and I’m not sure how she’s done it. She’s taught longer than I’ve been alive and I just don’t know how. If all you needed was love — I’ve got that. If it is knowledge of my subject - I’ve got that too. It’s the being pulled in a thousand directions every day that is so hard. But I’ll tell you Mrs. Adkins’ secret to longevity and a sharp mind. Time Magazine has an article on it, "The Single Most Proven Way To Get Smarter and Happier." Exercise. Teachers are often up walking around the room or at their desk. Encourage them to get outside and take a walk. Make it acceptable and insist upon it. Two years a go when I had prom on top of everything else, I asked for permission to take a walk during break. That one habit is  kept me from quitting. If your staff is stressing, get them moving, the science is they’ll be happier and think more clearly. Motivate Teachers Tip #3: Realize the Financial Struggle Some ask how I can write this blog AND do everything else but this blog isn’t a burden- it is a necessity. The speaking and freelance writing I do with this blog help me stay in teaching because I have two kids in college. I don’t make enough at my day job to pay for college - so this blog helps me do what I love (encourage teachers) and help those I love get an education. Many teachers have to work outside school.  Many schools discourage this but many don’t realize the nature of the fixed income teachers are on and the need to bring in additional money for their families. For most of us, we work on the side so we can afford to teach. Understand and support this reality or just pay teachers more. (grin) Motivate Teachers Tip #4: Help Them Help Kids Countless students (at all schools) don’t have school supplies. When money is tight it can be frustrating to go buy boxes of pens, highlighters, or markers because the $250 allowance the IRS gives teachers doesn’t nearly cover it. The poorer the kids at the school, the more teachers struggle to buy everything their students need. Replenish the school supplies for teachers. Give them pencils, pens, highlighters, markers, and paper.  It gets more important the closer you get to the end of the year when parents stop thinking about empty backpacks and school supplies. I have a Mom of an ADD kid (who knows he loses everything) buy me a big box of pencils at the beginning of the year. She knows he will lose them-she’s being thoughtful AND helping her child. I’d give him the pencils anyway but I appreciate the thought and acknowledgement. Motivate Teachers Tip #5: Tell Teachers They Are Important Remember the 5 love languages? Teachers who need to hear or read they are important. These words need to be said. In our teacher’s lounge, a parent left a mug of mints with a little sign: "Thanks for being so sweet." Some mysterious person keeps coming by and putting more mints in the cup. Write notes and say inspirational things. Remind them in words of the nobility of their profession and who they are to be as teachers. For those who need to hear and read the words, these are like rain on dry land. When you do little things for teachers, interject inspirational thoughts. Remind them of their nobility and purpose. Little notes do make a difference. Motivate Teachers Tip #6: Acts of Service Our PTO started last year with a meal for us. The parents who put it on went all out - not necessarily in money but in effort they got an A+. They picked flowers from their yards. They wrote notes in their own handwriting. Each made little parts of the meal in the box and then someone assembled the box and tied it with a beautiful ribbon. (Lots of pictures in this post came from that event.) It was a pure, unadulterated act of love. = Do something kind and thoughtful. My Mom bakes muffins and breads and leaves them in the teacher’s lounge. Our PTO bought a Keurig for the teacher’s lounge and keeps it replenished. Yesterday PTO had a "soup day" and it was awesome. I know a person who comes by and writes little fun quotes on our board in the teacher’s lounge just to add a new, encouraging thought to the day. Flowers, a quote, and sometimes food are all a nice thing. (My friend Todd Nesloney had his administrative staff cook pancakes for the teachers one morning.) Being Kind is Always Awesome Sometimes you get through big tough times with little things. The kind word. The laugh. The compliment. Students are vital and important. We love them and want to give our best. But you reach a point — and this is from a teacher who dearly loves my brood — where there’s nothing left to give. And that tiny little push of encouragement is the only thing that keeps us moving forward each day. That tiny bit of encouragement makes a big difference. So, take time today to encourage teachers. If you’re a teacher - you should encourage teachers too. If you work with teachers - please do. (And don’t forget the custodians, lunchroom staff, administrators, and office staff - many people feel this way. Most people need to feel appreciated.) Teachers are reachers, but many of them need encouragement right now. You might be the one thing that keeps them holding on for another spin. The post 6 Ways to Motivate Teachers: Be the Hope appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Start-ups are good for our country. Most students don’t know what they are. I want to infuse a start-up mentality in my classroom as I help students understand innovation. Creation is good. Inventing is hard. If you’re an independent thinker: hire yourself and create a start-up. Recently my ninth graders connected via Google Hangout with the CEO of Brainscape, Andrew Cohen. What is Brainscape? Brainscape is a scientifically-based flashcard tool that lets students learn faster than traditional flashcard services. (Learn more in the video.) My classes have Brainscape study groups. Connect Your Classroom: Steps to Success As discussed in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, students don’t want to talk about the world - they want to talk with the world. Effective 21st century educators connect their students. After Andrew and I set the interview appointment, here is how I prepped my students. (Adapt this to use with politicians, scientists, and any type of job.) Step 1: Introduce the Person’s Job with a Bellringer Activity (10-15 minutes) The day before the interview, we completed a bell ringer asking: What is a start-up? What is the job title of a person who creates a start-up? What are the benefits of creating a start-up? Are there risks of creating a start-up? With your team come up with 3 questions to ask of a person who created a technology start-up? Time taken: 5 minutes in their groups and 10 minutes of discussion Ask questions introducing the topic and role without having a specific company or person named. If they can get their arms around who this person is, they’ll be more excited when you say — we will interview one. (If you tell students who you’re interviewing first — nervousness may stifle the learning.) Step 2: Plan the Interview: Split Students into Questioners and Evaluators After we completed the bell ringer, they discussed their answers. Then, I introduced what they’d be doing today. They split into 2 teams: question creators and evaluators. Good Questions Make a Great Interview The question group worked to formulate questions to ask Andrew based upon what they learned. They looked up information about Andrew (like reading his Twitter) and Brainscape. Give Feedback The other team evaluated Brainscape and compared it to other apps and services they use. This group’s purpose was to offer feedback from real students to Andrew. Students must learn to evaluate websites and apps with an eye for improvement and suggestions. Evaluating is useful for the company you’re connecting to because they are getting feedback on their product. If you take this approach, don’t film or record this segment of the interaction because you want an honest exchange beneficial for both groups. (Students can see how successful people respond to suggestions. I’ve found this fosters a growth mindset of ongoing improvement. Suggestions are not the enemy- they are how we improve.) How Students Planned Students drafted their plan on a Google Document. I provided feedback via commenting. Each team had a PM (project manager) and APM (assistant project manager). They were ready to go by the end of class. Not everyone spoke but everyone had to be involved in  planning. Step 3: The Interview We set aside 30 minutes for the interview. Plan on 10-15 minutes for you to connect with your guest. Technical Aspects of the Interview Can you record? I used Google Hangout linked with my personal account (Google Plus is not enabled with my school account right now.) We live streamed the session and recorded it to YouTube. You don’t have to share it live (although I did). I think recording is important to use the video with other classes. You can’t recreate a magic moment so prepare to capture moments where magic might happen.  For example, I have 2 preps for 9th grade. I don’t want the other class left out. They will watch this recording and take notes. The next time, the other class will conduct the live interview. Note Google Hangout is NOT a video call, if you want to record, you have to set up a live event and create a hangout. I’ve found it to be tricky. (If you can’t find a tutorial, let me know in the comments and I’ll take time to write one.) Check your mic setup You have to check mics and make sure you can hear one another. You’ll notice me sitting near the computer. We turn the mic off an on to prevent feedback from the speakers when Andrew replied to the message. Setup the lower thirds We use the Google Hangout toolbox and do the lower third to show the name and the class information. The recording becomes a permanent part of our class library that other students can access later. Invite parents I invited parents via the school Facebook page and over email. After the interview, I shared the recording. Great Start! Besides a few nerves, (who doesn’t get uptight?) it was a marvelous start! I’m proud of my students! While this was their first interview of the year and many of them were nervous — they did a great job overcoming their nerves. They’ll be pros by the end of the year.  I hope this helps you plan for and integrate this into your classroom. Flatten those walls! Connect and collaborate. Thank you Andrew Cohen from Brainscape for taking the time to connect with my students today. Tip for start-ups: what a great way to interact with students! Thanks Andrew! If you’re creating products they use, give them a voice.  The post How to Connect Your Classroom: Case Study with Andrew Cohen of @Brainscape appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Don’t ask your students to be you. You are not creating mini-me’s. That is not your goal. The average teacher thinks about talking cessation - the superior teacher cares about inspiring the next generation. Aimless people are Columbus kind of people — when they set sail, they don’t know where they are going. When they get there, they don’t know where they are. When they get back, they have no idea where they’ve been. (heard from a Brian Tracey recording) Be purposeful. Know where you’re heading. Celebrate the accomplishment when you return. Be epic, purposeful, and clearly know what you’re doing. Happy accidents happen sometimes but let your teaching and planning be purposeful adventures in learning. Have a crystal clear vision of what you want your classroom to be. Hold it out and compare it to who you are today. Compete with yourself. Level up a little bit every day. Be you but be a better you everyday. Never settle to just be better than the person next door or down the hall - that is beneath you. Be a better you. Your students deserve to see a lead learner improving upon what you learned yesterday. If you already have your copies made for the next six weeks, take them out back and burn them. We don’t make copies in school - we make originals. When you get too automated, you start making automatons who leave small puddles of spittle on the desk and spitballs in the corner thrown to wake up their friend sleeping in the back. You can do better. If they spit in my classroom it will be in hot debate about things that mean something not dead dates of things done by dead people. Those heroes who have gone before will not be the lifeless bones laying in the grave who did something awesome sometime but will come to life as living, breathing heroes making their decisions in front of the class in all of their heart-rending blood-boiling fervor. History comes alive. Everything comes alive - especially my students. Your mission: to do something wonderful in your classroom. But more than that… Your mission: to find something wonderful in every child and hold it up to the light so they can observe the glistening facets of their own uniqueness. For they are beautiful contributions to the world - more beautiful than diamonds and far harder to shape and encourage unless it be done from the inside out. I am in sales. I’m selling you on yourself. Buy yourself, teacher. For you can have all of the ancillaries and topiaries in the the world and nothing is more exciting than you. Nothing is more pivotal. Nothing is more hopeful. Nothing is more driving. And nothing is more joy-killing either. It is you. Buy yourself. Buy into the fact that your learning, your excitement and your raw determination determine everything about your classroom. You are the one. It starts with you. All of it. The epicness, the excitement, the wonder-full-ness. You. Take out a finger and point it up into the air — high high high into the sky. Then take that finger and point it right back at yourself… at your heart… at your mind… at your hands and your feet. These are your weapons and it isn’t a secret. Great teaching is done by great teachers. Teachers who have bought into themselves and the fact that they can improve their art if they learn. A dwarf standing on a giant’s shoulders can see further than the giant. You don’t have to be the giant, just learn from them. Teaching is a profession — on of the few — where you can rise to the status of almost being a saint - were that possible. Yet, those true saint-teachers aren’t in it for sainthood, they aren’t even in it for any attention. They are in it for the epic challenge of dealing with problems that come with hair on top. Superior teachers don’t see problems, they see possibilities. So teacher, I am asking you this moment. Buy yourself. You’re the greatest thing you could ever bring to your classroom. If your heart is not in your classroom, your students won’t want to be either. You — you’re the greatest thing you can bring to class today. Bring it. Bring you. The post Heart’s Cry to Great Teachers: Bring You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Scott McLeod talks with Vicki Davis about teacher’s rights and legal issues to consider when using social media. In this episode of Every Classroom Matters, Scott reminds us educators should be aware that  teachers are representatives of their employers and legally do not have a right to privacy even in their lives outside of school. If this sounds extreme, take a listen so you can understand the legal aspects of a teachers using social media. Listen to Scott McLeod talk about teachers and social media  Listen on iTunes 4/13/14 Add Scott Mcleod to your PLN Twitter: @mcleod Blog: Dangerously Irrelevant Scott McLeod - Show #66 - Teachers’ Rights and Risks on Social Media Scott McLeod reminds us — legally educators have limited free speech when they are employed by public schools. Educators who work for public schools are always representatives of the public schools and can be held responsible for anything they say or do either at work or outside the school environment. (This can apply to any teachers at any school depending upon your contract, however.) Teachers can still feel empowered. Be cautious with words and actions within the social environment and community. Online anonymity is an illusion. US courts set the precedent that public school teachers do not have the same speech rights other people enjoy. Scott prompts us to always be thoughtful in all our words and actions. Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial.   The post What Are Teachers’ Rights and Risks on Social Media? appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Being unpopular and saying things people don’t want to hear isn’t fun. Neither is admitting you’re wrong. Perhaps that is why this 5 minute speech I felt compelled to give was so hard for me. I’m convinced that we’ve isolated students in a world without teachers on social media and every day we are reaping the consequences. We need to rethink this now so we can move forward to a better tomorrow. Sometimes unpopular, uncomfortable things need to be said and positions should be reversed in order to do the right thing. Ultimately, my students said that I needed to give this one. I had at least eight kids who came up to me afterwards who said it was what educators needed to hear. A teary eyed young man moved me most: "My Mom died this year, I had a teacher who helped me get through it. I couldn’t have lived without my teacher. Literally. We students need our teachers and sometimes we need to talk to them on social media. We need a way to do that sometimes." Yep. These kids are worth fighting for and if the only casualty is my own ego in the process, that is indeed a very small price to pay. This is truly an issue where both sides are right. We have to face the truth of the consequences of what we’ve done. We have to come out with some sort of workable answer in the middle. What is my new policy? I tell my students that if they choose to friend me, I will friend them back but they need to know that I’m relating to them as a teacher. Anything they communicate to me is as if I am at school. They can unfriend me at any time and refriend me — just as they wish, no questions asked. If they communicate anything to me, I keep screenshots (with time and date stamps.) Don’t headlong disregard your school policy. I would never ask you to do that. I do ask that you discuss: How would you feel if a student at your school reached out to a stranger because nobody at your school could connect with them? How would you feel if that student got bad advice or was harmed because no one at your school was allowed to help the child? Do you think many bullying incidents and other things happening on social media would be less likely to happen if students thought teachers might be connected? Do you think more incidents would be reported if students could friend and unfriend teachers? What would an educator "certified" or "allowed" to communicate with students via social media look like? Could this be a new role of guidance counselors? What do we need to advocate for from social media companies to allow such interactions to occur safely? Be Somebody Because Nobody Won’t Do Best wishes, I hope you have a great day and I hope you’ll be that somebody for your students. I also hope we’ll consider if we’ve inadvertently isolated kids from those who can help and forced them to chat with strangers because we’ve given them nobody. I think we need a new age and new type of educator at each school and new ways to communicate with a generation who talks differently than we did. Courageously consider if we’ve made mistakes. Discuss and good luck with this one. The post Why I Now Friend My Students on Social Media [Video] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps us design learning to reach every student. Today’s guest, college professor Beth Ritter-Guth teaches us about using UDL in online learning spaces. Whether you’re flipping your classroom, blending learning, or teaching online, every teacher can learn from Beth’s techniques to reach every learner. Beth Ritter-Guth became interested in Universal Design for its potential to increase student success.  She believes if everyone uses UDL in online education then all students will succeed, regardless of ability labels.  Dr. Ritter-Guth is an award-winning professor  at Union College in New Jersey. Listen to this episode of Every Classroom Matters to find out how this award winning professor uses UDL to increase student learning. Listen to Beth Ritter-Guth discuss increasing student e-learning success with UDL  Listen on iTunes 5/20/2014 episode Add @BethRitterGuth to your PLN @BethRitterGuth CollegeEnglishWikispaces Dr. Ritter-Guth’s work with UDL is recognized by the Chronicle of Higher Education, America Online, Wired Magazine, and USA Today. She has received the 2013 Claes Nobel prize, the 2013 Campus Technology Innovation Award, and the 2008 National Association of Independent Schools, Faculty of the Future Award.  She has presented at the NJEdge Conference, the Florida Educational Technology Conference, ISTE, and the Campus Technology Conference in Boston, MA, among many other presentations.  Beth Ritter-Guth - Show Notes #76 - Universal Design in Online Spaces Dr. Ritter-Guth says video with transcription is an example of UDL at work in online learning.  (She tells us how she does it.) Designing lessons to be accessed by all students, despite disability labels, increases student success rates.  She uses UDL in assessments, saying not all assessments need be tests or final papers.  She uses virtual worlds so students can design spaces based on the literature.  Because they are designing in 3D, students read literature deeply. She suggests teachers find tools tied to the standards and your objectives for the course.  Tools should never take over lessons. The literature content should be the focus.  Dr. Ritter-Guth uses gaming to teach literature and find commercial games offer as much storyline as text-based stories.  She finds students are more engaged when using games to learn and hopes to collect data about using UDL to format online courses and student success rates. In one of her classes, Beth teaches her students using a post-apocalyptic virtual world with her college students called Fall Out 3. UDL resources: The National Center for Universal Design. Thank you Dr. Ritter-Guth for teaching us all so much about UDL! Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by  Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial.   The post Universal Design (UDL) in Online Spaces with @BethRitterGuth appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Verena Roberts does a masterful job of telling the story of powerful intergenerational learning through her K12 online Conference presentation: #Gamifi-ED Networked Intergenerational Learning. Can ninth graders and masters students in college have a symbiotic mutually beneficial learning network? Yes! Here’s how. Take time to watch this and all of the other incredible K12 Online Video Presentations. It is a wonderful conference with so many resources!   The post K12 Online: Networked Intergenerational Learning #gamifi-ed #k12online [Video] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.