Hit the Ground Running: Why Schools Must Amp Up Meaningful PD Before the Bell Rings #PD #EdChat

As the new school year looms on the horizon, it’s high time we talk about something that can make or break the initial momentum for educators: professional development (PD). Now, I know what you’re thinking — not another dreary workshop! But hear me out. The kind of PD I’m advocating for isn’t the sit-and-get variety that has you counting the ceiling tiles. It’s about creating experiences that are engaging, practical, and, dare I say, inspiring. Here’s why school administrators need to prioritize meaningful and actionable PD before teachers set up their classrooms for the new school year.

1. Start Strong

First impressions are everything. The tone for the whole school year is often set in those first few days. When teachers receive PD that is energizing and relevant, it doesn’t just prepare them for the year; it fires them up and boosts morale. There’s a palpable difference between a staff who’s been genuinely inspired by innovative PD and one that’s just gone through the motions. It is important to determine exactly what the focus of the year is going to be and start strong outlining what it is and how admin is going to support teachers and students in implementing this new concept. 

2. Address Real Needs

Teachers are on the front lines, grappling with diverse classrooms where each student's needs can vary dramatically. Effective PD should directly address these challenges, offering tools and strategies that teachers can immediately implement. This means administrators need to really listen to what their teachers are saying and tailor PD to meet those specific needs. Start with a survey and focus on feedback from the staff about what types of support teachers need. Plan to give the teachers something actionable after the PD has concluded. 

3. Build Community

PD sessions are a fantastic opportunity for teachers to connect, collaborate, and share ideas. This can be especially vital in schools where staff might feel isolated in their individual practices. When PD fosters a sense of community, it strengthens the entire school’s support network, creating a more cohesive environment where everyone feels valued and understood. PD can be the only time that different content areas or grade levels come together. It is crucial to build in time to laugh and connect. PD days can be long if the teachers are just being asked to "sit and get". Have fun and grow as a community. 

4. Stay Current

The educational landscape is constantly changing, with new technologies, pedagogical approaches, and curriculum standards emerging all the time. Summer/Back to School PD is the perfect time to catch teachers up and get them comfortable with the latest developments. This isn’t just about keeping up with the Joneses; it’s about providing the best and most current educational experiences for our students. However, do not throw everything at teachers all at once. See what is out there and how these new tools or approaches can support the goal for the year. Make sure whomever is providing the content is someone who is an expert and can connect with teachers because they have shared experiences. 

5. Empower Teachers

There’s something inherently empowering about receiving PD that you can actually use. When teachers feel empowered, they engage more deeply, take more creative risks in their teaching, and ultimately, impact student learning more profoundly. PD should leave teachers feeling equipped and excited to try out new ideas, not overwhelmed and lost in theoretical jargon. Find ways for teachers to own a piece of the professional development. This could be teacher led sessions that allow the community to showcase what they know and everyone can learn together. 

So, let’s ditch the old-school, cookie-cutter PD sessions that feel more like a checkbox on an administrative to-do list. Instead, let’s aim for PD that sparks creativity, addresses real classroom needs, and provides practical tools that teachers can immediately take into their classrooms. Trust me, your teachers — and your students — will thank you for it.

Burn Notice - Supporting Yourself When Burnout Is Near #EdChat

As we hit the mid mark of February, many teachers are starting to feel burnout creeping up on the them. Some might already be dealing with it. Burnout is very real and very serious for teachers. There are some things you can do to keep it from overtaking you and negatively impacting your classroom.

1. Create and Maintain Boundaries - Establish your working hours and stick to them. Do not check your email after a set time and do not engage is work during those off hours. You need and deserve the time to rest your brain and body. Whether you have a family at home take care of or just yourself, you need the time to not be connected to school. Consider deleting your school email from your phone if you need to really disconnect. That time is yours and it is precious.

2. Explore Personal Professional Development: Burnout is not always linked to just being tired. Sometimes the burnout is a result of not feeling challenged or excited about what you are doing. Exploring PD that can change your practice and offer new approaches could invigorate you and your classroom. When you get to chose the PD, you will be fully invested in learning and growing. Find a conference and connect with like-minded people to fill your bucket again. These are wonderful ways to fight off burnout. 

3. Reach Out to Others - Some schools have a mentoring system in place, but many do not. If you do not, find your teaching partner and reach out to them. It doesn't have to be a full therapy session, just express some of the feelings you are having and ask how they deal with them. Sometimes that teachers has been hoping someone would say something for weeks and the both of you can connect and work through this together. If you are comfortable, find and speak to a therapist. A trained professional can help you navigate complex feelings connected to your burnout. Feeling better with who you are and where you are at can make the classroom a much better place to be for everyone. 

4. Change The Scenery - Sometimes rearranging your classroom and moving things around can be a huge help when it comes to burnout. I used to change my space every marking period. It was good for me and it was good for the students. The room can feel very stale after just a few months. Shuffling the seats and changing the decor can really add a bit of positive energy into the room. While this might not be a long-term fix, getting students involved could make it a fun projects that adds a smile to your face. 

5. Focus On Wins - Do not forget to spend some time focusing on your wins! We can often get bogged down by the loses and the frustrations dealing with rules, regulations, admin, etc. that we forget that we are doing some awesome things. Did you have a struggling student that finally had a lightbulb moment after you offered a new approach? Did a quiet student finally feel comfortable in your class to share their thoughts? Did your lesson land how you had hoped? Celebrate those wins. Celebrate them with yourself or share them with friends and family. We want to celebrate the wins of our students because we know it can help with their self-esteem. It applies to teachers as well. Shoutout yourself and, while you are at it, shoutout your peers. Catch them doing something awesome? Let them know. Here are student say they loved something a teacher did in their class? Drop them an email to let them know. Whenever I do this, the smile on the teachers' faces are worth it.

Burnout can take out the very best teachers. We all need support systems and ways to process our emotions. Some of us do woodworking, play video games, garden, paint, or any other host of things to keep us grounded and in a better place. It is not easy, but we need to take care of ourselves if we want to be able to take care of our students and, more importantly, the family we have at home. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

The Nerdy Teacher

Stop Freaking Out Over ChatGPT #EdChat

My feed has been swamped with all of these posts proclaiming that ChatGPT is great for education and that it will bring about the demise of education. Every take in between has been given as well. I've been around long enough to have seen this reaction with multiple tools over the years. There are plenty of people out there that are going to tell you how to use ChatGPT in your classroom or how to check and see if your students are using it to complete assignments. Much like the Force, it can be used for good or for bad. It is not all one or the other. 

Ugh.

Rather than spend a bunch of time coming up with a variety of reasons about why teachers should not worry about ChatGPT, I just had ChatGPT come up with the reasons for me. 

1. Lack of personalization: ChatGPT, as advanced as it is, cannot replace the personal touch that a teacher brings to the classroom. A teacher’s ability to understand individual student needs, emotions, and learning styles cannot be replicated by a machine. ChatGPT may provide a quick answer, but it cannot provide the human connection and personalized support that students need to learn and grow.

2. Limited scope of knowledge: While ChatGPT has been trained on a massive corpus of text, it is not perfect and may not always provide accurate or up-to-date information. Teachers, on the other hand, undergo extensive training and have a deep understanding of their subject matter and the curriculum. They are able to provide students with a comprehensive and well-rounded education that goes beyond just answering questions.

3. Importance of critical thinking and problem solving: Teachers play a crucial role in fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills in their students. They do this by encouraging students to think deeply about concepts, ask questions, and engage in discussions and projects that require creativity and innovation. ChatGPT, while it may provide answers to questions, cannot facilitate the kind of hands-on learning that helps students develop these important skills. Teachers should not worry about ChatGPT as they provide a level of education and support that a machine simply cannot match.

I will throw in another reason why people should stop freaking out about ChatGPT. 

Teachers were very concerned about essay writing with the introduction of the Internet. There was this fear that students would not create an original essay every again. I always found this funny, because any teacher worth their salt can identify a plagiarized paper from a student they have had in class for a small amount of time. It is not that hard to see that a student who has written at or slightly below grade level is writing at the college level out of nowhere. While taking credit for the student's writing advancement would be nice, teachers know it came from somewhere else. Either too much "help" from a parent or from an online source. The way this was addressed in many classrooms was more in class writing assessments. Will some students beat the system and submit work they did not do? Of course they will. Students have been beating the system as long as there has been a system. The overwhelming majority of students follow the directions, do the work, and are honest about it.

The big issue that many teachers do not want to look at is WHY students would choose to be dishonest with their work. Finding the root cause might require teachers to look inward at their curriculum and overall classroom learning environment and that can be much scarier than the thought of AI taking over the teaching profession. Food for thought. 

I used AI to create an image of what AI looks like in a dystopian world. Here it is. Kind of nuts right?

Hugs and High Fives, 

Nick

Student Podcasting with @Soundtrap #MakerEd #PBL #ELA

6th grade students had the opportunity to create their own short podcast episode to share their thoughts on a book they think other should read. These book talks are around 2 minutes long and allowed students to create some intro music using Soundtrap tools. You can find the Podcast, Stevens 6th Grade Ideas, on Spotify. 

The students set up their Soundtrap account, chose a book they liked from this year and had to record two versions of their Book Talk. The first version was an off the cuff take. They just needed to talk about the book and cover a few common points. The second version required the students to create a script to guide their Book Talk. Once they had both recorded, they were able to choose which one sounded better to them. From there, they created some intro and outro music and let their teacher know they were done. Stevens listened to the podcast episodes and uploaded each one to Anchor which pushes the podcast to Spotify. The lesson took three 70 minute blocks to complete. The first block was a short assignment with Soundtrap that had students create a ringtone so they could get used to the program before embarking on their podcasting adventure. 

Here are a few of the book talks you can listen to from my page, but I encourage you to head over to Spotify and listen to many of them and share them with your students if they are looking for new books to read. 

 

   

   

   

 

Thanks for listening and sharing. The students are very excited to share their thoughts with the world. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

Nick

A Year Packed Into A Month #SemiColonEdu #MentalHealth

The constant message I have been getting from my peers is how burnt they are and they have only been back to school for a month! My heart breaks because there are so many great teachers out there who are struggling with the weight of their educational world on their shoulders. The "Grin and Bear It" crowd that wants teachers to just do their job is already wearing thin on educators. 

There are teachers that are leaving the profession and not looking back. I do not begrudge those teachers. Mental Health has to be number one for people. If you can't take care of yourself, how can you take care of others. 

One of the things I want to remind everyone of is to find your people. Find those close people that can listen to you vent. Those people that understand what is like to go through the ringer the first couple of weeks of school. Teachers are not encouraged to share their mental health feelings publicly like many professions. If we want to normalize mental health conversations in the education community we have to start having these conversations publicly. 

There is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to mental health. I am treated for anxiety and depression. I'm no longer embarrassed of that fact. By being open about this, I have helped other educators and some students. They felt comfortable to reach out for support because they knew I was someone who would understand. Before we can truly support the mental health of students, we need to build a network that supports teachers and their mental health. It will look a little different for everyone, but we have to start working on connecting and supporting. It could be teachers jumping on the Peloton for a 30 minute rock ride to get the stress out of our system, or it might be virtual Yoga or Meditation as a group. 

There tons of ways to support one another we need to think of how we can do it because nobody is just going to do it for us. 

Sending all of you big virtual hugs and high fives, 

NP

Parent/Teacher Conferences and Student Relationships

Tonight (or yesterday by the time this is posted) was Parent/Teacher Conferences at my high school. They take place after teaching all day and we meet with parents from 5-8 at night. It makes for a long day. On top of that, the wifi crashed and I was not able to pull up specific grades for the students. I was stressed that it was going to be a long night.

What the night turned out to be was very light on student grades and more about relationships. I was able to focus more on the connections I had with students, what I knew about them outside the classroom, and where I think they were heading as a person, not just a student. I could see the reactions from the parents were much different than the times that focused on their grades with only minor commentary on the student as a person. By being forced to flip the focus, I found much more to talk about and to connect with parents. I've always lamented that the parents I see most often are the parents of students who are already excelling in class. I realize now that those parents are not there to just hear that their son/daughter is amazing, but to see how they are as a person in class.

As a father who son is now in Kindergarten, I can see that. I know how Leo is doing in school and I have a handle on what he is and is not learning. When I meet with his teacher, I am going to want to know about his interactions with peers, his behaviors in class, whether or not the teacher knows my son. It will be the most comforting part of the meeting. I need to keep this in mind when I'm ready to take out the digital gradebook and focus on the numbers and not the person.

I've told my students that they are more than a letter grade year after year. It's time for me to remember to reinforce that with the parents during conference time.  

The Little Things #EdChat

The school year is starting for some and just around the corner for others. As I get closer to having students in my classroom, I start to reflect on the different things I can do to make my class an environment that supports learning. These are some of the simple things I have done over the years that can make a difference in the classroom this year.

1. Greeting at the door - I used to use the passing time between classes as a catch up time at my desk. My head buried in papers as kids got themselves situated. I have found that greeting students at the door with a smile, wave, or a high five is a great way to start a class with positivity Another bonus of this was the students in the hallway that I did not teach that would stop in and say hello with their friends. They felt welcomed into my classroom even though I was not their teacher. That is really a true sign of creating a comfortable environment.

2. First 5 minutes - I like to spend the first 5 minutes talking to my class. This is not a set time limit, but it is around 5 minutes. I go from table to table and just talk to the kids about their day, sports, video games, or anything else that is not class related. I learn so much about them during this time. I get to engage with them in normal conversation and set a very relaxed tone. When student know that you care about them outside of the papers you need to grade, they are more at ease in the classroom and are far more likely to participate. Spending a few minutes at the start of class can buy the teacher a full year of student investment in the classroom.

3. Remind them - When I first heard of Remind, I was not interested. I really did not want to send my kids text messages. They should be able to remember things on their own. I decided to give it a try with one class and I haven't gone back. Just a text reminder here and there has really helped my students stay on task. Some of those students that do not have a great track record of doing their work or bringing in paperwork can not get a text message to remind them.

4. Take in a game or a show - Finding the time to attend student events is something that all teachers should try to do. There is always a great big smile waiting for the teacher who shows up at a student event. Kids like to know that teachers are invested in them. Parents also love to see teachers at these events as well. Freeing up a couple of hours once a month to see your students play a game or perform on stage can really make a difference for your students. If you have done this once, you know what I'm talking about.

I know these 4 things are not revolutionary ideas and many of you do some or all of these things, but I think it is good to remember these ideas and share them with others.

Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

Hugs and high fives,

Nick

I know that I'm a terrible teacher and that's why I'm good

Rotten Apple

The past couple of days, I've had conversations with some friends about teaching. We shared our thoughts on how we feel like we are just bad teachers. We work so hard, but we feel like we are not getting through to all of the students. We think our lessons are not as good as they can be. We are constantly thinking of the "better way" that we could have handled a situation in the classroom. We question everything we do in and out of the classroom. We are as hard on ourselves as we could be. Harder than any administrator could be on any of us.

On the drive home, I was thinking about how terrible I was that day and it hit me. Maybe I'm not so bad. Every time I'm hard on myself, I'm reflecting on my teaching. I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve my lessons and my interactions in class. I connect with my peers and walk through the day to see what I missed. I collaborate in an attempt to improve my craft. I do all of this while talking about how terrible I feel.

I feel that a teacher needs to feel that they are a tad bit terrible to become better. If you think you are a perfect teacher, where do you grow? Is it possible to become a perfect teacher? I do not think so. I feel like I'm the best teacher I can be in the given circumstances. I always give everything I have into my lessons and my classes. Some days I will feel like that was not even close enough to what my kids deserve. That drive to make me better is something I can appreciate. It's ok to feel terrible if you use that as a driving force to become better. Being bad should not be a crutch, but a step stool.

For all of the terrible teachers out there, know that you are not alone. I'm terrible, but I'm good because of it.

For K and all of the other terrible teachers out there.

-@TheNerdyTeacher

Help support a girls robotics club for @MBTeach!

Johnny 5 would donate to Mary Beth's Girls Robotics Team.

A good friend of mine is trying to start a robotics club for girls at her school, but she needs help with funding. You can find all of the details on her site here.

I felt the need to write a post about this because I think it is another great example of what teachers do every day around the world. Teachers volunteer their time to help with so many after school programs, the average person doesn't realize that effort that goes into it. They also don't realize that we do it because we want to, not because it's in a contract or we are making big bucks.

I applaud Mary Beth for taking on this project and I applaud every single one of you out there that have donated your time to create a better school environment for your students.

If you have any money to spare, please consider donating to Mary Beth's awesome project. Johnny 5 would want you to. :-)

A word from a teacher on his yacht

I wanted to take a quick break from relaxing on my yacht off the coast of Bali to talk about the recent conversations in the media about teachers. My butler Alfred tells me that there is a growing voice that teachers are over compensated for their work. I was shocked to hear this. How shocked? I almost fell of my trained Polo Zebra, that's how shocked I was. Who in their right mind could suggest that teachers are over paid? 

I work very hard for 9 months of the year. My day starts at 8 in the morning and I'm out the door by 3 in the afternoon. Yes, you read that right. Teachers are forced to work until 3! As a high school teacher, I get to have 7 minute breaks every 48 minutes so a new group of kids can come in and fill out bubble testing sheets. It really is a nice way to break up the day.

I'm just glad my weekends are not cluttered with gross amount of paperwork so I can spend time with family and friends in Paris and Prague. I can just slide those bubble tests into a computer and wash my hands of the situation. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to take work home. That's the kid's job, not mine as a teacher. How can I spend time choosing between an original Picasso or Monet when I need to provide "valuable feedback to ensure student growth"? That is what the tests are for. If the kid gets an A, he's smart. If the kid gets a B, he is smart, just not as smart as the kid who got an A. It's a very simple format that has been used for years. If it's not broke, why fix it?

I was told by my chef, who makes the best lobster bisque from home raised lobsters, that some people do not like the fact that teachers get their summers off. Summers off? Are you kidding me? If you call laying out around the pool in Vegas "Summer off", you are sadly mistaken. I need this time to relax and get ready for the next school year. Do you expect me to take more college classes to become a better teacher? Do you expect me to spend all of my free time going to conferences or revising my lessons in an effort to make them better? Maybe if you paid me like a billionaire instead of a millionaire. My personal masseuse just laughed really hard at that. 


I need to wrap this up because my jet is warming up and fuel is not cheap. As a teacher, I feel I make just enough to scrape by day to day. Cutting my compensation would be crazy! I would have to fire at least half of my gardening staff and most of my personal trainers. Teachers are people who have decided to spend their time educating the future of this country. It's not a fancy job, but we chose it because it was our calling. We get compensated a very fair wage that allows most of us to get by. Reforming education is a noble plan, but attacking teacher compensation doesn't seem like the right way to go. Just think of it this way, what is an education really worth to a child?

Feel free to comment below or send me a tweet at @TheNerdyTeacher. I will try and get back to you in between Tennis lessons with my buddy Pete and golf lessons with Jack.


- @TheNerdyTeacher

Funny or Die on California Budget Cuts

My wife just showed this to me and I had to put this up. Michigan, as well as many other States, are feeling the same crunch as California. To all of my California readers, know that we support you and the great job you do everyday in the classroom. Pass this around to get the word out.

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

Great Youtube Editing Tool: Tube Chop

Here is a great site for teachers that want to show some youtube videos but might only want to show certain selections. Tubechop is a website that lets you take any youtube clip and chop it down to size. It is very simple to use and does not take very long. Just select the video you want, select the portion you want to watch and click the chop button. You will be given a link or a code to embed into a website. Below you will find a chopped version of The Ghostbusters Music Video by Ray Parker Jr. The orginal clip has an extra minute at the end that I don't need to see, so I chopped it out. Take a look at the video.

For those that like to show video of interviews or clips from movies, this is a great way to condense that information. No longer will you have to waste class time searching for the right part of the clip you want to show. You can set it up ahead of time and post on your website for kids to use safely.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Thoughts on Teaching in America Today

I found this in my email box this morning and thought I would share it with all of the teachers out there. It speaks to my early post, Weeds. Pass this along to everyone that is feeling the grind of teaching. It's important to know that we are not alone.

From Michigan Public Radio


MP3 Link
Teacher: Stop Blaming Us for Budget Woes

Keith Kindred (2010-03-25)
SOUTH LYON, MI (MICHIGAN RADIO) - I'm a high school social studies teacher recently proctored three days of state mandated tests. The rules kept us from doing anything else while the students took the tests except watch them bubble in their answers. No reading, no grading papers -nothing.
I like to daydream by nature, but my idea of torture is being forced to do nothing for hours, so instead I thought about all the work I had to do but could not. I also thought about my golf swing and I thought about health care reform and what President Obama should have done differently.
But mostly I thought about all the anger directed at my profession these days. I thought about the ubiquitous teacher bashing I witness in the mainstream media and wondered what we have done to deserve this.
Part of me gets it completely. The economy, especially here in Michigan, has been in free fall. The first people to lose their jobs in the The Great Recession were from the private sector. They resented those of us in the public sector who were still working - especially those with summers off.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, it was only a matter of time before we public servants would feel the effects of the deepest economic downturn since World War II. We're losing our jobs now, too.
But before you wallow like a happy hippo in a pool of schadenfreude, you should know this: The United States will need more than one million new teachers over the next twenty years. That's on top of the more than three million public school teachers we have now.
In response to this demand for teachers, I propose the following: Why don't all the teacher-bashers become teachers themselves? After all, our job is easy, our pay is extravagant, and our Cadillac health insurance is the bees knees.
We teachers, we're just livin' it up and the club has a million projected vacancies! Actually, there will be even more openings because, as we veteran teachers know, half the people who enter the profession will leave within the first five years.
You might discover, however, that teaching is not as easy as you think. I worked for a wholesale lumber company for seven years before I was a teacher and I used to tell people that there is more pressure in business, but way more stress in teaching. However, in this new era of testing madness, now we teachers get to enjoy copious amounts of both stress and pressure.
Five times a day I face 30 or so students who look up at me and give me approximately 30 seconds to persuade them to cooperate with my lesson. All this testing, by the way, simply makes that harder to do, but if I'm successful, it can be a wonderful class period and a rewarding endeavor. If I'm not, and even the best teachers are often not, it can be a physically and emotionally grueling day.
Funny that so many people leave such a cushy job, isn't it? Ten extra credit points to the first one to explain why.
In all seriousness, the anger and scapegoating directed at teachers reveals a gulf between what the public thinks it knows about our jobs and the challenging reality we face. I know you went to school yourself, but there's a world of difference between the student and teacher point of view.
I've been a teacher for nearly twenty years and I've never seen so many of my colleagues disillusioned and beleaguered. I can't claim to speak for every teacher, obviously, but ask others and I'm certain they'll agree that both morale and job satisfaction has never been so low.
For those of us who still have jobs, we're grateful and lucky to have them, and in Michigan anyway, the compensation is generally more than fair. But if you think this job is easy, or that we became teachers for the prestige or the pay, you don't know us - or our profession - at all.
There's plenty that needs fixing in America's schools, and teachers need to accept their share of the blame. But you could fire all three million of us and you know that wouldn't solve such a complex problem as the state of America's education system.
Despite your apparent resentment toward us, deep down, I think you know that's true.

© Copyright 2010, Michigan Radio

If you are not in education and read my blog, please tell the educators in your life how important you think they are. Right now, we are not feeling the love. Have a great Thursday!

Prezi Meets Gatsby Part II

Here are all of the links to my Gatsby Prezis. My kids commented that they really liked the change of pace and some even said they are going to "mess around" with Prezi for some of their future projects. Feel free to use these and edit these as you see fit. It's all about the sharing tweeps! If you use it, let me know how it goes. Thanks for your continue support.

Themes, Symbols, and Characters Prezi

http://prezi.com/yz6eldkfo3m6/

Chapter 1 Prezi

http://prezi.com/hux0jurq3iuj/

Chapters 2 and 3

http://prezi.com/7p2k7unyi6qi/

Chapters 4, 5 and 6

http://prezi.com/oq_3nhuytwd5/

Chapters 7, 8, and 9

http://prezi.com/d3rdbi_mwac1/

Have a good time teaching one of America's Greatest Novels.

-@TheNerdyTeacher

Twitter for Teachers

Here is a great document on using Twitter for teachers. Take a look around and consider sharing with others. Thanks to Tech 221 for sharing this link.


Twitter handbook for Teachers

60Second Recap

I found this site today and I have to share it with everyone. As an English teacher, it is tough to get students to read "Classics". They complain about the language and want to know how this will ever be important. I spend countless hours coming up with lessons to intorduce the novel in a fun way in the hopes to hook some of the reluctant readers. 60Second Recap is a great site to use to really help students get a handle on what the story is about.

Here is their Mission Statement:

"60second Recap™ wants to make the great works of literature accessible, relevant, and, frankly, irresistible to today's teens. Through 60second Recap™ video albums, we seek to help teens engage with the best books out there ... not just to help them get better grades, but to help them build better lives."

I love this mission statement. It really expresses the goal of all literature teachers. I watched the first video on Hamlet, my favorite Shakespeare play, and was very happy with what I saw. Hamlet, played by Jenny Sawyer, is taking the online quiz, "Are you Mad?" It gives a nice bit of information about different aspects of the play. There are videos on Motif, Theme, Plot, Symbols, and the Characters in the play. It was a very well put together piece that I cannot wait to show to my students and the other teachers in my building.

60Second Recap currently offers recaps of some great pieces of Literature. Here are just a few:


Animal Farm
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451 (On my Top 5 All Time List)
The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
The Catcher in the Rye (On my Top 5 All Time List)
The Great Gatsby (On my Top 5 All Time List)

There are many more great pieces of Literature that get the 60Second Recap treatment. I strongly encourage all Literature teachers to give this site a look over and use them with your students.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Math Tools For SmartBoard Users!

Here is a link to Vanessa Cassie's blog. She blogs about great uses for the SmartBoard and here is one the Math Teachers should love. It's a tool bar for Math Teachers. Take a look at her blog and explore the different things you can do with a SmartBoard and the software. She's also on Twitter. @VanessaCassie Follow her and you can have some great conversations and learn some cool tips like I have.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Creating Art Without The Mess!

I learned about this site from @Ktenkely on her website iLearntechnology. It's an interacitve site that allows you to create Jackson Pollock style paintings without any of the mess. This is great fun on the Smartboard. By clicking the mouse you change to a random color and splashes of paint appear as you move the mouse across the screen. JacksonPollock.org is a wonderful site that art teachers can use that will save you a big cleanup in the future.

I let my students play with the site on the IWB and they loved it. They loved the randomness of the colors and how there was no "wrong" way to create the painting. I recommend using this in any class where you might have some time to allow your students to explore their creative side without needing a smock. :-)

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Tech Integration Help

Tech Integration for Teachers is a great site for teachers that want to start including different types of technology into their classroom. Do not feel overwhelmed by all of the information. Scan through the different parts and pick and choose the tools that interest you most. You never know what you might find.
The page is for all skill levels, so even the techies will find something they never thought of using in the classroom. This site is just one of many out there designed to help teachers get comfortable integrating different forms of tech into their lessons.



-@TheNerdyTeacher

Posterize Anything

Blockposters.com was sent to me by a fellow teacher and it looks like a winner. It's a very simple 3 step process.

1. Upload the image of your choice.

2. Decide how big you want the poster to be.

3. Download your poster as a PDF.

The website chops up the picture into seperate pages that you can print our and assemble yourself. Student projects or class rules could be turned into larger posters you can hang in your room. Have a look around and let me know what you think.

- @TheNerdyTeacher