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Genrefy Your School Library Collection with Confidence

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Listen to The Librarian's Guide to Teaching on Spotify.

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The New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next.

The New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next.

Great show!

Crystal and Frank hosts of the podcast, highlight all aspects of top reads and more in this can't miss podcast! The hosts and expert guests offer insightful advice and information that is helpful to anyone that listens!

Yay, Frank!

Thanks for this terrific podcast!

Appreciation from a Library Clerk

First, thank you for this brilliant podcast! Listening to the passion you two have for the work you do, the patrons you serve literature as a whole. You two have expander my mind, my view of the world and you have actually inspired me to go back to school to get my Library Science degree.
Second, I would like to thank you for this podcast specifically. So many people look down on this work, as I'm sure you know. Often I hear ignorant statements such as; "oh, I'd love to an easy job like yours." or "wow! I didn't think people still went to Libraries." It was extremely validating to hear about your experiences of people stopping you to ask when the Library would open or the children/young adults they you've established a rapport with all grown up... Many people don't realize that working at a library means so much more than shelving books, you become a crucial part of the community. Anyway, that novel was to say that I appreciated your thoughts on this podcast and I felt a special kinship with you guys! Love you guys, love this podcast!!
P.S. Crystal, I HATE ASMR but I ALWAYS look forward to your segment at the end... you're easing me into it 😉.

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The New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next. The New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next. Crystal and Frank hosts of the podcast, highlight all aspects of top reads and more in this can't miss podcast!

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School Librarians United with Amy Hermon

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Tune in as Amy Hermon tackles the issues and challenges school librarians face everyday.

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218 episodes

House of #EdTech features conversations with teachers, leaders, and creators so you can more effectively integrate technology, strengthen your pedagogy, and have more confidence in your classroom and school so you can make an impact. Chris Nesi has been helping educators like you transform education by exploring the impact technology is having on education.

House of #EdTech features conversations with teachers, leaders, and creators so you can more effectively integrate technology, strengthen your pedagogy, and have more confidence in your classroom and school so you can make an impact. Chris Nesi has been helping educators like you transform education by exploring the impact technology is having on education.

JUN 19, 2022

(TWTR SPC) School Podcasting

(TWTR SPC) School Podcasting

EdTech Thought (4:11) Derek Larson visited the House of #EdTech! The Nesi's hosted the Larsons for the Jersey stretch of Derek's family vacation!
Featured Content (12:51) On June 2, 2022, I hosted a Twitter Space about podcasting in schools. The conversation is packed with great questions from the great people who participated.
Check out episode 201 - Starting a Podcast Club or Network

JUN 12, 2022

Coding in Education with Mission Encodeable

Coding in Education with Mission Encodeable

Featured Content (3:37) Meet Mission Encodebale's founders! Cousins Harry and Anna Wake are the 15 and 14 y/o creators of Mission Encodeable. They are both high school students in England. In this conversation we discuss:
What inspired their love and passion for coding? What inspired them to start and continue creating Mission Encodeable? What have they learned from their experience? What is the future of Mission Encodeable? What might the future hold for each of them because of this project? Check out Mission Encodeable!
EdTech Thought (19:35) Updates to Google for Education Coming Soon!
Create screencasts and cast to a big screen with Chromebooks Adaptive learning enhancements in Google Classroom Better interconnectivity and efficiency with Google Meet EdTech Recommendation (27:43) PDF DRIVE - Get access to over 78 million Ebooks! My Noise - myNoise creates beautiful noises to mask the noises you don’t want to hear: your chatty colleagues, tinnitus, or even your inner voice when you can't shut it down! The concept is simple, works extremely well, and does not require expensive noise-canceling headphones. Thanks to its unique audio engineering, myNoise sets the standard among background sounds. Just Give It A Try (31:10) Join my next Twitter Space on Thursday, June 23, 2022, @ 10 PM Eastern. I will lead a conversation on Coding in Education and want you to join me!
Set a reminder here!
Feedback & Shout Outs (33:32) Noah King sent in a great voicemail as a follow-up to episode 201.
Check out Descript
Noah also hosts the Math Club Podcast.
House of #EdTech VIP (36:34) Rick Butterworth - Founding member of Wakelet.
With 10 years of experience in UX & UI, Rick is passionate about innovating and evolving how users interact with online applications. Founding designer at Wakelet and the first person to join Jamil in the company. https://wakelet.com/@rick https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-butterworth-044b8022 https://twitter.com/r1ck11

MAY 29, 2022

Starting a School Podcast Club or Network

Starting a School Podcast Club or Network

EdTech Thought (4:47) You're Doing Enough
Have you ever felt inferior? Have you felt like you're just not doing enough and you could be doing so much more? Of course, you have, you're an educator.
Some people make a living telling us we're not doing enough. I also previously stated on the show that you and I work in a profession where you're hired based on your potential but evaluated on your shortcomings and faults. This shouldn't be the case but that's an EdTech Thought for another day.
You and I are doing all we can at any given moment. Do we have the desire to do more and be more in our role? Sure! There are times when I want to do more but I can't. I would love to podcast more, create tutorials on a regular basis, live stream more, and be an even more recognized and influential figure in the world of education.
I would love to do more at my high school, teach more classes at Rutgers, coach more games for my kids, and have more date nights with my wife.
When I reflect I do have it pretty good. Balance in my life does exist.
I am doing enough.
EdTech Recommendation (7:01) Twitter Spaces - Think Clubhouse but for Twitter. I've not so secretly been looking for Twitter chats to evolve since I fell in love with podcasting and audio.
I think that hosting a space alongside a Twitter chat should be what more people are doing because I know first-hand how engaging audio can be.
How about a bonus edtech rec? Spaces aren't the only way to share and use audio on Twitter. Did you know you can share audio in a tweet from directly in the app? Go to compose a new tweet and to the left of the camera button, you can see a button with vertical purple lines. Tap that button and you will be able to record audio that will be attached to your tweet which can also contain your standard 280 characters.
Featured Content (14:19) How to Start a Podcast Club or Network At Your School
Considerations:
Location Hardware Software What to podcast/broadcast about? How do you connect podcasting to other areas of your school? In January 2022 I launched the Zebra Podcast Network at my school. We live stream the 'Zebra Morning Show' each school day from 7:15-7:30 AM and we stream 'Zebra Drivetime' Tuesdays from 2:45-3:30 PM.
Click here for all my podcast gear recommendations.
Check out The Pod Journal
Just Give It A Try (42:36) Chelsea Best - https://twitter.com/chechels23 Does anyone use or know of a wireless document camera? I have a teacher that wants to move around her camera in the room. The one she loves is 1K so probably a pipe dream but would love some alternatives!

MAY 8, 2022

Start Using #EdTech - HoET200

Start Using #EdTech - HoET200

Feedback & Shout Outs (2:26) Emily Pool & Cheri Dotterer EdTech Thought (7:29) Take Risks!
Take it from me that risk-taking in education is WORTH it!
Starting the House of #EdTech has transformed my life and I am in debited to the podcast for all it's provided me,
EdTech Recommendation (13:06) My go edtech tools for teaching and learning
Teaching Anything Google - Slides, Docs, Keep EdPuzzle Flipgrid PD Twitter Podcasts Podcasting - Create & Consume Featured Content (19:36) Helps connect your students to the real world: Take your students on a virtual tour of Grand Canyon National Park. Walk your students through the corridors and history of the White House. Technology allows you to remove the physical barriers of the classroom, offering your students a way to connect the curriculum with the real world. Prepare students for the workforce: To thrive in the 21st-century workplace, people need to have more than just a working knowledge of certain technological tools (electronic calendars, web pages, teleconferencing, electronic whiteboards, etc.). By integrating these technologies into the regular curriculum, institutions are ensuring that their students are prepared for the modern workplace. Encourages collaboration: Many educational tools offer a variety of functionalities that promote collaboration. For example, virtual meeting tools provide a way for students to hold meetings with classmates and anyone from anywhere in the world. The Google Suite has been promoting sharing and collaboration since its inception and students can easily share and edit projects with each other. Supports different types of learners: No two students learn the exact same way, but with technology, we can address diversity in learning styles. An effective blending of tools and differentiation can create a great learning environment where our students can and will learn. Access information more easily: Technology makes it easier for students to find information quickly and accurately. Search engines and e-books are replacing traditional textbooks. Instead of personal tutors, students can get one-on-one help through educational videos – anytime and anywhere – learning is available. Teaches students how to be responsible online: With social media sites o-plenty, most students are already digital citizens to some degree - especially after the last couple of years. Going forward, by incorporating technology into the classroom, students will continue to learn how to be responsible in the digital world. Your class and our schools have become a microcosm of the broader digital landscape where students can practice how to communicate, search, and engage with other digital citizens. Adds a fun factor to learning: Outside the classroom, students use technology in all aspects of their lives. Within the classroom, technology can make learning more fun and exciting. Tech-infused game-based learning allows you to deliver lessons via interactive games. Who doesn’t enjoy playing games? Offers A Wider Choice Of Materials That Can Be Accessed Easily: There is an endless amount of educational technology that is available to offer your students to meet their learning needs. EdTech helps them develop the right kind of skills and knowledge so that they can become good professionals in their chosen field. Learners who are able to communicate better through technological means will also perform better academically as well as in work settings because communication skills are very important when you want to get your point across effectively. The internet has become such an integral part of our lives that we hardly find people who do not use it on a daily basis. In today's world, it is essential for students to be able to access the internet from anywhere at any time so that they can do their assignments and research without having to travel all over a place or wait for a particular time when they can do so. Using educational technology helps learner

APR 11, 2022

STOP Using #EdTech

STOP Using #EdTech

Featured Content (1:08) Why Technology Should Not Be Used In Schools?
What is the problem with technology in education?
Is technology in schools good or bad?
What are the shortcomings of technology in early childhood education?
You and I think differently about these questions and others I pose in the episode. Thank goodness!
However, the problem is that these questions the reasons I share do exist in the world and some decision-makers and educators believe this.
We have to work hard to show the value of what works in our classrooms and schools.
It will get easier and harder all at the same time. But it's worth it.
I look forward to celebrating 200 episodes with you next time.

MAR 27, 2022

2022 #EdTech Final 4

2022 #EdTech Final 4

Feedback & Shout Outs (1:16) Thank you to everyone who reached out with kind encouraging words after listening to episode 197. If you missed it I recently had a rough interview experience and I shared my experience and thoughts. Newest members of the Education Podcast Network The Elementary Music Teacher Podcast EdCuration Podcast EdTech Distilled EduGals Podcast HiTech Podcast Transparency in Teaching (stuff) 9th Grade Experience EdTech Thought (3:43) This weekend I spent time with Miles who recently turned 10 and he and I watched Back to the Future I & II. I know these movies inside and out and it was a true joy to see him experience the time-traveling adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown.
We've all faced our Biff Tannen's and gotten glimpses of hoverboards, but it's actually one of the last things that Doc Says to Marty and Jennifer at the end of BTTF 3. Which we can certainly apply to the future of education...
Featured Content (7:12) Previous #EdTech Final Fours
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Champion
ScreenPal from Screencast-o-Matic - Video where you type Say it clearly the first time with quick, authentic video messages. Easily record videos from any text box or comment field in your favorite browser-based apps, then share. Less typing, fewer meetings, better communication. Say it with ScreenPal! ScreenPal works where you do. Click in any text field or comment box in your favorite browser-based apps, record your message, and share. Seamless, efficient, asynchronous communication through video messaging.
https://screencast-o-matic.com/integrations Just Give It A Try (16:50) Share your successes and failures so we can learn and grow together!
House of #EdTech VIP (18:08) Heather Brooks - Elementary Librarian, Reading Teacher, Doctoral Student, Loves Baseball, Music, and Travel

Customer Reviews

So helpful in this time of Online Learning!

Chris does a great job of helping educators feel calm and confident about educational technology and in this time of distance learning, this is so beneficial!

Fantastic!

As a Student teacher who has been displaced due to the current events of COVID-19. Our hours are being made up by doing other activities, one being listening to podcasts. I have found this podcast to be beyond helpful and fun to listen to. I have listened to about 15 podcasts now, and I can not recommend this podcast enough for new educators!!
I have recommended this podcast to all of my fellow displaced teachers and they have all loved it just as much as I have!

Always Applicable

House of EdTech consistently offers applicable EdTech tools, tips and tricks.

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The EdTech Take Out is a podcast for teachers who are looking for innovative ways to integrate technology in their classrooms. It is hosted by Jonathan Wylie and Mindy Cairney from the Grant Wood AEA Digital Learning Team.

The EdTech Take Out is a podcast for teachers who are looking for innovative ways to integrate technology in their classrooms. It is hosted by Jonathan Wylie and Mindy Cairney from the Grant Wood AEA Digital Learning Team.

Must Listen!

I can't recommend this podcast highly enough. I get new ideas for my classroom every episode.

Enjoy this podcast

Really enjoy the podcast. I like the discussions and the nuggets!

Love Your Podcast!

Great podcast for educators. This podcast is full of edtech resources, tips, and more for using digital tools and integrating technology to enhance instruction. I learn something new from every episode! I've become a loyal listener!

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The EdTech Take Out is a podcast for teachers who are looking for innovative ways to integrate technology in their classrooms. It is hosted by Jonathan Wylie and Mindy Cairney from the Grant Wood AEA Digital Learning Team.

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Tweets by edutopia

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Instructional Design and eLearning Community: Upskilling and Job Transition

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Instructional Design and eLearning Community: Upskilling and Job Transition

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Teacher Tip #112 Teacher Self-Care: Create a Happy Folder In my School Library Media office desk I had a manilla folder where I carefully tucked all the hand written notes from kiddos & parents to read on a rainy day. I also SHAMELESSLY would first tape them to my office door (let the other teachers internally writhe with envy!) Nah, really just to keep me motivated and also show the kiddos I appreciated their heartfelt little notes! But.....before I tucked it away tenderly or taped it to my door, I took a picture of it and uploaded it to Flickr. A digital Happy Folder that pays back dividends of warm fuzzies and motivations for your future self. Because, let's not kid ourselves, being an educator right now is HARD. Start this habit NOW. Don't be like me and wait 10 or 15 years. OK, some of that was because cell phones and digital cameras weren't as handy and as ubiquitous back then. But do your future self a favor, there will be days when you will need it. Make

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Teacher Tip #112 Teacher Self-Care: Create a Happy Folder In my School Library Media office desk I had a manilla folder where I carefully tucked all the hand written notes from kiddos & parents to read on a rainy day. I also SHAMELESSLY would first tape them to my office door (let the other teachers internally writhe with envy!)

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Courtney Pentland, AASL President 2023-2024

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Knowledge Quest provides news from the American Association of School Librarians and thought-provoking blog posts, with opportunities for community discussion.

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Happy Monday! Just One Flake , written and illustrated by Travis Jonker, releases tomorrow. I'm grateful Travis stopped by to finish my sentences. We discussed Just One Flake 's book trailer, Liam, Pete's a Pizza , and more. I wrote the words in purple, and Travis wrote the words in black . Thank you, Travis ! Just One Flake' s book trailer fulfills my life goal of using the 2001: A Space Odyssey music for a completely silly purpose. Design Credit: Heather Kelly Just One Flake tells the story of a boy named Liam who has one goal: to catch a snowflake on his tongue. His attempts get increasingly ridiculous, with no success. In the end, Liam doesn't get exactly what he wants - he gets something even better. The whole story came out of a spontaneous drawing I made on February 6, 2021: Just One Flake's illustrations were made with a brush pen on watercolor paper, scanned, and then painted digitally. This is my author/illustrator debut, and before I began, I made a list of

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Exploring Children's Literature through Interviews and Book Trailers

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Recently, I've been using a lot of student-paced Nearpod lessons in my classroom. Just like with a live lesson, students enter a 5 letter code, but rather than the teacher leading, students pace themselves through the lesson. Teachers can use this feature to simplify differentiation, facilitate choice, or send Nearpod presentations home as homework or newsletters. Take a look at how to maximize student-paced lessons and bring these ideas to your classroom!

Duplicate to Differentiate

Differentiation can be intimidating, but the hard part shouldn't be delivering differentiated content to your students. To easily administer differentiated instruction or practice, you can leverage Nearpod's student-paced mode to enhance your classroom differentiation :

Offering several adaptions of a lesson is #TeacherGoals. Ex: baseline lesson, remediation, and enrichment lesson. Nearpod has over 7,500 ready-to-run standards-aligned customizable lessons. Filtering your needs in the Lesson Library by subject, resource, grade, and standards. The best part - once you download your Nearpod lesson, you can edit!
Nearpod offers the option to ' Duplicate ' each lesson. Consider duplicating and adapting your lessons to meet remediation and enrichment needs of your students .
Launch multiple versions of your lesson with different student-paced codes, and allow each student to independently work on their Nearpod lesson while you facilitate, host student conferences, or work in small group.

Reports to Identify Prior Knowledge

A difficult concept of differentiation is identifying the variety of student levels based on prior knowledge . An added layer of difficulty is completing this on time. Nearpod reports allows you to access student-data. Now, you've eliminated the need to take papers home to grade that night and assigning differentiated lessons the next day .

Consider giving a student-paced pre-assessment lesson at the start of your lesson, then access reports immediately to identify areas where students need remediation or enriched content. With off Nearpod's easy to read reports, you can immediately group students into the appropriate student-paced lesson & centers .

Skill and Drill Centers

Create a Nearpod Student-Paced lesson built off Skill and Drill practices. What is Skill and Drill?

Very similar to memorization, Skill and Drill involves repetition of specific skills, such as addition and subtraction, or spelling . To be meaningful to learners, the skills should become the building blocks for more meaningful learning .

Set up a Student -Paced Nearpod center using Nearpod's timers. Create a competition with your students, engage them, and reward them.

The Timer feature is available for the following activities;

If your student can learn, master skills, have fun. You're off to a great start!

Nearpod has over 500 ready-to-run Matching Pairs skill lessons that are great for instant, no-prep centers (and they're all FREE)!

Student Choice Boards

Choice boards have become extremely popular with students because students choose how they will learn a concept . Teachers love this technique because choice boards keep students more engaged.
How to set up a student-choice board?
Inside each choice on the choice-board, provide a student-paced code for a unique lesson .

1. Select a topic to focus on and decide what element of choice you want to provide (rigor? depth of knowledge? type of practice?)

2. Create multiple lessons, tasks, or activities aligned to these choices

3. Arrange the activities on the board (you can write or link the Nearpod code directly on your choice board!)

4. Have students choose tasks to complete (I like to have them choose either adjacent or diagonal tasks, like a tic-tac-toe board)

for a free download of a student-choice board based off Bloom's Taxonomy.

Classroom or School Newsletter

Communicate with your parents by leveraging a Nearpod Student-Paced newsletter. Fill your newsletter with information and a variety of activities. Gather data from your audience along the way. Here are some ways to use Nearpod for your Parent Newsletter:
By utilizing a Nearpod Newsletter, parents also have the opportunity to see what their child's classroom experience is like . This is very a powerful and transparent approach. You can also empower your students to help their parents use Nearpod, too!

- identify parent volunteers for special events

Open-Ended Question - Ask feedback for improvement

Collaborate Board - Open the door for parents to collaborate with one another and share ideas

Flipped Classroom / Flipped Faculty Meeting

Share codes with your students to complete the lesson either in or outside of the classroom. Students can access these lessons at any time for content review or find resources. As an administrator, coach, or in a leadership role, consider using this approach when presenting content to your teachers . Provide a student-paced code to view before a faculty meeting. Now, you can spend more time collaboratively working together and having rich discussions instead of spending the majority of the time teaching content .

Take a look at how to maximize Nearpod's student-paced lessons and bring these ideas to your classroom! Click To Tweet

Nearpod's student-paced feature opens up so many possibilities for using Nearpod in your classroom. Utilizing both student-paced and live-lessons, your student's engagement and achievement will soar. So, are you looking to give student-paced lessons a try, yet? Test drive one of these suggestions and see the benefits for yourself!

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6 Genius Ways to use Student-Paced Nearpod Lessons

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Recently, I've been using a lot of student-paced Nearpod lessons in my classroom. Just like with a live lesson, students enter a 5 letter code, but rather than the teacher leading, students pace themselves through the lesson. Teachers can use this feature to simplify differentiation, facilitate choice, or send Nearpod presentations home as homework or newsletters.

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Class Tech Tips is an EdTech Blog that helps teachers and schools discover new an innovate ways to use technology in their classrooms. Read the latest.

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Donald A. Saucier, PhD, Noah D. Renken, and Ashley A. Schiffer

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Jackie Hoermann-Elliott, PhD, Tanisha Johnson, MUPP, and Jorge Figueroa, PhD

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We publish three articles each week written by instructors, teachers, instructional designers, and others to provide insight into what's working (and what's not) in the classroom and online.

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CPD for interactive whiteboards and other educational technology including iPads, iPods and more. Guides, reviews, tutorials and free downloads. Training resources for Smartboards / Smart Notebook and Promethean Boards / ActivInspire.

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Since launching on March 6, 2007, our goal at TeacherTube has been to provide an online community for sharing instructional and education videos for college students, high school students, middle school students and elementary school students. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, students, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. It is also a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

On September 1, 2017, TeacherTube.com was acquired by Salem Web Network. Salem's goal is to continue the growth of TeacherTube and support innovative ideas for education.

Most importantly, TeacherTube community members are a major part of the evolution of the site. Members are encouraged to not only upload educationally relevant videos but also to make constructive comments and use the rating system to show appreciation for videos of value to one as an educator or learner. Users also have the ability to preserve the integrity of the site by flagging inappropriate videos. TeacherTube staff review flagged sites and will remove any inappropriate posts. With more collegial commentary and discussion through messaging and responses, the quality of this resource will only increase.

The service is free for everyone. We always encourage our users to Contact Us with thoughts, suggestions, or other feedback. We do have a vision for TeacherTube to truly be a better alternative to other video storage sites. With the community's help, it can become more interactive and engaging for all teachers and learners.

Science videos are one of the key subjects that students are taught in school. Science is present from the early years of grade school up to the highest levels of academic achievement. As students move up the ranks, their study of science tends to get more specialized into one specific field only, like chemistry, biology, or physics. We have educational videos for all of these courses.

TeacherTube.com's section on science educational videos has content of interest to all learning levels. We have topics as varied as educational songs for elementary school students, up to chemical engineering for college students.

Mathematics is one of the fundamental 3Rs of early education. Known as "arithmetic" in those levels, it involves counting and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As kids advance through the grade levels, they progressively deal with more complex mathematical problems. Also, more new concepts get introduced as they progress.

Math is crucial for almost any business career. Accounting, budgeting, and projecting sales all require some level of competence in math. Many resources for these topics can be found here on TeacherTube.

Even everyday situations benefit a lot from math skills. Managing one's finances, for instance, obviously requires math, as with anything involving money. Cooking also involves math: proportions of ingredients, for example, as well as measurements.

TeacherTube.com's section on math education videos covers everything from fractions and measurements to money management. We also cover more complicated subjects such as trigonometry, and well as probability and statistics.

History is a very valuable subject, but not just because it is useful for preventing future wars. The lessons from history can also teach people to build a better future. What people have done right in the past should be continued and improved upon in the present.

The subject of history covers a wide range of timelines and locations. There's ancient history and modern history. There is also Asian history, US history, Latin American history, and European history. Each one is unique, reflecting the cultures of the people involved.

If there's one thing common to all history classes, it's usually names, dates, and places. This is also the part that many kids hate the most. They do not see the point of memorizing so many random facts that appear purposeless. Well, that is the wrong way to teach history.

TeacherTube's history education videos section makes the past come alive with a sterling array of videos and tutorials that cover subjects as varied as our prehistory, ancient history, the civil war, and the study of world civilizations.

The purpose of social studies, based on the US National Council for the Social Studies, is to promote "civic competence" among students. In other words, the subject equips students to become better citizens of a country. This is done by exploring history, geography, current events, and governments, among others. Middle school social studies usually deal with one of each of these fields per grade level.

With this knowledge, students gain the ability to become more socially aware and to be actively involved citizens of their country. Through analyzing current events, students will also learn how to predict the consequences of the things happening around them. With that, they can be good influences on their communities.

It is with this goal in mind that TeacherTube offers a wide variety of learning video materials for both students and enthusiasts.

We have videos on everything from strengthening your knowledge of economics terminology to the nuances of various world cultures.

Language arts, as the name suggests, equips students with a wide range of ways to use language. It comprises both speaking and writing skills. In addition to the basics, the subject also deals with the artistic side of language, infusing creativity in the ways students communicate.

There are four basic aspects to understanding a language: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Language arts classes aim to enhance those skills at each year level. At first, it covers basic topics like grammar, sentence construction, and paragraphs. Exercises in language arts become progressively more complex as students move up the ranks, and usually, in higher grades, more emphasis is put on creativity and persuasiveness.

With the noble goal of harnessing the power of words to effect change in the world in mind, TeacherTube is proud to offer videos on everything from general communications to speaking and even videos on strengthening your studying skills.

Not all kids want to go through lectures. Some of them may not have the attention span or the patience to endure long hours just sitting down and listening to someone talk in front. No, that doesn't mean these kids are lazy. It just means they learn differently.

Some kids are auditory learners. In other words, they learn best when they listen to sounds and music. For this type of student, educational songs will certainly be a big helping hand. Even the most complex of concepts, when taught through songs, will be very easy for them to understand and remember. Even kids who are not so much inclined to auditory learning may like this method.

Educational song vidoes are available in a wide variety of subjects. English, math, social studies, science, and everything in between, there's bound to be a song for every subject. For example, on the website Teachertube.com, there are science topic songs, reading songs, skip counting songs, reading phonics songs, and even quadratic formula songs.

The advantage of using educational song videos is that it accomplishes two things at once. First, these songs are entertaining, and second, they also teach a concept. They facilitate learning a lot better than plain lectures simply because of the entertainment part. When a lesson is made fun of, kids will want to learn them. In fact, it could even be the kids themselves, on their own, who will play the songs repeatedly.

TeacherTube offers education songs on topics as varied as the circulatory system to math songs about polynomials and even videos on St. Patrick's Day.

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TeacherTube Educational Videos for the School Classroom and Home - Including Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos and Math Videos

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A free community for sharing instructional videos, Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos, Math Videos, and other content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home schoolers to access educational for the classroom and home learning.

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by TeachThought Staff

Inquiry-based learning is a term that educators and parents alike hear bandied about without a clear sense of exactly what it is, why it's effective, how it works, and what its benefits are.

For now, let's define inquiry-based learning simply as an open-ended approach to learning guided by students through questions, research, and/or curiosity.

Sketch-noter Sylvia Duckworth took Trevor MacKenzie's ideas on the benefits of inquiry-based learning and put together the image above. We've linked to a few of our resources on some of the highlights below for extended learning and reflection.

See also The Benefits Of Having A College Degree

What benefits of inquiry-based learning do you see in your classroom?
10 Benefits Of Inquiry-Based Learning
1. Inquiry-based learning can nurture student interests, passions, and talents

See 25 Ways to Promote Passion-Based Learning In Your Classroom

2. It can empower student voice and honor student choice

See 4 Principles Of Student-Centered Learning

3. It can increase motivation and engagement

See 27 Ways to Promote Intrinsic Motivation In The Classroom

4. It can foster curiosity and a love of learning

See 4 Stages of Curiosity

5. It can teach grit, perseverance, growth mindset, and self-regulation

See 4 Strategies to Promote Smarter Grit

6. It can develop formal and informal research skills

See 8 Reasons Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers

7. Inquiry-based learning can deepen understanding beyond the content

See 6 Tips & 18 Resources To Extend Learning Beyond The Classroom

8. It can fortify the importance of asking good questions

See 7 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions

9. It requires students to take an active role in the learning process

See 60 Ways to Help Students Think For Themselves

10. Inquiry can help to solve the problems of tomorrow in the classrooms of today

See 12 Principles for Modern Learning
10 Benefits Of Inquiry-Based Learning; 10 Reasons To Use Inquiry-Based Learning

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Among the benefits of inquiry-based learning, requiring the student to take an active role in the process may be the most significant.

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Sara Shaw, an elementary school teacher in Avon, Mass., realized she needed to teach online research skills several years ago when her students kept turning in projects riddled with misinformation. The flawed material often came from websites the students used. They took the information as fact, when it often was just someone’s personal opinion.

Ms. Shaw thinks teaching online research skills is even more critical than it was just a few years ago. More than ever, information is literally at the fingertips of students through smartphones, tablet computers, and other digital devices.

“They will go on Google and type a word, and that is the extent of their research skills,” said Ms. Shaw, who taught 5th grade for 10 years and now teaches special education at Ralph D. Butler Elementary School. “There is so much more to doing research on the Internet.”

She is one of many teachers and librarians who are explicitly teaching online research skills, such as how to evaluate a website’s credibility, how to use precise keywords, and how to better mine search engines and databases.

In November 2012, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released a study that surveyed 2,067 Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers. It found that while most teachers agreed that the Internet provides a wealth of information to students, they also said students often don’t have the digital-literacy skills to wade through that information. Forty-seven percent of the teachers surveyed said they “strongly agree” and another 44 percent said they “somewhat believe” that courses and content focusing on digital literacy should be incorporated into the school curriculum.

Smart Searching

Teaching students to be savvy online researchers starts with knowing how to use key words. That is something 6th grader Katie Lacey has worked hard to master.

“You need precise words,” said Katie, a student at Albuquerque Academy, a private school for grades 6-12 in New Mexico. “If I’m looking up the John F. Kennedy assassination, I have to use those words. If I type in just Kennedy assassination, I could get information on Robert Kennedy.”

Another important skill to teach students is how to predict the results they expect to see when they type in search terms, said Tasha Bergson-Michelson, a librarian who works for the Google Search Education team at the technology company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Doing that can help them know when they may need to change their terms, she said.

In addition, Ms. Bergson-Michelson advises students to skim search results for words that pop up, especially unfamiliar words. People have a tendency to skip over words they don’t know, she said. But those words, when added to search terms, can lead to more meaningful results. For instance, if a student wanted to find information on immigrants who send money back to their home countries, the term “remittances” comes up on search results.

“When you change the search to include the word “remittance,” immediately the type of sources are qualitatively different and more suited for an academic or scholarly pursuit,” Ms. Bergson-Michelson said.

Using search operators, words, or symbols that join key words to form a more complex query can make searching more focused.

Students can put quotation marks around their search terms to get results that include the exact wording. A minus sign eliminates something from a search. For instance, if students wanted to find information about the planet Saturn, but not the car of that name, they could type “Saturn-car” to narrow their results. Using “and” between search terms can give results that focus on two subjects, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Choosing Search Engines

Finding the right search engine or database is also an important step in conducting online research, said Frances Jacobson Harris, a librarian at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Ill.

She encourages students to use Google Scholar, which includes academic and scholarly sources of information. Google Books allows searchers to read pages from books, and if the information is useful, a searcher can then find the book in a library collection.

Gloria Ha, a junior at University Laboratory High School, said she first started learning about effective search techniques in 8th grade. Knowing how to search has made her more thoughtful in her approaches to finding information online.

“I usually start with Google Scholar or Google just to figure out what the topic is. Once I have a better idea, I’ll go deeper,” she said. “For example, if it’s a history paper, I’ll use the online library catalog, or sometimes there are e-books online through the university.”

Ms. Harris teaches students how to access the invisible Web, databases that schools and libraries pay a fee to access. Those databases include scholarly articles, academic journals, online encyclopedias, archived editions of periodicals such as The New York Times, and other resources.

Online Research Techniques for Students

Some teachers steer students toward sites and search engines written specifically for children.

For example, the Kentucky Virtual Library , a consortium of libraries that provides residents of the state access to online databases—has a portal for K-12 students that outlines the steps for conducting online research, including how to use key words and how to organize information into notes, that is written in student-friendly language and designed to appeal visually to young children.

The portal also allows young users to access databases geared to children, including Searchasaurus and Grolier Online.

“They are more likely to get the right information at their reading level than simply going on Google,” said Enid Wohlstein, the director of the library, which is based in Frankfort.

Ed Baklini, a 6th grade history teacher at Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico, advises his students when using Google to type in a key word and the word “kid” after it. Doing so pulls up results for younger students. Mr. Baklini also directs them to free databases such as an educational site managed by the Lone Star College System in Texas that contains information about American history decade by decade.

“When you go to one of these sites, there are hundreds of other trusted links to go to,” he said. “This information comes from librarians and teachers who have taught history.”

Evaluating Websites

Just as critical as smart searching is evaluating the information on the Web. Students can take specific steps to dissect a website, such as checking whether its URL ends in a .com, .org, .gov, or .edu.

“If it’s from a university, museum, government, or some state run agency, then it’s pretty valid,” Ms. Shaw of Butler Elementary School said. “If it’s someone’s personal website, how do you know what that person is saying is true?”

In any case, students should approach websites with a critical eye.

“They should ask themselves while searching on sites: Who wrote this? What is the perspective of the person who wrote this?” said Rebecca Randall, the vice president of education programs for Common Sense Media , a San Francisco-based nonprofit group that studies the effects of media and technology on young people.

“Or else while searching for information on African-American history, they could wind up on the site for the Ku Klux Klan.”

It’s also important to know if a site is commercial. If so, it may be slanted toward having users buy products.

“Not that advertising on a site makes it less credible,” Ms. Randall said. “But it’s just another point to consider when looking at information. What is the intent of the information?”

When students take the time to approach their Web research thoughtfully, they sometimes encounter websites that are biased. Ms. Harris, the University Laboratory High librarian, recalls working with a student who was writing a paper on George Orwell’s 1984. The boy found an essay about the book on the site of the Institute for Historical Review. Upon closer examination, the website was a Holocaust-denial website, Ms. Harris said.

“It looks scholarly because it’s called ‘institute,’ and there are citations at the bottom,” she said.

To help students scrutinize websites, Ms. Harris uses a lesson called “Whodunit,” which takes students to various sites and has them answer questions about who wrote the information, what their credentials are, and who is sponsoring the site.

Ms. Shaw provides a checklist to help students decide whether sites are credible. It includes questions such as: Are there dead links? Do images support the stated facts? Are there links and references to other websites, and resources and experts that corroborate the information?

Mr. Baklini of Albuquerque Academy advises his students to be aware of sites where the language comes on too strong and the attempt is to persuade readers how to think.

He also starts the school year by teaching a media-literacy unit in which he shows students how to examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use when trying to sell products. The point is to teach his students how to look at media carefully. That ability to scrutinize carries over to their Web research, he said.

“I have them think about these persuasive techniques, and I say if you see any of those techniques in there, if someone is trying to convince you to think a certain way, you can still read that website, but take it with a grain of salt,” he said.

It can be difficult for teachers to carve out time to teach yet another set of skills. But it’s important to do so, Ms. Randall of Common Sense Media said.

“If you don’t take time to do it, the kids aren’t going to be giving you their best work,” she said. “You have kids pulling information from sources that are not reliable and building a hypothesis or research paper around information that isn’t accurate.”

Modeling the Process

Teachers should model the process for searching online and make it something students do regularly in their classes, educators say.

Ms. Shaw integrated searching into her classroom by creating a classroom job of “searcher.” That student’s responsibility was to search the Internet for answers to questions that would come up during the day’s class. Ms. Shaw used that approach as an opportunity to talk about strategies for good online research.

Teaching students solid online search skills is important not only because it will help them produce better work, but also because it prepares them to judge the validity of all sorts of information and to be critical thinkers.

Librarians have a natural place in the forefront of helping students be more adept at online research.

“School librarians should be a partner in this,” Ms. Harris said. “Oftentimes, teachers don’t realize that, or sadly schools don’t have school librarians.”

Teachers should give credit to the process of searching, not just for the final product, she added. Students can turn in search logs or annotated bibliographies to emphasize that process.

“This tells the students that teachers value what sources the students are using and that the sources they use matter,” Ms. Harris said. “That way, kids won’t just jump to the easiest, most meaningless thing.”

She and others say it’s vital to reinforce those skills repeatedly in working with students.

“They won’t learn everything they need to know from one assignment,” Ms. Harris said. “It’s like learning how to write. Every context is different.”

Coverage of the education industry and K-12 innovation is supported in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the May 22, 2013 edition of Education Week as Teaching Students The Skills to Be Savvy Researchers

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Teaching Students Better Online Research Skills

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Many educators are explicitly teaching such skills as how to evaluate a website’s credibility, how to use precise keywords, and how to better mine search engines.

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What the Heck Is Inquiry-Based Learning?

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Teachers use inquiry-based learning to combat the “dunno” -- a chronic problem in student engagement. Check out these four steps for creating inquiry-based curriculum.

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Meet Sora: An ebook and audiobook app for students from OverDrive

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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A Division of the American Library Association

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Who we are and what we're about

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The Snapdragon Book Foundation is proud to announce that Moon Mountain Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona will be the Next Up school for 2018! One month each year, we ask for donations to fund a grant for the school that was next on our award list. This year, we are trying to fully fund Moon

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Snapdragon Book Foundation - Providing books to school libraries for disadvantaged children

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Founded in 2008, the Snapdragon Book Foundation was started by a school librarian from Houston, Texas who believes all children deserve access to books. Each year, we fund worthy projects in PreK-12 schools across the country. Learn about eligibility, the timeline for applying and projects funded in the past.

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How I Organize My Classroom Library | FULL TUTORIAL

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How to design a library that makes kids want to read |  Michael Bierut

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Beyond books: The 21st century public library