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Looking for a fun, easy decoration you can make with your child this holiday season? Here is a festive DIY ornament inspired by the Philippines that is fun to do and also reinforces those fine motor skills!

When it comes to "around the world" celebrations, I normally have a very hard choosing which country to research and present. This year, however, when it came time for our World Explorers Club holiday party, I knew exactly which country I wanted to showcase: the Philippines are known for their incredible holiday spirit and amazing Christmas celebrations, which start as early as September! That's right, while the rest of us are thinking about back to school shopping, Filipinos are already busy decorating for Christmas!

One of the most iconic Philippine decorations is the the gorgeous star lanterns originally used to light the way to early morning mass in the 9 days leading up to Christmas. (For those that speak Spanish, notice the similarity to the word farol, or lantern! This dates back to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines).

Today parols come in many forms and can be large and quite elaborate. I wanted to simplify it for younger children to use at our holiday party, so I can up with this version using straws. You can also try this beautiful paper version or this gorgeous version using cardboard and coffee filters.

DIY Ornament: Philippine Christmas Star Craft
What You Will Need
5 bendy straws

tissue paper, cut in strips

ribbon

To make this DIY ornament, start with the star itself. Simply pinch one long end of a bendy straw and connect it to the short end of the next straw.

You'll continue doing this with all the straws - making a star shape as you go - until you finally connect the last one back to the first.

Try to weave at least one straw through the spokes of the star so that the shape holds together better.

To make the tassels, take a couple of tissue paper strips and tie them very carefully to the bottom points of the star.

Make a loop with ribbon through the top point of the star and hang on your Christmas tree! These would also look lovely hanging in a window.

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Learn more about Christmas in the Philippines!
Welcome to our fifth annual Christmas in Different Lands series! This year each participating blogger will focus on a different country, sharing a traditional dish and more about Christmas in that country. For even more glimpses of global Christmas celebrations, see our series from previous years ( 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016) plus follow our Christmas board on Pinterest!
Follow Multicultural Kid Blogs's board Christmas Around the World on Pinterest.
Lisa Lewis, MD on Multicultural Kid Blogs: A Lebanese Christmas Celebration

December 15
The Good Long Road on Multicultural Kid Blogs: Israel
Don't miss our other posts about Christmas in different lands, plus our printable pack Celebrate Christmas Around the World, on sale now!

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DIY Ornament: Philippine Christmas Star Craft - All Done Monkey

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Looking for a fun, easy decoration you can make with your child this holiday season? Here is a festive DIY ornament inspired by the Philippines that is fun to do and also reinforces those fine motor skills! When it comes to "around the world" celebrations, I normally have a very hard choosing which country to research and present.

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Definition

Students with emotional disorders are a very heterogeneous group with a wide range of issues that are unique to each individual. However, there are some key characteristics that are used to define this disability category, mostly relating to issues of personal identity and emotional well-being. An emotional disorder may be present if a student responds to a situation with an inappropriate behavior or emotion, and particularly, if this emotion is depression or long term unhappiness. Students with emotional disorders typically have a very difficult time maintaining personal relationships with others, and these personal problems lead to physical symptoms in time. If the student has difficulty learning, but there is no intellectual or sensory cause of this difficulty, then an emotional disorder may be to blame. This disability category does include some mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

It should be noted that one or more of the previously mentioned characteristics has to be present for an extended period of time, and must have a negative impact on the student's academic performance before being considered an emotional disorder. Signs of an emotional disorder need to be taken seriously, as they can lead to physical aggression and self-injurious behavior. However, care must also be taken to recognize the difference between emotional disturbance and general teenage angst. There are as many causes of emotional disturbance in children as there are children in this category, but they can generally be divided into either biological causes, environmental causes, or a combination of the two.

Prevalence

The U.S. Department of Education reports 5,971,495 students receiving special education services in the 2003-2004 school year. Of that number, roughly 7.7%, or 461,055 students, received special education services based on a classification of emotional disturbance. However, within this group of 461,055 students, there was a definite disproportionally between gender, race and socioeconomic background. African-American students were far more likely to be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed than white students, reflecting possible race bias in this category. Research has pointed to a direct correlation between low income status and emotional disorders, but the exact reasons for this correlation are unknown.

Characteristics

Each student with an emotional disturbance will have characteristics that are unique to that individual. However, these students will all share deficits in three specific areas, namely emotional development, behavioral development, and cognitive development.

These students may have specific emotional characteristics/conditions such as anxiety disorder, mood disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and schizophrenia. Not addressing any one of these disorders with the appropriate support system could have potentially tragic results. Behavioral characteristics of an emotional disorder include externalizing behavior and conversely internalizing behavior. The former can result in problem behavior and physical aggression while the latter results in depression and anxiety. Finally, students with emotional disorders have a number of academic issues as well, and each year half of the students in this category drop out of school entirely.

One intriguing possible contributing factor to emotional disturbance can be found in deficits in communication. An estimated 71% of students with emotional disorders also have expressive and receptive language disorders that impact their ability to understand and communicate with peers and adults.

Impact on Learning

Students with emotional disorders can be found at every level of cognitive functioning, but the majority of these students tend to have low average intelligence. Most achieve below grade level in academic achievement, with the greatest deficits in both math and spelling. Many have a coexisting learning disability of some type. Students that exhibit externalizing behaviors are at the greatest risk for continued deficits in academic functioning. Students with emotional disorders are less likely to attend post-secondary school than students in many other disability categories. An effective educational program for students with emotional disorders will provide emotional and behavioral supports that foster the replacement of problem behaviors with more appropriate behaviors. Positive behavior support systems are one especially effective strategy to achieve this goal, as are the implementation of wraparound services.

Teaching Strategies

Wraparound planning is a collaborative process that has shown great promise in supporting students with emotional disorders, both in research and in more practical application. This planning process brings all of the involved service providers (i.e., adult rehabilitation services, mental health services, guidance counselor) and individuals together to create a natural support system that is founded on the strengths of the individual student and the community in which that student lives. The family is an integral part of this process, and the overall goal is to devise a program that will capitalize on the strengths and interests of the student while utilizing community resources for placement and intervention.

Generally, academic achievement and problem behaviors often go hand-in-hand for students with emotional disorders. To put this another way, the more difficulty they have with a classroom task, the more likely that maladaptive behavior will result. Supporting the academic performance of these students will thus have the added benefit of decreasing externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Best practices for students with emotional disorders are often best practices for all students. A strategy such as allowing students to choose between classroom tasks, for example, is an effective way to decrease problem behaviors in general. Consistent and specific praise is also a great technique to utilize with all students in the classroom, but can be particularly effective with students with emotional disorders.

It is very important to not make assumptions about any family of a child with an emotional disorder. Many emotional disorders have an organic cause, and the parents of the child may well be loving and supportive in every way. However, some of these students have indeed been abused in some fashion in their young lives, and this too can be a cause of emotional or behavioral issues. Trust can be a very large issue for these children. Forming a relationship with these students that is built on empathy, trust, and mutual respect can often be the solution to many problem behaviors, and can have a lasting impact of the emotional development of the child.

Assistive Technology

Some modification in instruction will be necessary to allow a student with an emotional disorder to demonstrate mastery in a number of academic areas, and most especially in the area of writing. Word processing software can be an excellent supplementary aid for these students, allowing them to edit and revise their work as they produce it. These programs can strengthen spelling skills and writing cohesion simply by making the writing process easier overall. Of particular benefit are word processing programs that read the text as it is typed, providing an additional audio cue for the student.

Organizations

There are a number of excellent organizations that can help support classroom instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. The information presented in this module is intended as just a very brief description of emotional disorder and its impact on learning. Much more in-depth information and instructional strategies can be accessed through the following organizations:

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The AACAP (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) is the leading national professional medical association dedicated to treating and improving the quality of life for children, adolescents, and families affected by these disorders. Composed of over 7,500 child and adolescent psychiatrists and other interested physicians, its members actively research, evaluate, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders and pride themselves on giving direction to and responding quickly to new developments in addressing the health care needs of children and their families.

Public Information Office
3615 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016-3007

Web: www.aacap.org

Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

The OSEP-funded National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports was established to address the behavioral and discipline systems needed for successful learning and social development of students. The Center provides capacity-building information and technical support about behavioral systems to assist states and districts in the design of effective schools.

5262 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5262

Email: pbis@oregon.uregon.edu
Web: www.pbis.org

Center for Disability and Development

Dept. of Educational Psychology
4225 Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4225

Council for Exceptional Children

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides continual professional development, advocates for newly and historically underserved individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice.

1110 North Glebe Road, Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22201-5704

Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health

This organization is dedicated exclusively to helping children with mental health needs and their families achieve a better quality of life. They provide leadership to develop and sustain a nationwide network of family-run organizations; focus the passion and cultural diversity of our membership to be a potent force for changing how systems respond to children with mental health needs and their families; help policy-makers, agencies, and providers become more effective in delivering services and supports that foster healthy emotional development for all children.

1101 King Street, Suite 420
Alexandria, VA 22314

Email: ffcmh@ffcmh.org
Web: www.ffcmh.org

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)

NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation's largest grassroots organization for people with mental illness and their families. NAMI is dedicated to the eradication of mental illnesses and to the improvement of the quality of life for persons of all ages who are affected by mental illnesses. NAMI members and friends work to fulfill our mission by providing support, education, and advocacy.

Colonial Place Three
2107 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22203-3754

Web: www.nami.org

Mental Health America

Mental Health America is dedicated to helping ALL people live mentally healthier lives. They work to fulfill this mission by education the public about ways to preserve and strengthen mental health; advocating for access to effective care; fostering innovation in research, practice, services and policy; and providing support to individuals and families.

2001 N. Beauregard Street, 12th Floor
Alexandria, VA 22311

Web: www.nmha.org

National Mental Health Information Center

The National Mental Health Information Center was developed for users of mental health services and their families, the general public, policy makers, providers, and the media. They provide free information about mental health via a toll-free number, their website, and more than 600 publications.

P.O. Box 42557
Washington, DC 20015

Web: www.mentalhealth.org

References

Hunt, N., and Marshall, K. (2006). Exceptional children and youth. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (2004). Fact Sheet 5. Retrieved February 1, 2008 from www.nichcy.org/pubs/factshe/fs5txt.htm.

Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R. & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2007). Exceptional lives. Special education in today's schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

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Students with emotional disorders typically have a hard time maintaining relationships, and these personal problems may lead to physical symptoms in time.

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Many terms are used to describe emotional, behavioral or mental disorders. Usually, people with such disorders are categorized as having a serious emotional disturbance. The Individuals with Disabilities Act defines a person with emotional disturbance as a person exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a degree that adversely affects the person's performance. One characteristic is an inability to learn, which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.

Another characteristic of emotional disturbance is an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers. Other characteristics include inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances, a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression, or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal problems.

The causes of emotional disturbance have not been adequately determined. Although various factors have been suggested as possible causes, research has not shown any to be the direct cause of behavior problems.

Some characteristics and behaviors seen in children who have emotional disturbances include: hyperactivity, a short attention span and impulsiveness, aggression or self-injurious behavior such as acting out or fighting, withdrawal, a failure to initiate interaction with others or avoid social interactions through fear or anxiety, immaturity characterized by inappropriate crying and temper tantrums, and poor coping skills and learning difficulties exhibited by academic performance below grade level.

Many children who do not have emotional disturbances may display some of these behaviors at various times during their development. However, when these behaviors continue over long periods of time, those children may have serious emotional disturbances and their behavior is signaling that they are not coping with their environment or peers.

If you would like more information please contact The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Michigan chapter at 800-331-4264, or visit them online at www.namimi.org.

Phone code: 1715

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What is Serious Emotional Disturbance? - The Arc Western Wayne County

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Many terms are used to describe emotional, behavioral or mental disorders. Usually, people with such disorders are categorized as having a serious emotional disturbance. The Individuals with Disabilities Act defines a person with emotional disturbance as a person exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a ...

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Search Institute-- Helping Young People Be and Become Their Best Selves

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Search Institute bridges research and practice to help young people be and become their best selves. Our applied youth development research, including Developmental Assets® and developmental relationships, has helped young people succeed since 1958.

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Check out these articles on everything from preparing for the first day to dealing with homework woes, coping as a new teacher and ensuring smooth sailing for substitute teachers. Be sure to explore our 12 volumes of icebreakers and first day of school activities that help students and teachers get to know each other.
Best of the Icebreakers
Volume 1: Tell Me About You Activities
Volume 2: 14 Activities for the First Days of School
Volume 3: Engaging Activities for the First Days of School
Volume 4: Activities for the First Day of School
Volume 5: All-About-You Activities for the First Days of School
Volume 6: Get to Know Your Classmates Activities
Volume 7: Getting to Know One Another
Volume 8: Who's in the Classroom?
Volume 9: My Classmates and Me
Volume 10: Back-to-School Activities
Volume 11: More Fresh Ideas for Opening Day
Volume 12: Excellent Activities for Getting Students Warmed Up

Tools for Teaching: Starting the New School Year
On the first day of school, the first question in students' minds is, "Who are you?" Their second question is, "Who are they?" Students do better in class when they are comfortable, relaxed, and "at home." A very good reason to devote the lion's share of your first class period of the year to creating comfort.

The First Days of School: A True Tell-All Book! (An e-Interview with Harry and Rosemary Wong)
Whether you're a nervous neophyte facing your first day of school or a skilled veteran facing another first day of school, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, by Harry and Rosemary Wong, is a must read.

A Quotation a Day: Just What the Language Doctor Ordered!
Many teachers have discovered the power of famous quotations. Such quotations can be used to develop students' writing and critical thinking skills. Included: "Why use quotations?" plus a quotation a day for 180 days of school.
Buy the book of worksheets to accompany this article.

First Year Teacher's Primer
Humor, connections and self-reflection go a long way in ensuring that you'll have a great year! These tips from a veteran educator and teacher trainer are also good reminders for teachers who are well beyond their first year.

'How To' Books for First-Year Teachers
Last year, Lynne Rominger, a fledgling high school English teacher, longed for a manual to guide her through her first year teaching -- so she co-wrote Your First Year As a High School Teacher and Your First Year As an Elementary School Teacher.

MORE GREAT IDEAS FOR THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR

Principal Goes Door to Door With Back-to-School Message
Tired of low student turnouts on the first few days of school, Hartford, Connecticut, principal Dr. Robert E. Morris decided to remind parents about the opening of school. In person. Staff and community members joined Morris walking door-to-door.

First-Day-of-School Activity: The Kissing Hand
Teachers Amanda Dobson submitted this week's lesson, which uses a popular children's book to help alleviate young students' first-day-of-school jitters. (Grades pre-K-2)

Back to School Templates

Last updated 9/19/16

Education World®
Copyright © 2011, 2016 Education World

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Back to School Archive | Education World

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Check out these articles on everything from preparing for the first day to dealing with homework woes, coping as a new teacher and ensuring smooth sailing for substitute teachers. Be sure to explore our 12 volumes of icebreakers and first day of school activities that help students and teachers get to know each other.

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Special-needs students who have, in the past, faced particular learning challenges in the classroom have benefited from the introduction of technology. Whereas once these students who were unable to receive the specialized instruction they needed in order to excel performed poorly and suffered from low motivation and confidence, they now find themselves on an equal playing field with the remainder of the class-in fact, technology has served to empower special-needs students and enable them to excel not just in the classroom but also in the community.

To learn more, check out the infographic below created by the University of Cincinnati's online Master of Education degree program.

Today, over 50 million students use some form of technology in the classroom and to assist with coursework at home. Applications such as Google Classroom help teachers stay better organized and connected with their class while also tracking a student's academic progress. This has helped to yield critical information regarding the learning process and performance of special-needs students, and subsequently, teachers can create more customized lesson plans for those students as well as determine how technological devices and software applications can better be used to assist them in their instruction.

Technological Devices and Applications Are More Engaging than Regular Lessons

Studies have already proven that blended learning, a mixture of online lessons and real teaching, can improve student performance significantly. Likewise for special-needs students, who find learning via e-readers, computers and software to be more engaging. And because lessons through such devices can be personalized for the students rather than a single lesson for the whole class, children with learning disabilities find themselves able to handle even advanced lessons and reach their fullest potential.

Advancing technology has resulted in a multitude of assistive technology and electronic teaching aids from smartphone apps to cutting-edge products, including:

Text-To-Speech Assistive Tools

Text-to-speech (TTS) software can be used to provide help to children who have difficulties reading standard print. Some of the reasons a student may have difficulty include dyslexia, a visual impairment, or a learning disability. TTS technology can also be used to assist children with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Intel Reader

This mobile handheld device uses TTS technology to read printed text aloud. Equipped with a high-resolution camera, it can capture printed text and read it back to the user. The reader also highlights words as they are read aloud and can spell words for students as well.

Graphic Organizers

Available in a wide range of models with different features, the main purpose of a graphic organizer is to enable special needs students to better organize their thoughts as they write.

Assistive Listening Systems

Hearing assistive technology is ideal for students who are deaf or have other auditory issues. According to the National Association for the Deaf, assistive listening systems can be used by children who need help hearing or suffer from language delays, central auditory processing disorders and articulation disorders.

Sip-and-Puff Systems

Sip-and-puff systems enable a student who suffers from fine motor skill disabilities, paralysis or other mobility challenges to effectively operate a computer or mobile device by using his or her mouth. The student can move the joystick-like controller with their mouth and "click" on navigational tools using either a sip or a puff.

Proofreading Software

This type of assistive technology software is usually much more advanced than the kind utilized by word processing applications. It is specially designed to provide help to students with dyslexia as well as those with any type of learning disorder that causes a child to have trouble reading and writing.

Math Tools

Many students suffer from dyscalculia, a condition that makes it hard for them to understand math and grasp numbers. A wide range of assistive technology tools are available to help these special-needs students, helping them to work through math problems and better understand the concept of particular equations.

The above are just a small sampling of the assistive technology tools being used today in the classroom and at home. As technology continues to advance and students become more adept in digital fluency, special needs students will no longer feel as though they are left out or left behind, as the tools will enable them to advance just as well, if not better, than others.
Choosing the right assistive technology tools is also critical. Not every tool or software application will deliver the same results with different special needs-students. A good match will enable a student to participate in class, become more motivated to learn and converse better with peers. Many schools across the nation are becoming much more open to adopting technology in the classroom to help special-needs students, as well as any student who needs more assistance in learning.

However, it should be noted that technology itself is not the savior-teachers and parents must also work together to monitor the child's academic progress and see where the student is gaining the most value or struggling. Becoming too reliant on the tools can also be detrimental, so it is important to use the tools in an assistive fashion and not as the main and only option for teaching a curriculum.

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How Technology Helps in the Education of Special-Needs Students

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Special-needs students who have, in the past, faced particular learning challenges in the classroom have benefited from the introduction of technology.

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Pinterest is an educator’s dream come true because of its many options for curating and sharing ideas, displaying student work, and building a PLN.

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Grades

9 - 12

Lesson Plan Type

Standard Lesson

Estimated Time

Five to six 60-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Sessions 1 and 2: Explanation Session 3: Workshop Scenes Sessions 5 and 6: Filming Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Decide how to use vocabulary appropriately and effectively by creating a drama that develops real or imagined events

Create a drama to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and a well-structured event sequence, and including narrative techniques such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines to develop experiences, events, and characters

Evaluate and self-assess the creation of a drama that reflects a particular tone and outcome, including developing a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, and resolution, while effectively using technology and digital media to produce, edit, and publish a shared writing product

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Sessions 1 and 2: Explanation
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1. Explain to students that they are writing their own teen drama as a tool for learning new words, and they need to incorporate SAT vocabulary words into their script. Give out the Rubric for Cooperative and Collaborative Learning, and explain that the final product needs to represent the entire class. For this reason, it is necessary to work cooperatively and collaboratively with one another. Tell students that they should attempt to reach the goals of the rubric while working together.

2. Show students selections from High School Uncut: Revere High School's Teen Soap Opera to Learn SAT Words. Briefly discuss the viewed selections to make sure that students understand the assignment. You may want to talk to your students about how the students in the video were able to effectively incorporate the SAT vocabulary words into the drama while creating a plot at the same time.

3. If the class is large, ask students to choose whether they'd like to be writers, actors, costume and set designers, camera people, or video editors. (Note that more actors and writers are needed than set and costume designers, camera people, or video editors.) If the class is smaller, students can share these roles. Choose a director if you'd like, although in most cases you are initially the best person to handle this role, with student assistance, until all students become familiar with what the task entails.

4. As a group, decide what topics students want to explore in their teen drama. Students may want to focus on relationships, trouble with parents, bullying, stresses affecting teenagers, peer pressure, and so on. Note that this step helps students focus on a story line.

5. Either as a class or with the writers assembled into a group, use the Story Map to begin identifying characters, setting, conflict, and resolution maps, and use the Plot Diagram to start writing the story. Students should aim to make the episode about four to eight minutes long with three or four scenes; this step helps facilitate the process. Students can refer to the Screenwriting.info: How to Write a Screenplay website for further assistance, but use the above time and scene limits as the general rule.

6. Provide students with the web link for Vocabulary.com's 100 Top SAT Words so that they can decide which words to use for this particular episode. (The students can continue this assignment throughout the year if you'd like, using 15 new words per episode and developing the characters and plot as their teen drama continues.)

7. During the writing process, review as a class each sentence from the screenplay that uses a vocabulary word. Does the sentence and situation adequately provide clues as to the meaning of the word? For example, notice how the sentence "You'd better not be cheating on me; that would be reprehensible" gives the student a fairly good idea about the meaning of the word reprehensible.

8. If the class is large and divided into roles, ask those students who are not yet working on a task to begin writing sentences that use the 15 SAT vocabulary words from this lesson. They should write one sentence for each vocabulary word.

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Session 3: Workshop Scenes
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1. When the story has been completely written, take it and make copies of the script for the entire class. After distributing it, have the actors start practicing. Use the Readers Theatre Rubric to make sure that students' delivery meets the "Excellent" standard. At this point, the costume and set designers should also begin working on the staging.

2. Have the camera people work with the actors and set designers to begin staging the scene(s).

3. Initially, have the writers work with the actors to tweak lines and help the dialogue run smoothly. When they are finished, they may begin working on the next scene. This may also be done as a class if your class is smaller. When you and the students are satisfied that the scene works, you can move on to filming. As director, you make the final decision about when filming can begin.

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Sessions 5 and 6: Filming
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1. Film the scenes. This may require a few attempts, but, generally, students improve with each take. Keeping the scenes to no longer than five minutes will make this process easier. Note that if you are working with younger or less technologically savvy students, you may decide to rehearse and film only one scene per class period.

2. Have students upload the videos of each scene to a computer, and using the chosen editing software, edit the scenes and add titles. Add the SAT vocabulary words during and at the end of the episode. (Watch another episode of High School Uncut: Revere High School's Teen Soap Opera to Learn SAT Words if you need a refresher as to how the final product should look.) Although most students are adept at using editing software, it may be necessary for you to help them or to ask for help from your school's media specialist.

3. Show the rough cut to students for feedback. Add to, edit, or change the video as needed. Here are some questions to consider as a class in order to decide what to change: Does the scene run smoothly? Are the characters believable? Does the story line seem realistic? Keep in mind that this is a student production and does not need to meet Academy Award standards.

4. Present the final cut to the class. Use the video as a studying tool; start by giving students the test you wrote as part of your preparation for this lesson.

EXTENSIONS

View other critically acclaimed teen dramas, such as My So-Called Life or The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Discuss the episodes with students, asking questions such as, What is it about these shows that makes them compelling? What teen issues do they deal with? How are the characters developed? Use these and other similar discussion points to decide how to develop your own teen drama.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Give students a test which requires them to know, understand, and correctly use the SAT vocabulary words used in their episode; for example, give them a sentence completion assessment that mirrors the SAT test.

Observe student participation in the initial discussions about teen dramas. Have students answer the following question: What will our video say about adolescent life and what we believe are the most important issues and concerns to address? After students create their scene, use informal teacher assessment to answer questions such as the following:

1. Does the scene seem authentic to the teen audience?

2. Is the scene structured appropriately so that events seem logical and well paced?

3. Is the dialogue appropriate?

4. Do the characters seem realistic, and is the plot understandable for viewers?

1. Do you feel that your scene piqued your audience's interest by using mystery and suspense?

2. Does your video show or lay the foundation for eventually arriving at a resolution?

3. Do you believe the class achieved the goals of effectively using technology to produce, edit, and publish a shared writing product?

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Exploring a Teen's World: Learning SAT Vocabulary Through Drama - ReadWriteThink

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Grades 9 - 12 Lesson Plan Type Standard Lesson Estimated Time Five to six 60-minute sessions Lesson Author Publisher Student Objectives Sessions 1 and 2: Explanation Session 3: Workshop Scenes Sessions 5 and 6: Filming Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections Students will Decide how to use vocabulary appropriately and effectively by creating

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Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Analyze a text deemed complex based on qualitative measures by answering text-dependent questions and using this information to create their own representations of a character

Define words and phrases with multiple meanings by completing the Amelia Bedelia Chore Table printout

Form and support opinions and arguments about a character, citing textual evidence in their critical writing

Infer the feelings of a character using textual evidence to support their claims in a group discussion

Demonstrate understanding of character and supporting evidence through the completion of character trading cards

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1. Introduce the text by saying, "Today we are going to use details from a story, like the words and phrases used by the author, to describe a character."

2. Read aloud the entire text of Peggy Parish's Amelia Bedelia. To promote a close reading by the students, do not stop reading to model or think aloud about the text.

3. As a whole group, discuss the following text-dependent questions to promote general understanding of the story:

"Who is the main character in this story? How do you know?" Students should provide examples from the text as they answer the questions.

"What words and phrases did the author use to describe the character?" Record students' answers on chart paper.

4. Distribute blank paper and writing supplies.

5. Have students work individually to draw a picture of Amelia Bedelia and use at least three of the words from the text, which you just recorded on your chart paper, as descriptors. For example, a line from her mouth could say, "She's a good baker. She makes lemon meringue pie." A thought bubble could include the statement "My, these folks want me to do strange things." Collect students' drawings for assessment.

6. Bring the class back together to discuss how words as well as pictures help us visualize this character.

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1. Review Session 1 by asking students to describe Amelia Bedelia.

2. Explain the purpose of this session, saying, "Today we are going to reread a section of Amelia Bedelia and use the words in the text to figure out how the character of Amelia Bedelia thinks."

3. Distribute Amelia Bedelia's Chore Table to all students. Explain that in the first two columns they need to record answers about chores and what Amelia Bedelia does while they are reading, filling in the third column about what Amelia Bedelia should do after they finish reading.

4. Read the text from when Amelia Bedelia begins her chores ("Now let's see what this list says.") through Amelia Bedelia measuring the rice ("And Amelia Bedelia measured that rice."). Do not stop to model or think aloud while reading.

5. After reading, provide students with time to complete their tables, and then use their notes during the following discussion. The discussion should focus students' attention on words with multiple meanings, asking them to support their opinions and arguments with examples from the text.

"What are Amelia Bedelia's chores?"

"What does she do as she follows the list? What is she supposed to do?"

"What words on the list confuse Amelia Bedelia?"

Divide the class into small groups to discuss the following, using "I agree" / "I disagree" statements: "Is Amelia Bedelia right or wrong in how she completes her chores?"

6. Have students take out a writing utensil and turn to the back of their table (or distribute blank paper). Ask them to complete the following writing prompt: "Would you like Amelia Bedelia to be your maid? Why or why not?" Collect student work for assessment.

back to top

1. Review Session 2, asking students to restate and support their opinions of whether or not Amelia Bedelia was correct in how she completed the chores. During this discussion, also review the terms that caused confusion for Amelia Bedelia.

2. Introduce this session with the following: "Amelia Bedelia is not the only character in the story. Today as we reread, we are going to think about how Amelia Bedelia and the Rogers react differently to the same events."

3. Begin reading when the Rogers return ("Amelia Bedelia heard the door open."). Read until the end of the book.

4. Divide students into groups of three or four to discuss the reading. Ask the following questions, requiring students to form opinions and arguments using the text as supporting evidence:

"Does Amelia Bedelia think she has done a good job? What evidence from the text supports your answer?"

"How does Mrs. Rogers feel about Amelia Bedelia? How does Mr. Rogers feel? Support your answers with evidence from the text."

"All three characters are seeing the same results from Amelia Bedelia's work, but they have different reactions. How are their thoughts the same? How are they different?" (If you are completing this lesson early in the year, it may be necessary to have a minilesson on comparing/contrasting prior to this session, depending on the abilities of your students.)

5. After the discussion, distribute the Trading Card Creator Planning Sheet and have students record their answers. By completing the planning sheet, students can form their thoughts before being required to type, as doing both simultaneously can be a challenge for early primary students.

1. Prior to this session, open the Trading Card Creator interactive on all computers.

2. Instruct students to click on "Get Started."

3. Prompt students to type in their names and then Amelia Bedelia for their topic, and click on "Fictional Character."

4. From this point on, students should refer to the responses to each question on their planning sheets; ask them to begin typing their answers. Since students' thinking has been completed, you may choose to help them type if they struggle with keyboarding skills. Depending on the needs of the class, this can be accomplished by typing one or two answers for students who are falling behind the group. However, if the class as a whole struggles with typing, you may choose to elicit volunteers or complete the typing activity in small groups.

5. When students are finished, have them print and assemble their trading cards. Collect them for assessment, and during a later class, you can return them to the students.

6. Assess each individual student using the Amelia Bedelia Close Reading Rubric.

EXTENSIONS

Collect leveled texts with strong leading characters. Have students read an appropriate text and complete a character trading card based on the book. This enables students to apply the deep thinking they have engaged in throughout this lesson to their independent work.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Make an overall assessment of student work in all sessions using the Amelia Bedelia Close Reading Rubric.

Assess each student's ability to analyze a text and utilize the presented information by reviewing the drawings of Amelia Bedelia created during Session 1.

Assess each student's ability to identify and define words and phrases with multiple meanings using Amelia Bedelia's Chore Table, completed in Session 2.

Determine each student's ability to form and support opinions, citing the text as evidence, by analyzing their critical writing in response to the Session 2 question, "Would you like Amelia Bedelia to be your maid? Why or why not?"

Assess each student's ability to make inferences about the characters' feelings and to support these inferences with evidence from the text through small-group discussion in Session 3.

Assess each student's understanding of character by analyzing the completed character trading cards at the conclusion of Session 4.

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Amelia Bedelia Up Close! Closely Reading a Classic Story - ReadWriteThink

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Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections Students will Analyze a text deemed complex based on qualitative measures by answering text-dependent questions and using this information to create their own representations of a character Define words and phrases with multiple meanings by completing the Amelia Bedelia Chore Table printout Form and support

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Lesson Plans

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Dive into a sea of resources, knowledge, and inspiration for all your literacy needs. With thousands of standards-based resources for teachers and students, you can be confident your students are getting the education they deserve.

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200

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This weeklong set of lessons uses four different center activities to help students respond to poetry written by American Indians. This lesson plan was written with ESL students in mind, so there are many opportunities to practice vocabulary, discuss and talk with others, and model expectations.

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EDSP 501

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200-lesson 2

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Find out how you can use technology to engage students in rich learning experiences.

For teachers just starting out with educational technology, the task at hand can sometimes seem daunting. Even though tools such as the SAMR model can help, the plethora of choices available can prove paralyzing, frequently resulting in ongoing substitutive uses of the technology that block, rather than enable, more ambitious transformative goals.

The approach below is designed to help overcome this barrier, and is inspired in its form by Alexander's notion of Design Patterns -- a clearly structured solution to a recurring design problem -- which has been applied to education scenarios by Bergin et al. While it is not laid out exactly as a design pattern would be, it nonetheless provides a framework that a teacher could use in similar fashion.

The goal for the teacher is to construct a simple SAMR ladder that is coupled to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy -- i.e., as the task moves from lower to upper levels of the taxonomy, it also moves from lower to upper levels of SAMR. The two Enhancement levels of SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation) are associated with the three lower levels of Bloom (Remember, Understand, Apply), while the two Transformation levels of SAMR (Modification, Redefinition) are associated with the upper levels of Bloom (Analyze, Evaluate, Create). In turn, within each grouping a similar ordering occurs -- e.g., Remember-type tasks are primarily associated with S-level uses of the technology, Understand-type tasks are associated with either S- or A-level uses of the technology, and so on. The following diagram illustrates this association.

This coupling of the SAMR model and Bloom's Taxonomy has several desirable outcomes:

The already-familiar drive to reach the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy now also acts as a drive to reach the upper levels of SAMR;

The approach outlines a clear set of steps that help guide the introduction of technology in the classroom;

Finally, the approach helps avoid pitfalls of self deception -- i.e., assuming that a particular task is at a higher level in either the Bloom or SAMR sense than it actually is.

It is important to realize that this association between SAMR and Bloom's Taxonomy is not a necessary -- or even habitual -- coupling. Thus, it is possible to use extremely powerful redefinition-level approaches to make certain types of memorization tasks possible; conversely, it is also possible to undertake novel create-type tasks that only make basic substitution/augmentation use of the technology. Additionally, far more complex couplings between SAMR and Bloom are possible, involving convergent/divergent branchings, oscillations between levels, skipping of some SAMR levels, etc. Nonetheless, the simple structure described above is well suited to beginning practitioners' needs, and even retains usefulness for more experienced faculty.

In addition to the integration of SAMR and Bloom described above, two more ingredients are necessary for the best results:

a clear motivation for the change -- the best results are obtained when a teacher has a strong reason for changing existing practice that is independent of the introduction of technology.

a clean app flow, designed to move through the tasks, that is as simple as possible, avoiding needless complexity -- e.g., in transferring work products from one app to the next.

Finally, let's look at an example of this approach in practice. In this example, we will set up a general pattern for math activities, where the motivating factor is to take math instruction from a mode where -- to use Richard Skemp's words -- instrumental understanding dominates (how) to a mode where relational understanding is primary (how and why). This shift in math instruction can be seen in changes in curricula worldwide, and is crucial to students' capacity to use -- and enjoy -- the math they have learned in the world outside the classroom. In the interest of making the example more tangible, the context will be a course in introductory statistics, although the general pattern is readily applicable to other math courses.

1. Substitution/Remember: Students use ebooks and other Open Education Resources to acquire basic knowledge about statistical tools and procedures.

2. Substitution/Understand: At the same time, they begin a process of gathering information online describing applications of these statistical tools to an area of interest to them, using simple bookmark aggregation services (e.g., Diigo, Delicious) to collect and tag these resources, relating them to the knowledge gained in 1.

3. Augmentation/Apply: Using a simple yet powerful tool for visualization like GeoGebra, students explore the concepts covered in the resources described in 1., and solve related standard problems. The scope and number of the problems is not governed by what is available in the "back of the book," but rather driven by the evolution of student understanding, as measured by suitable formative assessment processes.

4. Modification/Analyze: The students also apply similar problem-solving approaches to questions raised in the materials they found in 2. In doing so, they will reconstruct the reasoning of the original authors, and verify -- or disprove -- their conclusions.

5. Modification/Evaluate: Students now select a subset of the materials studied in 4. for further critique and/or development, using GeoGebra as their primary analysis tool. Via a blog, they explain this work to fellow students, and invite their feedback to refine both the clarity of their explanations and the focus of their work.

6. Redefinition/Create: Students refine their blog post into a short digital video project, with the goal that it will be used as part of instructional materials in subsequent years.

Photo " sky puzzle" by Jared Tarbell. Used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

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SAMR and Bloom's Taxonomy: Assembling the Puzzle | Common Sense Education

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For teachers just starting out with educational technology, the task at hand can sometimes seem daunting. Even though tools such as the SAMR model can help, the plethora of choices available can prove paralyzing, frequently resulting in ongoing substitutive uses of the technology that block, rather than enable, more ambitious transformative goals.

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200- lesson 2

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What are the 4 Cs? Learn how critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are essential 21st-century skills for today's students. (To learn more about the 4 Cs, see T he 4 Cs Research Series by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)

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What are the 4 Cs? Learn how critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are essential 21st-century skills for today's students. (To learn more about the 4 Cs, see The 4 Cs Research Series by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)

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200- lesson 2

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ISTE Standards for Students, 2016 - Permissions and Licensing - Permitted Educational Use.pdf

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200-lesson 2

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ISTE Standards for Educators 2017 (Permitted Educational Use).pdf

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200- lesson 2

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It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?

The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy

by Allan Carrington, TeachThought PD Workshop Facilitator

The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

The Padagogy Wheel, though, is not rocket science. It is an everyday device that can be readily used by everyday teachers; it can be applied to everything from curriculum planning and development, to writing learning objectives and designing centered activities. The idea is for the users to respond to the challenges that the Wheel presents for their teaching practices, and to ask themselves the tough questions about their choices and methods.

The underlying principle of the Padagogy Wheel is that it is the pedagogy that should determine our educational use of apps. It's all very well to come across an exciting new app and to think to yourself, 'That's really cool, now how can I use it in the classroom?', but what you need to do at the same time is to think about how that app might contribute to your set of educational aims for the program you are teaching. It was in fact this very concern, my desire to help teachers make good decisions as to how to make the pedagogy drive the technology, and not the other way around, that led to the birth of the Padagogy Wheel.
So how does it work?
The Padagogy Wheel brings together in the one chart several different domains of pedagogical thinking. It situates mobile apps within this integrated framework, associating them with the educational purpose they are most likely to serve. It then enables teachers to identify the pedagogical place and purpose of their various app-based learning and teaching activities in the context of their overall objectives for the course, and with reference to the wider developmental needs of their students.

It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

THE FIVE GRIDS

1. Graduate Attributes and Capabilities

Graduate Attributes are at the core of learning design. Graduate Attributes address the long-term, enduring aims of our educational activity. They involve thinking about the type of people that emerge from our educational programs - their ethics, responsibility, and citizenship, for example - and their employability in our current and future society. Teachers must constantly revisit the way in which their programs are contributing to the development of these attributes. They need to do the hard yards of articulating what they expect a graduate of a program to "look like" i.e. what is it that a graduate is and does that we regard as successful and meets the expectations of their communities as change agents and leaders. How else can teachers help students know what transformation 'looks like'?

Many universities around the world are constantly working on their graduate attributes and are mapping their programs to them. The blog post " If you exercise these capabilities.. You will be employed! " where I interviewed Prof. Geoff Scott, is really eye opening for college educators as it highlights the attributes and capabilities the CEOs in the market place want in graduates, the things they look for in hiring. If educational leaders don't have a clear picture of the qualities and capabilities of an excellent graduate of their program, then how can teachers help students strive for excellence and to be leaders in their worlds?

Every teacher needs to look at their courses and pedagogy and ask, "How does everything I do support these attributes? Is there any way I can build content and activities that help students become 'excellent'?"

2. Motivation

Motivation is vital to achieving the most effective learning outcomes. It is valuable for teachers to regularly ask themselves "Why am I doing this again?" That is not a joke. I am referring to the choices of learning outcomes, development of activities and design of content e.g. writing text and even making videos. So the wheel introduces a 21st century model of motivation that science has developed and is so well presented by Dan Pink in the TEDtalk "The Puzzle of Motivation".

Thinking through the grid of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose (AMP) and filtering everything you do from idea-creation to assessment will, I believe, significantly help your teaching be transformational. Barbi Honeycutt on her FlipIt Blog has some good ideas on how to implement Dan Pink's AMP principles in the Flipped Classroom model.

Bloom's Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with 'remembering and understanding', which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the 'By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .' type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

4. Technology Enhancement

Technology Enhancement serves your pedagogy. When you choose any app or technology remember to apply the app selection criteria. The model only suggests apps that can support the learning objectives and activities at the time of publishing. The Padagogy Wheel constantly needs updating with apps as they are released. Teachers also should think customization all the time - is there a better app or tool for the job of enhancing my defined pedagogy?

Developed by Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model - standing for "Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition" - is a framework that assists teachers to assess the degree to which digitally-empowered learning and teaching is (or is not) moving beyond what can be taught using analog technologies. The SAMR Model is extremely useful when considering how you are going to use the technologies you have chosen. SAMR is a widely used model with a wealth of resources online, like Kathy Schrock's excellent SAMR resources page. A very useful perspective about SAMR is through the eyes of the students. The 3.55 min Youtube video below, subtitled for when I teach about the Padagogy Wheel in China, explains:

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?
The history of the Padagogy Wheel
In 2012 on a teaching trip to the UK, I got the idea of putting apps around the outside of Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel and organizing them according to his cognitive domain categories. The taxonomy was based on Kathwohl and Anderson's (2001) adaption of Bloom (1956) and it was their work that combined Remembering and Understanding.

The first version of the Padagogy Wheel had at its core Bloom's cognitive domain categories and teachers started their exploration of the wheel by making decisions about learning outcomes from each of those categories. They were aiming for those outcomes that promoted higher order thinking skills, in the 'Analyse' and 'Create' domains. I was the first to show 65 educational apps around the outer rim of the wheel. These apps were categorized by their strengths in helping learners reach better outcomes. I knew I was onto something useful by the requests for my permission to use this info-graphic after the seminars.

Back in Australia I thought about 'what is good teaching' and 'what is its core concept'. I added Graduate Attributes and Employable Capabilities for version two, then Motivation and the SAMR Model for version three. Two years and 150,000 downloads later I updated the apps and doubled the number available per category for version four. I also added further advice on app selection criteria.
I want to issue you with a challenge
Spend time thinking through how you can apply all five of the grids to your curriculum design, lesson plans and teaching practice. Learn more about each grid and take the Padagogy Wheel out for a spin. Please share your best practice examples. I would love to hear from you.

This year an objective is to build an online resource of how teachers have used the model, showcasing best practice and including research projects. We learned from our recent trip to China that they have over 14.5 million teachers. Yes, just teachers! And they all are extremely committed to change, hungry for professional development and collaboration. Your own work on the Padagogy Wheel could help many thousands of educators in China, as well as others around the world. This will help students become excellent practitioners and graduates, leading their communities into transformational change and could make the world a better place. After all isn't that why you became a teacher?
*Previously published at TeachThought.com

The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy

by Allan Carrington, TeachThought PD Workshop Facilitator

The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

The Padagogy Wheel, though, is not rocket science. It is an everyday device that can be readily used by everyday teachers; it can be applied to everything from curriculum planning and development, to writing learning objectives and designing centered activities. The idea is for the users to respond to the challenges that the Wheel presents for their teaching practices, and to ask themselves the tough questions about their choices and methods.

The underlying principle of the Padagogy Wheel is that it is the pedagogy that should determine our educational use of apps. It's all very well to come across an exciting new app and to think to yourself, 'That's really cool, now how can I use it in the classroom?', but what you need to do at the same time is to think about how that app might contribute to your set of educational aims for the program you are teaching. It was in fact this very concern, my desire to help teachers make good decisions as to how to make the pedagogy drive the technology, and not the other way around, that led to the birth of the Padagogy Wheel.
So how does it work?
The Padagogy Wheel brings together in the one chart several different domains of pedagogical thinking. It situates mobile apps within this integrated framework, associating them with the educational purpose they are most likely to serve. It then enables teachers to identify the pedagogical place and purpose of their various app-based learning and teaching activities in the context of their overall objectives for the course, and with reference to the wider developmental needs of their students.

It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

THE FIVE GRIDS

1. Graduate Attributes and Capabilities

Graduate Attributes are at the core of learning design. Graduate Attributes address the long-term, enduring aims of our educational activity. They involve thinking about the type of people that emerge from our educational programs - their ethics, responsibility, and citizenship, for example - and their employability in our current and future society. Teachers must constantly revisit the way in which their programs are contributing to the development of these attributes. They need to do the hard yards of articulating what they expect a graduate of a program to "look like" i.e. what is it that a graduate is and does that we regard as successful and meets the expectations of their communities as change agents and leaders. How else can teachers help students know what transformation 'looks like'?

Many universities around the world are constantly working on their graduate attributes and are mapping their programs to them. The blog post " If you exercise these capabilities.. You will be employed! " where I interviewed Prof. Geoff Scott, is really eye opening for college educators as it highlights the attributes and capabilities the CEOs in the market place want in graduates, the things they look for in hiring. If educational leaders don't have a clear picture of the qualities and capabilities of an excellent graduate of their program, then how can teachers help students strive for excellence and to be leaders in their worlds?

Every teacher needs to look at their courses and pedagogy and ask, "How does everything I do support these attributes? Is there any way I can build content and activities that help students become 'excellent'?"

2. Motivation

Motivation is vital to achieving the most effective learning outcomes. It is valuable for teachers to regularly ask themselves "Why am I doing this again?" That is not a joke. I am referring to the choices of learning outcomes, development of activities and design of content e.g. writing text and even making videos. So the wheel introduces a 21st century model of motivation that science has developed and is so well presented by Dan Pink in the TEDtalk "The Puzzle of Motivation".

Thinking through the grid of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose (AMP) and filtering everything you do from idea-creation to assessment will, I believe, significantly help your teaching be transformational. Barbi Honeycutt on her FlipIt Blog has some good ideas on how to implement Dan Pink's AMP principles in the Flipped Classroom model.

Bloom's Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with 'remembering and understanding', which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the 'By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .' type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

4. Technology Enhancement

Technology Enhancement serves your pedagogy. When you choose any app or technology remember to apply the app selection criteria. The model only suggests apps that can support the learning objectives and activities at the time of publishing. The Padagogy Wheel constantly needs updating with apps as they are released. Teachers also should think customization all the time - is there a better app or tool for the job of enhancing my defined pedagogy?

Developed by Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model - standing for "Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition" - is a framework that assists teachers to assess the degree to which digitally-empowered learning and teaching is (or is not) moving beyond what can be taught using analog technologies. The SAMR Model is extremely useful when considering how you are going to use the technologies you have chosen. SAMR is a widely used model with a wealth of resources online, like Kathy Schrock's excellent SAMR resources page. A very useful perspective about SAMR is through the eyes of the students. The 3.55 min Youtube video below, subtitled for when I teach about the Padagogy Wheel in China, explains:

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?
The history of the Padagogy Wheel
In 2012 on a teaching trip to the UK, I got the idea of putting apps around the outside of Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel and organizing them according to his cognitive domain categories. The taxonomy was based on Kathwohl and Anderson's (2001) adaption of Bloom (1956) and it was their work that combined Remembering and Understanding.

The first version of the Padagogy Wheel had at its core Bloom's cognitive domain categories and teachers started their exploration of the wheel by making decisions about learning outcomes from each of those categories. They were aiming for those outcomes that promoted higher order thinking skills, in the 'Analyse' and 'Create' domains. I was the first to show 65 educational apps around the outer rim of the wheel. These apps were categorized by their strengths in helping learners reach better outcomes. I knew I was onto something useful by the requests for my permission to use this info-graphic after the seminars.

Back in Australia I thought about 'what is good teaching' and 'what is its core concept'. I added Graduate Attributes and Employable Capabilities for version two, then Motivation and the SAMR Model for version three. Two years and 150,000 downloads later I updated the apps and doubled the number available per category for version four. I also added further advice on app selection criteria.
I want to issue you with a challenge
Spend time thinking through how you can apply all five of the grids to your curriculum design, lesson plans and teaching practice. Learn more about each grid and take the Padagogy Wheel out for a spin. Please share your best practice examples. I would love to hear from you.

This year an objective is to build an online resource of how teachers have used the model, showcasing best practice and including research projects. We learned from our recent trip to China that they have over 14.5 million teachers. Yes, just teachers! And they all are extremely committed to change, hungry for professional development and collaboration. Your own work on the Padagogy Wheel could help many thousands of educators in China, as well as others around the world. This will help students become excellent practitioners and graduates, leading their communities into transformational change and could make the world a better place. After all isn't that why you became a teacher?
*Previously published at TeachThought.com

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The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy - TeachThought PD

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The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

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200-lesson 2

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200- lesson 2

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FETC 2013 | Q&A

Picture Perfect: Teaching to Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy proponent Lynell Burmark explains why the use of images is so important in the classroom and how it can help teachers meet the challenges of getting through the curriculum and engaging students in skills and content they'll actually remember and apply after the test.

Lynell Burmark's decades-long promotion of "visual literacy" continues gaining fans, particularly now with so many free, high-quality, easily accessible multimedia materials available to teachers who are trained on and outfitted with computers and projection devices to exploit those visual resources.

In this interview, Burmark explains what visual literacy is, how it works in the classroom, and why it can accelerate the efforts by teachers to get through daunting volumes of required curriculum.
Dian Schaffhauser: A lot of your focus is on visual literacy. What's that mean?
Lynell Burmark: Everyone knows what literacy means--reading and writing words. Visual literacy is reading and writing images. The "reading" is that when you see an image, you understand what's being communicated by that image. The "writing" is when you find appropriate, compelling images and put them into materials to communicate, teach, or learn.
Schaffhauser: Graphics have always been around. Students have always had eyeballs. Has visual literacy never existed in a big way in education?
Burmark: I think it's been there more in the elementary grades. When I was a kid, we had Dick and Jane. Almost a full-page image and four, five, or six words on the bottom. As we got older, the pictures went away, and we had all text. It was like when you grew up, you didn't need pictures anymore, which is a huge mistake. We process images 60,000 times faster than words.

All teachers say, "I don't have time to get through the curriculum." One way to speed it up 60,000 times is to go back to using the images. So I think we have matured our way out of doing what was right. Education has gone backwards by having so much inefficient text. We spend 45 minutes describing an okapi when we could spend 45 seconds displaying one with the LCD projector and asking students to describe the features they see on that strange looking animal! Of course, today, within five seconds of our mentioning the okapi, every student in the classroom is on Google, looking for the image. They understand intuitively that it's more efficient to start with the image and then overlay the words to connect that image with prior knowledge.
Schaffhauser: Why does visual literacy need to come to the forefront now?
Burmark: It's needed to be at the forefront from day 1. It's just that now we have a gleeful marriage between what's right and technology. One of the examples I love to use is when I took the history of art as a freshman at Stanford University. We had to buy the textbook that was $45 at the time, and it was mostly black and white. Monet's Poppies, which is one of my favorite paintings--a glorious field of wild red poppies--was reproduced as a full-color poster on my dorm room wall. I opened Jansen's History of Art, and there it was in black and white, which I thought was a real travesty, until I did the math and realized that a textbook that was about $45 would have been about $450 had all the images been in color.

Now images are free. Color is free. We have an opportunity to do it right without the excuse that we can't afford it. Now color in all our reference materials is an option. With LCD projectors you've got a six-foot high by eight-foot across image on the wall for all the students to see at the same time in blazing color. We have the tools to do it right for free. How amazing is that? I know; the kids take it for granted, but I'm thrilled every time I power up the projector!

I get a little misty-eyed about this, but I truly believe it's a wonderful time to be in education because we can take advantage of the ways that people learn with the tools that we have to teach.
Schaffhauser: Can you give an example of teaching to visual literacy versus teaching to text?
Burmark: The example I give when I'm doing a presentation is to have people look around the room, and then I say, "Okay, describe everyone in the room." There's maybe 200, 300, or more people in the room at the time. How long would it take you in words to describe everybody? And from another room could I read that description and really have a clue what anyone looked like? Compare that to whipping out your iPhone and hitting the camera button. You've got the whole room in a recognizable fashion instantly in the palm of your hand!

Or let's say you want to talk about snow, and you're in Africa where few people have seen it. I talk about this in my newest book, . The more senses you can get involved, the better. Vision is the sense that trumps the other four. It's the most powerful. If you wanted to describe snow to somebody who has never experienced it, you could show a picture, but obviously feeling the cold in the snow would be another way, or tasting it. The more senses you can get involved, the more vivid the experience will be. But many times we don't have the option of experiencing it in a tactile way. So vision--the image--is the easiest.
Schaffhauser: You're constantly referring people in your sessions to great Web resources. So what makes a Web resource valuable enough to share with the educators who are tuning into your presentations?
Burmark: I only put them in touch with things that are free. There's no barrier to using it that way.

I especially look for sites like the Morgue file, for example, for illustrations. That's one a lot of people don't know about. It's wonderful high-res photographs. The photographers ask you--if you wish--to give them credit. But there is no fee. Some people will say, "If you use my photograph in your work, let me know how you used it." Whenever I've written to someone, I explain how I've used their image with educators. They're just delighted. I've done that with too. People have been so gracious, so delighted that they can do something to help educators.

And then too it has to be high-quality. I don't send anybody to clipart collections. I don't send them to low-res images. I'm kind of a perfectionist. I've been called a type A-plus. My co-workers have said, "Type A doesn't come close."
Schaffhauser: I've heard you say that you don't use text in your presentations. Is that true?
Burmark: That's true. On the opening slide I have the name of the presentation and my name, so people know they're in the right room. On the closing slide I have the words, "Thank you," and my contact information, and that's it.

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Picture Perfect: Teaching to Visual Literacy -- THE Journal

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Visual Literacy proponent Lynell Burmark explains why the use of images is so important in the classroom and how it can help teachers meet the challenges of getting through the curriculum and engaging students in skills and content they'll actually remember and apply after the test.

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200- lesson 1

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It has never been easier to publish online or consume digital content. This comes with many advantages and can make teaching and learning so much more targeted and impactful. Living in a digital world also brings up many questions - one issue that is very important to understand is copyright.

Whether you're an educator, student, or blogger, copyright is a topic that is often overlooked as it can be confusing or just not considered important.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of myths about copyright circulating amongst the education community. Maybe you've heard that you can use any images or texts you find online if you're using them for education? Or perhaps you've heard that you can use any songs in your videos as long as you use less than 30 seconds? Yep, both not true.

Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about. And it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think. We're here to break down the basics of copyright and other related topics like fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons.

There's a lot to learn in this post so remember to bookmark it and use the menu below to navigate.

Let's get started with the basics.

Let's begin with the 5 main rules you need to remember about copyright.

1) Just because you found it online, doesn't mean it's free to use (even if you're a teacher or student).

2) There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3) You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4) If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, make your own material, or purchase an alternative that has the usage rights you're after.

5) Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you're being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

📌 Want a poster for your classroom or staffroom? Download a letter-sized poster of the 5 rules to remember here.

Copyright is a form of legal protection offered to creators by default. That means, in many countries (like the USA and Australia), you don't have to register your work to have it protected by copyright.

Some creators do register their work with the U.S. Copyright Office (or the equivalent in their own country). Usually, this is to provide strong evidence to a court that the creator is the copyright holder if there is ever an infringement case. You don't need to have registered your work with the Copyright Office in order to pursue a copyright infringement case.

It's a myth that you have to display a copyright symbol © to protect your work.
Can Others Use Your Copyrighted Work?
If you're a copyright owner, someone else can't copy your work without your permission. They also can't perform the work, distribute copies of the work, display the work publicly, or create derivatives.

If someone does use work that's protected by copyright without permission, that's called copyright infringement. We'll cover this later.
Who Owns The Copyright?
Usually, the creator of a work is the copyright owner but the copyright can also be sold, traded, or inherited.
What Does Copyright Cover?
Copyright covers both published and unpublished works that are tangible in format. So, all tangible original work is protected by copyright whether it's a blog post, music, artwork, photo, play, poem, novel, dance choreography, movie, software, architecture, or more.

Copyright does not protect works that are not tangible, like facts or ideas. Copyright only protects the tangible expression of your ideas. So you might have a great idea for a blog post about teaching 5th grade math but unless you actually write the post, you can't protect the idea that's floating around in your head. And you can't stop others from writing about the same idea.

You can read more about the basics of copyright on the U.S. Copyright Office website (or on your own country's official site). There are some variations between countries.

So now you understand that most of the work you're accessing online or in books is going to be protected by copyright (images, text, videos, music, and more). This means you can't necessarily use these materials freely on your class blog, website, or with your students in your classroom.

"But fair use applies here doesn't it", I hear you ask? Because you're using images, text, videos, or music for educational purposes, that's okay, right? Teachers and students don't have to worry?

Not necessarily.

The more you dig in to the topic of fair use, the more you come to realize it is a gray area.

As the U.S. Copyright Office explains, The Classroom Use Exemption 17 U.S.C. §110(1) allows you to use copyrighted material when you meet certain criteria.

If you're teaching online or wanting to hand out copies of work, then you may not be covered by this exemption. Furthermore, these fair use laws are specific to the U.S. so if you're in another country, you may not be covered. Some countries don't have a fair use law or they may be more specific or broad than the U.S.

For example, in Australia, there is " Fair Dealing " which is an exception to copyright infringement that's a little more specific than in the U.S. You may be able to use portions of copyright material without permission for the purpose of:

research or study

criticism or review

parody or satire

reporting news, or

enabling a person with a disability to access the material

Overall, fair use isn't as simple as it seems, right? Instead of trying to find loopholes with fair use, a better approach is to look for materials that you can use freely.

The best place to start is with public domain or Creative Commons materials. So let's dig into that.

In general, in the U.S., copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years after the author's death.

What happens to work after the copyright expires? Well, it becomes part of the public domain. Works can also enter the public domain if they are factual (e.g. charts or calendars), they are published before a certain date, or a creator has assigned their work to the public domain.

When something is in the public domain it means the work is owned by the public and you don't have to get permission to use it. This is great for educators looking for materials they can freely use with their students.

Example Public Domain Resources

There are many places online where you can find books, images, audio, and videos that are in the public domain.

Some popular choices for public domain materials include:

Sometimes creators (copyright holders) are happy for others to use their work, as long as they meet certain conditions.

A creator can place a Creative Commons license on their work which describes the terms of using, modifying, and sharing the works. A simple license removes the hassle of others having to ask the creator for permission.

Creative Commons is an international organization that made this system possible. The mission of the Creative Commons organization is clear,

By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.

If a creator decides to attach a Creative Commons license to their work, there are six Creative Commons licenses to choose from.

I have written a post on my own blog about copyright and Creative Commons that includes a poster to simplify the licenses.

The poster includes a Creative Commons license so you're welcome to use the poster in your classroom or share it with your colleagues (a poster about Creative Commons licenses that includes a Creative Commons license - meta, right?). There is a PDF version of the poster on my blog.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about Creative Commons licenses, the video below by McLaughlin Library is a good place to start. You can learn more about Creative Commons Licenses on the official website of the organization as well.

If you need images for your blog, website, videos, or other projects, Creative Commons images are a good choice. As long as you're using the image according to the license with attribution, you won't be infringing copyright.

If you're looking for images that have a Creative Commons license, there are an increasing number of options out there. We'll show you some of the more popular options, but first, it's important to understand attribution.

All Creative Commons resources require attribution unless they're licensed with the least restrictive Creative Commons Zero license. That means no attribution is required and you can use the resource however you like.

Let's take a look at how to attribute Creative Commons images. The same instructions apply to other works (text, videos, etc.).

How To Attribute Creative Commons Images

When you use a resource with a Creative Commons license, you have to attribute it in a particular way. Attributing means sharing the details of the work and giving credit.

The acronym TASL can help us remember what to include.

Title of the image or material (don't worry if there is no title)

Author or creator of the image/material

Source of the image/material. Where is it from? Include a link if possible so others can find it

License - include which of the six Creative Commons licenses applies to the work

Here's a photo I found on Wikimedia Commons of a bridge in Western Australia. You can see I included the attribution below the image.

By Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84138882

If you use images from Wikimedia Commons, getting the attribution information is easy. As you go to download the image, you're prompted to copy the attribution information.

You can copy the attribution information either in plain text format (as in caption above), or as HTML as shown below.

If you insert HTML into your blog post, it'll become hyperlinked. Learn more about inserting custom HTML in Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress block editor here.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about attribution and explore some examples of ideal, acceptable, and unacceptable attributions, check out this page on the Creative Commons wiki. There's also a handy PDF about attribution on the Australian Creative Commons website.

Now you know the basics of attribution. Let's take a look at where you can find images and music that have a Creative Commons license. We'll begin with images that don't require attribution.

Creative Commons Zero Images
(No Attribution Required)
There are a number of websites where you can find images that are free to use without attribution (Creative Commons Zero).

I've written a post on my blog about the best websites to find Creative Commons images that either don't require attribution or the attribution is included within the image like the example below from Photos For Class:

The sites reviewed in my post and the summary diagram below are:

* Photos For Class currently has fewer options than it used to. The team has told us they aim to improve this in mid-2020. 🤞🏽

Here's a summary poster that you're free to use in your own teaching.

The one issue that a lot of educators overlook is that a lot of these free image sites are age-restricted. So if you teach younger students, many sites are not going to be suitable.

Another thing to consider is that even though the images from these sites don't need to be attributed (or they include the attribution information within the image) it's still a good idea to teach students about copyright, Creative Commons, and attribution. As producers and consumers on the web, these are really vital understandings for students and all internet users. Just remember, even if attribution isn't required, it's always appreciated by the creator.

Creative Commons Images That Require Attribution

Apart from the sites listed above with images that don't require attribution, there are other places to find images with one of the six Creative Commons licenses that do require attribution.
Creative Commons Search Engine
The first place you might want to look is the search engine on the official Creative Commons website. This is an excellent tool that was updated in 2019. It allows you to search through millions of CC images from more than 20 different sites.

When using the search engine, you can easily filter the search results - for example, you can filter by file type, use, or license.

There's also a Creative Commons search browser extension that allows you to look for Creative Commons images on the go.

Wikimedia Commons
We already mentioned Wikimedia Commons above in the section about attribution. Wikimedia Commons has a large collection of images, audio, and videos that are free to use. Most require attribution.

Wikimedia Commons collections are included in the Creative Commons search engine so that tool really is a one-stop shop.
Search For Creative Commons Images On Google
Sadly, it is common practice for many teachers, students, and bloggers to take images straight from Google. Most images on Google are protected by copyright and using these images is illegal and unethical.

You may know that you can do an advanced search on Google to find Creative Commons images, although it does require a few steps. First, you need to filter your search results to find images that can be reused.

This video from Jurupa School District explains how to do that.

Then the next step, that is not shown in the video, is you have to click through to the site the image is from, look for the Creative Commons license, and attribute your image correctly.

As we saw above, using the Creative Commons search engine or Wikimedia Commons makes it really simple to attribute your chosen image. All you really have to do is copy/paste. Using Google search doesn't make it easy to attribute Creative Commons images. So this is not the way we'd recommend finding Creative Commons images online.

No doubt there have been many times when you want to use music on your blog, in your content, or in class. When you're creating a video it can be extremely tempting to use popular music that reflects the mood and emotion of the footage. Or maybe you want students to play popular music at a performance or public event.

As you probably know, most music is protected by copyright. It doesn't matter if you paid for a song or not, it's still protected by copyright. It doesn't matter if you're only using 30 seconds or less of a song, it's still protected by copyright.

Let's take a look at some specific examples of music and copyright.

Using Music In Projects Like Videos

Normally, you can't just use any music you like in your projects or videos.

However, in many countries, there are exceptions. For example, in the U.S. and Australia, you are allowed to copy music to add to a video if:

a) it's for educational purposes and
b) you're not sharing your video publicly (or selling it!)

So, if you make a video with music that's protected by copyright, it's not okay to publish this on a public blog, social media, YouTube, and so on. And you couldn't show your video at a public event. However, it's okay if the video is just being shown privately to teachers, students, and families at home/school.

It's also important to note that background music is not considered "educational use".

Paying For Music And Streaming

There are popular sites and apps where you can pay to download or stream music legally - for example, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify.

You can listen to your downloaded music yourself, but can't upload the music to your blog or to a video or other project you're working on.

It's fine to stream music videos on sites like YouTube too but it's not usually legal to download the audio from a YouTube video as explained in this article.

Also, streaming music is meant for personal use - not for a public broadcast.

As Spotify says,

...it's not possible to use Spotify in public places (such as bars, restaurants, stores, schools, etc.). You may only make personal, non-commercial, entertainment use of the content.

Most streaming services are similar.

Embedding Music Videos

Embedding a music video from a site like YouTube or Vimeo into your blog is usually allowed.

As Richard Byrne says,

If the host provides an embed and you embed it using their code according to their rules (usually that means not trying to hide branding), you can embed it without violating copyright.

You can also link to music files or videos that are publicly available on the web.

Using Purchased CDs

Some people still listen to music by buying a CD or borrowing one from the library, although, of course, digital music is becoming a lot more popular than CDs in many parts of the world.

Again, you can't copy the music from a CD and use it for another public project (e.g. upload it to your blog or add it to a public video). It doesn't matter if you have purchased the CD legitimately.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about using music in education for other purposes including school concerts and online learning, check out this fact sheet from the National Association of Music Education.

Creative Commons Or Copyright Free Music

Even though most music out there is protected by copyright, there are many places online to find Creative Commons or other copyright free music options.

You might first like to check if your district has any subscriptions you can make the most of. For example, Soundzabound.

If this isn't an option, there are lots of other sources of free music online.

Three options for free music and audio are:

Let's take a look at how these three sites work.

Dig CC Mixter

Dig CC Mixter offers thousands of hours of free music.

The music on this site has different Creative Commons licenses so you need to check whether you need to attribute the music or not.

Educational Blogger Richard Byrne explains in a video how to use Dig CC Mixter and filter by license.

YouTube Audio Library

YouTube has a great library of music you can use. Visit the Audio Library on YouTube to browse the selections.

If you click on Attribution, you can filter your results to find music that does or doesn't require attribution.

You can preview the music to see what it sounds like and download the music you want to use.

Here's an example called Sunshine in my Heart by Jingle Punks.

BBC Sound Effects

During 2018, the BBC made over 16,000 sound effects available to use. These sound effects are not actually Creative Commons - they're protected by copyright but the BBC gives permission for the sound effects be used for personal, educational, or research purposes.

You can browse by category to find the sort of sound effect you're after for your project.

You should put a link in your project or blog post to say that your sound effects are from the BBC and link to their site.

Here is an example of a sound clip. This is the sound of the surf at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia.

Surf - Bondi Beach, bbc.co.uk, copyright 2020

Where would we be without all the awesome video content we now have at our fingertips on the web? In the education world, extensive video libraries like YouTube are becoming priceless.

Video copyright can be complicated as video can draw together multiple elements - video footage, images, music, sound effects, and so on. When using, sharing, or creating video, you need to make sure all of these elements are not protected by copyright.

Can You Link Or Embed Videos?

You are free to embed any video from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, TedED etc. on your blog or website as long as it gives you the embed option. It's a good idea to add a link to the video as well.

Linking or embedding from YouTube or other sites on the web is not considered copying. Just make sure the videos aren't violating copyright. If they are, they'll probably be taken down by the site eventually but some content gets through.

Can You Download Videos From Sites Like YouTube?

While linking and embedding videos is okay, you shouldn't download videos from YouTube. Sometimes this is tempting for teachers especially if they have unreliable internet connectivity, they're worried about a video being removed in future, or they want to add a video to a learning management system. However, downloading videos raises many legal questions and generally violates copyright.

Additionally, you can't necessarily use parts of videos from YouTube (or other sources) to make mashups or remixes. If you want to cut or remix videos, it is better to use Creative Commons content, public domain content, or request permission from the copyright holder.

Uploading Your Own Videos To YouTube

If you want to upload your videos to a site like YouTube remember to respect copyright. You should only upload videos that you made or that you have permission to upload. Make sure there aren't copyrighted elements (e.g. music or images) in your videos. Of course, get permission from your school or district if these videos are being used professionally.

Educators should be especially careful about permission if using footage of students. Some teachers use the blurring tools available in YouTube to blur student faces and identifying objects. Richard Byrne shares a demonstration of how to do this on his website.

👉🏽 If you're a creator and would like to learn more about videos and copyright, YouTube has a useful playlist of eight videos on their YouTube Creators channel.

Showing Videos To Students

Teachers can show videos in class for educational reasons, such as videos legally uploaded to YouTube (however, some districts don't allow YouTube to be used in schools).

If you have a legitimate copy of an offline video (e.g. DVD), you're allowed to use this in class for face-to-face teaching as long as it's for educational purposes (not for entertainment or a reward).

Remember, this would be in line with the U.S. fair use policies we described above, so check your own country's guidelines if in doubt. If you're in Australia, a useful website for all things copyright is https://www.smartcopying.edu.au

Say you've purchased a textbook or other teaching materials. You can obviously use these materials in class and you might be able to make photocopies, however, in most cases you can't upload purchased curriculum or books to a public site. That means don't put scans, photos, or PDFs of textbooks, worksheets, posters, picture books, novels, or other learning materials on your public blog or website.

If in doubt, seek guidance from the company you purchased the curriculum materials from about reuse.

Marketplaces Like Teachers Pay Teachers

Not so long ago, we were all purchasing our curriculum materials from professional organizations. Now anyone can be a creator and with the rise of sites like Teachers Pay Teachers, new copyright questions have arisen. As Education Week has pointed out, copyright infringement is rife on this popular marketplace.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you're uploading to a site like Teachers Pay Teachers you need to make sure you have permission to use all your elements including fonts and images.

If you're downloading resources from Teachers Pay Teachers, you need to seek clarification about how these can be used. And also keep an eye out for resources that look like they could be violating copyright before you use them (e.g. copies of a published textbook). There is limited vetting of copyright materials on Teachers Pay Teachers. As a savvy internet user, we all need to have an awareness of the larger copyright traps that are out there.

Link To Curriculum Resources

Linking may be a useful alternative to copying curriculum materials. If third-party text, articles, or other content is available on the web, teachers or students could include a link to the content on their blog or website.

Like embedding, linking is not a copyright activity because you're not "copying" the content. You're just providing a path to the original location that the readers can access themselves.

Creative Commons Textbooks And Curriculum

Another option to avoid copyright violations is to use curriculum materials that have Creative Commons licenses. One example is OpenStax. You can browse to find textbooks for a range of topics and the materials are free to use however you see fit.

You'll find some more open textbooks and course materials listed on this Open Washington page.

We know that most images, text, music, and other content are protected by copyright by default. Using work protected by copyright without permission is called copyright infringement. This is unethical and illegal. "Using" the work might involve reproducing, displaying, distributing, performing, or making your own derivatives.

But I Won't Be Caught...

If only that were true.

Google makes it incredibly easy for companies and content creators to seek out those posting their work on the web. In fact, most large companies now aggressively patrol the internet looking for copyright infringement.

Sadly, we are also noticing more and more "law firms" and organizations out there looking for copyrighted content as a way of generating business. They then contact the copyright holder offering their services to get the content removed (for a fee of course). It is a ruthless (and apparently profitable) practice.

Another issue that is important to be aware of involves Creative Commons Zero sites. There have been cases where people have used images from free image sites like Unsplash and then were hit with a copyright infringement case. Sometimes people put images up on these sites in order to sue. They leave the images up on the site until they are downloaded multiple times and then remove them. This is a dark side of Creative Commons Zero that's important to be aware of.

What If I Am Caught?

In many countries, copyright infringement brings hefty penalties including fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars and imprisonment, depending on the situation.

Of course, a good offense is your best defense. Check your blogs and class websites for any potentially offending material. Has anyone uploaded images straight from other websites or Google? Are there are educational materials (e.g. copies of textbooks) that shouldn't be there? Has copyrighted music been used publicly? If you find anything, just remove it.

The law requires copyright holders to give you (and the host of your site, such as Edublogs, WordPress, etc.) an official notification. Take these seriously and act quickly to remove what they want if you are in the wrong. That should be the end of it.

Here at Edublogs and CampusPress, we're contacted about copyrighted materials regularly. These are mostly images from Google, curriculum documents, or PDFs (e.g. textbooks or sheet music), or music files.

We were once notified about a teacher with a blog on Edublogs that had a harmless world map image on his blog that he had presumably found using Google image search. When we contacted him telling him why we had removed the image, he asked if he and his students could write an apology letter to the copyright holder.

It was excellent - turning what could be a bit of an embarrassing mistake into a teachable moment for his students. Now this teacher had a good reason to discuss copyright and Creative Commons with his students.

Even if you haven't done anything wrong, having a space to publish online like a blog or website is one of the best ways students can learn about copyright and Creative Commons.

Whether you're a teacher, a student, or a regular blogger, when you're publishing online you must do your best to be a responsible digital citizen. This means respecting others' work and respecting copyright.

Here are three key things to remember when publishing online to be a legal and ethical digital citizen:

1) Steer Clear Of Google Images

Don't copy images off Google or other websites. Even if you include an attribution it is still illegal and unethical.

If you like an image and don't know where it originally came from, a reverse search might help.

If an image is created by someone that you can contact, you could always ask their permission to use it.

Remember the best bet is to find Creative Commons or public domain images. Otherwise, take/make your own images or purchase some from a stock photography website.

2) Embed Or Link To Audio Or Video Clips

If you're going to include a video or an audio clip, embed the file from the source and include a link as well. Don't download audio or video files as this brings up many questions about copyright.

If you're embedding from a site like YouTube, make sure the content doesn't violate copyright law. YouTube is usually pretty good at cracking down on this but there is some content on there that does violate copyright - e.g. copies of television shows.

3) Never Copy Someone Else's Blog Post

You might find this a little hard to believe but unfortunately people copy posts from other blogs and publish them on their own site all the time. Or they publish the blog post in another format such as a PDF document or slideshow.

And in case you're wondering, copying someone's blog post and then including an attribution does not make this okay.

If you do want to share someone else's blog post on your own blog, consider writing a short description of the post on your blog and then inviting readers to click on a link to read the post themselves. In your own post, you could include some key points about what you agreed or disagreed with. Or maybe you can expand on the topic in a different direction. All this would be perfectly acceptable and no doubt the author would appreciate the interaction.

Hopefully you now know that you definitely can't copy and paste someone else's whole blog post or image, but you can include a quote of some text.

Here are a few points to be aware of that we included in our post on The Edublogger about quotes:

Make it obvious which words are your own, and which words belong to someone else by using quotation marks or block quotes.

Make your quotes brief. There are no universal rules here. Some larger organizations have guidelines around how much you can quote (e.g. Hubspot's rules are 75 words). If you're unsure or think you might be using too much of someone's article, contact them to ask permission. Never copy the whole post.

Always include the person's name, and link to their site, article, or book if you can.

If you're using blockquotes, the attribution could be before the quote, inside it, or below it.

If you shorten a quote, use an ellipsis (...) in place of the missing words.

If you're adding any words or corrections to the quote, use brackets.

Earlier, we looked at the six types of Creative Commons licenses available to creators. If you're publishing online, you're a creator too! And you don't have to be a professional. Maybe you share memes or lesson resources on social media? Perhaps you write blog posts? Maybe you take your own photographs that you share online?

Have you ever considered adding a Creative Commons license to your own original work?

As the Creative Commons organization explains,

When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

This is therefore a serious decision but an important one. You can contribute to building a collection of art and knowledge that's accessible to anyone in the world. How cool is that! You remain in control by choosing your own license, and people who like your work can use or share it without having to contact you for permission.

Before you choose a Creative Commons license, you need to make sure you are the copyright owner and the work is copyrightable (e.g. in a tangible format).

If you're unsure which license to choose for your own work, there is an interactive tool on the Creative Commons website. This tool suggests a license after you answer a few questions. It also gives you a CC button that you can attach to your work to display your license.

If you would like to display your creative commons license on your blog, the easiest way is to use a text widget in your sidebar.

From your dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets and select a Text widget to add to your sidebar. Paste the code provided by your Creative Commons license provider in the widget's text box, and click "Save".

Adults aren't the only ones who can add Creative Commons licenses to their work. In many countries, children can too. What an authentic way for students to learn about copyright and sharing online.

Perhaps a whole class or school could make a library of Creative Commons content (e.g. images or music) that can be used freely by the education community? Talk about authentic learning!

If you've made it this far into the guide you will have realized that copyright is a vast and complex topic, however, you don't need to be an expert to understand the basics.

We've made a collection of slides which you're welcome to use in your own classroom or perhaps you'd like to use them as part of your professional development program. Want to make a copy? Scroll down for instructions (don't request access).

Want a copy of the Google Slides presentation? Don't request access, just follow the steps below.

1) Click on this link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jK-_bTIBa9CZAC-bqKd0PQc7ohG9L47KSdcvfHgIxqw/copy?usp=sharing

2) You will be prompted to make a copy (screenshot below).

3) The Slides will be saved in your Google Drive.

4) You can edit the Google Slides to suit.

Before we conclude, take a moment to reflect back on the rules to remember about copyright.

1. Just because you found it online, doesn't mean it's free to use (even if you're a teacher or student).

2. There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3. You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4. If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, purchase an alternative, or make your own material.

5. Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you're being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

Do you have any other tips to add about copyright for educators, students, or bloggers? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know. We'd love to hear your suggestions.

For any specific questions regarding your own copyright dilemmas, please consult professional legal advice.

About Us

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We offer both cost-efficient and free options, along with site development, hosting, security, plugin and theme support to ensure your digital presence is meeting your goals in a fast-changing digital world.Want to learn more? Contact us to receive more information.

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The Educator's Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

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Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about and it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think. In our ultimate guide, Dexter the cat helps us break down the basics of copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use....

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The Heart of Digital Citizenship | Anne Collier | TEDxGeneva

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Digital citizenship is an intriguing but still very abstract idea with a dark past and great potential. A journalist who has followed youth Internet safety and citizenship for nearly 20 years, Anne Collier looks at what digital citizenship is, the struggle it emerged from, and five ways adult society can make it engaging and useful to young citizens, the heart of any digital citizenship discussion about youth.

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Young Kids & Screens: Workshops for Families with Kids Age 0–8

Host engaging events for parents and caregivers in English and Spanish with ready-made, customizable workshops on children's media use. Best for families with children age 0–8. Watch this short video to learn more about these free resources.  Mira este...

Los niños pequeños y las pantallas: Talleres para familias con niños de cero a ocho años

Organiza talleres para padres y cuidadores en inglés y español con recursos personalizables y listos para usar sobre los niños y el uso de los medios. Los talleres están pensados para familias con niños entre 0 y 8 años. Mira este corto video para...

Curious if TypingClub is the right typing program for your classroom? This super short video covers price, platforms, grades, and TypingClub's unique lesson customization options to help you decide whether this app is worth your time.

How Parents Can Address Social Media Challenges

Social Media Basics for Parents

Selecting Quality Content for Your Family

Parenting in a Digital Age

Learn how Common Sense Educators innovated last year, and what new tools and strategies they’re bringing into the 2021-2022 school year. Find back-to-school digital learning and citizenship resources for your classroom today.

Oversharing: Think Before You Post

Introduction to the SAMR Model

¿Qué es el funcionamiento ejecutivo?

Los niños desarrollan habilidades llamadas “funciones ejecutivas”. Estas habilidades nos permiten hacer planes, controlar impulsos y más. En este video, aprenderás qué es el funcionamiento ejecutivo y cómo se relaciona con el uso de la tecnología.

What Is Executive Functioning?

Children develop critical life skills that rely on brain functions called "executive functions." These are the skills that help us plan, focus our attention, control our impulses, and more. Learn about executive functioning and how it relates to media and...

Una conversación sobre el uso equilibrado de los medios

Mira esta animada conversación con uno de los ciudadanos digitales, Brazos sobre cómo los niños pueden lograr un equilibrio de uso de los medios y la tecnología. Usa este video para comenzar tu propia plática con padres y cuidadores.

Finding Teachable Moments with Media

Watch a lively conversation with Arms, one of our Digital Citizens, about how kids can find a balance when it comes to using media and technology. Use this video to start your own discussion with parents and caregivers.

Cómo elegir contenido de alta calidad para niños

Los ratings y reseñas de Common Sense brindan recomendaciones por edad de películas, programas de televisión, libros, juegos y más, basadas en investigaciones de desarrollo infantil. Comparte estos excelentes recursos con padres y cuidadores.

Choosing High-Quality Media for Your Kids

Common Sense's library of age-based ratings and reviews of movies, TV shows, books, games, and more are research-backed and written with child development in mind. Share these excellent resources with parents and caregivers.

Cómo encontrar el equilibrio con los medios y la tecnología en casa

La actividad de la DIETA ideal es una forma divertida de hacer que padres y cuidadores piensen en cómo crear un equilibrio saludable de actividades para sus hijos, con y sin tecnología. Ayúdalos a descubrir cuál es el equilibrio ideal para sus familias.

Finding Balance with Media and Tech Use at Home

The Ideal MEALS activity is a fun way to get parents and caregivers thinking about how to create a healthy balance of activities for their children, with and without media and tech. Help them define the ideal balance for their family.

Cómo criar niños saludables en la era digital

Entender los beneficios y desafíos de criar niños en la era digital es importante para crear un ambiente que apoye su desarrollo. Escucha como dos padres se sienten sobre los efectos de la tecnología en la vida de sus hijos.

Raising Healthy Kids in a Digital World

Understanding the benefits and challenges of raising kids in today's digital world is an important part of creating an environment that supports their development. Hear how two parents feel about the effects of technology on their children's lives.

Cómo usar los medios y la tecnología para reforzar los lazos familiares

Estudios demuestran que usar los medios y la tecnología con los niños tiene efectos positivos. Desde pre-lectura y desarrollar la empatía, hasta el pensamiento crítico. Ayuda a padres y cuidadores a entender estos efectos positivos con este video.

How to Make Meaningful Family Connections Using Media and Tech

Research shows that co-using media and technology with children has positive effects -- from early literacy skills and boosting empathy to critical thinking. Share this video to help parents and caregivers understand the benefits of using media together...

We’re proud to announce that Lisa DeLapo, Director of Information and Instructional Technology for the Union School District has been named our Common Sense Honored Educator for 2021.

Help students learn what kinds of online behaviors are cyberbullying and ways to combat it.

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Search Results for Common Sense Education

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Use filters and keywords to refine you search results for lessons, digital citizenship resources, videos, edtech reviews, and advice for teaching with technology.

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