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dbenner.org - Comic Strips in the Classroom

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Comic Strips in the Classroom Below are some resources for using comic strips in the classroom.

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Comic Strips and Cartooning can be a Fun Way for Students to Explore Learning Topics

There are so many good free tools for creating comics and cartoons on the web, as well as apps for tablets and smartphones. I've built out a list of fun tools I am looking forward to trying out over the upcoming holiday break. I can't wait to brainstorm creative ways to leverage these in lessons!
Click to view original, large image
Note that some of these tools offer very different types of functionality. It's important to explore them yourself before introducing them students.

Web Apps for Cartooning and Comic Creation

ToonDoo: "Fastest Way to Create Comic Strips and Cartoons": www.toondoo.com

BitStrips: www.bitstrips.com/create/comic

Make Belief Comics:Â www.makebeliefscomix.com/comix (you don't even have to create an account to use this)

Create Your Own Comic from Marvel: marvel.com/games/play/34/create_your_own_comic

Comic Creator from Read Write Think: www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic

Strip Creator: www.stripcreator.com

Strip Generator: stripgenerator.com/strip/create

Write Comics: writecomics.com

Cambridge English Online's Cartoon Creator: cambridgeenglishonline.com/Cartoon_Maker

Cartoonize Your Pet! www.cartoonizemypet.com

"LOL" Builder: builder.cheezburger.com/builder/rage

iPad and Android Apps for Making Comics and Cartoons

Comic Touch 2 (iOS): itunes.apple.com/app/comic-touch-2/id692819867?mt=8

Cartoonatic (iOS): itunes.apple.com/il/app/cartoonatic/id420905479?mt=8

Comic Puppets Lite (Android): play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.touchmultimedia.comicpuppetsfree

Marvel Comics: (Android): play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marvel.comics

Draw Anime - Manga Tutorials (Android): play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mangatutorial.drawanime

A Few Important Things to Keep in Mind When Using Comic and Cartoon Creation Tools in the Classroom

Try a few tools yourself and find those you think will work best in your classroom

Make sure that the app(s) you select actually work in your classroom (they are not blocked, for example)

Watch out for inappropriate content created by other users

So there you go ... now start clicking and using your imagination to have some fun with the cool tools! If you have some experience with these or similar apps in the classroom, we hope you will comment and tell us about it.

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20 Free Tools for Making Comics and Cartoons for Teaching and Learning - Emerging Education Technologies

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Comic Strips and Cartooning can be a Fun Way for Students to Explore Learning Topics There are so many good free tools for creating comics and cartoons on the web, as well as apps for tablets and smartphones. I've built out a list of fun tools I am looking forward to trying out over the [...]

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Photo by Kevin Jarrett via Flickr, CC BY 2.0

My first year of teaching, my administrator handed me an iPad and said, "Play around with it." Like I had all the time in the world as a first-year teacher to play around with a piece of technology I'd never used! Even though my administration didn't pressure me about integration right away, I pressured myself. It's hard enough to battle for students' attention against romantic relationships, hormones, fatigue and cell phones. Now, we are suppose to hand them another distraction. Being the people-pleasing person I am, I jumped right in.

I would love to tell you that technology integrates itself, but it doesn't. There are no technology faeries that come into your classroom to plug all the wires into the right places, create interesting videos for lessons or keeps students engaged. What I can offer you is five tips that I've learned along the way, so you can benefit from my blood, sweat and tears. If you have ever been fearful of integrating technology into your classroom, fear no more.

1. Create clear instructions

Students act like they know everything there is to know about technology, but they don't. It is helpful to have clear instructions that you review, model and have accessible throughout the year. I post easy, step-by-step instructions on my wall that are color coordinated and include visual icons. For larger projects, I create videos that go over the instructions using screencastify. This way the student can watch the video as many times as necessary.

2. Recruit student tech support

Students are more likely to ask another student for help than the teacher. I suggest recruiting at least two students (diligent, helpful and encouraging students) per class to become the student tech support team. I try to develop a team atmosphere between them. They have lunch meetings in my class where I feed them snacks and train them on programs that I will be using. They even have a cool name "Browning's Tech Squad." They are able to troubleshoot with their peers and decide when a problem needs my assistance.

3. Get up and move

First-year teachers are told that proximity will solve many of their class management issues. The same can be said for integrating technology. My students are in groups of six with their Chromebooks all facing different directions; therefore, I am up and moving around the room a lot. There is no management strategy that is better that your presence around the room, however, there are some ways keep them on track and minimize your walking-around time. During tests, I move students to pair seating. This way I can see all the screens at the same time. Also, they are not allowed to dim their screen and iPads are to be kept flat on the table.

4. Engage their interests

Using technology shouldn't mean doing the same boring worksheets on the computer instead of paper. Be mindful of all the opportunities that technology offers, including engaging videos, music, programs and online communication (like blogs) to help your students relate to the content materials. Finding these resources can be time consuming. Recruit your teaching team to lighten the load. Each of the teachers in your team can research one way to integrate technology into your next unit. By time you start, you can have four or five different engaging strategies or resources ready.

5. Create a professional online community

Digital citizenship may be the buzzword of the decade, but it is of great importance. Students are often thrown onto computers without any direction on how to behave or perform. Without guidance, students will approach academic digital work with the same relaxed mindset they bring to social media or online games outside the classroom. It is much easier to be proactive and teach them how to be professional than to deal with cyberbullying, or worse, later.

Schools have students sign technology user agreements, but students don't read them. I have my students create their own contract. First, we watch videos of professionals talking about online practices (inviting a business leader as a guest speaker would be powerful). We read stories about misconduct online. They even share their own experiences. Based on all that information, they create their contract. They take ownership of the level of professionalism they want in their online classroom.

You also need to create an authentic audience for their work, and discuss how to develop the correct level of professionalism for each type of audience. My students' update stream on Schoology is their place to chat. They can tell jokes, post polls, share information, etc. They have discussion posts within their assignments, where their peers are also their audience, but this time their writing is academic and purpose-driven. They also have presentations, interviews and projects that they share with business leaders from the community, and they must learn how to adjust their language, style and content to communicate with them effectively.

You might not have technology faeries to help you, but you don't have to fear fighting for your students' attention. You can't plan for every possible scenario when integrating technology into your instruction, but a well-developed and interesting plan can make all the difference. You don't have to overhaul your whole instructional plan, just pick one thing and try it out. Be patient with your students and be prepared to laugh at the problems (if you don't, you will cry). And when it finally does work, you can pat yourself on the back, give your students well-deserved praise and share your success with your friendly neighborhood technology faery.

5 Classroom Management Tips for Technology Integration

Author

Crystal Browning

Crystal Browning teaches English Language Arts in the Multimedia Technology Academy at Monache High School in Porterville, CA. She currently serves as the English Department Co-Chair. She is passionate about creating a safe and loving learning environment through mutual tolerance and transparency. She laughs, cries, and learns alongside her students. You can reach her on Twitter @MrsBteachagape.

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5 Classroom Management Tips for Technology Integration

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My first year of teaching, my administrator handed me an iPad and said, "Play around with it." Like I had all the time in the world as a first-year teacher to play around with a piece of technology I'd never used! Even though my administration didn't pressure me about integration right away, I pressured myself....

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Desmos is for all subjects all grade levels. Create an engaging activity with polygraph.

Google Apps Script to Python. It's not as easy as you would think.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018

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Desmos is for all subjects all grade levels. Create an engaging activity with polygraph. Google Apps Script to Python. It's not as easy as you would think. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018

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Manage Your Computer Lab Like A Boss! Classroom Management for Technology Teachers

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Smart school computer lab management tips for technology teachers and classroom teachers that spend time in their school computer lab.

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The is the second article in a series about digital age classrooms. To get more tips for your 1:1 classroom, check out 9 Ways to Create a Cyber-Safe Classroom.
If you're lucky enough to have a 1:1 classroom, chances are you probably already have a few go-to techniques for helping your students access information digitally. Yet many teachers find that getting the most out of tech tools, and ultimately using them in a productive way, is easier said than done. Here are our best tips and tricks to turn your 1:1 classroom into a well-oiled digital machine.

Get up to speed.

1. Be kind to yourself. If you are new to the 1:1 environment, it can be a big change with a steep learning curve. Set small weekly goals for improvement, and go easy on yourself if things aren't improving as quickly or smoothly as you hoped.

2. Take a cue from your colleagues. Use the advice you get from the teacher in the next classroom and tips from other educators who have found great ways to use tech tools in the classroom. Teacher Stephanie W.S. shares this roundup of her favorite tech tools.

3. Tune in to your students for tips. The digital natives in your classroom may very well be the best teachers when it comes to knowing the capabilities of their devices and the software loaded on them. Don't be shy about asking them to show you a thing or two.

4. Take an online course. What better way to model the benefits of online learning than to take a course yourself? Capella University has a whole suite of free professional development courses for digital age classrooms.

5. Google it! If you use Google Classroom, consider taking the Google for Education training courses to become more efficient and skilled with the tools.

6. Crowdsource. Get tips that meet your specific needs from sites like Pinterest and follow professional thought leaders like @EdTech and @ISTE on Twitter.

Keep your classroom in control.

1. Set some rules. Technology opens a world of possibilities...but it can also open a can of worms. Set some rules to keep your students safe, respectful and on task. Hang one or more of these free posters in your 1:1 classroom as a reminder of some of the basics.

2. Declare a Device Day. Teacher Baily S. says, "We have iPad Fridays. Whatever math they are working on, I find an app that will reinforce the concepts. Students get to play on that app in small groups during class."

3. Charge it! Set up a routine for keeping devices charged and make sure your students follow it. Otherwise, you'll be plagued with dead devices and spend too much time managing who gets to use which device and when.

4. Feed the fast finishers. "I use our iPads after we finish our lesson as reinforcement," says Kelly F. "When we are done with math and I have other students who are still working, I have my fast finishers practice math facts on their iPads with games."

5. Try a behavior app. Tools like ClassDojo connect parents, teachers and students in a community where positive reinforcement reigns. With ClassDojo, you can also let students showcase photos and videos to show their learning or share special classroom moments with parents to keep them connected.

6. Teach students to be Super Digital Citizens. Share and discuss this video with your class to help them stay cyber-safe, respectful digital citizens.

Image credit: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/super-digital-citizen

1. Reorganize your classroom space. Move beyond the traditional classroom setup with rows of desks facing you at the front of the room. Wide-open spaces and small-group configurations foster movement and creativity in the classroom. According to EdTechMagazine.com, "Students are more engaged and perform better when school furniture and technology transform to create a more collaborative environment. Classroom designs have been shown to cultivate deeper and more student-centered learning encounters that are more flexible, active, mobile and fun."

2. Accessorize! Finding the right charging carts, covers, stands, headphones and cases may not be as much fun as shopping for just the right scarf or tie, but having those important accessories will help you keep your classroom technology safe and in good working order. Companies like Troxell even offer custom covers for your Chromebooks or iPads with your school colors and mascot.

3. Think twice before taking out scrap paper. The next time you think about asking your students to take out a piece of paper, consider turning to your devices instead. While some tasks help students learn better using paper and pencil, there are times you might prefer to use technology. Small shifts like that can lead to a major transformation in the way you teach and the way your students learn. Plus, when you skip the paper, you save trees!

4. Unplug every now and then. Turn the idea of 1:1 on its head by having students create a new use for their devices with old-school paper and pencil as their tools. Teacher Gareth C.T. recommends: "Spend a block of lessons where students don't use technology but have to design an educational app on paper, discuss it with friends, parents, etc. I did it with a Dragons' Den-style format (the U.K. version of Shark Tank)."

5. Teach students about copyrights and fair use. Here's another great animated video from Common Sense Media that explains the copyright law and how to use and reuse online work responsibly.

Manage your devices.

1. Know your audience. Even highly rated tech tools and apps may not be a good fit for your students-and only you will know. Before trying them out in class, take a little time to review them with a super-critical eye. Does a math app have problems that are too easy or too hard for most of your students? What is the log-on process like-do you envision yourself needing to walk around to 25+ students to help them get started?

2. Choose well. There's so much out there-evaluating the choices can seem daunting. The Guide to Choosing Digital Content and Curriculum from the Center for Digital Education has some great advice.

3. Don't be afraid to swipe left. If you have an app (or two or 10) loaded on your classroom devices that sounded like a good idea at the time but didn't turn out to be all that useful, swipe left/delete/clear it away. We promise you won't hurt anyone's feelings!

1. Publish to a learning management system (LMS). Thankfully, the days of handing out photocopied worksheets, pages of reading material and a paper-based syllabus (that students invariably lose) are waning. Once you publish a unit to an LMS, your students have 24/7 access to the resources. The initial setup of a topic (e.g., photosynthesis or Shakespeare's Hamlet), with background reading, links to additional resources, supporting videos, etc., can take a bit of time, but then it is available for years to come and can easily be updated. No more waiting endlessly for your turn at the copier.

2. Get your head in the cloud! Storing lessons and materials in the cloud gives students access to information beyond the boundaries of your classroom. It also makes it easy to collaborate with classrooms (and educational peers) in other cities, states and countries. Check out OER Commons for a dynamic digital library of Open Educational Resources.

Image credit: http://bookcreator.com/
Create classroom activities.

Build a book. Teacher Ursula V. says, "iPads are a great visual-learning tool-for mind mapping, quick research and representing students' thinking visually, especially during discussions or note-taking. I use Book Creator throughout a unit for reflections-especially in science, humanities and literature with my 10- to 12-year-old group."

Check out PhET sims. Math teacher Susan M. likes to use interactive simulations designed by science, math and education researchers at the University of Colorado. She says, "They are geared toward both math and science and are designed to support construction of knowledge, not just review of skills. They are free (forever!). As a math educator and researcher, my favorites are Function Builder, Area Builder and Fractions!!"

Image credit: Capella University

Image credit: phet.colorado.edu

1. Gamify! You can turn just about anything into a game, and your students will thank you for it. Here are some games we like from MIT's Education Arcade. Older kids can even create their own games and learn a thing or two about programming with Gameblox, while Classcraft turns your entire classroom into a game where collaboration, helping one another out and asking for help earn students extra points that move the game forward.

2. Be content creators-not just consumers! Find out what kinds of content your students enjoy consuming the most and then propose that the class (or small groups) come up with their own original creation in the same format, whether it's a video, series of captioned photos, a game or an audio recording of an original story.

3. Collaborate! Teacher David W. has a 1:1 classroom and recommends, "Try a collaborative writing task where all students write on one document, editing and supporting one another."

4. Start a blog. A classroom blog is a great way to engage students in a collaborative and creative endeavor that makes good use of the technology you have. Kidblog.org is a safe, simple and free way to get started.

5. Fun with calculators. Take a look at GeoGebra for math apps, materials and downloads that offer an updated, visual way to teach and learn the concepts of geometry and algebra.

Image credit: Capella University
Build lessons.

Come up with learning objectives. Use the six levels of Digital Bloom's Taxonomy-Create, Evaluate, Analyze, Apply, Understand and Remember-to come up with learning goals for your students. Need a refresher on what that means and how to go about doing it? Capella University has a free online professional development course, The 1:1 Environment in Action, which shows how you can easily connect the Digital Bloom's verbs to the digital tools you have available in your classroom.

Start with your essential questions. What are you trying to teach? By first clarifying the learning objective, you can then hone in on the best tool for imparting that knowledge. Here are some additional resources for understanding essential questions.

Source: Capella University

It's OK to get it all backwards. When it comes to your 1:1 classroom, beginning with the end in mind is actually a really great way to clarify your learning objectives. Backwards design encourages you to figure out the desired results and then decide how to assess and construct the lesson. This approach is one of the tenets of Understanding by Design (UbD).

Check understanding.

1. Use immediate feedback as a motivator. Include an interactive quiz or game that gives students immediate feedback. The Geddit app lets students make multiple-choice or short-answer responses on their devices. Use it to gain feedback during class or as an exit ticket. It's a great way to engage students in the curriculum and keep them motivated.

2. Poll your students. Use an app like to Poll Everywhere to sneak survey-type questions about the technology you're using in class midway into a lesson and again at the end to solicit feedback from students. Their input will help you reach them even more effectively next time.

3. Consider nontraditional approaches to grading. Excerpts from a recent #edchat on Twitter reveal some of the problems with traditional grading. A few alternatives that work well in a 1:1 classroom include digital portfolios, self-assessment, standards-based grading, rubrics and progress monitoring.

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41 Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Your 1:1 Classroom - WeAreTeachers

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The is the second article in a series about digital age classrooms. To get more tips for your 1:1 classroom, check out 9 Ways to Create a Cyber-Safe Classroom. If you're lucky enough to have a 1:1 classroom, chances are you probably already have a few go-to techniques for helping your students access information digitally.

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Check out TeacherVision's DK Instant Expert, our teaching guides for the interactive whiteboard. Read the DK reference books entirely online, then share what you've learned with your students using motivational mini-lessons featuring colorful PowerPoint slideshows and extension activities that engage students' creativity.

Bottom Line: Reinforce key concepts in science and social studies with unique photos and lessons. Price: Free with a membership to TeacherVision. (Now just $39.95/year after your 7-day free trial!)

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Top 10 Educational Technology Resources for the Classroom (Grades K-12)

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Check out TeacherVision's DK Instant Expert, our teaching guides for the interactive whiteboard. Read the DK reference books entirely online, then share what you've learned with your students using motivational mini-lessons featuring colorful PowerPoint slideshows and extension activities that engage students' creativity. Bottom Line: Reinforce key concepts in science and social studies with unique photos and lessons.

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By Bethany Petty

The classrooms of today have the potential to look vastly different than those of the past. Many teachers have access to a vast array of technology tools that can be used in the classroom to increase student engagement.

Sometimes, however, the world of educational technology can seem daunting and extremely overwhelming-especially for newcomers. Use this list of teacher tools to "techify" your lessons one step at a time. Each one has the potential to enhance your classroom biome and get students excited about your content.

$45/year after 30-day free trial

This is a collaborative tool that can be used in virtually any classroom. Teachers create a free "wall" where students can talk with one another. Teachers can customize a variety of features such as the wall background, image, title and URL, as well as moderate posts from their students. In this case, the teacher must accept each post before it's visible to the entire class.

I love to use Padlet to encourage the backchannel while my students view content-related films. This activity encourages them to remain engaged in the movie and has allowed me to transition away from the typical "viewing guide."

Toss out your PowerPoint Jeopardy template and try Kahoot instead. This is probably the most popular and requested tool in my classroom-my students love to review content with this tool, which is a gamified student response system that appeals to all students.

The competition between students can be tense at times, but students are reviewing content and staying engaged, which is amazing to see as a teacher.

Create a free account at getkahoot.com and begin making your games. Teachers can choose to create a variety of activities through the platform, the most popular in my class being the quiz option. After entering a question, response choices and the correct answer, your Kahoot is ready to be played.

Teachers can share the link to their game, which will allow their students to review material on their own.

This is fun review activity for students that increases their engagement in your content. Many individuals are familiar with this game from the popular talk show show, Ellen.

Heads Up works on Android and iOS devices, and requires participants to describe a word, which is displayed on the device, to their partner.

How can this be beneficial in the classroom? The Heads Up app offers "in-app" purchases, one of which is the "Build Your Own Deck" option, also $.99. Select this option and add the relevant terms to your deck.

This simple app was a huge hit in my classroom when we played with a deck I created to review for a course quarter final.

Free; Screencastify Lite

This is a tool that allows teachers to create screencasted videos for their students right from their Google Chrome browser. Currently, Screencastify offers multiple account options, including a "lite" version which limits users to creating videos of no more than 10 minutes in length.

If you've "flipped" your classroom, most of the instructional videos you create for your students will be less than 10 minutes long, so this tool will be perfect for you.

This tool is easy to set up and would be a simple way for your students to create their own videos. In my classroom, students use this tool to "techify" their traditional presentations.

Instead of creating a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation-projecting it on the whiteboard and reading words directly from the presentation-students create a screencasted video to prove they understand a concept. It's also an opportunity to create engaging instructional content for their fellow classmates.

In my flipped classroom, EDpuzzle is an absolute necessity. EDpuzzle is free tool that allows teachers to embed questions and comments into videos, sourced from YouTube, Crash Course, Teacher Tube and more. The best part is that this tool not only requires students to interact with video content, but also provides teachers with feedback about about their students understanding of it.

Simply create an account with EDpuzzle, which you and your students can make using your GAFE account, and you're ready to create.

Getting feedback from students is vital in any classroom. Teachers need to understand what concepts our students understand and what topics are still unclear.

Geddit is a well-rounded student response tool that can be used in classrooms with any electronic device, including Chromebooks, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

First create your free account (signing in with your GAFE account is an option), then add classes, and share unique course codes with your students. You can then create lessons and include multiple choice, short answer, or true/false question (Geddit also has mathematic characters) to assess comprehension.

When students access Geddit, they are first asked to rate their understanding of the concept being discussed and are then required to respond to questions written by their teacher. Teachers can easily download results of this activity providing invaluable data.

Free

If you are a 1:1 classroom, or are moving in that direction, you should consider using a Learning Management System, like Schoology. Not only does Schoology allow teachers to create and assign tests and quizzes, it provides the option of a "discussion board," an important feature for many online or blended classes in the higher education realm.

The discussion board is my favorite tool to use because it's through these course discussion boards that I'm able to encourage students to interact with course material and discuss their ideas and opinions about that material with each other.

This not only encourages collaboration , but also motivates shy students, who don't typically participate in traditional discussions, to voice their opinions as well.

Blendspace is a tool that allows teachers to curate and share resources with their students. After creating a free account, teachers can begin to compile resources on "boards" and share them with their students via email, URL or QR Code.

Blendspace is a worthwhile tool to for any teacher to have, and it's especially helpful in my flipped classroom. At the end of every unit, I create a Blendspace board to share with my students that includes links to all of the instructional videos for the unit, as well as links to graphics I believe are helpful, and of course, the Kahoot unit review game!

Students can use Flippity to review course content with electronic flash cards. Students make their own flashcards by creating a copy of a Google Sheets template found on Flippity's website. They rename the copied file, enter required terms and definitions, publish their link, and paste it in the designated cell.

Students are then provided with a link to their Flippity flash cards, and the Google Sheet which contains their original terms and definitions is saved in their Google Drive.

Flippity has recently added a quiz show template through which students can create their own Jeopardy-style review game, also done with a Google Sheets template.

Do you have an iPhone, iPad or android device? If so, Explain Everything is an inexpensive app you definitely need. Explain Everything allows anyone to upload, annotate and narrate virtually any file, including a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation. Once edited, you can export the file and share it with your students through a variety of outlets, including Google Drive, Dropbox and as a link through email.

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10 Teacher Tools to "Techify" Your Classroom

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By Bethany Petty The classrooms of today have the potential to look vastly different than those of the past. Many teachers have access to a vast array of technology tools that can be used in the classroom to increase student engagement.

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TOP TIPS for Classroom Management in the Digital Age - EdTechTeam

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Classroom Management in the Digital Age: Effective Practices for Technology-Rich Learning Spaces (2016) by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green Cross-posted from Learning Light Bulbs by Nate Gildart Get your own copy of Classroom Management in the Digital Age! Something I really enjoyed about this book is the emphasis that it's not about classroom discipline, and ...

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SAMR for PreK and K

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I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary. I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district. I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past. I felt like I needed to create something that would apply to my early elementary teachers. I collected examples of real student work and looked at some old ways I had seen Pre-K and K teachers using technology and added a few other ideas that I didn't see happening often in classrooms.

The most important part of our presentation was talking about good quality lessons that teachers use to check for understanding and relating SAMR to what prek and kinder teachers do in the classroom.

The teachers on our team challenged me to create the presentation in Nearpod to teach teachers about this awesome tool without directly teaching them about the tool. It worked out really well, teachers enjoyed interacting during our session. The slide show was our Plan B.

We used apps in our SAMR presentation that teachers would use in hands-on workshops taught by teachers on our curriculum writing team during the afternoon sessions. I made sure to share the lesson ideas as we talked about where they fit in SAMR.

What's even more awesome is, teachers decided they'd like to help me develop our own Pre-K and Kinder Padagogy Wheel similar to the one created by Allan Carrington, because we couldn't find one that would relate to early elementary. I can't wait to collaborate with teachers in our district to do this.

My SlideShare minus the video examples.

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I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary. I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district. I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past.

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When I saw Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model for the first time, I thought two things:

1. "Wow, why hasn't anyone shown me this sooner?"

2. "How can I get to the redefinition level?"

If you're where I was when I asked question 1 above, here's your brief synopsis:

SAMR is a technology integration model that basically shows the way to get the most out of your technology in the classroom. The dotted line in the chart to the right shows where you cross over from doing what you've always done - just adding technology - to doing what you couldn't do before.

Redefinition is at the top of the SAMR model, but that doesn't mean that you "win" or that you're doing it right only if you reach redefinition. Some tasks just aren't made for redefinition, and great learning can happen without redefinition.

But redefinition is the Holy Grail. If you get there, you're providing learning that couldn't have happened a decade ago (maybe a year ago).

At a recent conference, I was asked for some redefinition examples, and I realized that that's what we're all really looking for: ideas we can modify so we can get there too.

Here are 10 ideas for reaching SAMR's redefinition level:

2. Public blogs: Writing has always been at the core of many subjects. This takes writing and gives it a new, exciting potential audience: the world. Students write in publicly accessible blogs and share them via any channels possible (i.e. school website/newsletter, Twitter/Google Plus communities, listservs, etc.). They then have interactions with people about their ideas that they would never have otherwise.

5. eBook authors: Creating an eBook opens students' work up to a global audience. Students' hard work to research or create a project can be produced digitally and distributed in previously impossible ways. iBooks Author or any publishing platform that produces epub or PDF files (Microsoft Publisher, Google Apps, etc.) would work. eBooks could be offered for free (or at a price to benefit a charity or other cause) on Amazon or other eBook sellers. (Inspired by this post.)

7. Sketchnoting: If you've seen an RSA Animate video, where an artist sketches visual notes based on a motivating speech, you've seen sketchnoting. Plenty of digital tools are available to sketchnote, and sketchnotes can (like many examples here) be shared with an audience for dialogue and shared ideas. (Source: Kathy Schrock's SAMR model musings)

10. Google Apps paperless classroom: Instead of creating documents on paper, distributing them to students and collecting them as assignments, students and teachers can function paperlessly. Documents in Google Apps (or Evernote or other options) can be organized and edited digitally. They can be shared and edited simultaneously by any user. Users can even use chat windows and comment boxes to discuss content. They can all be accessed from anywhere.

Do you have another great use of SAMR's redefinition? Share it in a comment below!

(For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links, "like" Ditch That Textbook on Facebook and follow @jmattmiller on Twitter!)
Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:

PowerED Up (June 2-3, Perry Central Jr/Sr High School, Leopold, Ind.)

Tippecanoe School Corp. technology integration workshop (June 3-4, Tippecanoe County, Ind.)

Infinite iPossibilities Conference (June 10, Center Grove High School, Greenwood, Ind.)

YCS WeLearn Conference (June 12, Yorktown High School, Yorktown, Ind.)

Knight Time Technology (June 13, East Noble High School, Kendallville, Ind.)

Making Waves with eLearning (June 17-18, West Lafayette High School, West Lafayette, Ind.)

Conference on a Couch (June 20, Danville Community High School, Danville, Ind.)

Digipalooza (June 24-25, Scottsburg Middle School, Scottsburg, Ind.)

trAnSfoRM (June 25-26, South Vermillion High School, Clinton, Ind.)

Greater Clark Connected Conference (July 21, Jeffersonville High School, Jeffersonville, Ind.)

Duneland School Corporation technology conference (Aug. 5-6, Chesterton High School, Chesterton, Ind.)

Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail!

Sign up for Tech to Learn online course! Just $49

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10 ways to reach SAMR's redefinition level - Ditch That Textbook

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When I saw Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model for the first time, I thought two things: 1. "Wow, why hasn't anyone shown me this sooner?" 2. "How can I get to the redefinition level?" If you're where I was when I asked question 1 above, here's your brief synopsis: SAMR is a technology integration model [...]

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Click on the "Digital Tools" link!

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Over 1.1 billion simulations delivered

160interactive simulations

97language translations

3001teacher-submitted lessons

Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Columbus City School's Blended Learning Program at Leawood ES

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タチカワ木製ブラインドフォレティアエグゼタッチ幅161cm～180cm×丈181cm～200cm　インテリア・寝具・収納

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タチカワ木製ブラインドフォレティアエグゼタッチ幅161cm～180cm×丈181cm～200cm　インテリア・寝具・収納 edudemic.com

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タチカワ木製ブラインドフォレティアエグゼタッチ幅161cm～180cm×丈181cm～200cm　インテリア・寝具・収納,タチカワ木製ブラインドフォレティアエグゼタッチ幅161cm～180cm×丈181cm～200cm　インテリア・寝具・収納　横型ブラインド edudemic.com

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Guest writer Samantha Peters brings us an excellent selection of educational video resources.

Information is abundant online. The problem is sorting out the useful stuff from the overwhelming amount of junk that exists on the World Wide Web. Educators are all too familiar with the unreliable nature of information found on the web, and most of us are familiar with having to debunk a student's insistence that a particular fact was true because a nameless website told him so. But the high volume of untrustworthy knowledge should never overshadow the fact that the Internet contains countless sources of invaluable useful information our students can use to learn about the world and improve their own lives.

When it comes to incorporating this knowledge directly into the classroom, educators need look no farther than the following online "classrooms" that are free to use and highly informative. These video lectures and graphics-assisted breakdowns cover nearly every range of learning, from basic math to radiography courses, and they're ready to put to use in or out of the classroom, right now.

The information is out there. Are educators taking advantage of it? While some may consider it cheating, the use of online lectures is an amazing way to expand the minds of your students and augment your lesson plan at the same time. If someone else explains the information in a way that helps to capture the interest of your students, then don't think twice about putting that to use (and it's an added bonus that the content is free)!
Guest Post written by Sam Peters, who is an avid blogger and manager of theeducationupdate.com, where she covers topics from tech innovations to social media news in the world of education.
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
8 Great TED Talks About The Future Of Education And Teaching
7 Stories From Educators About Teaching In The Flipped Classroom
Education Technology Leadership Spotlight: Celebrating the Work of Salman Khan

Kelly Walsh is Chief Information Officer at The College of Westchester, in White Plains, NY, where he also teaches. In 2009, Walsh founded EmergingEdTech.com. He frequently delivers presentations and training on a variety of related topics at schools and conferences across the U.S. His eBook, the Flipped Classroom Workshop-in-a-Book is available here. Walsh became the Community Administrator for the Flipped Learning Network in June of 2016. In his "spare time" he also writes, records, and performs original music ... stop by kwalshmusic.com and have a listen! [Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, or those of other writers, and not those of my employer. - K. Walsh]

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Seven Online Classrooms Teachers Can Use to Augment Their Own

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Information is abundant online. The problem is sorting out the useful stuff from the overwhelming amount of junk that exists on the World Wide Web. Educators are all too familiar with the unreliable nature of information found on the web, and most of us are familiar with having to debunk a student's insistence that a particular fact was true because a nameless website told him so.

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October 29 features | TeachersFirst Updates

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Do you ever wonder about personalized learning? Get your questions answered in our Twitter chat this Thursday. What do you think about Halloween in the classroom? Tell us in our weekly poll. Speaking of Halloween, on October 31st, our OK2Ask® session is all about Google Earth. Come travel and explore together.

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First Person

A little over two years ago, my current principal, Danny Swersky, emailed me about his vision for math instruction at KIPP: Washington Heights Middle School, a charter school that would soon be opening in New York City. Specifically, he told me that he wanted to personalize students' learning with the help of technology. He encouraged me to play around a little with Khan Academy, the online lesson-content provider. I was immediately intrigued.

At that point in the school year, I had covered all of the standards that would be on the New York state test and was interested in finding new ways to engage my students while continuing to boost their skills. So I wheeled a set of school iPads into my classroom and introduced my students to the Khan website. Their response was even more enthusiastic than my own. They quickly started using the site to practice skills, earn "energy points," and demonstrate mastery. I was excited about the instructional opportunities this kind of tool might present.

Two years later, I'm the founding 5th math grade teacher at KIPP: Washington Heights. My math classroom and my approach to teaching look quite different than they did during the first decade of my teaching career. In particular, my students spend more time working on the computers and in small groups, and I spend far less time teaching whole-class lessons.

My basic approach is to plan a general mini-lesson that targets a specific common-core standard, emphasizing problem-solving and conceptual understanding. I then look at the skills-progress report generated by the Khan site and group students based on their levels of progress on the standard in question. Students who have shown mastery in the skill complete a short exit ticket as they enter the classroom and then head to their laptops to go deeper into the topic or explore new topics. Students who need practice or are struggling with the standard complete some warm-up exercises and then take part in my mini-lesson. I scaffold the instruction by modeling and using visual representations to solve the problems along with them. The students then go to their laptops to continue their practice on the standard. At that point, I often bring together the more advanced students to work on a separate activity related to the skill we're working on.

Meeting Individual Learning Needs

Leveraging technology in this way has allowed me to meet my students' individual needs and push them at their current levels of proficiency. As the students work independently or in pairs at their computer work stations, I regularly pull students who need a smaller-group setting to access the day's lesson. I also group students that need support with the language and background information, and I sit and work with students in ones or twos to address specific issues. Everyone in the room is working at their own level and pushing themselves forward at their own pace. By providing lesson scaffolds in various ways, I am able to make sure that all of my students, regardless of their individualized learning plan goals or English-language learning classification, are working on grade-level standards.

This model of math instruction also provides an excellent opportunity to teach students independence and responsibility, as well as to push them to live the character strengths of grit, optimism, and curiosity. At the beginning of every unit, I create posters that list the Khan Academy exercises aligned with our current unit of study from our curriculum scope and sequence. After choosing between Khan Academy and ST Math, a game-based instructional software program, student look at their individual skills-progress reports to decide what they need to practice and then work the exercises at their own pace. Once they have completed the playlist, they can demonstrate their curiosity by exploring new topics.

Once or twice a week, I project the whole-class skills-progress report to give the students a sense of where we are as a cohort and to give them an idea of who is working on the same skills. I frequently confer with students individually to give them feedback on the choices they've made in selecting what skills to practice and what exercises to use. Early in the year I go over strategies that they can use if they are stuck in deciding how to progress. In these ways, I aim to build the students' sense of autonomy and independence and their ability to find their own solutions-characteristics they will need to succeed in later grades. Technology allows for the personalization of their character development as well as their academic development.

As a teacher, I've also recently been influenced by education researcher Sugata Mitra's TED Talk titled "Build a School in the Cloud," which emphasizes the importance of student collaboration. I've begun to incorporate more collaborative activities into my classroom-for example, by having students work on skills activities in pairs or small groups. I believe the students make significant cognitive and content-understanding gains by asking each other questions and in effect teaching each other the skills.

Shout Outs and Results

At the end of every class, my students have a chance to give a shout out to themselves or others for their accomplishments. "I want to give myself a shout out for leveling up on the exercise on Line Plots," a student might say. "It was difficult for me in the beginning, but I showed grit, stuck to it, and was able to complete the exercise." Students burst into applause and cheers when others earn their first "Sun Badge" to reward them for showing mastery on 100 skills. Once they meet their goals, they create new ones. On my classroom door, I post students' names along with the Khan "energy points" they've earned and the number of skills that they've mastered. The students become increasingly optimistic that they can improve their achievement and their future opportunities through their own effort.

By using this model over the past two years, I've learned that students at every level can make tremendous gains in math achievement. This was not always the case in my classes. I used to see a lot of growth in my students of average proficiency, but I was never as successful in pushing my most advanced students to make significant gains or in making time regularly to help bring up the students who struggled the most. Now I'm finding ways to reach all of my students, many of whom enter our school several grade-levels behind in math.

Over the course of this year, the percentage of my students who were in the bottom quartile on the Measure of Academic Progress benchmarking assessment dropped from 50 to 11. Meanwhile, the percentage of students in the top quartile went from six to 41. Over the last two years, 99 percent of my 5th graders have met their growth goals on the Measure of Academic Progress test. They've also fared well on the state tests, performing above city and state averages and outpacing students in other schools with similar demographics.

Perhaps no less gratifyingly, we have seen students continuing to grow and learn outside of the math classroom. It is not rare for students to call or text me to let me know that they have earned a new badge or that they have met a certain goal. I feel that I am getting closer to achieving my goal of turning all of my students into independent learners.

Next year, I'll be taking on a new position as the math instructional coach in my school. I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues in my school and around the nation on improving and scaling up this blended-learning model. It has helped me see new possibilities in instruction and improved my ability to address students' individual needs-something that is huge for me, as I know it is for all teachers. I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned about the power of truly personalized math instruction.

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First Person A little over two years ago, my current principal, Danny Swersky, emailed me about his vision for math instruction at KIPP: Washington Heights Middle School, a charter school that would soon be opening in New York City. Specifically, he told me that he wanted to personalize students' learning with the help of technology.

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Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

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Dixon-Smith Middle School educator Stefanie Root had a tough problem to solve: how to divide her attention among 30 students, many of whom needed remedial math instruction. But, with the help of a $5,000 Student Achievement Grant from the NEA Foundation, she used technology to multiply her effectiveness, enabling her to work more with each student, and at the same time, to empower her students to help each other and themselves.

In the video below, watch as her students move through three different workshops, each equipped with data folders, iPads, and more, for a blended approach to learning.

"By the end of the school year, 98 percent of my students passed their Standards of Learning (SOL). As a sixth grade, 95 percent of our total students passed their SOL! ... The math workshop idea has spread to other classrooms. There are currently several teachers working with, or planning to start, a blended learning model.

Since we last spoke, I was appointed to assistant principal at Rodney Thompson Middle School. ... I am excited to report that several teachers at this school are excited to use math workshops as a means to work with large classes and still provide a quality education for our kids.

All I can say is WOW! I have been so motivated by this experience and am excited to share what I've learned.

Stefanie Root

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Watch the video above to see Root's project in action! Have a great idea, but need funding? The next deadline for the NEA Foundation grant applications is October 15, 2015. Find out how to apply.

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Watch a Sixth Grade Math Class Transform into Blended Learning - NEA Foundation

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Dixon-Smith Middle School educator Stefanie Root had a tough problem to solve: how to divide her attention among 30 students, many of whom needed remedial math instruction. But, with the help of a $5,000 Student Achievement Grant from the NEA Foundation, she used technology to multiply her effectiveness, enabling her to work more with each student, and at the same time, to empower her students to help each other and themselves.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Freckle Education - Differentiation Platform for K-12

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Reach every K-9 student with the math lesson that is perfect for them.

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Hi there. We're ExploreLearning!

We're an education technology company creating seriously fun solutions for the most critical challenges in K-12 STEM learning.

What's this serious fun business all about? Tell me more...

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We're an education technology company creating seriously fun solutions for the most critical challenges in K-12 STEM learning.

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PlayingHistory - This site aggregates info. on history games, interactives and simulations resources in a simple, searchable database making it easy to find, rate, and review historical games. There are currently 126 shared games.

The Jamestown Online Adventure Game - In this alternative history game students chose different strategies for the Jamestown pioneers. The students become the Captain of the Jamestown Colony, they will find if they can do better than the real colony?The Jamestown Online Adventure Game does a nice job helping students develop a sense of both what happened and why it happened. From the same site "History Globe", there are Oregon Trail Virtual Tour and Anglo-Apache Conflicts with interactive maps and related documnets.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Governments is a cute website that use Benjamin Franklin's avatar to introduce U.S. government, it is divided into K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade levels and teacher & parent resources.

The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands has civics videos and online books, and Sunnylands Civics Games. The interactive games are about learning the Constitution. They are for for middle school or lower high school levels.

Budget Hero is a "serious" game that would help the public better understand the complicated federal budget process while also increasing awareness of the social and fiscal impact of the government policies currently under discussion during the election year. It is a database-driven online game that allows users to explore the pros, cons and social impact of over 100 policies.

Flags of the World asks students to match flags to their respective countries. After matching each flag to its country students can click the "learn more" link to find more information about that country.

iCivics Game is for learning about citizenship, laws and democracy, with resources for teachers, highly recommended!

Mission US - Two very sweet educational video games that doesn't feel educational. Designed for middle school US history but it can be used in grades 5-12.

Past/Present is an 3-D "virtual world" computer game designed to impart decision-making and critical thinking skills in the study of American history. The game tells the story of four days in the life of a fictional mill town in 1906. (appeal to kids between 10 and 15)

MSNBC offers a gallery of online games related to the news called the NewsWare Arcade, for you to stay informed just by having fun.

Think About History is a fun trivia game on History.com. The object of the game is to cross the playing board by correctly answering a sequence of history trivia questions. The questions on "Think About History" are a mix of simulation-based and text-based questions. The game can be played as an individual game or a two player game.

BBC History Game - BBC offers several interactive activities that can be used with interactive whiteboards. This Famous People history game is a great way to teach elementary children about historical figures.

Kids Past offers an easy-to-read World History "textbook" for kids and five history games to which students can apply the knowledge they gather from the textbook.

Fling the Teacher is a website containing 68 history quiz games. All of the quizzes have at least fifteen questions and a few of the games have more than 100 questions. The average is 30-45 questions per quiz.

Planet Oranges is for learning about managing money, with resources for teachers.

SimCEO is an entirely online simulation where participants create companies, research each other's companies online, buy/sell other company's shares and reacting to daily news posting that can affect the market.

Gen i Revolution's mini games-Beyond the Mission and Murktide Invasion: These games can be played independently of the main game and are perfect resource to teach students personal finance and economics concepts in a fast-paced and fun way.

Gen i: Beyond the Mission features a series of comic book-style, role-play missions in which players must advise on financial matters, such as purchasing insurance or investing.

Gen i: Murktide Invasion is a turn-based strategy game in which players compete to control regions of the U.S. Topics include: Personal Finance, Investing, Economics, and Employment.

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Learning Games - Social Studies - Classroom Aid

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PlayingHistory - This site aggregates info. on history games, interactives and simulations resources in a simple, searchable database making it easy to find, rate, and review historical games. There are currently 126 shared games. The Jamestown Online Adventure Game - In this alternative history game students chose different strategies for the Jamestown pioneers.

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50 Blended Learning Resources For Teachers [Updated For 2019]

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From Open Courseware to tools, models, and definitons, this is a collection of 50 of the best blended learning resources for teachers now updated for 2019.

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Get real-time data on your students' performance in Adaptive practice, Assigned practice, Inquiry Based Lessons, Fact Practice, Writing, and more.

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Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

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Resources for Blended Learning : K-12 Blended Learning Definitions and Instruction Introduction to Blended Learning , set of instructional videos from Khan Academy geared to Teachers Blended...

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education

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Examples of Applying the SAMR Model can Help Teachers Understand and Embrace it

The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using edtech for tech's sake.

We recently discussed the SAMR model during an Academic Technology Work Group meeting at The College of Westchester. We examined the video, SAMR in 120 Seconds. One thing that really struck me is how much the example helped, so I made it a point to gather and/or create some more examples.

Following are 8 examples of the SAMR process, each taking an example of a typical classroom exercise that does not use technology and walking it through each phase of SAMR. For half of these, I searched and borrowed from examples that teachers had written about online (original sources are provided - in some cases I tweaked the example a bit). I also created examples of my own. In working through this, it became apparent to me that while Substitution and Augmentation can be relatively straightforward conceptually, there is even more room for interpretation when it comes to Modification and Redefinition.

The goal of this exercise was to help me (and readers) better understand the SAMR model, and to really see how lessons and assessments can be transformed while considering the benefits of evolving them through these stages. I find it particularly interesting to see the vast difference between the original lesson and the redefined lesson - there is often a much wider range of skills required in the latter stages, and lessons can become much more engaging and collaborative when modified or redefined.

Lesson: Writing a Short Paper
Taken from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/08/samr-model-explained-through-examples.html. A modification of an idea found at https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples. Taken from: https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples and modified. Idea taken from: https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model and slightly modified. In this example, we take a simple form of assessment and evolve it into a collaborative group project.
Original Assignment: A hand written paper.

Lesson: Geography & Travel

Original Assignment: An overview of a location consisting of hand written content supplemented with compiled cut-and-pasted magazine clippings.

Lesson: Understanding Shakespeare

Original Assignment: Read a Shakespeare play in traditional printed format.

An Assessment Exercise
Original Assignment: Show understanding of fractions on a worksheet by coloring in blocks.
Original Assignment: Take a quiz, answers handwritten in a printed form.

Following are some example lessons, evolved through the SAMR model, that I have tried my hand at creating.It's easy to get caught up in worrying about how effectively an approach constitutes "modification" or "redefinition", but that's not the point of the exercise. To my way of thinking, it's more about understanding the difference between a just replacing or augmenting a "paper" lesson with a "digital" one and actually evolving it in a beneficial way and exploring new possibilities.

Lesson: Art/Painting
Creative Commons license image source.
Original Assignment: Drawing a picture using traditional brush, paint, paper. Of course, there is a a big difference between doing this by hand in the traditional manner and doing it digitally. Digitally is by no means better, it is just different and opens up some interesting possibilities.

Substitution: Use a digital drawing/painting program (like MS Paint) to draw/paint a picture.

Augmentation: Use a tool that allows the creation of your masterpiece to be layed back (like Educreations, for example).

Modification: Pull a background image to use as a canvas. You could even scan something hand drawn and use that.

Redefinition: Create Artwork Collaboratively using a Collaborative Online Whiteboard (like Twiddla or one of these other tools).

Lesson: Email Etiquette

Original lesson: Review printed copies of Email Etiquette concepts and guidelines.

Lesson: Learning Fractions

Substitution: Use an Excel Worksheet to let students color in the blocks.

Augmentation: Use Google Sheets to let students color in the blocks, where the teacher can offer feedback directly on Google Sheets.

Modification: Use Google Sheets and direct students to online examples and supplementary learning materials for areas that they might struggle with.

Redefinition: Use a Fractions App instead (here are a handful of examples for iOS devices).

Lesson: Phys Ed - Learning To Hit a Baseball Well

Original Assignment: Learning how to hit a baseball by watching and listening to a Coach or Phys Ed instructor show you and then trying it yourself.

Hopefully these example of lessons modified through the SAMR cycle help to encourage you to think about how you leverage technology to make some of your lessons more interactive, collaborative, and engaging with some of the many great technology tools available today! Here is a set of tools that may be helpful when working to evolve your lessons: 10 of the Most Engaging Uses of Instructional Technology (with Dozens of Resources and Tools).

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8 Examples of Transforming Lessons Through the SAMR Cycle - Emerging Education Technologies

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Examples of Applying the SAMR Model can Help Teachers Understand and Embrace it The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.

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Differentiating with SAMR: For all grades, subjects, and abilities

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Using the principles of SAMR can help you understand how to meaningfully incorporate technology into your lessons but it can be hard to know what the options are for different grade levels and student needs. This collection offers ideas for all grade levels.