I’ve mentioned before the benefits of creating and maintaining a teacher blog, but there are many ways that this can be done, and even more reasons why it is beneficial to you as a professional. Why not take time this summer to start your very own teacher blog? Teacher blogs can function in different ways: … Continue reading Looking for a summer project? Why not start a #teacherblog?
As the school year is coming to a close, and you’re likely looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet, and perhaps even some well-needed rest, I would like to recommend a few of my favorite books. These can make for great personal reading, but are also great for use in the classroom. … Continue reading What’s on your Summer Reading List?
As previously discussed, class blogs can be of great use in engaging students, and fueling their success in and out of the classroom. I personally first started using a class blog in 2014 with my Geography students. I had already tried several blogging platforms for personal use, such as Tumblr, Blogger, and LiveJournal, but while … Continue reading Class Blogs: How do I get started?
During my time teaching in a bilingual school in Guatemala City, I taught geography to two groups of highly motivated 9th graders. This was a class I genuinely loved to teach, because my passion for world travel, languages, and cultures could really shine. One of my favorite units of study was about Asia. This region … Continue reading Geography: Asian Politics
For those who use a reading log in class, a Google Sheet is a great way to keep track of this. Each student can share their own reading log with the teacher, to be filed in a folder specific to the class and section, or if your class size is small, you could create one … Continue reading Keep Record with Google Sheets
Working with textual analysis with your students? Here is a great way to do that, with the help of Google Docs. Upload a Word document with poetic text divided into sections. Create a table with the left column having one section per row; you can add or create an image if you like. Then, … Continue reading Google Docs in the Language Arts Classroom
One more great way to liven up class time, is to create a shared folder for a particular class, section, or group, into which files can be uploaded. This allows for students to use the folder as a dumping place for material gleaned as related to a specific topic. While students are still in … Continue reading Engage Students with Google Drive
Particularly in the Social Sciences, but in any class, it is sometimes useful to have students conduct a survey (this works great for a statistics lesson in a Math class as well!). Allow students time during class to brainstorm what types of questions would elicit responses surrounding the topic from class, then create the Form … Continue reading Engage Students with Google Forms
Google Slides are great for demonstrating or explaining to students about a particular topic. But how about getting them involved? By using the Presenter View, you can quickly take Q&A during a lesson to get feedback from students regarding material just covered. Additionally you can add a Google Form to your Slides presentation, and then … Continue reading Engage Students with Google Slides
Google Sheets can seem pretty boring and flat, but it can allow for dynamic activity with students. One easy way is to use Sheets to log data collected from class surveys, lab results, or other information gathered. Students can learn to take control of their lives and their schedules using premade templates in Sheets that … Continue reading Engage Students with Google Sheets
Amanda M. Orozco 