Helping Participants

During the course of the two-day workshops that he offers, participants will often have specific and unique questions that Bill doesn't have immediate answers for.  He will always, however, scout out answers in his personal learning network and then share what he learns here. 

Using the iPad in Classrooms

When Bill was presenting in Boston during the Spring of 2012, many participants were interested in how to best use iPads in classroom instruction.  Bill reached out to Patrick Larkin -- the principal of Burlington High School in Massachuttests -- whose school is heavily engaged in a 1:1 iPad project for suggestions for online resources. 

Patrick shared this collection of posts from his blog detailing the iPad deployment at Burlington High.  It's a GREAT resource for school leaders interested in the nitty-gritty of 1:1 projects with iPads.  He also shared this collection of iPad resources being maintained by the technology team in the Burlington Public Schools.  Patrick has also created a series of reflections on the first year of a 1:1 iPad initiative -- which you can find posted online here. 

When Bill is looking for iPad resources, he also turns to this iPad in Education Scoop.it page maintained by John Evans -- a teacher, school leader and consultant who is passionate about seeing iPads integrated responsibly into classroom instruction.  Like all Scoop.it users, John is constantly updating his page, so return often to learn more! 

Bill also relies on the new iPad Apps for Schools blog maintained by Richard Byrne. Richard has made his name reviewing tech tools for teachers and posting short bits that list the advantages and disadvantages of each tool.  His newest effort -- which focuses ONLY on iPad apps -- is sure to be a great resource for any school working to integrate iPads into their work.

Edudemic posted a new bit listing 15 ways to use the iPad in the classroom in March of 2012.  You can find it here.   The Emerging Ed Tech blog posted a new bit listing the 15 favorite apps mentioned by teachers in a recent survey conducted on their site.  You can find that list here.  Education.com created this list of 12 great iPad apps for elementary school teachers and students.  And Nick Provenzano created this great iBook on using Evernote -- an information management tool -- on the iPad.  It'll cost you $3, but given Nick's expertise, that'll be worth every penny.

You might also be interested in the Livebinder of iPad in Education resources that Mike Fisher has assembled or the collection of iPad in Education resources at the bottom of this John Larkin blog post.  Finally, don't forget to check out the #ipaded hashtag on Twitter.  That's a constantly updated stream of information that is being curated by other educators who are interested in using iPads in the classroom. 

Macs, iPads and Google's Related Search Feature

When we work with Google's Related Search feature during the Information Management portion of the TiG workshop, we explore Google's Related Search feature.  Unfortunately for Mac users, this feature doesn't appear when using the Safari browser.  If you're struggling to see the Related Search suggestions made by Google and you're using a Mac, consider trying a different browser.  Firefox should work without a hitch. 

Participants using the mobile browser on their iPads will also struggle to see the Related Search feature simply because the mobile browser is a stripped down version of the full browser.  Jim Love -- a Physics teacher from New York -- recommends the Atomic Web Browser as a workaround.  It automatically displays full versions -- instead of mobile versions -- of websites when you are working on an iPad. 

While the full version above will cost you 99 cents, there is also a Lite version that is free. 

Helping Math Teachers to Reimagine their Classrooms

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

http://davidwees.com/content/mathematics-education-blogs

http://bit.ly/10qMeoq 

http://www.mathalicious.com/ 

The participants who often struggle with the changing nature of teaching and learning in the 21st Century are often math teachers, who WANT to redesign their instruction, but aren't sure how digital tools can fit into the work that they do with students.  Bill often points those teachers to the blog of Dan Meyer -- an internationally recognized expert at curriculum and instruction in the math classroom.  While Dan doesn't write exclusively about teaching with technology, his ideas about what good math classrooms should look like are often really valuable starting points for participants. 

Another worthwhile source for math teachers working to reimagine their classrooms is this collection of over 300 math teachers who are blogging about practice that is maintained by David Wees.  Reading blogs that are being maintained by other math teachers is useful because they can serve as constant sources of new ideas that will challenge your practice.

One of the best ways to reimagine the math classroom is to integrate more project-based learning experiences in the classroom.  The Buck Institute for Education has developed an extensive collection of project based lessons for all subject areas, including this set of project based learning experiences for the math classroom. 

Finally, Mathalicious -- a new site that is designed to provide teachers with real-world problems that students can wrestle with while studying math content -- might be worth exploring.  While Mathalicious does ask users to pay a small monthly fee in order to access their entire library of content, there are several sample projects available without a subscription.