Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

The Best iPad Tips and Tricks This handy set of tips for the iPad is one to share with students and teachers who are just getting their device. There are many great pointers from arranging apps to syncing and tweaking fonts. I use the autotext feature a lot as it can save time typing long text. Pass it along. tags: news ipad education tumblr Definition of MOOC in English One of the co-originators of the term "MOOC" takes issue with the definition as inserted into the Oxford dictionary. I agree with Stephen Downes, the definition as cited is sorely lacking in understanding. Surely definition writers can do better. tags: news education mooc How...

Researchers say tooth proves T. rex was predator - CNN.com More science news! A duckbill dinosaur was found with a trex tooth in it. Yes - Trex was a predator, so no rewrite of Jurassic park is needed. "You see 'Jurassic Park,' and you see T. rex as this massive hunter and killer, as incredibly vicious. But scientists have argued for 100 years that he was too big and too slow to hunt prey and that he was probably a scavenger, an animal that feeds only on dead things," University of Kansas paleontologist David Burnham said. Burnham and researcher Robert DePalma got what Burnham described as his "lucky break" when they found the fossil of a duckbill dinosaur's tail with a tooth in it." tags: science edu_news education news Scientists confirm new element after atom...

Falling is scary. Most of us fall down sometimes. I can trip and fall flat on the ground. When I fall down I have two choices. I can sit there or I can stand up (if I'm still physically able to.) What about failing? Children fall a lot - especially when they are learning to walk. But falling, as we get older, is something we really try to avoid at all costs. As bones get more brittle, we are afraid of not getting back up or of getting really hurt. Let's get one thing straight. Failing and falling aren't the same thing. It is odd to me that kids (and adults) don't mind a "fail" in a video game. In fact epic "fails" go viral on the Internet as people mess up and do dumb things that are laughed about later. An F makes me as a teacher feel I have failed to teach I don't receive any benefit at all from giving an "F" for failure. To me, an F represents something I haven't taught. Now I know many teachers have their rooms full ...

IFTTT / SkyDrive Channel Once you set up Skydrive on Windows 8, you'll want to active Skydrive on IFTTT.com if you're using it for automation (I've written about this very cool app before.) It has many cool things that you can do (many like you can do with dropbox.) I'm using Skydrive for some things with school. tags: education news Windows 8 skydrive microsoft Apps that work with SkyDrive - Microsoft SkyDrive If you have Windows 8, Skydrive is very useful. Here's a list of the apps that work with Skydrive. One Note is one of the most useful for students. tags: education news windows 8 Posted from Diigo . The rest of my f...

And thus school has begun. I have a mysterious little bird - always writing these messages on my board. I know who the bird is but turn my back and let it happen. But I thought of it this morning as I thought of an apparent major decisionmaking fail brought to my attention this week. This week a teacher came to me asking me to help a friend. "The best AP lit teacher I know has been 'demoted' because she isn't using technology. The administrators are afraid that they'll 'get in trouble with the state' if they see she's not using any. Give me ideas to help" So, that's it...no coaching... no advice...no help - just BAM - you're going to teach a younger grade even though we know you're the best AP lit teacher we've ever seen. It is always about what technology helps you DO not technology itself If you read my blog, you know that I love and enjoy technology and using it with my students. But I find this repugnant and ridicu...

Get started with Hangouts On Air - Google+ Help If you want to record your Google hangouts and post to your YouTube channel, you need to get started with "Hangouts on Air." HEre's the page to get you started. Note that Google plus isn't available for Apps for education so you'll need to use your personal or another gmail account with a Google plus profile if you want to record and share your class hangouts. tags: education news google youtube flatclass Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

40 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom - Google Drive Great ideas for using Google Drive, calendar, docs, forms, groups, and more in the classroom. A nice, public, presentation. tags: news google docs drive classroom The Top 25 Best Windows 8 Apps - Music Maker Jam - Slideshow from PCMag.com If you have Windows 8 in your lab. you'll want Music Maker Jam - a sort of Garage Band" for Windows 8. It doesn't seem to have the complexity but it is a great thing for creating and has a whole different feel. Install it in labs for students to mix their own music. tags: education news windows 8 music microsoft ...

English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Misunderstandings happen. They happen on Twitter. They happen on Facebook. They happen in our lives. Case in Point... A few weeks a go, a teacher, Shawn White contacted me through direct message on Twitter. He and I had exchanged a tweet on a Friday night. Then, I got up Saturday and started continuing to write a post I had started earlier in the week. This post turned into " Questioning Rigor " and was prompted by Dave Burgess ' ponderings in his book  Teach Like a PIRATE . Meanwhile, Shawn had messaged back and somehow the conversation had turned to this term of Rigor. Shawn feels that "vigor" is a better word to use and expresses it well in his blog post and also at the beginning of this recording. I understand his argument. Well, our tweets, and my post were all sort of happening at the same time. He had texted me a link bu...

I Am Leaving Social Media - Joel Comm - JoelComm.com I read Joel Comm's book Twitter Power and it has been one of my longtime favorites on the topic. Here he talks brutally about the negatives of social media. I admit the topic caught my attention. I"ve just found that if I'm brutal about who I follow and make sure they're real educators, I'm usually pretty happy with my stream. I unfollow junk as soon as it is evident it is junk. Ultimately we all must guard who we follow or we might just find ourselves following the garbage truck. tags: news twitter social media opinions social media edu_trends Dead Drops | Un-cloud your files in cement! 'Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. ...

Systematic planning and organizing is the hallmark of many successful people I know. The system can be simple or complex. But if it doesn't work for you, it is useless. That is one problem with some of the technology - it gets is sucked into a system where we're just playing with the system and not getting our work done. I've got my own system for planning and thought some of you might like a glimpse into the elements as you fine tune how you'll keep up with things. Here are my 3 essential elements for TASK management. (I can share appointments and calendars in a later post if this is interesting to enough of you. Just let me know in the comments .) 1. Electronic Master List of Everything I use Nozbe to keep my list of everything that needs to be done. But this is very comprehensive and has a lot in there. 2. Weekly List In order to prepare for my week, I make a list by category inside my Planner pad so I can keep up with what needs to be done THIS WEEK....

Music has so many uses in the classroom. After being jolted awake by Dave Burgess ' Teach Like a Pirate wisdom - I realized that there are so many aspects of the mood I need to use in my classroom. Music sets the mood I now use music for many purposes. When students are doing something a tad stressful, the Carribean calypso music is so relaxing, they just relax and get it done. When they are brainstorming, peppy music that they like gets them thinking. If they are making - it makes them more creative. There's a time for all types of music in my classroom. Like some choose wine for the meal, I choose music for the task. Sometimes that means the students pick. Other times it means we create a special station on Pandora and enjoy it. Music makes a great timer Here's what I've found that I love the most about music. I have always used a timer in my classroom to keep us on track. Otherwise, we'll just spend forever brainstorming - which isn't a bad thi...

To Foster Productivity and Creativity in Class, Ditch the Desks! | MindShift Erin Klein has great ideas for redesigning the classroom. I'm interviewing her this week for my online show (to be posted soon) about aesthetically pleasing brain-friendly classrooms. Take a look. tags: education news design classroom_design Movie Maker - Microsoft Windows The free movie program for Windows is Windows Movie Maker. This is a link to the version for Windows 7 and 8. It doesn't come loaded but you can install it for free. tags: education news moviemaking digital storytelling Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

UK To Teach Programming Starting At Age 5 | Fluency21 – Committed Sardine Blog Watch out Silicon Valley. You may just need to relocate to... you might guess it.. Ok - maybe not -- the UNITED KINGDOM. This country gets it. Kids will start learning programming at age 5 in the UK. This is a big deal and something visionary schools will wake up to and understand. tags: education news tumblr Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

The Maker Movement is here. Invent to Learn by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager  is the definitive book on the Maker Movement in Schools What do 3D printers, Rasberry pi programing units, scrapbooks and woodworking have in common? They are all part of the Maker movement a growing effort to reinvent creativity by letting kids and people create. Libraries are incorporating maker spaces and many people are reading the book  Invent To Learn  by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager. If you want to know more about this movement, take a listen to Sylvia Martinez (see below on how to listen). We talked about how this method can positively impact our "STEM pipeline" and how we can foster the love of problem solving in many ways in the classroom. We also discussed managing maker spaces in the classroom and the many technologies being used in the maker movement. I learned a lot and highly recommend the book. My thoughts on the book, Invent to Learn Don't think this is ...

Premium Polling-Creating Quizzes with Celly - YouTube I'm testing cel.ly right now. Here's the instructions about how to use cel.ly for creating quizzes. Of course, all of your students will need access to a phone to test this, but it does have basic information on how to do this. This is cool. tags: education news Premium Polling-Creating Quizzes with Celly - YouTube I'm testing cel.ly right now. Here's the instructions about how to use cel.ly for creating quizzes. Of course, all of your students will need access to a phone to test this, but it does have basic information on how to do this. This is cool. tags: education news [Windows 8] How to add Google Calendar to Wind...

What is markdown? With this post, I’m learning about markdown language and teaching you at the same time. I am a beginner at using markdown. I’ve found that the blog posts I write when I’m a beginner are more helpful to other beginners because there are things that more advanced people forget. This is going to be true because markdown requires spacing rules that I will forget once I’m an expert and they become second nature. Here are some markdown notes from class yesterday. These notes will end up exported to Evernote. If you notice the black background and white words - that isn't a big deal - I chose that format because I've found it is easier on my eyes and doesn't wake me up if I'm writing at night. Let's see how this works - don't be scared, especially if you need fast ways to type and format at the same time. Markdown is a simple way to format. When the Internet began, some of us geekier types wrote in html or the language of the web. This...