Formative assessments can be used to count as graded work or simply for teachers to gain a clearer understanding of student progress. They can be formal or informal and the best ones often lend ideas for how teachers can improve their instruction. This takes time, however, and that’s why Formative helps teachers in individualizing instruction.
We had a blast attending this year’s ISTE Conference in Philadelphia. It was a great couple of days and we truly enjoyed getting to catch up with a lot of our vendor and educator partners. The topics on everyone’s minds ranged from AI in education to creating more agency in professional learning with keynotes aimed at inspiring educators.
Though known for designing some of the most useful tools in robotics education in the Sphero SPRK and Sphero BOLT, this item from Sphero certainly has a different twist. We’re talking about the Sphero Specdrums—sets of music-making rings that kids (or adults) can place around their fingers and create music anytime and, more importantly, in any place.
Each month, we’re highlighting the efforts of an educator who is effectively using EdTech to empower his or her students. This month, we are featuring Mindy Adamonis, who has been using EdTech tools she’s received through our technology grant program to enhance some science and social studies projects for various students across different grade levels.
There is a lot of hype, information, pause, and even a bit of action being taken when it comes to virtual reality in education. While it’s true that we do not yet know its complete impact on academic achievement, there are some things we do know about VR’s potential in the classroom. Here are some beliefs about VR and reasons for debunking each.
With ISTE 2019 going on this week, we thought we’d take a closer look at one of today’s most popular classroom tools in Seesaw. Seesaw is essentially an application that allows classroom teachers to gain greater insights and organization when it comes to their students’ progress. It’s also free and a great way for students to demonstrate their learning.
Irina Tuule discusses how the roles for the teacher have evolved from what they once were into what they’ve become. Shifts in the resources available to educators and in the ways in which students learn have helped catalyze necessary changes to the very methods teachers use to teach. They’re no longer the sage on the stage and they’re typically not helping from afar.
In the last few years, more focus has been put on digital or technological equity and a strong push has been made to ensure that every student has access to tech tools that help them grow. This is important not only because technology affords students with enriched opportunities, but it also helps prepare them for a lot of the challenges they’ll face.
It seemed fitting to go with Braingenie to coincide with the release of Aladdin—yes, the new one. Although we’re fairly sure it won’t compare to the glory days of Disney movies, it is nevertheless a part of our lives now. Braingenie is an online resource through which math and science teachers can find games and challenges for their students.
While it is true that we often do consider some STEM tools to be complete game changers, we truly stand by every item and brand on our store. We’ll often hear from educators who are looking for some of those bigger names and, while we know they will do well with them, we can sometimes tell that a different tech tool that’ll ultimately take their instruction to another level.
