In our latest Rising Resources post, we’re exploring the Edublogs platform, which is an online tool students can use for practicing some key real-world skills like writing, blogging, and written communication. Usually thought of as more of a soft skill, communication is nonetheless extremely important for students as they prepare to enter the workforce in the coming years.
Some schools will not be reopening on the first day of classes but, in other districts, it’s yet to be decided what the approach will involve. Throw in this political pressure and you have a pretty volatile, potentially dangerous, and likely fluid situation for the rest of this summer and into the first few weeks of the year as everyone embarks on this unique journey.
State officials and education leaders are starting to announce their plans for reopening schools in the fall. While we know that students and teachers returning to the physical classroom is ideal, there are plenty of opponents to this course of action who think it will be unsafe. There are so many things for school leaders to consider as plans remain in limbo.
In what’s rapidly becoming an unprecedented time for those in the education world (as well as other industries that notably include technology and professional sports), the dangerously quick spread of news is something all of us—educators included—have to be weary of and soft skills can play a role for teachers, administrators, and students.
The full title of this presentation is “Combining SEL, STEAM, and Maker Ed tools to increase student learning capacity.” If selected, we’ll be discussing the commonalities that STEAM and SEL efforts share as well as how some MakerEd tools help teachers create these experiences. Specifically, maker tools help teachers connect the heads, hearts, and hands of students.
While library makerspaces are a great way to advance and promote 21st century learning, we’re not exactly advocating for overthrowing the library in your school completely. Just want to make that perfectly clear. In fact, school libraries and library makerspaces have been known to complement each other, making one reason they’re so popular.
We all know that kids today love technology. Whether it’s tablets, smartphones, laptops, or whatever else they play with, once they hit nine or 10 years old, they seem to be glued to some sort of device. A lot of these children are sitting in front of computers and bettering themselves at the same time. That’s right—they’re playing Minecraft.
