Apps To Supercharge Your Classroom Productivity

By Mellow Study

When you are looking to improve your productivity half the battle is finding the will. The other half is discovering and refining a system that will maximize your time and make you the most efficient you possible!

These 5 apps all perform a slightly different functions, and when you combine them together they can supercharge your classroom productivity. They keep you updated on your to-dos and keep all of your ‘stuff’ in one place. You’ll waste less time and worry less, have less of a mess, and be more organized!

Evernote

Evernote is an extremely versatile app that can be used in a number of ways. It is a cloud based notebook that works across platforms and can be used to organize the mass of information you need to keep track of. You can use it for lists, saving web files for later viewing, organizing research or managing projects.

The beauty of Evernote is not in the quality of each individual function. The beauty is in the fact that it has such a wide range of functions and can be used for just about anything. This way you can keep everything in one place.

Week Plan

Week Plan is an app based on the time management system outlined by Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” The theory is that you should plan your important tasks and to do lists on a week by week basis, rather than day by day. This way you can take a step back and ensure you make time for the really important stuff, without the day to day to do list swamping you.

The app gets you to set priorities for each of the different roles you have in life such as teacher, student, sportsperson, part time worker, family member etc. Once you determine the week’s priorities you can then allocate them to the days of the week.

If it sounds simple, it is. But it will revolutionize the way you manage your time.

My Study Life

My Study Life is an app that allows you to program in your class timetable. You can then assign any notifications or information specific to each class and use it to track tasks and deadlines. It will let you know what is coming up and when things are due.

It is intuitive and easy to use and an excellent way to separate your classroom planner from the rest of your life if that is what you prefer. It is great for both students and teachers, especially for those teachers who teach a wide variety of classes with different things due at different times.

Dropbox

The ultimate storage in the cloud system that allows you to access your files from anywhere. This is particularly useful if you are not using your own device and are using computers on campus. This way the cloud will allow seamless workflow from campus to home.

Remember The Milk

This is the ultimate “to-do list” app. It works across platforms and you can sync it with Evernote if you use that as well. However Remember the Milk is good enough to stand on its own two feet.

You can create multiple lists and its features include giving tasks priorities, time estimates and locations. With this app you will be able to keep track of both the mundane and important tasks.

Post Source : http://www.edudemic.com/5-apps-to-supercharge-your-study-productivity/

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5 Ways To Do EdTech On A Shoestring Budget

By Dawn Casey-Rowe

If teachers ran the government, we wouldn’t have a national debt. Teachers are frugal. Very frugal. I’m not saying I reuse dental floss or anything, but the lengths I’ve gone to save money are amazing.  This is because the money I’m saving is often…mine. Still, sometimes a teacher has to spend. I buy tons of pencils, papers, documentaries, resources, and other things each year. What I really want is unlimited access to the types of technologies my students find most engaging. Sometimes I feel this is way outside of my budget.

Many schools feel it’s outside theirs, too. The word “technology” often send shivers down the spine of the budget office, because it has the potential to be one of the biggest line items on the budget. It’s true, a school needs dollars for dongles to make it all work, but it doesn’t have to break the bank or get put on the back burner when competing choices include “leaky roof,” “broken heating system,” and a million other infrastructure expenses that pop up. Tech doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to go by the wayside.

Technology is increasingly becoming personal, mobile, and affordable.  Most connected people rely on smartphones and tablets rather than desktops and laptops. My smartphone is more powerful than my first computer. Because of this, it’s possible to integrate technology on a shoestring budget.

Technology on a Shoestring: How-To

Let Them BYOD

They will know how to use it and they will take care of it better. Imagine if you were sitting at home working, and someone came in, took your phone, your laptop, and tablets, and replaced them with a type you don’t use. It’s disorienting. Students and teachers are more comfortable using the devices they love.

Purchase Carefully

Tech purchasing comes from top-down. It’s important to be on the front lines when choosing technology. Sometimes a school-wide platform is necessary and helpful, as with electronic gradebooks, home-school communication platforms, or learning management systems. But for the rest, ask, “Will students use this? Will they look forward to using this or will it be a burden? Does it fill some need or make life easier?” Ask. The answers are sometimes surprising.

Stream

Amazon Prime and Netflix have tons of documentaries and shows that support curricula. Before these were unblocked, if I wanted to show a documentary to my class, I had to buy it. Now I can rely on my Prime, and show ten minutes or so to underscore my point. In addition to this, I love TEDx speeches. They help me teach public speaking and content simultaneously. Students love them, and they’re free.

Bring Tech To The Students

Computer labs are important, but they often come with challenges.They’re expensive, and research is showing that tech in the class saves time and money, increasing productivity. Teachers don’t have to compete for valuable lab time and expensive machines aren’t sitting unused. We’re used to technology integrating into our lives. It must be the same way in schools. Allowing students to use their own devices or having a group for the class to share is less expensive than wasted labs in the long run.

Go Paperless

I was at a large tech company and needed to print a boarding pass. There was no easily accessible printer. I joked, “This reminds me of schools…printers are broken or out of ink.” Then I realized the truth–printing is so 20th century. It’s rarely necessary anymore, if you stop and think about it.  Once tech is fully integrated we won’t need to print much. We’ll google-share, take polls on Socrative, use Learnist instead of books, and crowdsource projects. Killing rainforests will be a thing of the past. These resources on web tools and apps help me think about reducing paper–and clutter–one piece at a time.

These are just some ways you can integrate technology on a shoestring budget. It’s simple. If you integrate just one new thing, that’s fantastic–you’re creating new solutions for your class, and students are benefitting. Using some of these tips means that you can afford to do it, too. That makes for students who use 21st century technology, and budget offices that smile at the same time.

Post Source : http://www.edudemic.com/edtech-on-a-shoestring-budget/

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The Top 5 Things Parents Want From Their Schools

By Hardik Parikh

The most convenient and prolonged standpoint that our nation has had on education imparted through the local districts is that our education implementation is focused on being identical to neighboring schools. However, each school has its own arguments to claim that it is better than the rest. Most of the schools are identical with just a few minor changes as per the community’s personal values that differ from place to place and school’s general preferences.

An Educational Buffet

While the schools of the suburbs and the rural arena are inclined towards the traditional pedagogy, the urban ones are generally a bit more progressive. The fact of the matter is that there is an entire buffet of schools available for parents to choose from. They can choose not just between private and public education. They can opt for magnet schools that offer varied advanced and specialized faculties, charter schools, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) schools, virtual education platforms, portfolio academies, college-preparatory institutes, or career-ready options. They even have the option to opt for the neighborhood schools through intra or inter-district student exchange programs.

What is out there is one thing, though the bigger concern here is what do parents really expect from their child’s education?

Here are the highlights of the latest discovery from a well renowned market research firm. The attempt is to divide the US parents into clear segments based on their values, educational preferences, and priorities towards their children’s education.

Educational Must-Haves (for parents)

It was a pleasant surprise to find that though the parents were expected to have distinctly different preferences based on various sets of personal values, most parents expected the same in terms of basic necessities. Here is what most parents want from school:

• A through core curriculum for math and reading;
• Dedicated to education in STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects;
• Cultivating and nurturing of the healthy study habits,
• Well developed critical-thinking expertise, and
• Proficiency in oral as well as written communication skills.

Irrespective of the ethnical backgrounds, income strata, and personal and political divergence, these choices topped the parents’ expectation charts for all the students who attend private, public, or traditional district schools.

Demographics

While the children of the White parents are expected to be more focused on securing good discipline  and “must develop healthy study lifestyle”, the Hispanic parents desire their kids to secure the top most results in academics. When the acceptance of kids at the finest of the colleges was a less of a concern with the White parents, it was of utmost importance to the African Americans.

Preparation for SATs was a concern among the Hispanic as well as the African American parents. Acquiring good scores in these exams including the state test was more prominent concern among the low-income group parents than the high-income groups.

The aspiration to build up strong critical thinking ability has an almost direct affiliation to the increase in income; the higher is the parents’ income, the more they give prominence to critical thinking skills.

Though it is not possible to segment parents as per their values, segmentation of the parents’ expectations in accordance to attributes that the “schools have to offer” fell in the ambiguous category yet, can be broadly classified as follows:

• Heuristics: 36 percent of the parents were concerned about the career readiness and vocational guidance programs available at the schools.
• Absolute Rulers: 24 percent of the parents preferred to choose the schools that offers education of democracy, leadership and citizenship, etc.
• The Medalists: 23 percent parents preferred only the schools where students could participate in a number of competitions and could score great test results.
• Ethos Faternity: 22 percent of the parents choose the schools based on an amalgamation of diverse ethnicities. They wanted their children to learn people skills as well.
• The Art Lovers: 15 percent parents choose availability of arts educations such as music and painting as the decisive criterion to choose schools for their children.
• The Contenders: For 12 percent parents the selection of the school was based on the prior records of acceptance in the colleges.

Expectations of the most parents are a strong curriculum, healthy study habits and critical thinking ability that is being taken care of through implementation of the Common Core State Standards. However, it is not possible to group parents or to affirm their expectations as identical. While the education industry continues to learn there are yet, many arenas of the parents’ expectations that remain unexplored. As each individual is different, so is each parent. Thus, each parent’s expectations do vary on an individual turf.

As modern day technology presents us with so many unbelievable wonders everyday, we are sure that latest amalgamation of technology and learning – the adaptive learning platforms can create similar outcomes in education as well. e-learning is not just the future of education but also, has too much to offer that complies with most of the parent expectations.

Post Source: http://www.edudemic.com/parents-schools/

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