5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
Aug
23
Written by:
8/23/2009 3:35 PM
Cross Posted at The Innovative Educator.
As
the smell of school supplies fills the air, back to school lists often
include the usual pencil, binder, loose leaf, sharpener, eraser, etc.
While those traditional items might lighten the wallet of families and
come out of Teachers Choice for educators in NYC, innovative educators
like me are preparing a slightly different list geared toward engaging
our digital native students and supporting my own 21st century
practices.
Here is my list of five must-haves for innovative educators.
1) Digital Voice Recorder. I
bought two of these over the summer to use with student journalists.
Digital Voice Recorders are small, cost around $50, and link to a
computer using USB. Beyond using them with student reporters, I plan on
having students record their thoughts prior to writing, and recording
voice and other audio for Podcasts.
2) Google Voice.
I set up a phone number through Google Voice so that it would be easier
for students and parents to reach me by phone. I like that Google
provides not only a transcript of voice mails, but incoming calls as
well. It's also a quick and easy way to get audio recordings from your
students. Give them a reflection question for homework along with your
Google Voice number. All their answers will be saved as audio
recordings that are easy to share online. See The Innovative Educator's
comprehensive overview of the ins and outs of Google Voice to learn how to get started.
3) Google Templates (through GoogleDocs).
Recently, Google introduced the ability for users to share GoogleDoc
templates both publicly, privately, and within your domain. Over the
summer I created a template writing organizer. Students opened
GoogleDocs, and created a new document from my template. Then they
shared their new document with me, and as they developed their writing,
I could provide individual feedback directly in their documents. This
allowed us to have dialogues about their writing without me carrying a
stack of papers home every night. 
During
the year I plan on using templates not only with students, but
colleagues as well; allowing us to more rapidly create uniformly
designed lesson plans and curricula.
4) Librevox & Odiogo. 
I'm
constantly searching for ways to get rich material to low level
readers, one option is to have students listen to audio recordings. Librevox
is a site that provides audio recordings of texts in the public domain.
If the text isn't available, you're welcome to submit a recording. I
haven't browsed their entire collection but there are definetly some
pieces I will be able to use, as well as some room for student
submissions. Odiogo (used on this
site) is a text to speech service for rss feeds and online text. This
will allow me to a get a wider range of online text to students.
5) Flip Video Camera.
This tool instantly ratcheted up student engagement either by getting
it into the hands of a student for them to use during an assignment,
recording a performance assessment, or documenting field work. I'm
excited to continue to find new uses for the Flip.
Those are my
5 must-haves that I hope will keep my students engaged, parents and
families connected, and me organized. What are yours?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dana Lawit is a
special education teacher at a new and growing public high school in
Brooklyn, New York. She is passionate about finding meaningful ways to
integrate technology into teaching and learning. Dana is also a contributor to The Innovative Educator blog.
7 comment(s) so far...
5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
An mp3 player (not an ipod) is a nice lower cost alternative to a digital voice recorder
By Beth on
8/25/2009 2:26 PM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
I would say that every teacher should have a computer and projector with speakers in their room. Google Voice is a great way to have a phone number to give students and parents without affecting your home or cell phones.
Then, the teachers should use free technology to get organized and teach more effectively. My choices are Google Docs (docs.google.com), Gmail (mail.google.com), Blogger (blogger.com), Google Sites (sites.google.com), Evernote (evernote.com), Sugarsync (https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=c6g3ccjrtagq2), and Google Calendar (calendar.google.com).
All free and very useful.
By Dave on
8/27/2009 6:55 AM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
I never leave my office without a digital audio recorder, but I tend to be more picky about them since I teach band and want to record at fairly good quality. The cheap $50 recorders do work for some things (and don't hurt as bad when they got lost or broken), but investing in something a little more substantial will greatly reduce background noise and provide much better sound for a podcast. Some of them (like the Zoom H4n) are actually little portable recording studios. I did a big presentation on this topic at the 2009 MENC Conference in D.C. (the national music educator's association) and did a head to head on eight or nine different kinds of recorders. If you are interested the chart is still up over at:
http://musicedmagic.com/audio-video/portable-digital-audio-recorder-buying-guide-with-reviews.html
By Chad Criswell on
8/28/2009 2:01 AM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
its not only with the school that will help us to better learning, the instructor also takes a huge space in learning.
It really true that Schools is one of the solution for better being and is actually in the best place for learning.
this site also have a lot of info to help you http://www.sabetsu.com
By nixon on
8/25/2009 6:48 PM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
I love the fact that you incorporated Google Voice and GoogleDocs into your list of top five back to school must haves. I'm currently a sophomore in collage and I am ashamed to say that before I enrolled in my current class called technology in education, I had no idea that either of those tools existed. I love that you incorporate these new kinds of technologies into your classroom and give your students a chance to experience them. I just wish some of my former teachers had taken the time to introduce me to a variety of educational tools.
By Kate205 on
9/23/2009 6:18 AM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
I love the fact that you incorporated Google Voice and GoogleDocs into your list of top 5 back to school must haves. Currently, I am a sophomore in college and I am ashamed to say that before I enrolled in the class “Computers in Education,” I had no idea that either of those tools existed. I think it is great that you have found a way to incorporate all of those different kinds of technology into your classroom for your students to experience. My only is wish is that some of my former teachers had taken the time to introduce me to a wider range of educational tools.
By Kate205 on
9/23/2009 6:29 AM
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5 Back to School Must-Haves for Innovative Educators by Dana Lawit
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4/27/2010 5:32 PM
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