Teaching4Tomorrow Blog

Sep 22, 2017

Keep It Safe; Keep It Private.

When I first started teaching 29 years ago, being safe and secure meant having fire drills and locking windows and doors at the end of the day. How times have changed! Today, digital privacy and security have been added to the physical safety of schools. Students are becoming increasingly savvy with technology, but they may not always realize how public their online information is. Because of this, educators must learn how to teach their students online security and safety.

Sep 14, 2017

What’s the Real Problem with Fake News? We Are Wired to Believe It

In 1951, a football game inspired what would become a landmark study in psychology. Dartmouth opposed Princeton in a brutal end-of-season match that yielded a broken nose, a broken leg, and a flurry of penalties. The game's lack of sportsmanship became the topic of much public debate, with each side blaming the other for the lack of civility on the field.

Sep 08, 2017

Our Top Five Resources in August

Each month we publish blogs and several newsletters full of digital learning, funding, professional growth, social media, and STEM resources. Below are items from our blogs and newsletters that educators turned to the most in August.

Sep 01, 2017

Classroom Design Matters

As a classroom teacher, one of the most exciting aspects of starting a new school year is organizing the classroom learning spaces. Where should the desks go? Can everyone see the board properly? Can everyone move around the room easily?

Aug 25, 2017

What Makes a Teacher Leader?

Let's face it! Leadership is both a calling and a learned skill. Determining the best way to approach mentoring, coaching, decision making, and visioning takes specific techniques and attributes.

Aug 18, 2017

How to Create a Successful Character Education Program That Teaches Digital Citizenship

In my last post, we discussed how character education can serve as the basis for a great digital citizenship program. Now I'd like to give you practical steps you can take to implement a successful character education program in your school.

Aug 11, 2017

Bringing the Solar Eclipse to Your Classroom

On August 21, 2017, a solar eclipse will occur in North America. Those in the path of totality-parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina—will see the moon completely eclipse the sun. Observers in the rest of the contiguous United States will see a partial solar eclipse. The solar eclipse is a perfect teachable moment for students. Whether you plan to watch live with your students or plan lessons around the eclipse, here are a few resources for teaching about the solar eclipse.

Aug 04, 2017

Our Top Five Resources in July

Each month we publish several newsletters full of digital learning, funding, professional growth, social media, and STEM resources. Below are the resources from our newsletters that educators turned to the most in the month of July.

Jul 28, 2017

A Continuum on Personalized Learning

In 2016, when I visited Silicon Valley classrooms, schools, and districts, many educators told me they were personalizing learning. But I was puzzled by what I saw. When asked what educators meant by “personalized learning” I heard different definitions of the policy.

Jul 21, 2017

Using Character Education to Teach Digital Citizenship

Some of the strategies schools currently use to address digital citizenship fall short because they focus primarily on specific issues and ignore building a solid foundation for students to think critically about digital citizenship.

Jul 14, 2017

Did ISTE 2017 Deliver on Embrace the Extraordinary?

More than 20,000 attendees and exhibitors participated in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Antonio, Texas. This was the first year the total number of attendees exceeded 15,000. Everyone was searching for ways to "embrace the extraordinary" for their students.

Jul 07, 2017

Our Top Five Resources in June

Each month we publish several newsletters full of digital learning, funding, professional growth, social media, and STEM resources. Below are the resources from our newsletters that educators turned to the most in the month of June.

Jun 30, 2017

Surviving the Consumerization of Learning

The consumerization of learning is the personalization of learning on computing screens using the capabilities of software to make it intuitive and highly adaptive for individual learners. The result is that educators are in uncharted waters of digital learning.

Jun 23, 2017

Taking Control of Your Professional Development

The days of sitting in one-size-fits-all professional meetings are dwindling. Whole day, large group professional development sessions are being replaced with technology-infused collaboration ripe for lifelong learning. For me, the best part of this shift in professional learning is the ability to focus on the topics that interest me the most.

Jun 16, 2017

Three Skills Students Need to Become Good Digital Citizens

In order to be good digital citizens, students must cultivate a filter through which they view their digital lives and understand online communication. To help students build that filter, we must support them in developing a multifaceted awareness consisting of a number characteristics. Here are three of the most important: