Teacher Reflections

Author: Arpan Chokshi

Information Literacy & Fake News

The recent election and the growing popularity of social media have created new urgency in the battles English and Social Studies teachers along with Librarians are fighting constantly—combating fake news. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv6GvBkBZVk] A powerful resource that could help in this effort is www.checkology.or. Although the paid version offers teachers more features for monitoring student progress,

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Election Day 2016: I take a vow

As a son of immigrants, I have lived the exceptional opportunities America provides. As a Social Studies teacher, I have praised the uniqueness of the 240 year democratic experiment that is America. On Election Day, November 8, 2016 I began to question my faith in America. My questions soon turned to self-doubt as to whether I had

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Is the test dead? Moodle & Domains of Knowledge

Is the test dead? Or, are computer facilitated assessments still useful? Moodle’s quiz/test engine is one of the most dynamic and powerful platforms available to educators. Created through a collaborative, open-source, worldwide effort, educators can administer multiple choice tests, fill in the blank, drag & drop, short answer, etc and have the computer grade all

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Rethinking the DBQ

Offering students productive diversity creates memorable learning experiences because they are tailored to students interests & needs. Productive diversity encourages learning activities in which students: are designers of knowledge work collaboratively to offer feedback differentiate the process & pace of learning reach similar but high goals I recently tried to offer English Language Learners productive

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Can blogs kill textbooks?

The textbook is a peculiar knowledge artifact according to Dr. Cope at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: For efficiency’s sake, it summarizes the world; it is synoptic. There is no need for learners to discern what is more or less relevant knowledge, because this has been decided for them. One author or group of

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Students’ Anonymous Debate: Trump vs Clinton

How can we have students meaningfully engage with content that is being created in real-time? How can we create spaces where students feel comfortable asking peers probing questions on critical issues? One solution: Carefully structured online spaces that provide live peer commentary and anonymous discussion. Verso is just one of many tools such as Todays Meet, Google Classroom, Moodle

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PBL in Social Studies Classes

One of the best resources on project based learning is from the Buck Institute of Education (BIE) who, through years of research and experience, have established the gold standard for project based learning (PBL).  In this post, I will compare the characteristics of effective PBL from the BIE  with the projects my students and I have completed in

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Improving the Lecture?

Tools that improve upon the traditional lecture are abundant in today’s edtech landscape. These tools can be categorized as follows: (1) Improving real time lectures (2) Flipping the class to allow lectures to be seen anywhere at anytime.  Both types of types of tools make lectures more responsive and could be important starting points on

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The Future of Teaching

As we try to predict what learning and schools will look like in the future, we must consider how we can better prepare teachers for facilitating this type of education.  Although there are many important purposes of schooling, two of the most important are preparing citizens who can contribute to society and developing workers who

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Microsoft’s Classroom Utopia

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-tFdreZB94]   First, let me start with the most promising aspects of Microsoft’s vision for technology’s role in improving how people live and learn in the future. Technology will allow people to:   easily and more immersively connect with experts around the world. pursue more meaningful projects for authentic audiences spend more time with the

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