Here’s another of my paragraph practice pages. This one is about getting ready for school in the morning. The focus of this page should be the structure of the paragraph, including transitions. I intentionally chose a topic that kids wouldn’t have a hard time thinking about.
Click here for the free printable PDF: How to Get Ready For School in the Morning – paragraph practice
A few weeks ago, I posted this page on We Are Teachers (Click here to view the post). It’s a fairly easy practice page for using the dictionary. Enjoy!
I recently posted this field trip report/write-up over at We Are Teachers. There are 2 versions; one for upper grades and one for lower grades. Click here to view the post!
There’s a growing idea about the use of tablets and laptops in K-12 schools around the world. This technology, like any other tool, has the potential to make a huge positive impact on student learning. But how is it measuring up?
I recently came across a study by the Commonwealth of Learning called Large-Scale, Government-Supported Educational Tablet Initiatives. The authors studied tablet initiatives from around the world and evaluated their impact. Here are some snippets from the report:
ABSTRACT
“A growing number of countries are embarking on large-scale, government-supported initiatives to distribute tablet devices to students in the K–12 schooling sector. Unfortunately, there is a misconception that by simply putting this technology in the hands of students, educational access issues will be resolved and educational transformation will occur. In this research project, a systematic review of current government-supported tablet initiatives around the world was conducted to understand their origins, underlying principles, financial and organisational models, and expected outcomes. An extensive literature search and data extracted from identified documents showed that 11 countries have launched government-led tablet initiatives. The review concluded that the majority of these initiatives have been driven by the tablet hype rather than by educational frameworks or research-based evidence.”
CONCLUSION
“This review provides a snapshot of current large-scale, government-supported tablet initiatives around the world. The information collected confirms that the majority of the initiatives were launched in a hasty and uncalculated manner, similar to the uncritical enthusiasm that surrounded the One Laptop per Child initiatives.
However, this statement should be used cautiously, as the review was limited by the nature of the documents retrieved and the shortage of publicly available information. For a better understanding about the effectiveness of tablets in educational contexts and a clearer idea about best practices, a more focused review of the academic literature addressing tablet use in educational contexts is warranted.
Overall, we found that the initiatives focused on the hype around tablets and not on their use as a tool to achieve an educational goal.”
What do you think? Have you used tablets or other mobile devices in your classroom? What was your experience? Comment below!
You’ve probably seen those pages where the teacher chooses a number and the students do a bunch of stuff with it. That’s exactly what I made (FOR YOU FOR FREE!) over at We Are Teachers! Click here to check it out!
Pirates collect treasure… especially money. So naturally, they have to learn to count it! This free printable is a simple page where students count pirate treasure (coins). Super easy. I’ve even made you an answer key this time. 🙂
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Click here for the free printable PDFs: Pirate Treasure 1 and Pirate Treasure 1 – Answer Key
Looking for more freebies about money? Try out this Matching & Counting Money Puzzles printable!
This week over at We Are Teachers, I posted a printable all about rhyming words. Click here to hope over there and grab it!
Paragraphs are so basic that sometimes we as teachers want to zoom right through them and get on to essays. But good essays are made of good paragraphs, and the more paragraphs you have together, the more important it is to organize your thoughts properly. For this reason, I’ve built a few paragraph organizers to help you focus on the important pieces (transitions, introductory sentences, etc.). I’ve intentionally chosen topics that won’t be hard for kids to write about (there’s no “right” answer) so the content won’t distract them from focusing on proper paragraph construction.
The first one is about their favorite game to play. For the supporting sentences, kids could write about 3 aspects of the game, 3 reasons they like playing, etc.
Click here for the free printable PDF: My Favorite Game to Play – paragraph practice
Check back soon for more paragraph practice!
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