Learning and Leading - June/July 2012

Kidz Gear has released a new version of its wired headphones for kids designed specifically for the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. This Apple-specific version of the Kidz Gear headphones features volume-limiting technology to protect children’s hearing, an inline microphone that records audio, and a remote with controls for track up, track down, and more.

MORE INFO: www.gearforkidz.com

ISTE has four books coming out soon. Safe Practices for Life Online: A Guide for Middle and High School, Second Edition by Doug Fodeman and Marje Monroe will be released in June. It offers practical advice on how to help students make better choices and minimize their risks online. Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams explains what a flipped classroom is and why it works. It will be released in July along with the following two books: Digital Connections in the Classroom by David Marcovitz explores how students and teachers can use the internet to connect, collaborate, share, and create. A Constructivist Approach to the NETS for Teachers by V. N. Morphew addresses ISTE’s digital age standards for teachers through a constructivist lens.

MORE INFO: iste.org/store

MentorMob. com is a new free site designed to help anyone learn virtually anything by providing a repository of cultivated, crowdsourced educational content organized into step-by-step instruction. Using materials from You Tube, Wikipedia, About.com, and other sources, MentorMob creates how-to courses, or Learning Playlists, that make learning a new skill, hobby, or technique easy without wasting time searching the internet. MentorMob topics range from how to play guitar to how to conduct scientific experiments. Due to the collaborative nature of the platform, the content continually grows and improves.

MORE INFO: www.mentormob.com MindPlay has released

MORE INFO: www.mindplay.com/programs/mindplay-virtual-reaching-coach

Robotics Support for STEM Learning

Robotics is a powerful way to teach STEM education, but what types of learning take place when students work on robotics projects? Mark Gura and Nancy McIntyre look at LEGO Robotics and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League, a program designed to pique students’ interest in science with hands-on robotics.

Turning Around Dunbar High School Dunbar High School was rapidly losing enrollment a decade ago, and administrators knew they had to make drastic changes. They implemented a program to offer students the chance to train in a professional learning environment while earning industry-level IT credentials. Denise Spence explains how this turned Dunbar High School around.

Improve Reading with iPads First grade teachers Sara Getting and Karin Swainey of Hilltop Elementary School in Minnesota, USA, set out to determine if iPads could improve their struggling students’ scores in word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Find out what they discovered, the challenges they overcame, and their encouraging conclusions.