NEISTE Webinar Series

“School Fuel” Matt Mervis Thursday, December 19th at 7 PM School Fuel is a Mobile Learning Platform that allows teachers and school leaders to connect with students in class and on the go. School Fuel provides customized app and resource libraries aligned to Common Core Standards helping schools deliver the...

Quest For a Mobile Language Lab Solution

As a former Spanish language teacher, my experience of integrating technology into my Spanish teaching has not yet included mobile technologies. Six years ago, I left a computer language lab with rows of computers in cubicles. While I enjoyed having computers to open the world of cultures and digital discourse...

20 Education Technology Tools Everybody Should Know About

Although educators tend to feel like they are left all on their own to deal with students that are getting crazier by the day, there are plenty of technology resources that can make their teaching job more effective. Educators should definitely start using some of the online solutions that are...

Building Learning Communities

This morning’s #satchat initially focused on the faculty meeting, but quickly turned into a powerful discussion about learning communities. I want to capture the essential points I gained so that I can reflect on these issues more in days to come. First, do we consider schools learning communities?   In...

IFTTT: A Recipe For Organization

If This, Then That (IFTTT) is a service that allows you to make connections between different sites, apps, and other technology. It allows you to create recipes that when “triggered,” an action takes place. For example, I could create a recipe in which if I take a new photo with...

Genius Hour Reviewed

For several weeks the topic of conversation in our classroom surrounded our trial of Genius Hour.  Students were excited about being given the time and opportunity to pursue topics of interest to them.  They LOVED the term – Student Driven Learning! Most students had an idea right away – while others needed...

Making Connections

A month or so ago, I attended a Common Core conference at UMass Boston, and if you remember correctly, I said there was so much about that day that would inspire future newsletters… Here’s one, now! One of the topics discussed was the necessity for adults to have a strong understanding of social...

PARCC Will Replace MCAS For Most BPS Students

In case you missed it in the news last week, the Massachusetts Board of Education voted to accept a two-year transition plan to the PARCC assessment. The original plan to implement PARCC testing called for all Massachusetts students begin taking the new assessment in 2015, but MA Commissioner of Education Mitchell...

App Inventor Boot Camp in Western Mass

  App Inventor Boot Camp was a summer professional development experience for teachers to learn MIT App Inventor, a free visual blocks-based programming system for Android mobile devices that can be used to teach computer science concepts through the creative design of apps for smartphones and mobile devices. In this...

Grab a Grand for Your Classroom

What would you do with an extra $1,000 to spend on your classroom? MassCUE offers as many as 7 competitive initiative grants of up to $1,000 each to our members for use in student-centered projects. Learn more at http://bit.ly/156mhg2 Also, look for our presentation at the fall Conference.  Talk with past...

Simplifying the Hunt

Our students need to see themselves as readers. Reading needs to be part of who they are and, fortunately, our ever-changing digital world makes this endeavor both possible and more interesting with each passing year. As more electronic resources dedicated to books and reading pop up, we are presented with...

Trying Something New

We summer staff watch the annual building renovations with excitement and apprehension. Will all of these new “improvements” work like we hope they will? Will they be finished in time? Will our staff like them? As we enter the last two weeks before school starts, we find ourselves wondering the...