Califone Blog

Many districts are trying to help their teachers understand why the Common Core Standards are different from previous sets of standards. But, as often happens with “big” changes in education, educators are left to figure out the details on their own. Fortunately, good resources are beginning to hit mainstream education channels. (more…)

Part of a continuing series of Califone guest bloggers.

Helen and I have talked about Futaba in our podcasts. It’s a great way to gamify student skill mastery with the assistance of a few headsets. A few days ago, two of my tech club kids and my lab aide created sets for PreK games in the app. Right now there aren’t many ready sets in the app for preschoolers. Creating sets and games was pretty easy. (more…)

Most educators and schools are working with restricted budgets; so stretching the technology dollar is a high priority. Many schools are fortunate to have iPads, but there are more schools with one iPad per classroom than those who have an iPad for every student. (more…)

Below is a listing of this week’s (ending March 22, 2013) most popular items pinned on our Pinterest boards dealing with education-related subject matter ranging from technology to the Common Core: (more…)

In our last post on blended learning we focused on the basic definitions and drivers for this new instructional model. Essentially it is an “ideal” blend of both face-to-face instruction and student-directed online learning that takes place at home and at least part of the time in a supervised environment in a building away from home. (more…)

A public health initiative targeting too-loud earphones and possible hearing loss was announced March 6th by New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg. (more…)

The Department of Education has long advocated that educators use social networks to collaborate with each other and to stay abreast of what teachers and administrators are doing around the country. Some districts encourage teachers to form professional learning networks (PLN) with local colleagues or to join online groups that are already established. (more…)

As schools and districts prepare for the upcoming Common Core State Standards (CCSS), some have voiced that there have been very few professional development resources available to help explain the changes. Educational publishers have been scrambling to develop training materials, and many districts have created their own. Now that we are just past the mid-year point in the 2012-2013 school year, we are finding that more professional development material is becoming available. (more…)