Much fuss has been made on Twitter recently about schools, such as one in Auburn, Maine, giving iPads to all students in kindergarten with former Assistant Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch (@dianeravitch) exclaiming on Twitter that she hoped the kindergarteners would break the iPads and that the students should be out playing instead of using …
Author: Mathew Needleman
Mathew Needleman, Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Innovator has been pioneering the use of instructional technology for over two decades. He has been a classroom teacher, literacy coach, conference keynoter, and he currently serves as an elementary school principal in Los Angeles, California. He is the founder of the independent education studio, Needleworks Pictures.
Video in the Classroom Carnival #6
It’s time once again to highlight some of the best posts and resources I’ve seen in and around the blogosphere that feature video production and digital storytelling in the classroom. Classroom Production Examples Karen Thompson shared these movies by Cindy Huson which are a simple yet ingenious and amusing way of teaching vocabulary words. Steve Katz …
Mythbusters: Education Edition
Here are two must-see items for teachers before going in to your next staff meeting. The first is an article from researcher, Will Thalheimer, that suggests that the pyramid that claims we remember 90% of what we teach others and only 10% of what we read is fabricated. Yes, we are more likely to remember …
How to Create Your First iPhone App
Introduction Since creating my first iPhone/iPad app, Reading Remedies, the question I’ve been asked most frequently by friends, family, blog-readers, and strangers on the street has been, “How do you create an iPhone app?” I am no expert on the subject but I’m happy to provide information on my experience and how I did it. …
Angry, Pink Slipped Teacher Rap Songs
As in many districts across the country, LAUSD has been faced with huge budget deficits and approximately 5,000 teachers (including my wife) have been served with pink slips. A district colleague of mine and former elementary school classmate has created two rap songs about receiving his own pink slip. If you’re a teacher anywhere, they’re …
Reading Remedies for iPhone and iPad
This week I released my first iPhone/iPad app, Reading Remedies, which helps to diagnose reading difficulties and support beginning readers. I hope it will be of use to teachers and especially parents. The app gives assessments in each of six reading areas (rhyming, blending, segmenting, sight words, fluency, and word attack) and then provides follow-up …
Common Core Digital Storytelling Educational Policy Educational Technology Video in the Classroom Workshops Upcoming
Higher Level Technology Use
For my upcoming presentation, “Digital CPR: Bring Your Reading Series to Life with Technology” for LAUSD’s Best Practices Conference on March 19th, I created this illustration which I will use to talk about higher level technology use. I will talk about incorporating multimedia in the classroom as something all teachers should be doing but I …
Close the Computer Lab
Let me preface this by saying: 1) In a perfect world every school would have both a computer lab and computers in their classrooms. 2) If you have an innovative teacher like Alice Mercer in your computer lab I would surely keep it open. But if you have a school with a computer lab like this, …
Increase Reading Fluency with Fluency Timer
I’m excited to announce that I’ve developed and released my very first software application, Fluency Timer, available now in the new Mac App Store or via my own site at: http://www.fluencytimer.net. Fluency Timer is both a timer and a recorder that records students’ one minute fluency readings. Research has shown that having students listen to …
Reading Intervention Resources
I’m halfway through my second year of providing intervention services on a pullout basis to struggling readers. I thought I would share the materials I’m using with my students to increase comprehension in the hopes that this might help someone else and that you might have additional resources you might recommend. About My Intervention As …