Stop the Madness with Top Classroom Management Techniques
Stop the Madness with Top Classroom Management Techniques
I have worked with educators in schools and universities across the United States since 2006. My experience includes teaching, speaking, mentoring, training, program review, and curriculum design. My goal is to help educators succeed and make a difference in the lives of students.  As a successful educator, coach, national trainer, and speaker, I promise to motivate and inspire educators through my on-site school training and district keynotes. I share practical, proven strategies for immediate use in classrooms. Continue reading “Stop the Madness with Top Classroom Management Techniques”
SitePal and Voki: Add Pizzazz to Your Website or Classroom
There are some fun sites that can be used to animate pictures to add pizzazz to websites or online classrooms. One of these sites, Voki, is free and is available for non-commercial use. For commercial use, SitePal starts at just $9.95/month.
Are you looking for a way to create content for an online classroom? Consider adding a link to Voki. “Voki enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone. Voki lives on your blog, social network profile and will soon be integrated in various instant messaging platforms. You will also be able to download it to most video supported phones.”
Click on the picture below to see what happens if you add a link to your Voki-created file.  Be sure to hit the play button to hear the message once you get there.
If you are looking for a way to stand out on your website, resume, email signature line, or other form of social media, consider SitePal. “SitePal is an easy-to-use service that allows you to create a speaking avatar for your website and empower your online communication.” Click on the picture below to see that animation.
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Free Social Media Tools for Teachers
In my books, I often write about using social media tools.  I think they can be invaluable in the classroom.  I recently found a great article about media tools for teachers on Mashable.com.   I am a big Mashable fan. They have wonderful articles about technology and every one of them is more interesting than the next. If you haven’t checked out their site, you really need to do so.Â
In Sarah Kessler’s article 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers, she point out some great tools that can be used in the classroom including:
- Edu 2.0Â Â – site that allows teachers to share content
- SymbalooEDU – site allows teachers to organize classroom resources, school logos may be added
- Collaborize Classroom – site allows for online discussions to remove intimidation factor
- Edublogs  – site is great for group projects, newsletters and more
- Kidblog – good site for K-8 classroom
- Edmondo – site is similar to Facebook but more controlled environment
- TeacherTube, SchoolTube, Youtube – TeacherTube and SchoolTube are alternatives to Youtube for teachers
To watch videos about each of these tools, click here to read the Mashable article.  Â
Mashable already had a really interesting article about the need for social media in the classroom. Click here to read that article.
Related Articles
- 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers (mashable.com)
- The Case For Social Media in Schools (mashable.com)
Taking Your First Online Class? A Professor Shares How to Succeed | My Education Blog
Even if you do much of your work online and socialize online, there may be challenges when it comes to online learning. If it’s your first online class, you’re not only facing a learning curve about the subject matter, but what it takes to do your best in an online classroom.
Dr. Diane Hamilton, author of “The Online Student’s User Manual” who teaches online courses for six universities, shares some of her tips for being a successful online college student.
Q: What technology skills should students gain before starting an online course?
A: They have to know how to upload files and how to understand the classroom and how it’s laid out (online). They’re not just opening the door and walking in. Sometimes there’s four of five different areas where they have to look for information (such as homework assignments).
Q: What can older learners who may not be as tech-savvy do to prepare?
A: I have a lot of sympathy for the older learner. There are a lot of tutorials online that are free. I have links that I always put in my classrooms, such as how to set up papers, how to set up a PowerPoint. They don’t have a good idea of how to set up documents.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes online students should avoid?
A: There’s a lot of buzz terminology that they need to know about so they don’t get into class and become overwhelmed by the terminology (words like “search engine” or “rubric”). Use basic “netiquette,” with the proper way of speaking to one another and being respectful. You can’t type in all caps because that means you’re yelling. Also, texting has been the way people communicate, but this is a formal environment and you need to write in complete sentences. Students are sometimes not using capitalization and they’re doing other things like they’re texting (instead of) being in the formal classroom.
Q: What’s an online tool for communicating with professors and peers that students should use?
A: Some of the schools set up a chat room (for the course), which is a really good thing. I also set up my own if the school doesn’t set up one. It’s like standing in the hallway talking. The bachelor students want to talk in the chat rooms, but tend to be more shy in terms of talking to the professor. I will post kind of funny YouTube things to lighten the mood to get people posting and talking to each other and to make me more approachable and make them realize I’m not a scary person. I have a Facebook page for my online students. I also have a blog. I have Twitter. I tell all my students, this is how you reach me on all those different areas.
Q: How does online learning appeal to different personalities?
A: I think that a lot of introverts really find online learning appealing for the fact that an introvert tends to think internally before speaking. They can take time to process their information and backspace and retype. With an extrovert, it’s appealing in another way. Sometimes they say, “I wish I hadn’t said that.” They have a chance to delete before posting it.
-Lori Johnston