Have you ever been around someone who knows exactly the right word when they talk? Don’t you conclude they’re smart? Capable? The one you want in your study group? How about the inverse–an individual struggling with language, maybe picks words that aren’t quite right or can’t come up with one at all. What do you conclude then?

Teachers have always taught ‘vocabulary’ using labels like word study, site words, Dolch, Hi-Frequency words. Common Core considers proper terminology part and parcel to preparing for college and career. They fall into three types:

• Tier 1: Words acquired through every day speech, usually learned in early grades
• Tier 2: Academic words that appear in textbooks, precise words that refine meaning, i.e. ‘sprint’ instead of ‘run’.
• Tier 3: Domain specific words tied to content, included in glossaries, highlighted in textbooks, and considered important to understanding content.

The ‘tier’ you focus on in your teaching depends upon student age and material being taught. Here are five ways technology will make the time you spend on this subject more effective, fun, differentiated, and authentic:

• Context clues
• SpellingCity
• Online graphic dictionaries
• Word clouds
  
• Vocabulary websites

Before we begin, let’s lay some groundwork. Vocabulary (or word study) isn’t done in a vacuum. You don’t pass out lists and have students memorize words and definitions (you don’t do that, do you?). If you used to, that’s changed with Common Core. Now, you are expected to integrate vocab into learning. Every time students run into a term they don’t get, you need to pause and help them decode it. It may be obvious from context, its parts (roots and affixes), but always–always—pay attention so students know unfamiliar words are not skipped. With Common Core, every nuance is important. It’s about uncovering knowledge.

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You know the type. One student thinks it’s his job to entertain everyone. Another hates school so wants everyone to join him. Or how about that boy who enthusiastically shouts out questions no matter how often you ‘suggest’ he follow the class’s agreed-upon rules for joining the conversation.

This is a Hard-to-teach Class, one that makes you reconsider your academic career. Your Admin has good suggestions–give them big goals, authentic guidelines, moving deadlines. Make classwork student-directed and self-paced. Your principal promises these will shake up the student perception of class and turn them around. You’re willing, but how do you do it?

Here are twelve ideas:

1. Teach programming–but the fun way. Try Scratch, Alice, robotics, Minecraft (visit Minecraftedu for ideas). These are novel, like the games students love, and teach the big themes of problems solving, data analysis, how to reason abstractly and quantitatively–practices important to Common Core standards as well as students ability to meet the demands of life.
   
2. Flip the classroom. Provide resources to students on the topic (say, Scratch or robotics) via a screencast or a Google Hangout and then do a project using the skill during class time. Students will do the homework so they’re prepared for the fun project being done in class. 
3. Monitor student involvement and understanding with backchannel devices like Socrative–even Twitter. These three are free (there are some fee-based options I won’t mention), easy to set up, and intuitive to use. Keep the feedback displayed throughout the lesson on the Smartscreen so you and students can track learning.
   
4. Use domain-specific language as you teach. Don’t shy away from terminology like ‘backchannel’, ’embed’, ‘widget’. Let students feel the rush of understanding terms others don’t, the pride in being part of the Club that can use and make sense of tech terminology.
   
5. Use every tech tool you can for every activity possible. Show students how tech is part of your daily activities, ingrained into your teaching. Use a digital online clock to track time. Take pictures with your iPhone. Scan art projects with an iPad app. Have students come up with more ways to use digital tools.
6. Expect students to be risk takers. Don’t rush in to solve problems. Let them know you respect their cerebral skills and have complete faith they will find a solution. Don’t treat them like children.
   
7. If a student doesn’t like one of the projects, let them come up with their own–as long as it satisfies the goals of the exercise. For example, if you suggest they write a story showing character development and they’d rather create a comic, let them convince you they can accomplish your expectations their own way. Be flexible, but focused. 
8. In fact, any chance you have, differentiate instruction for students. Be flexible, open-minded, and adventurous. One of tech’s biggest pluses is that it differentiates well for learning styles. Use it.
9. Collaborate with other 8^th grade subject teachers on cross-curricular planners that involve technology. Always accept the challenge to take tech into education. After all, aren’t you the one saying how great tech ed is? Prove it.
   
10. Consider a BYOD approach in your classes so students can use the devices they have easy access to and are comfortable with (if your school IT folks and infrastructure can support this approach). This way, students can work on projects at their own schedule, without constraints set by a school day. 
11. Assess knowledge, but remember: Assessment isn’t static—nor is it ‘bad’. Be creative. Remember why you do this: 1) to see if students understand the lesson, 2) to see if what was taught can be transferred to life, 3) to help students prepare for college and/or career.
12. Gamify your class by teaching with simulations. Use online (free) simulations like Mission US, iCivics. Let students work in groups with specific goals to accomplish, but let them figure out their own path.

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As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I can’t read the internet page. How do I zoom out of a browser window?

A: There are a few ways, but here’s the simplest of all: Hold down the “Ctrl” key and move your “mouse scroll wheel”. One direction zooms in; the other zooms out.

There are two other ways:

• Ctrl+ (the plus sign next to backspace) will zoom in one step at a time; Ctrl- will do the same zooming out
• Go to the menu bar. Select ‘View’, ‘Zoom’ and either ‘Zoom in’ or ‘Zoom out’

To return to the original setting, hold down the “CTRL” key and hit the number zero.

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When you were a child, your parents worried that the educational content you were learning might be out of date. Did history include the most relevant theories? Did science have the latest discoveries (and was Pluto still a planet)? When you became a teacher, you probably thought one of your big responsibilities was to stay current in your subject. You’re right–but today, ‘current’ is as much about content as how the message is delivered.

And delivery more and more often is powered by technology.

But when you read about tech tools used in cutting edge schools, your stomach churns. Is there enough PD time in your life to teach you all the tech you need to know? What if you can’t learn it?

Truth, you don’t have to know all 2878 (and counting) tech tools being used around the country. You just need to know five. Learn them. Use them with students. Expect them to use them. When those are solid, pick five more.

Ready? Here are your first five:

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Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Lisa:

Hi there! Wondering what your typical classroom structure is like. For example, I will be teaching k-5 in 50 minute classes.

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: So many colleagues are sharing their documents through Google Apps, but I don’t know how to do that. Can you help?

A: I love this part of Google Apps for Education. When your Google Doc is complete,

• save it by a name of your choice
• File>Publish to the Web (on the menu bar)
• Change the drop down choice ‘webpage’ to ‘HTML to embed in a page’
• copy html code
• paste into blog, wiki, website like I did below:

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There are a lot of good culture websites. Here are 22 from my collection:

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If parents don’t find value in tech, students won’t. If parents are confused by what you teach, they will pass that on to their children. Be open to parents. Answer their questions. Never EVER leave them feeling intimidated. Let them know that lots of people feel exactly as they do.

A great solution I’ve had a lot of success with: Have a parent class. I schedule this after school while parents are waiting for their children to finish with enrichment classes or sports. They’re hanging around anyway–why not learn something. Cover topics that parents are asking you about, should be asking about, their students are asking about:

• show how to log onto and use the school website
• show how to log into the school online grade reports
• demonstrate how to use the school online library/lunch order system (or similar)
• review what is being covered in K-5 classes (depending upon who is in the parent class)
• review your philosophy (teach students to fish rather than provide the fish, encourage exploration and risk-taking, you don’t jump in to help every time they get stuck). Model this philosophy as you teach parents
• provide skills parents want, i.e., making a flier for the school soccer team
• show the progression of skills from kindergarten to 5th grade in one program, say word processing. Start with KidPix, move into Word
• answer tech questions they have from non-school problems–even if they’re about a home system

Here’s my flier inviting parents to attend:

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Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Laurie:

Do you know of any websites where teachers can create a free web page for their classroom? But I’d like to have my students maintain it, so they would need accounts and then I approve and publish the material?

Something has changed in education content delivery, thanks to companies like Google, Khan Academy, MIT. When these industry leaders (and others) started offering high-quality educational tools for free, more followed. Yesterday’s muffled plea for equality in educational opportunities regardless of economic status is today’s reality. A rising tide raises all ships became a call for action rather than a dreamy quote.

This isn’t your mother’s schoolhouse anymore.

Think about the transformative teaching that comes from Google Earth, GAFE, Khan Academy, Scratch. A decade ago, they’d be expensive for-fee programs. Now, they’re free.

That’s just the nose of the educational camel. There are many more programs and widgets and tools that educators can take advantage of without cost, thus freeing up their limited funds for other programs, like elementary school music and art. Here are a few you want to take advantage of:

Online eLearning

Don’t you wish you had access to a Blackboard-type program that makes it easy to teach online, simple for students who miss class to catch up? What about GoToMeeting-style get-togethers where teachers show parents how to use online grade books or order lunches or access the nannycams mounted in preschool. Conventional Wisdom says parents will find you if they need help, but the truth is, every November, just weeks before report cards go out, a slew of parents swarm your room to find out how to see if their child is going to survive. Too bad these virtual training programs are the province of colleges and businesses.

They aren’t anymore. Here are two ways to meet parents and students online, on their schedule, where they need you:

• Set up a Google Hangout. Yes, users must have a G+ account, but once that’s in place, you can have virtual Hangouts for parents or students providing training, updates, how-tos and question-and-answers.
• Record information to a YouTube (or Vimeo) channel on any topic. This can be done directly in YouTube’s website, to your iPhone or iPad with the free Vine app, or using a free recording program like Jing or Screencast-o-matic. Which you select depends a lot on what you want to accomplish.

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