‘Congratulations. Your school has just purchased a cart housing twenty-four tablets. Your principal wants you to roll it right into your classroom and start innovating—tomorrow.”
So begins this engaging and highly accessible guide for practitioners looking for a systematic way to kick their teaching up a notch by combining education technology with best practices in teaching and learning.
Written by two veteran teacher-trainers,
Techno Teaching provides a clear blueprint that educators of all experience levels can use to challenge themselves and their students over a single school year. Through “stellar units, ” “dare-devil missions, ” and other activities, the authors show how teachers can progressively transform their classrooms by adding new digital and web tools to meet the specific needs of students.
Techno Teaching includes planning templates, reflection documents, and other resources, making it immediately usable and indispensable for classroom teachers.
Table of Content
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1
What Is Techno Teaching? 17
CHAPTER 2
Starting Out 31
Where You Are and Where You Want to Go
CHAPTER 3
Jumping In 49
The Stellar Unit
CHAPTER 4
Hunkering Down 87
Plan the Year Ahead
CHAPTER 5
Stretching 107
Dare Devil Missions and Other Short-Term Projects
CHAPTER 6
Branching Out 131
Connecting Locally and Globally
CHAPTER 7
Getting the Ed Tech Tools You Need 149
CHAPTER 8
Reflecting on the Year 169
APPENDIX A
Techno Teaching Manifesto 187
APPENDIX B
Techno Teaching Resources 189
Notes 193
Acknowledgments 199
About the Authors 205
Index 209
About the author
Julie M. Wood
Educational Consultant, Teacher, School Reformer, and Writer
An international educational consultant, Julie M. Wood, Ed D, served as a faculty member and former director of the Jeanne Chall Reading Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), where she also earned a second master’s degree in technology, innovation, and education and a doctorate in language and literacy. She also directed a HGSE-led comprehensive school reform initiative called Three to Third, aimed at helping to close the achievement gap for young children. As of the spring of 2013, she serves as the academic learning specialist at the Kingsley Montessori School in Boston.
Julie’s writing has been featured in Instructor magazine, in
Scholastic Administrator, on the
Teacher Radio program (on Scholastic.com), on the PBS Expert site, and in the journal
Language Arts. She has written chapters for an edited volume published by Harvard Education Letter (
The Digital Classroom) and Harvard Education Press (
Better Teaching and Learning in the Digital Classroom). Her book
Literacy Online (Heinemann) expands upon these themes.
In addition, Julie has spoken at events, such as a forum on No Child Left Behind legislation at the Harvard University Law School; for organizations including the International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, American Educational Research Association, and Texas Dyslexia Institute; and at international conferences.
A long-time educator, Julie began her career as a public school teacher and reading specialist. She has also served as a university lecturer, an editor/media developer in educational publishing, and a consultant on transmedia products for teachers and students. Her clients include Apple, Inc., Disney Interactive, Nickelodeon, Heinemann Publishers, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin, the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready to Learn Partnership, and PBS Interactive, where she serves as the senior literacy advisor for new projects.
Nicole Ponsford
Educational Writer and Coach
Nicole Ponsford is an award-winning advanced skills teacher and former senior leadership team member who is now working as a freelance school improvement consultant and coach. She has worked in a variety of schools in the U.K., from leafy Surrey schools to inner-city academies, from “failing” to “outstanding” secondary schools. After developing a range of fourteen to nineteen subjects in multimedia, film, and the digital arts for adolescents, she moved on to advising principals, schools, local education authorities (LEAs), and national audiences.
Nicole has been nominated twice by her students and staff for the Teaching Awards, winning her first as “Outstanding New Teacher.” She has been rated “Outstanding/1” several times as a teacher, head of department, and senior leader. She has worked with LEAs in the U.K. to transform services and change the way that education is delivered. Given her holistic view of education as a classroom practitioner and senior leader, as well as her experience as an A-level examiner/moderator and with creating networks for LEAs and advanced skills teachers, she offers a wealth of expertise in running curriculums, procuring resources, and raising standards in teaching and learning.
Her main current role is achievement coach for the international charity Achievement for All. In this position, Nicole works across the south of England to support accelerated progress in schools for the most vulnerable students across the school years. She has also worked with Early Support (reviewing its online resources and how they can be accessed by the public) and is part of a national case study involving schools and families who have school-age children with severe additional needs.