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From the TBC PL Google+ Community

TPACK Explained

“Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. ” Sounds pretty dry right?The point is that we teachers usually have great pedagogical and content knowledge, but usually don’t have great technological knowledge. Do you agree? Is technological knowledge now an essential part of being a great teacher? Click ‘continue’ to take you to the original article.

Hook vs. Do Now

I’ve often tried to consistently start my lessons with a ‘Do Now’, mainly for management/routine reasons but also to link in with work we have covered in the previous lesson. This article offers an interesting perspective on ‘Hooks’ that are “more about intrinsic motivation and self-discovery”.

Tips, Tricks and Traps

Google Educator Training 

Google have recently improved their training programme to focus not just solely on how to use the various tools/apps but also about the pedagogy. They now have a comprehensive online teaching and assessing activities for a range of different uses and abilities. A good staring point is their Google Certified Educator Level 1.

These are good courses and can’t be rushed through quickly (I tried on my first exam for the Google Certified Trainer and only narrowly passed). Having said that, they are very worthwhile and can introduce you to features or uses you may not have come across. For more detail, go to this summary of the 4 different trainings.

Archive a class – Classroom Help

At the end of the school year, you may want to archive a class to preserve the class materials, any assignments, and any postings to the class stream. You can still access any class files in Google Drive, but the archived classes are moved to a separate area to help you keep your current classes organised. An archived class can be viewed by you and the students in the class. However, when the class is archived, you can’t edit or add anything to the class until you restore it. Click this link to find out more

More tips and resources @ TBC PL Website

Things that make you go hmmmm….

Self Driving Cars and Education . . . The Parallels

A great analogy between driver less cars and educational innovation. I think this confirms some of the programmes here at TBC-rather than wholesale change, we run smaller scale programmes to learn what works best in our context. Click ‘continue’ to read more…