Get Back to Me - A Wait Time Strategy

The Teaching Channel has a vast library of videos that demonstrate and explain teaching strategies. One of the videos that I recently stumbled upon is about the "Get Back to Me" strategy. This is a strategy that can make students feel comfortable asking for more time to respond after you have given the class some wait time following a question. You can watch the short video here and find the transcript of the video here.

Origo One - One Minute Math Lessons

Origo One is a new YouTube channel offering one minute math lessons for teachers and students. The first few videos in the series seem to be aimed at elementary school teachers. In the first video that I watched Origo One explains why teaching the "use ten" strategy is better than having students count on their hands to complete multiplication in their heads.


The second video that I watched featured the idea of having students look for pairs of numbers in the real world to reinforce the concept of doubles or multiplying by two.


Applications for Education
These Origo One videos aren't breaking new ground, but they do offer a nice and concise representation of some elementary school math teaching strategies.

How to Have Students Practice Presentation Skills While Teaching You About Technology

Today, at the New Teacher Academy at Boston College I answered some questions from teachers worried about students discovering more about technology than they could discover. The solution that I proposed is to have your students practice their presentation skills by showing off a "hidden feature" of their iPads, laptops, Chromebooks, or Android devices.

At the beginning of the school year when students receive devices from the school or bring their own devices to school for the first time, ask them to give a two or three minute presentation about their favorite hidden feature of their devices. Don't have them make slides. Have them hook-up to projector to give a short demonstration and explanation. Ask them to share what they like about their favorite hidden features and why those hidden features could have value to other students.

A tip for making this exercise comfortable for all of the students; resist the urge to let the demonstrations become a competition. This activity isn't about determining which students know the best "hidden features" it's about giving students practice speaking in front of their classmates while helping you their classmates learn about iPads, laptops, Chromebooks, or Android devices.