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Ary Aranguiz's Blog (31)

MOOCs Boldly Go Where We've Never Been Before!

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on November 10, 2012 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Experiencing Museums and Historic Sites Via Interactive Technology

I recently moved to upstate New York, near Fort Ticonderoga, a historic gem which I am embarrassed to admit neither my children, nor I ever had a chance to learn about in history books or visit in person until a few months ago. Although, my family and I have been lucky enough to do some extensive traveling in and out…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on November 7, 2012 at 12:21pm — No Comments

Socratic Seminars Succeed With Tech Tools!

Over 2400 years ago Socrates figured out that:

Lectures are boring and should not be the sole means of imparting knowledge.
Regardless of grade or ability level, all students can learn, and learn best when given the opportunity to express themselves, reflecting on what they already know, connecting what they know…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 30, 2012 at 2:00am — No Comments

Technology Takes the Bite Out of Grammar!

One of my pet peeves about the teaching of grammar is hearing educators complain year after year that students can't spell, punctuate, distinguish a verb from a noun, write a sentence...

yada, yada, yada. Educators pass the blame from grade to grade, yet many students reach the 12th grade with below average grammar skills unable to write or speak coherently. …

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 25, 2012 at 8:01am — No Comments

Two Cents in Twitter Chats, Priceless Results!

As I have become more actively involved in the education world online, joining Twitter, participating in chats like #edchat, #engchat, meeting like-minded colleagues who share my passion for education and technology, I have realized all is not lost in education reform. Twitter chats like #edchat and others are instrumental in creating the impetus we need to once and for all effect change for the better. While the physical world struggles to provide…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 21, 2012 at 11:00pm — No Comments

Differentiation With Pinterest: Promote Personalized Reading Plans

Pinterest.com has emerged on the social media scene with a million and one uses, but one of the best ways to take advantage of this tech tool is for differentiation to build students' reading confidence and interest. When we face the challenge of having unskilled or reluctant readers in our classrooms, Pinterest.com can help us organize reading selections for individual students.…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on August 16, 2012 at 3:28pm — No Comments

Tech Tools Supporting C.R.I.S.S. Strategies

CReating Indepence through Student Owned Strategies has helped countless numbers of students improve their reading and writing skills. Today, teachers don't have to rely on transparencies, butcher paper and markers to model these strategies for students to begin applying and internalizing them. Using tech tools to teach many of the C.R.I.S.S. strategies make…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on July 2, 2012 at 8:00am — No Comments

In Memoriam Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)

A few years ago, I had one of the most challenging groups of students and parents I had ever worked with in my entire teaching career. I must confess that Ray Bradbury helped me…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on June 7, 2012 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Teaching Tots to Twitter Instills Love of Writing: Part II Transform Teaching With Twitter

If students learn to tweet in the primary grades, is it possible we may begin to see an improvement over time in students' writing skills and overall attitude toward writing? I believe Twitter, if properly implemented, can support writing and reading instruction and promote a love of writing. Twitter in the elementary classroom can be essential for establishing the mind-set for students that they all have something worthwhile to say in writing, and there…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on June 3, 2012 at 10:00am — No Comments

A through Z Critical Thinking Twitter Tasks

There's nothing trivial about Twitter! Twitter can literally transform your classroom, and your professional growth. I have created a Sliderocket presentation sharing 24 A through Z Twitter Tasks that support the High School English Language Arts Common Core Standards. In my next series of posts about Twitter, I will share tips for using Twitter in the elementary, and middle school classroom as well as A through Z suggestions for joining Twitter's…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on May 9, 2012 at 6:30am — No Comments

Tech Tools To Support Writing Instruction!

| Learn About Mixbook Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Please visit…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on April 23, 2012 at 8:28pm — No Comments

One Word Enhances The Journaling Experience!

When I was a kid, I hated walking into my English class to face the drudgery of the daily journal topic the teacher’s pet had written sloppily on the chalkboard. I loved writing, but boy, did I hate the routine of journal writing day in and day out. I hated the dumb prompts, the lack of follow-up with a discussion...there was no such thing as discussions back then...,and I knew my teacher never read a single word I wrote. I didn’t…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on October 13, 2011 at 5:27pm — No Comments

Student Writing Soars With Storybird!

Soar to new heights with Storyboard.com, a site that allows students to create, collaborate, read, and share their own stories. Storybird.com has thousands of art pieces arranged by themes. Students select a theme or piece of art to inspire them to write a story.

Students can invite collaborators to share the writing of a story. …

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on October 13, 2011 at 5:24pm — No Comments

How Fake Facebook Profiles Support Reading Instruction and More!

Teaching author's perspective, author's purpose, tone and mood, characterization and other literary elements are some of the most difficult reading skills for students to untangle. Because of time constraints, teachers often ignore discussing an author's life experiences as part of front-loading a text to be read. I have always been a proponent of less is more, so I make the time to let kids learn aboout a writer's life before we read his/her book, and we…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on October 8, 2011 at 2:26pm — No Comments

It's A Black Tie Affair With Tagxedo: List Five of Tech Terms All Teachers Should Know!

Smarten up with http:/tagxedo.com, and turn vocabulary lessons into a special occasion!

Tagxedo.com is not your ordinary cloud generator. Students can upload websites, blogs, or any type of text, then choose the…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on October 1, 2011 at 1:54pm — No Comments

One Scoop or Two?

Building your own "sundae" of information is as delicious as a double scoop of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top! Scoop.It is the banana split of bookmarking when browsing the web because you get to choose and garnish an information "sundae" with content you find deliciously interesting. You can share your scoops of information with a community of readers on various social media, and on… Continue

Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 29, 2011 at 3:30pm — No Comments

List Two-Tech Terms All Teachers Should Know

Are you ready for List Two of Tech Terms All Teachers Should Know? Well, ready or not here it is! Quiz is forthcoming!

My next post will feature one more tech tool that supports vocabulary instruction. I have used wordstash.com again to create List Two to maintain consistency with the way the lists look and can be accessed, but this other tech…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 24, 2011 at 11:30am — No Comments

Fuzzynyms: The Lexicon of Learning Connotation Using Lexipedia

Regardless of the grade or subject, all teachers teach vocabulary, but how often do students struggle with learning the lexicon of a particular subject or with just understanding what words to use to express themselves more precisely and succinctly in speech and writing.

All of the vocabulary web tools I will be sharing in the next couple of posts…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 24, 2011 at 11:30am — No Comments

Do You Speak-a My Language? Tech Terms All Teachers Should Know-List One Using Wordle.net&WordStash.com

In my last post I used the word “friended”. After posting it, I thought what if some readers think I’ve made a huge grammatical blunder using “friend” as a verb. But then I thought, my readers don’t live under a rock. They must have heard this new techie vernacular. Which got me to thinking there’s so much tech talk out there, it’s difficult to keep up with it all.…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 23, 2011 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Have You Friended TED?

If you haven’t met TED, TED is waiting to inspire you and your students! TED is a non-profit organization first created to spread ideas about Technology, Entertainment and Design; however, since it’s inception in 1984, TED has expanded to spreading ideas online about so much more through TED Talks. Our technology has made TED Talks easily accessible anytime, anywhere on the web. TED Talks feature short presentations of leading experts in all…

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Added by Ary Aranguiz on September 22, 2011 at 1:00pm — No Comments