A Beautiful Classroom Poster on Essay Writing

November 5, 2014
Essay writing is a tedious task that demands a lot of thinking and rethinking. It is also a skill that can be developed through stages the first of which is reading. It is a truism that reading is a key to good writing but not the sole key for there are other factors that impact one's writing style such as practice, grammatical and syntactical knowledge, genre to mention a few. Generally speaking, essays have a common stylistic pattern that consists of introduction, body and conclusion. The development of each of these sections is regulated by a set of standardized conventions. For instance,  the introduction should be crafted in such a way that it sets the scene for what will be discussed in the main body of the essay. The body should contain multiple paragraphs cohesively related to each other. And the conclusion should sum up the core of the argument running through the essay.

A good and illustrative way to explain the steps to writing a good essay is through this analogy We Are Teachers made in this beautiful visual. The Bones of A Good Essay mimics essay components to body parts and provides some useful tips and pieces of advice on how to work on each part. I believe this could be a very good material to use with students in class especially that it is provided in a PDF format that you can download and print for free.

Click HERE to download the PDF format of this visual. Enjoy

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Tons of Great Free Downloadable Classroom Posters and Educational Infographics

November 2, 2014
Looking for some very good resources for educational infographics and classroom posters? We got you covered. The Pinterest board of our blog has a section dedicated entirely to visuals and interactives you can use in your classroom. We have over 300 beautiful infographics which are all education related. Besides that, we are also introducing you to another great resource from We Are Teachers that we have recently discovered. This page has tons of infographics and classroom posters that you can download and print for free. These materials cover a wide variety of educational topics including dyslexia, fluency, technology, and more. "Through these infographics, you can absorb information at a glance and expand your knowledge about diverse topics relevant to education."

The visuals featured in  this resource are arranged into four main categories: infographics, classroom posters, comic relief, teacher inspiration and classroom handouts. Browse through this collection and pick out the ones you like. To download any visual just click on it and then in the next page click on "download". Enjoy.

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Two Great Places to Buy Posters for Your Class

September 15, 2014
One of the repeated emails I keep getting almost on a daily basis is about how to buy visuals and infographics I share here in EdTech and mLearning. Actually, there are two kinds of visuals and posters I feature here: posters I have made myself and these are offered for free for anyone who want to use them non-comercially ( some examples: 10 Social media skills for the 21st century teachers , Digital citizenship poster, How to critically judge online content) ). The other type of posters I share here are those which I come across online and which are CC licensed.To use these posters you need to contact their original creator. I always include a link to the original work which you can use to get in touch with its owner. However, if you are looking for some websites that officially sell posters here are  two I would recommend .

1- Shawn MacMeekin

This website sells some great educational posters ideal for classroom use. Most of the posters you will find here are the creation of anethicalisland whose infographics have been featured here several times.

2- Teachers Pay Teachers

You are probably already familiar with this platform. As its name indicate, Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where teachers and educators share and sell teaching and learning materials. You can browse through the different materials offered here by grade, subject, and price. There is also a section for posters which embeds hundreds of educational visuals.

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5 Effective Questions You Should Be Able to Ask Your Students

September 3, 2014
After learning about the five tips to help you provide students with effective feedback, today I am sharing with you some equally important tips for formulating good learning-inducing questions in class. The art of question asking usually takes some years of practice and experience  to master. However, developing an early awareness of the importance of good questions in classroom teaching is the first step towards building an inquiry-based learning environment where students are encouraged to ask questions and engage in dialogical exchange of information.

So what are the "good" questions that lead to effective learning? In fact, there is no absolute answer to this question as it depends on  your teaching/learning situation but holistically speaking, there is a fundamental set of questions that pave the way for reflective, critical and deep learning. These are the strategic questions every teacher should be aware of and should use intermittently during class instruction. The purpose of these questions is twofold: first they can lead students in their learning journey and second, they help them pause and reflect and formulate questions of their own.

Rebecca Alber, from Edutopia, has recently published a great read in this direction. Her article "5 powerful questions teachers can ask students" provides some enlightening tips on the type of questions ideal for leading an inquiry-based learning classroom. Below is an excellent graphic that features these five questions.
The five questions Rebecca talked about are:

• What do you think?
• Why do you think that ?
• How do know this?
• Can you tell me more?
• What questions do you still have?

Thanks to Lance Fuhrer for creating this poster and for Edutopia's Facebook page for featuring it.

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A Good Visual Featuring 7 Ways to Be More Creative

August, 2014
Creativity, according to Albert Einstein, is intelligence having fun and for most neuro-cognitive scientists creativity is something that is inherently born with us and the proof is kids. All kids draw on their sharp sense of creativity to discover and explore the world around them. They can easily adapt their behaviour to new situations, develop new thinking skills and are constantly engaged in trying out "new ways of doing stuff". Sir Ken Robinson made a strong argument in this regard in his popular TED talk "schools kill creativity". Ken argued that kids come to school bursting with  creativity and by the time they graduate they have lost most if not all of their creativity. Sounds like schools are "educating kids out of creativity"!

But creativity is similar to a light bulb anytime you turn it on it will light the whole place. It might be dormant but it is always there waiting for someone to rekindle it. Creativity is a praxis, it involves doing and thinking and there are different ways to combine this doing and thinking to make a creative act. the visual brow features some of these ways. You can also check this post for more suggestions on how to be more creative.

Check out the original poster here.

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New Poster on How to Cite Digital Images

August, 2014
Here is a great visual from Langwitches on how to properly cite images on your blog. If you are planning to start a classroom blog or website then this could be a great material to share with students to help them learn about the different ways they can use to cite images. Langwithces featured here four kinds of images ( copyright images, Creative Commons licensed images, public domain images and images used under fair use) with explanations on how to cite each of these kinds. Have a look and share with with us what you thin of it. Enjoy

Click here to see the original poster

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Google's Poster on Cyber Safety

August, 2014
Here is a great poster assembled by Google which you can use in class with students. This post is made from a set of archived  images featuring 30 cyber security tips to share with your students. These tips were generated last October. As you probably know October is a cyber security awareness month in which Google shares tips to raise awareness about issues related to cyber security. All the tips share last october are included in this poster.

Here is a quick round-up of the tips featured in the poster below

• Keep your account safer using two step verification
• Flag inappropriate content
• Learn how to remote wipe your device
• Lock your screens
• Secure your wifi
• Think before you share
• Leave a virtual key under the mat
• Keep your software up-to-date
• Stop and look before downloading
• Learn how to decipher suspicious text or email
• Only install software from trusted sources
• Don't ignore online warnings
• Be an online sleuth
• Secure your router
• Run antivirus software
• Log out of public or shared computers
• Don't reuse your passwords
• Don't reply to suspicious messages
• Report spam, scams and phishing
• Don't send sensitive information by email
• Use a secure browser
• When you upload personal videos to YouTube always make sure you set them to private or unlisted if you don't want others to see them.
• Get to know your email settings
• Bak up your data online
• Do the  most sensitive tasks from your own devices and accounts

Click here to access the original poster

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A Handy Classroom Poster on APA Style

August 7, 2014
In yesterday's post I mentioned that Online Writing Lab (OWL) is one of my favourite go-to place when looking for help with referencing my papers. OWL provides guidelines on both APA and MLA styles and is also one of the academically trusted resources researchers use when working on their papers.

OWL also provides a handy visual in the form of a poster that is created specifically for teachers to use in the classroom. APA Classroom Poster is a free downloadable graphic that can be printed out at different sizes for use in classrooms, writing centers, or as a pocket reference. This visual summarizes the key points and rules to help students make a better use of APA style in their writings.

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Can I Use This Picture- A New Wonderful Flowchart for Your Class

August 7, 2014
Here is an excellent new find I want to bring to your attention in this post. This is basically a flow chart created by The Visual Communication Guy to help you make informed decisions as to the requirements to use images from the net. The flow chart proceeds in the form of question-answer and walks users through the different explanations of copyright, fair use, creative commons and public domaine.

Related" Should I post This Image" A Good Visual for Teachers

You might use this chart with your students to teach them about the appropriate ways to use online photos in their projects. This visual is made available through Visually. Have a look and share with your colleagues.

Click Here to access the full original version of this visual.

Courtesy of LifeHacker

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Key Learning Skills That Lead to 21st Century Success (Free Downloadable Poster )

August 4, 2014
In today's post I am sharing with you a set of new wonderful posters to use in class. These posters are created by Rob Kriete from Teaching Quality to help "teachers and parents navigate what the new common core standards mean to children". The poster features six classroom scenes that demonstrate the key  skills that lead to 21st century success. Accompanied with this post is an evidence sheet  that teachers can draw on to help parents understand how the classroom activities fit in within a 21st century model of learning.
The posters are available in PDF format from this link.

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Awesome Classroom Visual Featuring 10 Tips for New Teachers

July 2, 2014
Here is an awesome visual outlining some practical tips for those of you who have just landed a teaching position. This visual is created by ASCD and is based on ASCD New Teacher Bundle (this is basically a 3-book bundle packed with sound advice from educators who understand the challenges of those early years in classroom). The visual is also available for free download in PDF format so that you can print it off and use it in your class or office.

Here is a round-up of the 10 tips featured in this visual:

1- Have clear goals and a big vision for students to learn and achieve at high levels
2- Deny yourself and students the option of failure
3- Learn and grow everyday
4-Celebrate success and reward students with activities that enhance their learning
5- Kick-start students thinking by beginning a class with a provocative statement
5-Use students' strength in knowledge and behaviours to help them learn.
6-Incorporate into your lessons physical and social activities as well as intellectual activities.
7- Consider joining mentor program or teachers union.
8- Be flexible and respond to students learning needs.
9- Share with students the strategies you use yourself.

Click Here to download and view the full version of this visual

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