Summer Va-playing

Since I have been out for the summer I made a plan.  I will rest for a month and then start preparing to go back to school.  That lasted 2 weeks.  Between my twitter feeds and edmodo posts, I was getting interesting information as well as new tools to try.

As a Technology Teacher I did some reflecting on what went well and not so well last year.  Then I decided I wanted to spice some things up in class. I saw an edmodo post where one teacher made a video using an interesting tool called Powtoon.  Being the techie that I am, I checked it out. I signed up for a log in because it is in the beta stage and then off I went. It was hard at first, but once I figured out I had to change my screen display settings to get the tools in view I was good to go. I watched the YouTube videos and started playing. I decided to make an introductory video. Here it is:

What do you think? I think it is an awesome tool I had a blast. The only downfall I see, being a frugal teacher I only got 60 seconds of video to export with the free subscription.  I will share more tools as I continue to play during my summer vacation.

Reset, Restart, Renew...or face Burnout

I have been noticing a disturbing trend among students. We push harder and expect more, we test more but we refresh and renew less.  This is evident by more students dropping out, more students failing classes and increased reassessments of students.  Could it be that we do not allow students to restart or renew or reset themselves?  I think that may be the case.

I have been noticing this with my own students.  Many have "checked out" and spring break is three weeks away.  They have checked out by not doing work, showing up late to class or just not showing up at all.  When asked what's going on, I have have heard, "It's too much" or "My brain is tired" or " My electives are harder than my core classes".  As Educators we restart, reset or renew when we move to a new unit.  Students may have this when they have mid-terms, finals or the start of a new semester or trimester.  What are somethings that you do as an educator that allow your students to reset, restart or renew to avoid burnout?