Teach in VR

Maria Galanis and Andrea Trudeau are friends who have worked together for a long while. Maria started out as a tech coordinator and eventually moved her way up to being an instructional coach. Andrea worked for many years as a teacher in different subjects, then returned to school to become a librarian. “We started our journey last spring, and it was kind of by accident.” Andrea said, explaining how she and Maria got started with VR. The journey began with some foreign language teachers wanting to incorporate some technology into their teaching. As it turned out, Andrea discovered an app that they shared with another teacher who in turn began using it in his classroom. Time continued on, and the use of VR in the school continued evolving. As the teachers in their school became more and more familiar and comfortable with using VR, students began having the opportunity to even start digging into features that even allowed them to do coding. Maria felt this was particularly exciting. “I love how they could just customize and personalize whatever they want to do with their learning.” Keep reading at www.TeachinVR.com

Eddie Gonzalez is passionate about getting students to create using Virtual Reality (VR), rather than just consume VR. He’s currently a teacher, teaching primarily 6th-grade students language arts and history. He’s also taught various other grades and subjects. The one common thread in each of his classes is that Eddie always includes VR in his teaching. “In each of those classes, I always incorporate 3D models, just in different ways.” Eddie’s noticed something about kids through all his work with them and his work with Virtual Reality in EDU. He’s seen that for kids “regardless of their ancestral cultures...their culture is technology.” Read more at www.TeachInVR.com

Sally Eaves shares her industry insights into the impact Virtual Reality is having in Education.

Looking to the Future with Jaime Donally “We are failing our kids.” Jaime Donally, a woman hard at work in east Texas, has been struck with how limited a view many kids have of the world they live in. She recently asked her students what they were planning on doing during their summer holiday. “Probably go to Walmart.” Many of our children stay in their hometown where they are limited to the point where they think of shopping as the only type of excitement they have access to. Jaime wants to change all that. She sees how virtual reality can totally break down those walls and allow our kids to connect to things they couldn’t connect to without the technology.  Read more at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

Eric Hawkinson: Making Bridges in the Classroom An Arizonian living in Japan, Eric Hawkinson has taught in all sorts of classrooms to all different types of students. Currently, he’s working at a public university in Japan as a teacher while also tinkering with all sorts of technology related projects. One of Eric’s biggest projects right now is his work with AR. For those of you not familiar with the term, AR stands for augmented reality. It’s a way to connect the real world with the world of technology. One well known example of this is Pokemon Go. The game takes the environment you’re in and using a device, usually a phone, a digital layer is added that allows you to see things that aren’t actually there. Find out more at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

Have you ever wished you could instantly share a moment with the world as it happens? Periscope makes this a reality and can add a creative twist to student presentations. Tracy Brady is a teacher at Hastings High School in Hastings-On-Hudson, NY. She describes herself as a French and Spanish teacher - passionate about technology and changing the world one student at a time. She loves to use technology to reach outside the classroom. Today she is sharing her use of Periscope, a video streaming mobile app that integrates with Twitter. The app allows users to broadcast live from anywhere in the world. Continue reading at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

Hard at work for his Heroes and Heroines. Dean Fusto is a busy man. He’s not only the President of Brandon Hall Global Boarding Day School in Atlanta, but he’s also the founder of Teach, Learn, and Lead Global Edu-library. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dean’s site, Edu-library grew from his passion for teaching and sharing knowledge. His first thought in starting the site was to make a place for himself that would be like an Amazon of the K12 education resource world. Find out more at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

“Kids don’t want to hear about it, they want to do it.” Natasha Wilkerson studied aerospace engineering in Texas and worked in that field for several years, but through it all her passion has always been education. Read more and find all the resources at www.teachertechtrials.com

“There is an engagement crisis in school.” Scott Hebert, a new teacher, in a new school, in a new community, realized there was a problem with the way students were struggling to pay attention in class. He went from being a fourth grade phys ed teacher to being a eighth grade sciences and technologies teacher. The differences in the classrooms were alarming. The younger grade was full of children who were enthusiastic and engaged during class. The new class was filled with older students struggling to pay attention and hold onto the information being given to them. Scott realized his class time was too much of him talking, and too little of the kids doing. So, he gamified. Read more at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

Rachelle Poth has over 20 years of teaching experience. Currently she teaches foreign language just outside of Pittsburgh at Riverview Junior Senior High School in Oakmont, PA. Rachel also teaches STEAM, an emerging technology course to a class of eighth graders. While the STEAM course is definitely modern in design and topic, Rachelle has found tools such as Nearpod that allow her to adapt even her traditional courses to be more engaging and interactive. Nearpod as a Teaching Solution Nearpod is a software meets hardware solution for the classroom which brings the teacher’s daily lesson direct to the student’s desk via handheld devices or computers. Some of Rachel’s favorite Nearpod features are the virtual tours and real time quizzes and polls. Teachers can ask a question to the class and get real time results to display for interactive question and answer sessions. Find out more at www.TeacherTechTrials.com

A group of educators turned the tables and placed interest before the subject matter. They called it “inquiry-based learning.” Why? Students learn best when they have interest in the subject matter. School of Choice David Truss is an educator based in Vancouver, Canada. He is currently working two posts – Vice Principal of Coquitlam Open Learning, an online school which offers 2,225 courses every year; and Vice Principal and Lead Administrator of Inquiry Hub Secondary School, which offers inquiry-based learning program for students in Grades 9-12. I had the privilege of being acquainted during our interview about Inquiry Hub. Inquiry Hub exposes students to a blended learning environment. Students still attend school during During the “no teacher” time, students are allowed to do three things: they can work on their assignments, which are mostly discussion-based; they can accomplish the online activities which are part of their subjects; or they can work on their elective programs. Find out more at www.teachertechtrials.com