Socrative is a simple web-based student response system that I’ve tinkered with on several occasions, but its streamlined interface sits atop a deceptively powerful piece of software. The flexibility makes it something I’d recommend to any teacher with at least a handful of web-enabled devices, be those iPads, iPod Touches, laptops, smartphones, or even a… Read more »
Your students need books that they will like reading. One way to get them those books is to hand them a hard copy. Another way, if you’ve got the right technology, is to give them an ebook. Anyone who has seen a Kindle is familiar with the basic idea of what an ebook is: it’s… Read more »
Over the weekend, I had the privilege to attend a portion of the second Startup Weekend event focused on education. Startup Weekend is itself a startup organization that organizes gatherings of developers, designers, business and marketing experts, and investors to build startup companies in a single weekend. This year, the organization began a series of… Read more »
Music: “These Legs” by Thanks,Again This is my pitch, created along with my colleague Jordyn Sims, for the TFA Social Innovation Award competition. Textlab.org Literacy is a technology. Technology is a literacy. Andrew Plemmons Pratt (TFA DC Region ’10, 7th grade English in PGCPS) Jordyn Sims (TFA DC Region ’10, 8th grade English in PGCPS)… Read more »
If you haven’t signed up for a ClassDojo.com account, go do so right now. Got it? Okay. You’ve now turned classroom management into a video game. ClassDojo is a a "real-time behavior management system" that allows you to track on and off-task behavior for your students online. The interface is clever: each student gets a little icon… Read more »
My vision for this year includes migrating my class to an all (or mostly) digital environment. Reading, writing, collaborating online. Not because it’s hip or cool or social, but primarily because it’s efficient. Today, I showed off some of those capabilities to another CM in my district and it occurred to me that rather than… Read more »
Hi, I'm Andrew Plemmons Pratt. I currently teach 7th-grade English / Reading / Language Arts at a turnaround school in Prince George’s County, Maryland. This year, my classroom is piloting a 1:1 iPad program designed to accelerate middle-school literary. I write about education technology here at appratt.com and at the EdTech 101 blog on . I'm a 2010 Teach For America corps member, and before that I was the managing editor at , the science and tech policy magazine at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, DC-based think tank.