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Twitter:  @jpprezz

School:  636.296.8000 x7177

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5 Technology Tips for the Not-so-Tech-Savvy Teacher

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The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, coupled with high-tech video games and 21 st century entertainment for our students outside of school is necessitating a change in the way we as educators prepare and present information to our students.  Gone are the days where we can get away with 50 minutes of lecturing.  Our students are watching engaging Youtube videos and reading Facebook statuses to get their information instead of reading magazines and waiting for their favorite shows to come on TV.  Today’s students want their classroom experience to be as engaging as their lives outside of school.  The only problem is that most of us did not grow up in the same technological age as our students.  Integrating technology into your daily plans can be a very daunting task for an educator who is not familiar with Web 2.0 tools.  Here are 5 tips that will help you start using technology in your classes.  1- Get comf...
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Low-tech methods to teach 21st Century Learners

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One of my favorite type of activities to do with students in my 9th and 10th grade language arts classes is to incorproate social media into lessons.  I like to have students make Facebook pages for characters in stories, create Twitter feeds for characters and write blog posts that allow them to compare issues in a text with issues that are faced in our society today.  While this all sounds great in practice, I quickly learned that making my dream of seamless socian media integreation  into a reality was a little harder than I thought it would be. To combat the lack of technology and firewall issues that  have stopped me from incorporating Twitter, Facebook and blogging into my classes, I have come up with low-tech paper-and-pencil replacements.  Below are three sample low-tech activities I do with my students in place of their web-based counterparts.  Click on the name of each project to view the handout for each project. R+J 140 http://goo.gl/Q...
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A Metamorphosis of Educational Proportions

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Before this school year started, a colleague I respect asked me to attend a training session with him for a new grade book program our district was going to roll out.  Little did I know that my quick response was going to trigger a metamorphosis in me. Before I go any further, let me provide you with a little background:  I have been a professional educator for the last seven years.  For the last six years I have taught freshmen and sophomore language arts.  I have always thought of myself as an educator who was able to get the job done with students, but I was light years behind most of my more experienced colleagues. Fast forward to the grade book training:  After two days of training provided by the school district, we were on our own to answer teacher, student, parent and administration questions about this new program.  While I never considered myself a building leader of any kind, I was quickly thrust into a leadership position in re...
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