Jumpstart January - Read It, Watch It, Share It!

Happy New Year Chrome Warriors! This month, we'll be sharing quick and fun resources to jumpstart your return to school! Looking for more inspiration? Check out our list of local and virtual PD events happening this month.

Read it: Ditch that Textbook

Ditch That Textbook: Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom by Matt Miller shares strategies and stories about taking teaching into the future with the DITCH system. Miller devised the system over his ten-year teaching career. In the book, he shares his personal teaching journey, as well as easy-to-implement advice and resources to rethink your teaching practice. 

The DITCH System

• Different from what students see daily.
• Innovative, drawing on new ideas or modifying others' ideas.
• Tech-laden with the use of digital sites, tools and devices.
• Creative, tapping into students' original ideas as well as your own.
• Hands-on, encouraging students to make and try things on their own.

Miller is a Spanish teacher from Indiana, a Google Certified Innovator, and recipient of the Bammy! Top to Watch in 2016 award. He continues to provide excellent textbook-free resources on his blog at http://ditchthattextbook.com/

Watch it: How to learn? From mistakes

As a secondary social studies educator, Diana Laufenberg is a fifteen-year teaching veteran. She's also the co-founder, Executive Director and Lead Teacher of Inquiry Schools, a non-profit that aims to "create and support inquiry-driven, project-based schools with a focus on using modern tools." Check out her TED Talk on learning from mistakes in the video below, or read the transcript.

"The main pointis that, if we continue to look at educationas if it's about coming to school to get the informationand not about experiential learning,empowering student voice and embracing failure,we're missing the mark." -Diana Laufenberg

Share it: #edtechchat

Check out #edtechchat on Monday evenings from 8-9PM EST. From discussions around digital equity to using Minecraft in the classroom, #edtechchat covers a wide range of topics related to the role of technology in education. Can't wait until Monday night? You can see a list of archived conversations here, or simply send a tweet with the hashtag #edtechchat.

What will you do to jumpstart your teaching practice? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet us @ChromeWarriorPD.

Image attribution
Site: tes.com [Image 1]