Waller Laura B.

Make the painless transition from low tech to tech friendly! Are you struggling to embrace technology that advances at lightning speed? Or are you just plain perplexed? With new developments announced almost on a daily basis, many teachers don't know where to start. If you're one of those teachers making the transition to tech—willingly or not—Cool Tech Tools for Lower Tech Teachers is the resource for you. In understandable language, it describes how exactly you can use tools like webquests, wikis, social networking apps, and podcasts to enhance your lessons and keep kids engaged. William Bender and Laura Waller put technology within your reach by: Framing each tool in the context of what you need to know Defining the tool in easy-to-understand language; there's no tech-speak Guiding you through implementation step by step Providing sample lesson plans to get you started Explaining how some tools can also be used for professional development With Cool Tech Tools for Lower Tech Teachers, Bender and Waller prove that technology can be painless and productive. What's more, you'll even come to love it!

This book is a cutting-edge, provocative discussion of the coming transformation in education. A revolution is taking place in classrooms today, based on the cross-fertilization of three major instructional innovations, the ôthree sisters:ö differentiated instruction, RTI, and technology. Each of these has, or soon will, impact classrooms drastically, but the ôwhole is greater than the sum of the parts:ö that is, the whole impact of these three is many times as influential as the impact of any one of these factors individually. Because of the increasing emphasis on differentiation, RTI, and technology-based instruction, teachers are teaching in new and different ways. These innovations all address the ever-present pressures on teachers at all grade levels to meet/exceed AYP, and teachers are hungry for innovative instructional ideas that will assist them to do so. The authors draw on the growing 21st Century Skills movement to address these three instructional innovations together.