Aiden was recently asked to record some sample fluency passages for preservice teachers at The University of Akron to use for practicing 3-Minute Reading Assessments. We used the AudioBoo app to record the passages and post to the cloud. Below you’ll find the embedded audio clips. Teachers could easily use a similar method to post student clips for sharing with parents or other teachers on their team.

The source of the passages is located here. You can also find the teacher scoring sheets for each passage.

Aiden and I traveled to Green Primary School today so he could be “Principal for a Day.” A couple of my favorite pictures from our trip.

iPad2, Xoom, Playbook, iPod Touch, netbook, iPhone, Chromebook, the list never stops. Everyday a new device is hyped, overhyped and pushed into our consciousness by a barrage of media and market glam. In the past 6 months I’ve fielded countless question from school leaders and teachers about the new world order of computing devices.

• “Which is better?”
• “Which runs faster?”
• “Which has the best apps?”
• “Which is cheapest?”
• “How do we go 1:1?”

Aside from the constant questions, I also hear some horrifying statements.

• “We’ve got $30,000 to spend and we’re going to buy every teacher in the district an iPad.”
• “The teachers want iPads for teaching so we’re going to get them some.”

It’s got to stop. Enough already because I’m about to go EDTECHHULK on somebody.

But I won’t.

Instead, I’m going to go all Mr. T up in hurr.

I pity the fool who thinks it’s about the devices. Read the rest of this entry…