Teacher's Curriculum Institute

What makes a digital textbook interactive?  We think it’s more than a fun game or a flashy (not Flash!) banner.  It’s text that is accessible to students. It’s purposeful game-like challenges.  It’s opportunities to demonstrate knowledge.  Because we believe all of these ideas, we’re spending this spring improving our Student Subscriptions to bring students further [...]

In today’s webinar, we discovered that engaging students in debate or whole-class discussions involves a few steps and some rich resources. Here are the guidelines we shared: 1. Challenge students to discuss controversial and complex issues in small groups. 2. Create heterogeneous groups and a suitable classroom arrangement. 3. Prepare students to answer provocative critical [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be at the Kentucky Council for the Social Studies (http://kcss.org).  While sitting around talking with teachers and discussing our practice, we came on the subject of “great teaching” and “great teachers.”  It struck me, that great teaching and great teachers can not be described with [...]

One nifty way that teachers can customize their TCI Presentations is by adding images. This short video will show you how. But wait! There’s more! You’ll also get  Great Places to Find Images, our handout that’s chock full of links to super duper image sites that provide free, interesting, and useful images for teachers.

This is the first in a series of blogs highlighting a nifty feature in the TCI Subscriptions. In this short video, we show you three easy ways to add students to your classes.

About 25 years ago, my friend Bob predicted the e-book reader. One day we were having a spirited discussion about the future of books. Bob, a sales representative for a high-tech company, posited that the printed book would someday be available in electronic form. Coming from the perspective of an editor who had always developed [...]

By Brian_ThomasTCI | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Earth Day is April 22nd! Here’s another in our free lesson series to get ready. This lesson is from TCI’s kindergarten Social Studies Alive! Me and My World program but can be used in all lower elementary grades. Kids work in pairs to explore reducing, reusing and recycling. How Can I Help Take Care of [...]

Many teachers and schools are snapping up iPads, especially since the iPad2 has dropped the price of the 1st gen. How could you use the iPad in class as a teaching tool? Alive in Five shares a nifty app called Splashtop ($4.99) from the iTunes store that allows you to use your iPad as a [...]

Think e-learning is better naturally? Interaction is more than click, drag, paste. It’s still found in meaningful instruction. Try our TCI programs out for 30 days-free.  We use the tech, but in a meaningful way!  Visit http://info.teachtci.com/trial/ today! By Brian_ThomasTCI | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon