Game Over? Not When it Comes to Student Learning Through Games!

In the age of video games and mobile devices, young students seem to learn better when their instruction combines virtual reality and real world application, according to Carnegie Mellon University. Researchers came up with a study that tested how technology could best contribute to learning through a testing platform called, "NoRILLA". Testing 92 children ages six to eight, researchers wanted to see if they learned better in a mixed reality or a screen-only educational game. They tested before and after the game to retrieve sound results. The end result: Students learn up to FIVE times better combining virtual reality with the real world. Read more about the results here.

Pepper Rates High with Educators

Since the life of a teacher is extremely busy, you don't want to waste any of your precious time. When you take professional development courses, you need to be able to apply what you've learned with a positive impact in your classroom. So,we asked teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District how relevant the Pepper courses they took were, and 96% rated them either relevant or highly relevant to the work they do. Pepper's self-paced online courses allow you to learn on YOUR time. Learn more about our courses!

Kindergarten Teacher Uses Read-Aloud Strategies to Transform Storytime

Because the Common Core expects students to read a text closely and cite evidence to back up their understanding, kindergarten teacher Jamie Landahl from Ruby Duncan Elementary School in Las Vegas is making a major shift in her reading instruction--with fantastic results! She stretches out the reading of the story and stops frequently to get deeper into the text. She also includes partner discussion and illustrating pictures on sentence strips as the story goes along to later retell the story. Students build a greater vocabulary and gain a better understanding of the book's mission.
Watch the video of Landahl and her class in action!