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Technology is in the forefront of everything we do as collaborators in the classroom. Teachers incorporating the use of technology while lesson planning increases engagement and rigor. Lessons are enhanced and students are focused. Many of the projects we were involved in incorporated technology and we collaborated with others at the school site and across the district. Valuable relationships were formed among the students and the teachers. Teachers not involved with the collaboration process also benefited from this through observing what was taking place in our classrooms. These teachers then requested to be involved in the program. Relationships were built, the use of technology was increased, and a 21st Century classroom was created.

Those students are going to be coming up to the junior and senior high so prepared. Thank you! Knowing that they are coming up to the higher grades with the ability to work with technology and work with each other at the same time is reassuring. Excellent work, guys!

I love how your video focuses on how becoming a 21st C classroom is a process that we (teachers & students) are somewhere along the spectrum.

I always love learning from Ledesma. Here's another one that I so agree with.

Guideline 1:! Relate grades to the achievement of the district's course/grade level standards. Guideline 2:! Use agreed-on performance standards as the reference points when determining grades. Guideline 3:! Separate achievement from all other dispositions and behaviors. Guideline 4:! Sample student performance. ! Don't score everything & don't include all scores in grades. Guideline 5:! Grade in pencil and maintain records so they can be easily updated. Guideline 6:! To determine grades at the end of the grading period, use professional judgment when considering the body of evidence. Grading must involve more than just crunching numbers. Guideline 7:! Use quality assessments and properly record evidence of achievement. Guideline 8:! Involve students in the assessment and grading processes throughout the learning cycle. No zeros for missing or incomplete work At Middle school: "Student work in the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion will be recorded as Missing (M) in the grade book if a student does not turn in an assignment. Middle school students will have until the end of the quarter to complete these practice activities or the Missing (M) will remain. The Missing (M) will factor into the overall average as a zero. However, leaving the Missing (M) in the grade book will communicate that the work has not been turned in. And, because the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion of the grade book is weighted just 20% of the overall grade, the Missing (M) for the practice work will not have significant impact on the student's grade." At High School: "A score of zero will not be entered in the grade book. Instead, M or I will be entered to indicate that work is not yet complete. In grades 9-12, students will have five days beyond the assignment due date to complete Lesson Practice and Progress Checks, unless there are extenuating circumstances. An M (Missing) will be entered in the grade book until the work is turned in or until the end of the nine-w

This challenge will help you set up your own class/teacher blog. If you complete the challenge, you can also use it towards the PU Online Blogging Class.

The Global Classroom Project wiki is a collection of resources for teachers who want to collaborate globally. There are several big ongoing projects for all grade levels, as well as a huge directory of teachers you can contact on your own if you want to find a collaborator for a project.

Kidblog is built by teachers, for teachers, so students can get the most out of the blogging process. Kidblog meets the need for a safe and simple blogging platform suitable for elementary and middle school students. Most importantly, Kidblog allows teachers to monitor and control all publishing activity within the classroom blogging community.

I like that it is very safe, especially for younger students who are just learning to blog. I think a pitfall would be that it is only able to be seen by the teacher and class so you lose some of the power of connecting to learners outside of the class.

"Clear communication with students and their parents is one of the primary goals of every teacher. Start this year with just that by using a variety of tools to share your plans and expectations for the coming academic year."

For middle and high school teachers

This is the Library of Congress Teacher Page. It has so many activities. You can also sort them by state standard!

Looks very cool!

Being a visual learner, this was perfect. I was imagining my year's experience as I listened to your presentation. Yep, so many of us were all locked up at the beginning of the year and have since allowed ourselves to be unlocked to what technology has to offer. I know I'm somewhat unlocked. My lock is still rusty and the inside mechanisms don't move smoothly, but then there's next year for that! Thank you.

Loved the video. It does a great job of showing the journey and how the excitement spreads when collaboration is involved. I'm wondering how we can "free" those still locked in the dungeon.

Superb summary of your/our experiences for this year.

free tools challenge -- See the menu on the Left with all the different tools in the Teacher Challenge

See the menu on the Left with all the different tools in the Teacher Challenge

CIESE sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We focus on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Below is a catalog of projects that are currently being or have been sponsored by CIESE . The mission of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) is to help teachers use the Internet, math software, CD-ROMs, computer-based laboratory systems (CBLS), and other tools to create dynamic, inquiry-oriented classrooms that promote achievement of content standards in science and math. To this end, they offer a number of interdisciplinary projects grouped into four categories: collaborative projects, partner projects, real-time data projects, and projects using primary sources and archived collections.

This looks like a great opportunity for teachers who want to connect with other classrooms.

Great opportunities here for authentic learning...

A safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Free.