Group items tagged

"KidInfo.com is an educational web resource that saves teachers, students, and parents valuable time by providing - in ONE website directory - the BEST Pre K-12 curriculum links to educational resources, videos, and powerpoints. KID INFO is UNIQUELY different from other educational web directories, as it is easy to navigate, and is the ONLY educational web directory that organizes websites according to SPECIFIC, rather than general, curriculum studied in schools throughout the United States, and many other countries around the world."

Mapmaking using Google Maps is easy! Check out this site that has some beginning activities and ideas for curriculum integration. Why Integrate Map Making into Curriculum? *It's fun and engaging! *Creates ties between content and place *Maps are interactive and easy to update *Maps can be great assessment tools *Good Content for Map Making -You have information or data that is place-based. -You want to show nformation that varies depending on location, distribution of something over an area, or a path or route of travel.

Whether or not you realize it, you probably have philosophical discussions with your students. But if you use the term "Philosophy", it would probably be met with blank stares. This website, developed by a college philosophy professor, provides an easy to understand, engaging introduction to philosophy for middle schoolers using FILM. I think it could also be used with high school students and used as a tool for how students could engage each other in a variety of discussions across the curriculum.

Model School Library Standards for CA Public Schools - great resource for information literacy and scaffolding these skills across the curriculum.

Model School Library Standards for CA Public Schools - great resource for information literacy and scaffolding these skills across the curriculum.

A wide variety of curriculum ideas shared by a large number of teachers available to review here.

Includes a great section on Green Screen movie making, along with other great STEM curriculum resources.

Great informational text for students - discussion and literacy across the curriculum.

"NY Times writers collaborated with the Common Sense Media writer Kelly Schryver to focus on the increasingly important and nuanced question "Who Are You Online?" Times and Learning Network content as well as offerings from Common Sense Media's K-12 Digital Literacy and Citizenship curriculum for teaching and learning about this complex issue." Lots of avenues to take this material in working with students.

Innovative use of blended learning, using a  rotating centers approach: Teacher instruction, Group work, Technology group. They are able to do more differentiated instruction within this model and looks like they're using some digital curriculum or an LMS. 

Great presentation on the place/value of blended/online learning & the CA Open Campus Initiative. The Initiative was Federally-funded to develop the curriculum which is shared to schools that want to use it. Embedded in the HaikuLMS. 

My response: Patrick, thanks for bringing the issue to us to consider. No matter how we see it, it is a discussion that is important to have. It does mean we have quite a responsibility to use the tools we have well. On a Classroom 2.0 Live webinar today, there was a discussion of the technology needing to be transformative, not just a substitute for paper/pencils/books, etc. or just an electronic version of the same curriculum. That brings us to the pedagogical approach of each teacher. If they just place their old methodology on top of the technology, nothing much different will occur. BUT...if they see their method of how students will interact with them and course material differently, the technology can be a tool both the teacher and student can enjoy and in the process they can become more creative, collaborative, and communicative.

Terry Heick, Curriculum Director, etc. wrote this short blog post with a nice graphic aimed at helping us look at self-talk that encourages a "Growth Mindset." I like this statement in the post: "While teachers are constantly admonished to change, there is very little dialogue as to what that kind of change looks like, exactly how to go about making that sort of change in the face of local expectations, and maybe most critically, what kind of "internal coaching" a teacher might start with to establish the kind of thinking position of mindset that promotes fluid change."

Will Richardson explores this idea: "By pairing personalized learning and technology, a teacher can help students learn what they need to learn through the topics that interest them most." How does "personal learning" fit into the structures we have in school learning environments? 

This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2010) identifies interdisciplinary teams as one of these organizational features and reminds us that these teams need "daily or regular common planning time" so they "can plan ways to integrate the curriculum, analyze assessment data, examine student work, discuss current research, and reflect on the effectiveness of instructional approaches being used" (p. 32). Teachers also use common planning time to address management issues related to individual student and parent concerns, the day-to-day management of the team, and scheduling of activities. 

This list is considered the "best of the best" by AASL and is comprised of free, user-friendly sites that encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. They also provide a foundation to support AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. The sites offer tools and resources in content collaboration, content resources with lesson plans, curriculum sharing, digital storytelling, managing and organizing, and social networking and communication.

Check out this great use of Livebinders to help students add content to a curriculum. This teacher did it with 3rd graders...me thinks older students could do even more with it. Great collaborative application and think of the possibilities for PBL. 

Effective lessons with great resources to help students, teachers, and parents better understand Digital Citizenship

A ten-year teaching veteran and a California regional Teacher of the Year, Heather Wolpert-Gawron's musings on educational policy, curriculum design, and daily school life can also be read at www.tweenteacher.com. I wanted to post a list that talked about how to "use" technology in the classroom, but I found myself revising that word "use" to the more general word, "model."

Current events are a powerful medium to engage students and their thinking in so many different ways. Here are 50 to get you started!

"I've been teaching students how to write for 12 years, but this week I had a realization that made me question the purpose of writing in school." Catlin Tucker brings up some important points to consider in the writing process and her own process as a teacher.