Group items tagged

Time… there simply isn't enough. Teachers perpetually moving from one priority to the next, do-to list in hand. Descriptions of teachers include jugglers and plate-spinners as much as educators and guides. Are we doomed to dance to the overactive drum-beat of the system, or is there things that we can do to give ourselves more time to do what is truly important. Indeed, are we responsible for wasting our own time, and that of colleagues.

"Enter a noun into this website and get a range of words to help you describe it. Superb for creative or descriptive writing projects."

"An interactive periodic table of elements showing common uses, properties, description and more."

"The Arts in Primary Education shows how resources already present in schools, such as picture books or the outdoor environment, can be used to develop a creative culture. With a focus on long-term initiatives including partnerships with art institutions and the training and personal development of teachers, the book also presents clear and accessible explanations of the benefits of integrating the arts across a school. Backed by research and evidence and complete with images and descriptions of artworks, this guide is ideal for helping develop a whole-school arts curriculum to enrich learning and raise attainment in all subject areas."

I recently assigned a new project to my 11th grade English students: The 20% Project. Although it's called a "project", that term is merely for student understanding and lack of a better word. This project is based on the "20 percent time" Google employees have to work on something other than their job description.

Handwriting and fine motor activities. A nice PDF document that you can find some things if you teach handwriting. Description: This resource provides a range of activities to develop fine motor skills, designed with learners with severe learning difficulties in mind. It is by no means exhaustive, but covers a range of activities to develop discrimination of left and right, hand-eye coordination, crossing the mid-line,

A little self-indulgent, however I'm interested in seeing what other people do with their classes. This is the montage of our recent medieval tournament. We also do an archaeological dig and other historical re-enactments. If anyone else has footage, images or descriptions of activities or re-enactments they do with their classes I'd be really interested to see them. And steal their ideas.

This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box.

Make a museum box

A great way to get started with technology is to join in an exciting project. this project by Susan Silverman was designed using the principles of Universal Design for Learning. I've heard her present and she is a pro. (Along with my friend Jennifer Wagner.)

Susan Silverman creates excellent projects for global collaboration among elementary students.

Business people and management should read this article about the transformation of business by using workplace communities. "Workplace communities are designed to solve workplace-related challenges" -- they focus on tasks. I would find it interesting to see a business REALLY use technology to change things. Having the business in a business network (OK a NING) and let people tag their posts with the business related PROBLEMS they are having and blog, video, or photograph it-- the tag cloud would tell the business IMMEDIATELY what the problems are in the company. The problem with this model is that there are few corporate executives who REALLY want to know the problems within their organizations. They don't want to be problem solvers, just opportunity creators. However, when managers open their eyes (and I'm a former General Manager myself) and see that two things give business opportunity: problem solving and innovation. And they are directly related. True innovation solves problems. Read this article and think about how you may solve problems using the networks you may now create. If you don't want everyone to know, keep it private and only allow people in your company in.

Another search engine that will go through Flickr for creative commons images. You can search by tags (not description). I like the way it specifically lists the creative commons license type the person has given the image.

Image search tool

This is an amazing description of what is happening at Suffern Middle School, one of the leaders in the digital revolution.

Kevin Jarrett talks about his week at one of the leaders in innovative technology, suffern Middle School. An excellent read to see what this digital revolution is all about. Wow!

Description: A collection of tutorials on Web 2.0 technology tools such as Google Docs, Wikispaces, Ning, VoiceThread, Diigo and Delicious.

Exciting description of a wonderful individual research project at the elementary level with limited resources and a very hard working teacher.

I love the pictures on this blog showing the students using the computer, on the floor... everywhere, working on individual research projects. (Got to this blog to see the final products.) At first I said, "display boards?" but then I realized the amount of computer work required to create these display boards and I saw the age of the students and the number of computers in this classroom. This is a tremendous amount of work. Applause here from me to Kristi, another teacher blogger who I "met" from yesterday's post (hey go back to yesterdays and leave yours!)

Overview of deep metaphors and using visualisation to help clarify them

MIT opencourseware Course Highlights This course features an extensive reading list on alternative educational approaches. Course Description This seminar explores experiments in education and discusses how education and learning might be done, through reading and discussion. This seminar is not a survey of experiments in education, but rather, its goal is to determine how learning should happen and what kinds of contexts allow it to happen.

Over 80 Apps for the iPod Touch sorted by their grade level, subject area, and type (resource, creative, game, etc.). Also includes a short description of the application, it's link in iTunes, and it's price.

Grade level and subject spreadsheet showing iPod apps and cost. Nicely done!

Andreas Fuchs Aug. 18, 2011 "At CinemaCon 2011 in Las Vegas, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) hosted a special Accessibility Demonstration for Digital Cinema. Alongside legislative mandates across many states and numerous community commitment programs that North American theatre circuits have in place, NATO deserves special credit for calling attention to the opportunities afforded by digital technologies in providing access to all guests."

I bookmarked this, in spite of the column title, because I know that many of us from time to time will refer to the many things you can do with the iPhone in your pocket. Carrying around that kind of power in your pocket SHOULD change SOMETHING about how we view the role of education today, don't we agree? Add to this list the ability to control Radio Controlled cars and helocopters, play music, and so MANY more of OUR favorite apps and... the technology is just too important to ignore. Or worse - to ban! This is just a nice collection of apps and descriptions in ten categories, from arts, to science, to math, to litereature, and more. Yes, it omits as many categories (or more) than it includes, but it's a nice place to start.

"For fun, the writer and children's book illustrator has created a series of images that can help young writers broaden their language and writing, encouraging young authors to "Fill your stories with a rainbow of images" - A great resource for the primary/elementary classroom and beyond…"