Group items tagged

This is fascinating. Ms. Davis, I found your website not too long ago and wanted to tell you that I really enjoy your blog. Loved the posts about your "Daily Spotlight on Education." You make an a lot of important information easy to follow and it definitely seems like you got a great thing going for you. Keep up your great work and best of luck to you in the future. My name is Jeffrey and I'm with ASPEX, a leading producer of Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) and Microanalysis software. Our company recently kicked off a "Send Us Your Sample" campaign, which allows anyone to mail us an object of their choosing and have it scanned for free under one of our powerful desktop SEMs. Since your blog primarily deals with education, this would be a great opportunity for some of your educators to get some samples done for their class. People can send us a broken iPhone, an old toothbrush, or even a dead insect...anything they want to see a picture of under a powerful microscope. It's pretty cool. Once we receive the samples, we'll notify senders of their results via email. You can view other reports we've done here: http://www.aspexcorp.com/resources/send_sample.html Since we started this campaign, we've seen a lot of interest from professionals, educators and students all around the globe. Given the focus of your website, I wanted to contact you about posting the information about "Send Us Your Sample" on your blog. We have recently posted a YouTube video that shows how we go about sampling and how to demo our SEM. We would love to partner with you to spread the word about this offer in a blog post so more people get the unique opportunity to have something scanned by an SEM. We also have our "Name That Sample" Campaign in which we put up a sample and the person who guesses correctly, or closest, wins a Brand New Netbook! Just another way of interactivity within your blog. Encourage your readers to Name That Sample! We can talk about details if you're interested. Thanks

a free web application which offers the ability to create a colorful map for writers who like to color code the creative thoughts and processes. This tool also provides the ability to embed in an e-mail to send to publishers or other writers who may be collaborating on the project.

Ten ways to survive a nightmare course provides strategies for dealing with a difficult online learning situation. Problems may develop with any online course, due to causes beyond your control. Some problems include incompatible technology, continual course learning management system (LMS) problems, e-mail problems, or bewildering directions and assignments. Regardless the situation, there are many things you can do to overcome this less than happy experience and turn it a positive outcome.

"As I have travelled across the country visiting schools and classrooms and talking with teachers and parents, I have heard many questions about our plans at the U.S. Department of Education to support children with disabilities, their families, and the teachers who educate them and fight for them daily. To hear more about the issues affecting students with disabilities and their teachers, I asked CEC to contact members through an e-mail blast. Your response was overwhelming. Though CEC received more questions than we could possibly answer here, I have worked with your leadership to identify some of the central questions for educators of children with disabilities, and I have worked with my staff at the Department so that we can address them in this document. I would like to thank CEC members and all teachers of children with disabilities for their outstanding compassion and commitment and for the range of complex skills and talents you bring to teaching your students every day."

"Welcome to the website of Bisharat! A language, technology, and development initiative. Bisharat* is an evolving idea based on the importance of maternal languages in sustainable development and the enormous potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to benefit efforts in the area of language and development. Anticipating the gradual introduction of computers and the internet to rural communities in Africa, the current focus of Bisharat is on research, advocacy, and networking relating to use of African languages in software and web content. This website is always in development... Your comments and suggestions are welcome. To contact Bisharat, e-mail to: bisharat @ bisharat . net"

National Geographic, Airbus, and ePals have partnered to raise awareness of biodiversity worldwide, especially among young people. A major component of this effort is a summer photo contest for students age 6-16, called "See the Bigger Picture". Students can submit digital photos online or via mailed electronic media until September 8th. The contest is open to kids aged between 6 and 16*. Submit one color image that you think captures the spirit or idea of biodiversity. It could be a favourite tree or a plant, an animal or an insect, even a whole ecosystem (from your own back yard to somewhere you've visited on vacation) - your image should show people why biodiversity is a good thing that we should try to preserve.

Symbaloo can be used as a startpage, your personal desktop for the internet. What can I do with Symbaloo? With Symbaloo, you can now create your own desktop on internet, including your favorite websites and sources. The advantage is that you can navigate easily to the most important websites, without remembering the links. Just try to click on one of the coloured blocks. You will see that it is possible to search from the centerbox in useful websites, such as Google or Youtube. More options… Much more is possible with Symbaloo. Listening to the radio, reading the news or reading to your new mail quickly… If you click on an empty grey field, you will enter a new world of blocks! The best fun is to find out all of the features yourself, and explore Symbaloo step by step.

Derek Bruff, assistant director of Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching, has written a book that reviews the uses of clickers and offers advice for institutions and professors. The book -- Teaching With Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments -- is just out from Jossey-Bass. Bruff responded to e-mail questions about the themes of the book.

My tutorial on why and how to set up and use Gmail. Download the powerpoint presentation from

Let's face it, a school where text books, classroom book collections, and the "term paper" as the only means of student communication don't need much of a library. A small popular book collection and a word-processing lab with access to Google may actually be all that such a school needs. If the librarian and technology staff are viewed as not having knowledge that is sufficiently relevant to implementing and teaching IL/IT skills, the book room can be staffed by clerks and the techs can keep the e-mail server and student information system up and running from a small hidden office until those applications are outsourced. At the same time, if a school truly decides they want all their students to graduate having mastered a sophisticated set of IL/IT skills, having learned how to solve real problems creatively, and having experienced the power of global communications and collaboration, then a lack of resources - physical plant, equipment and human expertise will truly undercut this effort. Such an undertaking will require 1:1 laptop programs, well-stocked print collections, productivity labs, a fast and powerful network, good online materials, and, of course, a crackerjack professional staff to support both staff and students. 

Mail merge instruction video for sending personalized emails!

National Geographic, Airbus, and ePals have partnered to raise awareness of biodiversity worldwide, especially among young people. A major component of this effort is a summer photo contest for students age 6-16, called "See the Bigger Picture". Students can submit digital photos online or via mailed electronic media until September 8th. The contest is open to kids aged between 6 and 16.

"Teaching and leading within an educational setting can demand a copious amount of time, and many educators struggle to maintain a healthy work/life balance. In fact, previous research has shown that striving for a positive work/life balance is an unobtainable myth, and with constant mobile notifications, e-mails, along with the never-ending pile of marking and planning that needs doing, how can you stop working when you're off the clock?"

From Dreambox in my inbox: "In honor of Math Awareness Month this April, I am e-mailing you this morning to share the news that DreamBox Learning is launching DreamBox Math Classroom, a school version of the curriculum and standards based children’s math adventure game, DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. To celebrate the release, DreamBox Learning offers free access to the game for any kindergarten, first or second grade classroom in the U.S. and Canada through the end of the current school year or June 30, 2009. Teachers at accredited schools can simply visit www.dreambox.com/teachers to sign up for classroom usage. "

From my friend AJ Juliani - if you want to do 20% time - perhaps you should join in this MOOC right now - it isn't too late. "In the past year we have seen a boom in 20% projects and Genius Hour projects happening in the K-12 classroom. Amazing educators have pushed this movement forward, and Angela Maiers Choose2Matter campaign is another way for students to find their passions and learn with purpose. This July we are running a "20% Time MOOC". The course offers two outcomes. Teachers will learn about the research behind Google's 20% policy and how it can be applied in K-12 education; and, learners will also participate in their own 20% project throughout the course and present as a final product. I want to encourage you to join this MOOC and connect with so many teachers who are giving their students the power to choose (Access Code for the course is ZXQ2B-8CWMV). We'll be using the #20timeacademy hashtag throughout the course to share with each other!"

Retired teacher looking for advise on a model to change primary and secondary education. E-MAIL ME THROUGH THE SITE WITH SUGGESTIONS http://www.textbooksfree.org/Educating%20the%20Class%20of%202030.htm

Alarmist article? Research evidence?

Math and Science professionals who to into primary teaching in Australia will get half of their student loan forgiven.

In Australia, they are taking an initiative to get more math and science graduates into primary teaching -- those who do so will have a 50% refund on their loan payments. This in response to a study in July from the National Numeracy Review that "concluded that systematic teaching of numeracy in the early years of schooling, in maths lessons and across the wider curriculum, was essential if these trends were to be reversed." I find this interesting and hope that it will encourage people who love math and science AND STUDENTS will accept. Just a geek doesn't mean you love students or want to teach them.