Grab your passports! Pack your Travel Trunks!
Starting this month, October, and going all the way to March, we'll be sharing Travel Trunks showcasing six continents! Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Here on the Book-A-Trip wiki, we'll even share information about Antarctica.
As your class explores the Travel Trunk for a continent, you'll be able to visit the Book-A-Trip wiki to share what you've learned! It's easy to do and a great way to find out what other students learn that you may have missed. Plus, your parents can visit too - I bet they know something about the continents...or do they?
Let's get going!
Dr. Bonk's new book is out and it is excellent (yes, I have a preview copy.) It has a delightful overview of what is happening with technology and global collaboration (and includes flat classroom and also a sidebar about how Dr. Bonk and I met at GAETC two years a go - kind of humorous.) Excellent book that I highly recommend, or you may want to take a look at these webcasts, webinars, free resources and podcasts about it as well. Dr. Curtis Bonk is also known a s Travelinedman
Tonight, and once a week until the end of the year, my students will record a clip of their home reading on their iPad, and email it to me. They can record the clip as many times as they want, and will choose from a selection of levelled books, books from home, and library books.
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.
"I love school libraries! Well you would, I hear you say, you're a librarian. My love of school libraries is not about being able to work in a room in a school with a lot of books, or my ability to sit and read books all day (I wish) or even being able to play with the bleepy scanny thing (that is one of the many names for the book issue scanner). Nor is it my love for school libraries based on sorting out photocopier jams, or peeling the plastic from yet another laminator jam, or being called the library lady, shelf sorter or any other name that teachers or students can think of when what they are looking for is the librarian. Joking aside my love of school libraries is their ability to support and create literate, independent learners and this is why teachers should love them too."
"This book explores three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure.
Mark argues that quality education is rooted in simplicity. In this book, he convincingly strips away the layers of contradictory pedagogical advice that teachers have received over the years and lends weight to the three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure."
PROS:
An important book that questions an authoritarian school culture.
The book grapples with both the philosophical and the pragmatic aspects of school culture.
A resonatory self-examination of teacher identity and a significant contribution to the debate about how schools and classrooms are run.
A survey of a wide range of related research that challenges the status quo on the effectiveness of punishment and authoritarianism as approaches to behaviour management."
This book is aimed at teenagers, but could be used by teachers to start class or individual discussions about life issues.
Book focuses and provides great tips to revise and prepare for examinations.
Accessible, colourful infographics throughout make content digestible.
"Building a rich vocabulary, across the curriculum, is one of the main aims for most teachers. Not only does a rich vocabulary help to create strong writing skills, but also can help with improving access to all areas of the curriculum.
In his book, Andrew Jennings explains why vocabulary should be a focus in your classroom, providing resources and inspiration to help optimise vocabulary learning. Resources include a focus on SPaG facts, key vocab words that support various popular primary topics, an etymology section to inspire pupils, and looking at various grammatical features that can help build a repertoire of rich vocabulary. Throughout, the book provides other resources that can be copied for classroom use, or be used to take home to help build vocabulary skills away from the school setting."
Kyle Dunbar is running a virtual book club. The first book is Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. This website includes a blog that talks about the takeaways and the recordings that they are discussing. Please feel free to join in and mark your calendars - they are meeting on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm. I hope you'll join in.
It is vital that you and I both connect with other classrooms around the world. Students are the greatest textbook ever written for each other - they need to connect and learn from each other. You'll meet other educators and model the kind of learner you want your students to be. If you want your students to innovate YOU must be innovative. If you want your students to collaborate YOU must be collaborative.
Here's the schedule:
January 7th - Meet the Flat Classroom, Chapters 1 & 2
January 21st - Connection and Communication, Chapters 3 & 4
February 4th - Citizenship, Contribution and Collaboration, Chapters 5 & 6
February 18th - Choice and Creation, Chapters 7 & 8
March 4th - Celebrating, Designing, Managing a Global Project, Chapters 9 & 10
March 18th - Rock the World
There are some cool new features in the Kindle app - in addition to xray and notebook (previous feature upgrades) you have multi-colored highlighting, brightness sync across devices and a prompt to rate a book when finished (I like this one because, perhaps, more REAL people will rate amidst many book reviewers who are either biased for or against an author for undisclosed reasons.) Update that iOS or Droid Kindle app or whatever device it is on.
HOw to borrow Kindle books from your local library. It often requires setup of overdrive here in the US. This is an important skills for modern students, particularly if they have a tablet device, they should know how to check out books from their local library. Don't show them how to use the card catalog, set them up on overdrive and show them how to use it.