HCPS ITRT

"The strategy that has worked best for me over the years has been to create a non-threatening atmosphere in which teachers can experiment and explore without repercussions as they become more familiar with technology tools. The key is to cultivate a climate of discovery and experimentation as opposed to one of judgement and unattainable standards. After all, we don't expect our students to be perfect the first time around. We encourage them to experiment and take risks. If everything had to be perfect right away, we'd never get anything done!" Interesting post to share with teachers

Don't know if anyone else has this this, but it looks interesting. You can request the resources to be shared with you - I did for Moody. I will check out the resources when I have a chance and share what I find.

Mar Prensky article- New term- futurcation

...so much good stuff here. Will post some more specific stuff to my HST blog, but this is too good of a resource by itself not to bookmark. Worth sharing with WH and US History teachers.

"So, what's a leader and the school to do? How do we create "checks" to serve as guideposts toward success?  One potential way may be a novel idea in education.  Use teachers and educators that have experienced success in building instructional capacity to be "scouts" for other teachers and schools that are building capacity in a meaningful way.  What I mean by 'scouts' is that these individuals would be charged with working next to teachers and school leaders to develop and refine instructional capacity, but when "it" shows itself in the form of meaningful and intentional classroom instruction or PLCs that really improve student performance, the 'scouts' chronicle this story.  The 'scouts' dual responsibility is to not only share in the building of the capacity, but to also spread the good news when it's been accomplished. In doing so, the profession of teaching and learning, can begin to articulate and share in these guideposts toward meaningful capacity.  What's missing in this dynamic are the 'scouts' that are embedded in several classrooms, schools and districts simultaneously and use this experience to improve the work simultaneously.  What's crucial about this approach is that it isn't 'helicoptered in' and is never something done 'to' teachers.  The work of the 'scout' is to find, develop, and refine great teaching and learning and use this as a way to scale up the work so that more and more students can have access to highly effective teaching and learning. " This article, specifically this annotated section, really spoke to me and made me think about what the two main initiatives of our department - Henrico 21 and Reflective Friends, should look like. It shouldn't be something that is "helicoptered in" or "done to teachers," but instead should be about developing, refining, promoting, and sharing good teaching.

Found this whole page of videos from the Virginia Historical Society on Vimeo.

This is a pretty cool app that my PE teachers want to buy. It allows the user to be John Madden and analyze their athletes improvements. It even allows editing and voice overs.

Wow. Just wow. A lot of potential application here for a variety of topics. - My World History teachers are about to do a Socratic seminar on Rome. The topic is "Haves vs. Have Nots." This map fits perfectly into this discussion. - Use as a tool to discuss reasons for immigration/emigration - Locate the most/least poor areas of the US? Why do you believe this is the case? -Does geography impact poverty? How/Why? - Compare this map to other poverty maps from the past, specifically during the period of industrialization. Discuss how/why things have changed.

"The GIF below runs through the plates in sequence, from 2348 B.C., "The Deluge" (Quin, not unusually for his time period, was a Biblical literalist) through A.D. 1828, "End of the General Peace."" So my initial thought upon seeing this GIF was that it is eerily similar to the "fog of war" effect from Warcraft, Starcraft, and other similar games from my childhood. Based on this idea, you might be able to do something with these maps related to the essential question, "How has expansion changed our perception of the world?" (This is probably not phrased perfectly, but gets to the general idea...) Additionally, this could be an interesting item to analyze when discussing the essential question, "Have we made progress?" Students could make similar Gifs for shorter time periods to show their understanding of change over time.

"Here you will find one of the greatest historical atlases: Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright's Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published in 1932. This digital edition reproduces all of the atlas's nearly 700 maps. Many of these beautiful maps are enhanced here in ways impossible in print, animated to show change over time or made clickable to view the underlying data-remarkable maps produced eight decades ago with the functionality of the twenty-first century." Large Database of Interactive historical maps

"A study conducted by two Michigan psychologists, for example, reports that middle-school math students asked to anticipate how linear and exponential factors work-before this information was taught-became more curious about the content of the lessons they then proceeded to learn. Even more importantly, the act of venturing predictions prompted them to understand the material more deeply as they engaged in reasoning and sense-making about math instead of mere memorization."

"To solve engineering problems, you use your brain. Solving classroom problems uses your whole being." Nice article to share with teachers when everyone needs a bit of a boost. May share once we return from break.

"The root cause of the American Civil War is perhaps the most controversial topic in American history. Even before the war was over, scholars in the North and South began to analyze and interpret the reasons behind the bloodshed." Another interesting problem that Voyant (and other data viz/textual analysis tools) could help us solve. Provide students with a little background and then give them the Articles of Secession for a variety of states. Have them analyze/interpret the overall reasons for Secession based on what they uncover.

"Basically Rewordify takes a block of text or website and replaces difficult words and phrases with text that is easier to understand. The site claims that this helps students read more, understand difficult English faster, and learn words in new ways. I'd throw in that the site can help you and your students break down difficult primary documents." Rewordify tool as primary document decoder

""What will be your fingerprint on this school after you leave?""

"When I get a taxi for the 15-minute ride from my office to the airport, I have two choices. I can hail a cab on the street, and pay a metered fare for the 4.6-mile trip. Or I can walk to the local Marriott and pay a fixed fee of $31.50. Truthfully, I'm always a lot happier paying the fixed fee. I'm happier even though it probably costs more in the end. (A congestion-free trip on the meter comes out to about $26.) Sitting in a cab watching the meter tick up wrenches my gut: Every eighth of a mile, there goes another 45 cents-tick ... tick ... tick." ...this provides interesting context for a math problem using linear equations. When is it worth it to pay the fixed fare vs. paying the per 1/8th of a mile rate? You could "3-Act" this scenario pretty easily: -Take a short video of a taxi fare display clicking upwards. Ask students to give you the first questions that come to mind. When the students ask for it, provide them with a photo of the rate schedule on the side of the taxi and your destination address.