Group items tagged

"Middle School Math Wiki- Students' Thoughts"

"Today was the first day of school. Ever. It was pretty epic. Since the students didn't know where things were located in the building yet, I thought we would have some fun locating them with a QR code scavenger hunt. It was SO easy to do, I thought I would share the process here."

"Thoughts on Teaching Math with technology "

"Kindergarten time is storytelling time: Listening to stories, telling stories, acting stories out, learning how to read your own stories and creating your own stories!"

A devastating critic of one to one laptops (and tablets?) programs. Food for thought: maybe these tools should stay in the classroom?

"What is the Value of a Coach? Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Atul Gawande A district administrator recently wrote to tell me that her district was facing "tough financial decisions" that are naturally causing lower morale. Everyone in her district feels under attack. And "the coaches are naturally questioning their value."" All of us experience dark times when we wonder if we are making a difference, and coaches are no different. So I thought I would do my best to answer the coaches' question. What is the value of a coach? Coaches Support & Encourage Teachers. A coach is

" What Job Would You Hire a Textbook To Do? " It was a fun and thought-provoking two days at Discovery Education's Beyond the Textbook event. Thanks so much to Steve Dembo, Dean Shareski, Hall Davidson, Laura Wenograd, and all the other folks at Discovery who not only planned this thing, but took very good care of us while we were there (Full Disclosure: I did not get paid to attend, but Discovery covered all expenses). And thanks to my fellow attendees for making this a great learning experience. (Oh, just a reminder Dean, there are still a couple of light bulbs you need to change.)

Thought provoking post about screencasting.   However, how about using screencasts as method of assessing student learning?

There is certainly not a shortage of places to find educational and inspirational videos online. I've listed a handful of them here. Keen Talks is another entry into that market. Keen Talks is an online catalog of videos featuring educational and thought-provoking talks from people across the academic and entertainment spectrums. While Keen Talks is very heavy on science topics, you can find talks on topics in history, economics, entertainment, and technology. You can search Keen Talks by topic, category, or speaker's name.

"It is almost December again, which means the beginning of Advent. Advent calendars are a fun way to reveal information and "surprises" for your students to look forward to each day in December leading up to Christmas. Last year I thought I would make an advent calendar of my own using Wix. I created a Web 2.0 advent calendar by choosing 25 of my favorite web 2.0 tools for the classroom. Each day you can check out a new one. (I'll let you in on a secret, you can cheat and look at them all by clicking on the bird to get back to the calendar page…shh don't tell anyone!) "

"After publishing The 10 Most Important Educational YouTube Channels I got an email from one of my readers asking about a tool to use to chop portions of YouTube videos to share with students. I instantly thought about Tube Chop but when I went back to my archive I found two more tools that can all enable users to slice, cut, or chop a selected part from YouTube videos and share it with others. I am sharing the list with you below."

"48 Great Ways Homeschoolers are Using Pinterest Pinterest has proven itself to be a valuable tool for so many people: photographers, designers, craft artists, wedding planners, moms, and more. It's a great place to discover interesting ideas, organize your thoughts, and pin down resources that otherwise might get lost in the shuffle. Homeschooling parents make up another group that benefits greatly from Pinterest, as they share unit studies, school room inspiration, and fun classroom project ideas. Read on to learn more about how homeschoolers are finding value in Pinterest, and some of the interesting ways they're putting the site to work in the home classroom."

Looking for something to hang on your wall that will catch the mind as well as the eye? These Hang Ups should be just the ticket. We've collected dozens of quotations, grouped them by topic, and created colorful, printable, 8.5" x 11" Adobe Acrobat files that are ready to use. All you do is print 'em out and hang 'em up. Four sets are complete: "Lines to Learning" - musings on education and knowledge "Horizon Lines" - thoughts on greatness and achievement "Writer's Blocks" - quotations about writing and poetry "Goal Lines" - inspirations from sports Use the "send to a friend" button at the top of this page to share these quotes with your colleagues, and check back frequently to see what's new here!

This is a self-professed, blatant all-out "steal" of a great idea begun by Gina Hartman for Twitter users in education. As a plurker, I thought we plurkers needed one of these for us. I've even "borrowed" her very well done directions: This wiki was created to easily help new teachers (or teachers new to Plurk) connect with other teachers that have the same interests as them (that teach in the same content area). Check out the list of teachers below. To add your Plurk name to the list, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of this page, and then enter yourself in the appropriate category or categories! But first you have to create an account. Just follow the instructions to the right.

In spite of all the talk about Twitter in connection with the Iranian elections and all things international as of late, I doubt that many of my university colleagues will be including Twitter on a syllabus this fall. I've talked before about the "Twitter Cycle" or the fact that, at first glance, Twitter appears trivial, and even, dare I say, stupid. The fact that one's thoughts need to be distilled to 140 characters or less constitutes a seemingly outwardly unacademic endeavor and therefore many open a Twitter account, declare it the dumbest thing ever and never return again. In this post I have two bold goals: to briefly lay out the case why Twitter is the platform for the globally minded and to provide 10 tools that I believe are central to those interested in all things global, including language learning.

For the past month, I've been babbling about interesting web sites for kids and teachers at Vocalo.org (http://vocalo.org/), Chicago's first user-generated content radio station. It's an initiative of our local NPR affiliate and it broadcasts on the internet and at 89.5 if you're in the Chicago/Northern Indiana area. The station is a really interesting concept and I think a sign of the ways things will go with radio. Anyway, I thought I'd share 5 of my favorites from this series with you today. Enjoy!

"Tim Holt's thoughts on education and ed tech. Sit back, relax and enjoy the view from far west Texas."

Betrayed - Why Public Education Is Failing Betrayed is a new online chat forum for parents, teachers and community members to offer their thoughts on what's wrong with public education and how to make it work better for the students. The comments within are based on extensive research by Laurie H. Rogers. If you would like to learn more about this research, please contact Laurie Rogers at wlroge@comcast.net.

"What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch" Did you know that it's been nearly twenty years since the first website was placed online? Have you ever thought about how the Internet and the web have evolved in time?