This is Rafranz Davis' collaborative project with her son for his geography trip project. I encourage everyone to explore Google Tour Builder as an alternative to ppt presentations about trips.
"Stand Tall: "One Brave Thing" Pinterest Contest
How does Abraham Lincoln's legacy inspire your students to do "One Brave Thing"? Share your class story on Pinterest and you could win a class trip to Washington DC and a private screening of the movie "Lincoln." Use the sample entry below from the WeAreTeachers staff as inspiration. For full contest rules, visit bit.ly/OneBraveThing"
"iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program
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Does Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program represent the future of education?
Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian
Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian
Just before 8 a.m. one recent Tuesday, Andy Caine wheeled a waist-high cart into his second-floor history classroom at Mira Costa High School, as the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" played faintly in the background.
On the syllabus for the day: the First Amendment.
As the first period bell rang, Caine unlocked the cart.
"Come and get 'em," Caine said to his class of seniors, and stood behind his podium, on which he's pasted a sticker reading, "Think for yourself. Question Authority."
The students put aside their pens and notebooks and lined up at the cart to pick up an unconventional tool that school districts across the nation have been implementing into classrooms.
Each student grabbed an iPad and returned to his or her seat.
Caine is one of 43 Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers chosen to try the $500,000 iPad pilot program, which started last fall. At Mira Costa, two English, math, science and social studies teachers use iPads, along with eight science teachers at Manhattan Beach Middle School and 27 teachers of different grade levels at each elementary school. The district purchased 560 student iPads (32 gigabytes and costing around $700 each), in addition to iPads for pilot teachers and administrators.
A quarter of the pilot costs are grant funded, while the district supports the rest. Later this year, the School Board will decide whether, and in what capacity, to continue the pilot.
Caine and pilot teachers implement iPads into their curricula two to three times a week, a total of 30 to 90 minutes. "I would use them every day if I had the po
Digital storytelling tool - upload the photos, arrange the photo order and record your story based on the photo being viewed. This would be great to have students retell what happened on a field trip or create an oral creative writing story based on photos chosen by the student or teacher. Students could even create a book project over a novel or short story with this tool.
Welcome to Reedy Technologies. This site has been designed to provide technology resources to educators. Its focus is to assist teachers in the integration of technology across the curriculum.
Grade Level Resources
This area has been divided into grade specific sections. Each grade level has general resources at the top for all subject areas and then subject specific resources below that section.
Teacher Resources
This area contains resources specifically for the classroom such as lesson plans, units, rubrics, worksheets, virtual field trips, and internet tools for the classroom.
Darren Cannell (http://twitter.com/dcannell), an assistant principal in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada. He and his family will be embarking on a worldwide trip, traveling to 35 countries starting in September, and that as part of his travels, his 2nd grade son will be blogging about it.
Starting on September 2o, 2010 Daxtin and his family will be travelling around the world this journal will be about this eight month journey."
"Flat Stanley is ready to begin his trip around the world! Before leaving he took a tour of the city of Somersworth, NH. Check out our video Flat Stanley in Somersworth to learn a little bit about what life is like here in Somersworth. The first country he will be visiting is France. Bon Voyage!!"
Preston Girls' Secondary College Reading Wiki to show and share with students and teachers how web 2.0 tools can inspire students to respond to set texts in a more creative way.
Making book trailers
Filming their own '60 second recap
Making animotos
Creating toondoos
Using Flickr to make a showbag
Developing a glog
Creating a Google Lit Trip
Making a Prezi
Creating VoiceThreads
and responding in Twitterature style
are just some examples of how students can creatively respond to a book.
Each link explains how the tools can be embedded into the curriculum and shows examples of how other people have used these sites to develop a book response. Some responses are better than others and it would be good to discuss with students beforehand what made certain examples better than others.
For some of the presentations, students may need a Flip camera (such as 60 second recap) however the rest of the presentations could use photos and images from the internet. A lesson on Creative Commons and Wikimedia before students are let loose would help them understand their responsibilities in terms of selecting appropriate images and music to use.
Once finished, students could show their presentations to each other and have them critique their work. Permissions allowing, presentations could also be uploaded to the school website or shown on parent information evenings or parent/teacher nights.
Challenge:
My challenge to you is to ask students to use one of these tools (can be in conjunction with a written response) in their next text response.
On my recent trip to Shanghai China for the Learning 2.011 conference I was struck but so much that the experience will likely feed my thinking for the rest of my life. The conference is a bringing together of international school teachers, led by some of the most stellar educational minds of our time. The cohort leaders at this events lead with kindness, expertise and amazing resumes in the forms of blogs, podcasts, books and proven thought leadership in multiple realms. It was in this rarified company that I was given time and opportunity to go out and explore China as a pedestrian learner.
Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces.
Planet Quest Alien Safari is a great interactive site for kids. It lets you go on an adventure by exploring different "life zones" around the world. By visiting these, you will find all different types of organisms that are living on our planet.
Students get to learn about what the organisms reveal about finding life in space. So, they will learn which can survive without sunlight, which have a high radiation dose, the most acidic and the ones that live the furthest underground, for example. By clicking on a life zone on the 3D Earth, you can watch a video introduction to that organism.
This website is a great classroom and research tool. You can use it to simply explore all the things around you, or use it as a starter for deeper learning and researching on a specific subject or topic. Students can really get creative by writing stories and other works of writing based on the subjects and organisms they have been learning about.
This site is a great tool to use in the classroom on an interactive whiteboard. With the music and interactive nature of the site, the whole class can get involved with learning about the various organisms. Go on a safari without leaving the room!