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A Treasured Time Machine Set in 1985, the movie begins with Marty and his girlfriend, Jennifer, in front of Marty’s home. All of a sudden, Doc Brown appears and franticly warns Marty that something has gone wrong and they urgently need to travel to the future to fix it.  The three hop into a trash-powered car, called the DeLorean, and blast off.  “Where we’re going we don’t need roads,” Doc tells Marty as they burst into the sky. When they arrive in 2015, they find themselves in a futuristic town with hoverboards, 3D movie advertisements, hand-held computers, and people wearing strange clothing with self-lacing shoes. People across the country are celebrating Back to the Future Day with movie screenings and more. In New York City, a special fleet of DeLoreans will give taxi rides. Technology company Arx Pax will release a new hover board, a technology made famous by the movie. And the town of Reston, Virginia, will ceremonially change its name to Hill Valley, Marty’s fictional hometown, from October 21-25.

I have an iMac and a 40" Samsung tv and teach elementary music. No textbooks, so I use Keynote and Quicktime to present songs and lessons I develop. I use a Gig-Easy mount and old mic stand to hold my personal iPad so students can safely use it. This is more limiting than an interactive whiteboard...I'm hoping to get a SmartBoard and a document camera eventually..but it does allow students to personally access technology. I mirror to the TV so all can see what is being done. I have been using the espresso education website for about three years. I am using Sokikom for behavior management and to support math (aligned to the CC) .. student's using the games outside of music. Garageband- to record and edit. I teach many classes and have to take a new role every 45 minutes, so I use Teacherkit (on iPad) for attendance and seating charts. We put in grades on WebPams. I use DropBox to share with other teachers and to move things from my home MacBookPro to my iMac.

Edmodo: Teachers and students can take advantage of this great tech tool, as it offers a Facebook-like environment where classes can connect online.

Numerous studies have been done to assess the impact of class size reduction. Although most studies do show a relationship between small class size and increased student achievement, researchers disagree on how to interpret the results. Because there are so many variables in the average classroom — the quality of the teacher, the home environment of the students, the quality of the curriculum, the leadership of the school — it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about student achievement based on class size alone. In other words, strategies effective in one setting may not be equally effective in another. Nevertheless, studies over a period of years have pointed to a number of trends as a result of lowering class size: Gains associated with small classes generally appear when the class size is reduced to less than 20 students. Gains associated with small classes are stronger for the early grades. Gains are stronger for students who come from groups that are traditionally disadvantaged in education — minorities and immigrants. Gains from class size reduction in the early grades continue for students in the upper grades. Students are less likely to be retained, more likely to stay in school and more likely to earn better grades. Academic gains are not the only benefit of lowering class size. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health revealed that reducing class sizes in elementary schools may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions. This is because students in smaller classes are more likely to graduate from high school, and high school graduates earn more and also enjoy significantly better health than high school dropouts.

YouTube is a great tool for this; chances are you can find a video clip to compliment any lesson there.

a video clip to compliment any lesson there.

Using mobile devices like iPads and tablets you can keep students involved with all sorts of educational games for just about any subject. Students can keep track of their progress and work to compete with other students to advance to the next level.

The use of technology in the classroom setting has become increasingly accepted by educators at all levels. It has been proven through various studies that students perform at a higher level academically if they are actively engaged and stimulated in the classroom.

Use the “Save” option to bookmark a page. Bookmarking saves a link to the page in your online Diigo library, allowing you to easily access it later.

Highlighting can also be accomplished from the context pop-up. After the Chrome extension is installed, whenever you select text on a webpage, the context pop-up will appear, allowing you to accomplish text-related annotation. Highlight Pop-up Menu – After you highlight some text, position your mouse cursor over it and the highlight pop-up menu will appear. The highlight pop-up menu allows you to add notes to, share, or delete the highlight.

Sticky Note Click the middle icon on the annotation toolbar to add a sticky note to the page. With a sticky note, you can write your thoughts anywhere on a web page.

Use the “Save” option to bookmark a page. Bookmarking saves a link to the page in your online Diigo library, allowing you to easily access it later.

Highlighting can also be accomplished from the context pop-up. After the Chrome extension is installed, whenever you select text on a webpage, the context pop-up will appear, allowing you to accomplish text-related annotation. Highlight Pop-up Menu – After you highlight some text, position your mouse cursor over it and the highlight pop-up menu will appear. The highlight pop-up menu allows you to add notes to, share, or delete the highlight.

Sticky Note Click the middle icon on the annotation toolbar to add a sticky note to the page. With a sticky note, you can write your thoughts anywhere on a web page.

Foreign Films with iPads ETT Creator: Greg Kulowiec (

Facebook for Educators

www.FacebookForEducators.org

A number of trends are combining to create new opportunities for students and the field of technology. As more and more content is available online, sometimes exclusively, it is important to ensure that the information is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities; assistive and learning technology offers great promise in helping these students. Special education delivery now happens more often in the general education classroom, not in segregated special needs classrooms. Also, the stunning innovation of technology; has made it easier to use and customize. It has become more powerful and available at lower costs, therefore making it attractive as part of a school wide solution. Tremendous advances in technology in the past decade have led to the development of speech synthesis and recognition technology, interactive software, and miniaturization and portability that help these students achieve and thrive (National Center on Technology Innovation.(2006). Moving Towards Solutions: Assistive Learning Technology for all Students. Washington, DC: Author)

Question 1: How can social media tools such as Facebook, wikis, and blogs be used in high schools as learning tools? Question 2: Can you provide concrete examples in how schools and districts are using learning and assistive technologies to help students with disabilities succeed on the high school level? Question 3: What funding is now available for high schools in regards to technology with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 2009?

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