Group items tagged

Here's a list of some Math apps aligned to Common Core Standards that according to me are among the best available out there.

VocabularySpellingCity provides the following sets of correlations to standards: U.S. Standards by State Common Core Standards for each States' Implementation Australian Standards by State Canadian Standards by Province English National Curriculum Standards

Introduces creative commons licensing and uses for education

Good explanation about copyright and creative commons.

This article examines why media/digital literacy must be added to the common core standards to better prepare students for life in the 21st century. "While they (young people) may be media-savvy, we maintain that they are not necessarily media- or digital-literate. In order to be successful in the 21st century, students need to be both Information and Media Literate. In order to encourage schools to implement Information and Media Literacy in the curriculum, media/digital literacy should be added to common core standards. Assessments should be devised in which students are assessed using digital formats.

With the advent of Common Core for writing skills teachers need to better learn how to communicate the expectations to students via rubrics. A new PD tool, called FineTune supports teachers in the creating of these rubrics, which align to common core.

Heteronyms (also known as heterophones or homographs) are words that are spelled the same, but have different pronunciations and different meanings.

This article introduces a contest which promotes reading and media skills that began in 2008. It is sponsored by major publishers such as Simon and Schuster and Scholastic and 5 regional libraries, The contest is for students in grades 1-6. The students need to create a storytube on a book they have read. It is important to point out that teachers are not replacing a written report or are using this to enhance the report. I reviewed some of the winners and it is so great to see kids excited about what they read and using technology so easily. With students creating video media at such an early age and being so comfortable doing it only leads me to believe that when these students reach high school the work that they will create will be fantastic.

This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping. Sign up now! By Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 07/09/2008 Funny accents, strange wigs, and spoiler-free plot summaries are the common elements in the winning videos made by contestants in StoryTubes, a new contest for kids that promotes reading-and new media skills-by capitalizing on the popularity of YouTube.

This link explains how libraries are using the power and popularity of YouTube to promote learning, literacy, creativity and technology. StoryTube is a great project idea that uses the power of the contest as a wonderful motivator.

This article is an intersting take on how two teachers at Burlington High School in MA are on a mission to integrate technology into the curriculum. It's not directly related to creativity, however, I feel that these two teachers are taking a very creative approach in how they want their students to learn.

This article presented that a common discussion point amongst schools is how to engage the student in order to make them more successful in the 21st century. It provided an angronym "SAGE" that helps the teacher focus on how to engage students so that they are using techniques to problem solve and process their learning. It is based on "Instruction that supports the development of globally competent student provides multiple opportunities to investigate the world, recognize and weigh diverse perspectives, communicate ideas and take action." I feel this article does provide great "coaching" for the teacher to help students use HOTS.

National Expert on OER and Director at Creative Commons.

This blog post describes the Web 2.0 tools that are being used in the author's school to help students reach each level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

My Carnigie's story maker is an excellent tool that can be used for teaching creative writing to your students. With this tool, students will be able to create a story in minutes, with animation if desired, and then share their story with somebody else or even create a print out.  My Carnigie Story Maker is extremely user friendly and students can get started within minutes and won't need much training to do so.  Students will be able to get their creative juices flowing as they practice their English Language skills and if you happen to be a Foreign Language teacher, this site would be great for your students as well.

Eleventh-grade English teacher, Lee Ann Spillane, describes how she uses Wordle to explore and analyze text patterns used by F. Scott Fitzgerald. How frequently does a word appear in the text? Students sit in table groups, with one computer per table. Using Google Books, students do a simple word search, creating a digital concordance.

School district implements common planning time and allows teachers to collaborate using a wike for lesson plans and web links to enhance classroom teaching.

Thank you for sharing that example of the wiki and teacher sharing. I may discuss this to be a possible option for a professional day for my own dept members as we look to design our own text.

Check out these seven video tips, made by Edutopia bloggers and contributors, on using technology in your classroom. Watch teachers, an administrator and consultant talk about real applications of media tools for students. Content for this project is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License.

In these 7 brief video clips, educators share how they use specific technology and social-media tools in classrooms, including Twitter,Facebook, Wikis, Digital Cameras, YouTube, Wii and GPS devices.

I really enjoyed reading this article about making appealing and intriguing powerpoint slideshows using images that attract attention. The article is brief but they offer several sites to obtain images from and then they suggest some editing elements you can do to alter the originals and use them as talking points before during or after a presentation. The most impacting piece I got out of it was when they asked the question - would you sit through your own presentation? Yeah, no kidding, how many times have you sat through a dull presentation with nothing to keep your eyes and attention sharp and interested.

Some great tips - especially like the list of places to find images instead of the common google. Randy