August 2009 Blog Posts (124)

Finished wiki #2 on eluminate

Pretty cool app, even as a recording. I'm going to try to catch up with the RSS feed one too but I'm so busy with just a few weeks left before school starts. Wiki's as a tool.....a tool for an outcome. There are so many tools with Web2 that it takes a while to catch up. I agree with what Sue said about using them. Many times you have to get busy with it personally before you use it in the classroom.

Added by Leyton Roberts on August 7, 2009 at 9:35am — No Comments

Are you ready?

As I look forward to tomorrow's Freshmen Orientation, I am struck by sooo many conflicting thoughts: Am I ready? and Will I be ready?

Am I ready? No I am not ready but I will be. Well, I will spend the next week getting ready. I have been patting myself on the back because I have my lesson plans done for the next 4 weeks and I do not have that much work to do to my wikisite.

Guess what? We aren't to study short stories as I thought; we will be completing a unit on… Continue

Added by Valerie Burton on August 7, 2009 at 1:10am — No Comments

Collaborative Project: Encompassing the Arts Across the Grades

The collaborative unit/project I created is titled Encompassing the Arts Across the Grades. It has been said that a name tells all. In this case, much can be assumed from the title. The Web 2.0 tool, VoiceThread is used, the main curriculum area covered is the arts, and the participants span more than one grade level of students. I would add that the language arts are also a major curriculum area that this project complements.… Continue

Added by Nancy L. Jacobson on August 6, 2009 at 11:33pm — No Comments

Invitation to participate in important survey

If you have not completed the survey on how you use AND how you have your students use online tools, please go to http://snipurl.com/nnpvg.

If you have, please share with colleagues.

Thank you, Cheri

Added by Cheri Toledo on August 6, 2009 at 2:04pm — No Comments

The Cheating Heart

Perhaps the most difficult problems facing educators is the staggering number of students who cheat in school. With the emergence of all sorts of exciting technologies– mobile technologies, social media technologies, etc. — teachers and administrators are finding it virtually impossible to effectively combat cheating. MORE...

Added by Shawn Roner on August 6, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Like Mom always said: Why? Because I said so, that's why!

How in the world can we expect all students to show the same amount of enthusiasm for all subject areas on their schedule? I am not sure we can.

And if you agree we can't -- read on. (If you think we can, then this post is probably not for you.)

I think about my own experience in school. For me, science class was always something I endured more than I enjoyed whereas creative writing was an after school club for me that I choose to join which had me up til… Continue

Added by Alan Sitomer on August 6, 2009 at 6:30am — No Comments

Teachers Without Borders

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and will never be.

Thomas Jefferson recognized the relationship between education and freedom hundreds of years ago, so why do we still expect nations to do the glorious mountain building required of their future without the bedrock of teachers? We ask the world to ‘cut carbon emissions’ without teaching them science. We ask them to… Continue

Added by Jacqui Murray on August 5, 2009 at 12:13pm — No Comments

School: when it comes to amassing great fortunes, it's so overrated

It is with great sadness that I must inform everyone that I will be retiring from the world of education. See, a few hours ago, I just learned that a dead 3rd aunt who moved to Senegal in the early 1900's just left me 67 million Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF) -- this is the official note of the Central Bank of the West African States -- which translates into about 32 million US dollars.

Of course, I couldn't begin to explain how ecstatic I was to receive the… Continue

Added by Alan Sitomer on August 5, 2009 at 6:00am — No Comments

Think-Pair-Share (Lyman, 1981): An Equity Pedagogical Best Practice to Increase and Vary Student Participation in the Classroom

Think-Pair-Share (Lyman, 1981): An Equity Pedagogical Best Practice to Increase and Vary Student Participation in the Classroom

This is a three-step paired cooperative procedure created by *Dr. Frank Lyman in 1981. During step one, each member individually and silently thinks about a question posed by the teacher. During the second step, two members are paired to exchange and discuss their responses. During step three, each member may share his response, his partner's response, a… Continue

Added by Richard D. Solomon, Ph.D. on August 5, 2009 at 5:00am — No Comments

Urban Screens and Media Facades

The video related to the picture below, along with a few comments and links, can be found on my recent post:

Revisiting Urban Screens: 555 Kubik....

Wouldn't this be fun to do with a school building?!

Added by Lynn Marentette on August 4, 2009 at 6:40pm — No Comments

Weekly Update: July 27 - August 2

Check out these interesting blogs...

Added by Shawn Roner on August 4, 2009 at 11:15am — No Comments

Communication and Collaboration online Project

I posted this in the discussion forum but it should have been posted here.

I have taken this course and am now sharing my reflection about the project plan.

Tech330.37

Ruby Stradford Johnson

stradford_johnson@yahoo.com

Beaufort, SC

August 3, 2009

Session 6: Part 3 Reflection Paper

My online collaborative project for the course is entitled “Virtually Speaking: What is Success and how do you get It.? It spans across curriculum which… Continue

Added by Ruby Stradford Johnson on August 4, 2009 at 10:23am — No Comments

Internet resources for educators working with visually impaired students

3rd post in a series examining web based resources for educators that work with Special Needs students

Just as with my recent posts focused on ADD & ADHD, and Autism & PDD, it is not difficult to find… Continue

Added by Kelly Walsh on August 4, 2009 at 9:30am — No Comments

What are Equity Pedagogical Methods and Why Should They Be Modeled by Mentors and Deployed by Teachers?

Before we define equity pedagogy, let’s share some relevant research.

There have been a number of important studies which indicate that a teacher's perceptions of students can influence their teaching. In 1968, * Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson published a famous study, Pygmalion in the Classroom, which had profound effects upon the practice of teaching. In their study, they provided teachers in an elementary school with undocumented information about several students in their… Continue

Added by Richard D. Solomon, Ph.D. on August 4, 2009 at 6:31am — No Comments

It's more than just apparently suicidal tricks... it's an outlook on life.

I just witnessed a group of teens and young adults who said, with a straight face and all the seriousness in their heart that they could muster, that if they did not figure out a way to improve over their performance of last year, they'd be toast. They knew they needed to grow, adapt, change, evolve and break new ground... for if they didn't, they knew someone else, with more hunger in the belly, would come along and take from them their, well... everything. Their future, their… Continue

Added by Alan Sitomer on August 4, 2009 at 6:30am — No Comments

Picture Power in Books

Pictures are very powerful and when used with language and writing, work to activate both the right and left sides of the brain for a whole learning experience.

Big Universe

Added by Bernice Wonderly on August 3, 2009 at 1:07pm — No Comments

New Parent Engagement Blog & Book

I've recently begun a new blog called Engaging Parents In School: Going Beyond Parent "Involvement".

It's designed to support my book that will be published in the fall, Building Parent Engagement In Schools.

This article, Parent Involvement or Parent Engagement, gives a preview of the… Continue

Added by Larry Ferlazzo on August 3, 2009 at 10:25am — 1 Comment

Do our kids not have much to teach us about how to teach them?

Working on my listening skills has probably been one of the best pieces of PD advice I have ever tried to take to heart.

The fact is, we teachers, we kinda come to class to talk. To impart. To flow outwardly. And in the chaos that is a teaching day, with hundreds of students coming at you from hundreds of angles at a hundred miles an hour seeking hundreds of answers (from "May I go to the bathroom?" to "Do you think Shakespeare really wrote all those plays?" to "Can I bring… Continue

Added by Alan Sitomer on August 3, 2009 at 6:30am — No Comments

Art lesson plans for middle school

When I learn how to use this...I will start posting ideas that have worked for me. Currently I'm thinking about something fun with anamorphosis art. Any ideas or links would be appreciated.

Added by CA York on August 3, 2009 at 12:06am — No Comments