September 2007 Blog Posts (162)

9/20/07 Someone Is Listening.</</body>

This will need to be a short post because between supervisory duties, mentoring, extracurricular sports obligations, clubs, and the like, I hardly have time to breath lately. However, I wanted to at least share that a family member who is one of my best friends took the time to write me an email about my blog. She actually read the whole thing! How wonderful to have my first reader from among my close circle. I've had some far-off readers whom I didn't know add comments; I've made new…

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Added by L. Suzanne Shanks on September 20, 2007 at 6:48pm — No Comments

Teaching the basic skills of reading

My group wanted to research how educators can use technology in their classrooms to teach basic reading skills. We started by asking one former early elementary teacher and she replied in saying, the most common way to use technology in teaching reading is for comprehension.

In the research I found, it was mentioned that technology works great for students that want instant feeback so they know if they are correct and if not, they can fix it so they aren't practicing it wrong. I found…

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Added by Megan Dunning on September 20, 2007 at 3:28pm — No Comments

My First Blog Entry

In english class, we have been studing movie reviews and other things to do with it. I learned that in a movie review you should have an introduction and a conclusion. I also learned that you have to stand up strate when saying a speach. Well i also learned that u have to look them in the eyes when they are talking to you. You have to dress good. You dont want to look bad because if you do then you might not get the job.

Added by MarieMurdock on September 20, 2007 at 11:15am — No Comments

A much better day, September 19, 2007

Today was such a better day. I had full attention of the students and rarely had to deal with discipline problems. I think part of that came from the fact that we were all reading the story today. In order to keep the students engaged I had them read and I would ask questions based on the sentences used the day before for the prediction activity. I was sure to read with different voices and emotion so that the story remained fresh in thier minds and so that they would not fall asleep. The story… Continue

Added by Jacqueline Marien on September 20, 2007 at 11:10am — No Comments

Bullying Prevention/Character Education Discussion :: Now Live on GreenbushTV

Live Now on GreenbushTV

Added by Rich White on September 20, 2007 at 9:29am — No Comments

Making things work

I returned from our yearly administrator’s seminar yesterday a bit tired but with a host of ideas for creating a better climate for our school. While we were there, we were given two new tools that I feel

are really going to help our staff to focus their efforts and move us

forward.

Now, to be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to these two days. Not because of the content but one of my staff members had had a stroke on the weekend and I was still trying to figure out…

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Added by Kelly Christopherson on September 19, 2007 at 11:02pm — No Comments

Analog v. Digital Schools

Analog vs. Digital Schools

Check it out

Pretty much says it all.

T

Added by Tim Holt on September 19, 2007 at 4:28pm — 5 Comments

We Live in Interesting Times

I wrote a blog entry about the business of education. Here is the beginning:

We live in interesting times.

If you have been around for as long as I have, you can remember vinyl records, 8 tracks, and cassette decks. You may even have about 25

Disney movies on VHS and are wondering if you should upgrade to DVD

since all of them are now on the iTunes music store. Still have that

film…

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Added by Tim Holt on September 19, 2007 at 4:21pm — No Comments

Greenbush Labs: Exploring Tomorrows Educational Tech Today !

Exploring:

RSS - Blogs - Podcasts - Immersive Environments - Youtube - Croquet - Second Life - Open Source - Live Streaming, Social Networks, AND MORE… Continue

Added by Rich White on September 19, 2007 at 3:49pm — No Comments

PowerSearching in a Web 2.0 World: Last Call

The 21st Century Information Project is offering a Moodle based online class: PowerSearching in a Web 2.0 World.

The course starts on September 24. The class is 4 weeks long. Each week we take on a new topic. We will look at searching, evaluating, and… Continue

Added by Dennis O'Connor on September 18, 2007 at 6:02pm — No Comments

Classroom Toolkit Joins BlogRush

Classroom Toolkit has joined the Blog Rush™ free service.

Here is the link if you want to join, too.

Join Blog Rush now…

BlogRusn™ is a cooperative Blog referral service.

And, BlogRush™ is completely free, i.e., without cost.

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Added by Joseph Chmielewski on September 18, 2007 at 3:36pm — No Comments

Classroom Toolkit on Ning

View my profile on Classroom Toolkit

Select to visit Classroom Toolkit on…

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Added by Joseph Chmielewski on September 18, 2007 at 3:35pm — No Comments

Great Lesson Gone Bad

Today I had the opportunity to really get into the classroom and teach a lesson that was relevant to the curriculum but it did not go as well as I had planned. Just thinking about it gets me in a tizzie. There was a vocabulary test given today and that went well. Many of the students did well while others did not. After the test I handed out the index cards with the sentences/phrases that were in the short story. The students were put into groups, this was not such a great plan. They were all… Continue

Added by Jacqueline Marien on September 18, 2007 at 2:57pm — No Comments

Wiki Trials

I have had very limited success so far with the Wiki Trials that I have tried to implement. I organised a PB Wiki site for some colleagues just to test how effective they could be with communication across the group and so far very few people have used it. There was an initial attempt at use but without collaboration from the whole team it just falls by the wayside.

Has anybody out there had success with Wikis and how do you motivate people to use them?

Added by Jo Norris on September 18, 2007 at 12:33am — 2 Comments

Japan Kids Are Ready

Etsuko from Fuchinobe Elementary in Sagamihara City, Japan sent the intro packet from her International Exchange Club and it arrived today. Her kids (5th and 6th graders) will begin exchanging photos, drawings, and cultural email with mine. Etsuko has been a great help in the past four years. She speaks English very well and helps teachers in Japan connect with English speaking groups, such as our Monster Project. Fuchinobe has been in the… Continue

Added by Terry Smith on September 17, 2007 at 8:56pm — 1 Comment

First time!

I have known about Ning for a while now and I have been a member of a couple different forums, Classroom 2.0 being one of them, but it has taken me a long time to set up my page and get into the discussions. I think my first impression of Ning was that it was very "busy" and I couldn't decide if it was the same or better than keeping a personal blog. I finally got around to setting this up and getting into the discussions and I am sad that it took me so long. A personal blog is great and it has… Continue

Added by Brad Davis on September 17, 2007 at 8:23pm — 3 Comments

Rantings of a Self-Proclaimed Geek

Because I just can't dare to not try everything 2.0 out, I have created this place on the Web. Like all the others, i.e. MySpace, Facebook, etc. this will not doubt prove to be more effort than return...however, I'll give it a go -- it just might turn out to be the next best thing to TiVO.

Added by Alan, a Self-Proclaimed Geek on September 17, 2007 at 6:14pm — 2 Comments

September 17, 2007

After a long four day weekend, I was back in the classroom ready to get those Monday blues out of my class. Today, we played a review game for the students because tomorrow is their vocabulary test. I designed a word search with the words inside and definitions outside. So the students had to find the words with only having the knowledge of the definitions. Unfortunately, it only worked out that way with one class. The other periods I gave the opportunity for them to have a word bank and really… Continue

Added by Jacqueline Marien on September 17, 2007 at 4:41pm — No Comments

Homeschooling question

So, give me your thoughts on this. My son, 7 1/2, has struggled with reading from day one. I have worked hard with him. He really can do a great job but he is definitely a boy who wants to play and not have to sit with me. I have tried to work with him to sit and focus but I also allowed him the opportunity to stand and throw a ball up and down while working through his phonics. He has come a long way. I have wanted to just see a desire in him to sit with a book. It happened last night. I put… Continue

Added by Kelly Rogers on September 17, 2007 at 3:18pm — 2 Comments