Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/30/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/29/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

When Not on the Baseball Field...

Took this picture yesterday in our livingroom.  My 15 year old son who is either on the baseball field or watching the pros play baseball, would love to become a sports writer.  He had started a Braves baseball blog using my laptop (which serves as our home computer) up until his 15th birthday.  My oldest son, AJ,  got a great little (old!) S-10 pickup for his 15th birthday two years ago, but we decided to get Carlos a netbook when he turned 15.  Had to force him to take driver's ed, so we knew a new car/truck was not top priority for him.  However, the laptop has been a perfect investment.  He started a new blog and has been avidly posting!  Check out his blog if you have a minute (especially if you're a Braves fan)!  I know he'd enjoy reading any comments you'd like to leave!

http://thebravesbeat.mlblogs.com



Carlos getting updates from ESPN on his cell phone and blogging!

Great Reads on my Summer List!

One of the reasons I LOVE summer is that I finally get some time to read the great books I keep hearing about!  I know I have officially gone over the edge of teacher geek-dom as I continually push away the perfect no-brain-needed beach novel, for the research-based educational read!  My family just roll their eyes at this point!  Although, I have promised my 15 year old son (also a lover of books) that I would go back and read The Half Blood Prince before the movie comes out next month.  I had skipped it to read the concluding novel in the series cause I couldn't wait to find out how J.K. Rowling ended the journey!

Here are some of the super books I've read so far this summer (along with my grade for them!):

1. Why Don't Students Like School? by Cognitive Scientist Daniel T. Willingham.

Thanks to Scott McLeod and Castle's book club, I joined, purchased, and devoured!  It makes so much sense to tie what we plan and do in the classroom with the way our students' brains work.  This book is a fantastic down-to-earth summary of the most recent cognitive research and how it can be applied to our work with students.  I had many "wow, really?" moments while reading this book.  I'm working on creating some new posts to let you know about those moments!  A+

2. What Great Teachers Do Differently - 14 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker

Assigned to be read this summer by our administration, this is a book that aims at pointing out the 14 things that the author has observed great teachers doing.  It is an easy read with some common sense reminders of what we should be doing as caring, effective educators.  Nothing Earth-shattering.  C

3.  Not Much Just Chillin' - the Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers by Linda Perlstein

This is a fantastic book written by a researcher who lived among the middle schoolers about which she writes.  It is a wonderful view of how middle school looks and feels from the students', teachers', and parents' points of view.  The thing I like most about this book is that Ms. Perlstein combines the real-life experiences of middle schoolers with current brain research to support WHY they think and act the way they do.  If you ask me, this should be the book assigned by all middle school administrators for their staff members to read!  Very eye-opening!  A+

Okay, now on to Harry Potter!  I have until July 15th!



Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/28/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/19/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/17/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/13/2009

  • The IHMC CmapTools program empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps. It allows users to, among many other features, construct their Cmaps in their personal computer, share them on servers (CmapServers) anywhere on the Internet, link their Cmaps to other Cmaps on servers, automatically create web pages of their concept maps on servers, edit their maps synchronously (at the same time) with other users on the Internet, and search the web for information relevant to a concept map.

    tags: mindmap, conceptmapping

  • Great paper on brain research and the importance of incorporating Concept mapping into lesson plans.

    tags: conceptmapping, mindmap


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/12/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/11/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Advice Please!

First of all, thank you for reading this blog post!  I have just scheduled a meeting with our Superintendent for next week to discuss the 1:1 pilot I've been dreaming of for six years now.  The project, entitled, "The STELLAR Project (Sharing Technology with Everyone using Laptops for Learning, Accountability, and Relevance)" has been growing at

http://stellarproject.wikispaces.com

I need your help! In a county where test scores are high priority (as they are in most these days), what are the top things you would communicate to the Superintendent about 1:1 in the short time you've been given?  If you have never commented on my blog, I beg you to add at least one thing this time!  Thanks!

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/10/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/08/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/07/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/05/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/03/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Smart Tools on Laptops

A neat thing happened the other day during a math remediation session with my students.  We had the laptop cart and were working on some problems similar to those they struggled with on the first administration of the End of Grade Test.  (Sadly, they must take it again, all 5 or so hours of it, but that's another post)

We have used the Smartboard daily in my classroom this year.  We are lucky to have both a mounted board and projector, so the kids are used to coming up and solving problems with the Smart Tools.  However, we had never used the Smart Tools with the laptops (DUH, Mrs. C.).

One of my wonderful students who struggles so  greatly with math decided she would just open her Smart Tools over her problem and be able to draw directly onto the online coordinate grid.  She also used the highlighter tool to highlight words in the problem.

Using Smart Tools on a laptop

I know this sounds simplistic, but I just had never thought of the kids individually using the overlay included in the Smart Tools!  She shared what she was doing, and what a difference it made to the others who struggle moving from pencil and paper to working out math problems on the computer screen.  I was so proud, I had to tell you about it!  Baby steps, but aren't our students brilliant?

Using Smart Tools on Laptop

Cool Sites from Today's Surfing! 06/02/2009


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Want a Wake-Up Call?

Dr. Scott McLeod at Dangerously Irrelevant provided a recent link to this heart-stopping post. Or at least I felt myself catching my breath while reading it. All the while shedding a tear for my own sons who would shout AMEN!

Please take a few minutes and read the inspiring words of this student.



Photo Credit via Flicker: Report Card 1944