Posts
10 Things Teachers Should Know to Get Started with Twitter - Arizona K-12 Center Blog
Great Twitter Beginner's info!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Free Technology for Teachers: Using Animoto (and Glogster and Wordle) to LEARN
Great ideas for Animoto, Glogster, and Wordle
Free Technology for Teachers: Five Resources for Teaching About Earthquakes
Blog post with embedded links to help with earthquakes unit
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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!
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!
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!
A backchannel app. that allows you to create your "room". You can choose how long you want the room to be saved (ie one week, month, year)
5th grade SCOS with great links
Great links just for NCSCOS!
Ideas to Inspire - Inspiring Youtube videos to use in your classroom
Great collection of inspiring videos to use with kids. The first one will be great for my first unit in science; getting kids to understand the importance of observing well.
Great site for kids studying earthquakes
Great tutorial for using Glogster including directions on how to embed them onto a wiki/blog
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Text 2 Mind Map – The text-to-mind-map converter
Takes the outline you've created in text and creates a simple mind map for you. You can then save it as a jPeg!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Safely broadcast classroom videos and embed them on wikis/blogs
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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.
The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them - Annotated
Great paper on brain research and the importance of incorporating Concept mapping into lesson plans.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
CK-12 - Next Generation Textbooks
Write your own textbook. Need to look more at this.
DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Tools and Technologies for Effective Classrooms
11 Tips for better laptop learning.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
PBL: Exempary Projects Other Great Projects
Storehouse of exemplary PBL projects
Could be used by a class to provide instant feedback to a teacher. Set up a topic like "ask Mr. Byrne" and students could submit their questions while a conversation is going on in the room. The same idea could be used by students to ask questions from home or anywhere outside of the classroom. Twitterish
Directory of Educational Resources on the Web
Tons of great organized links!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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!
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!
ReadWriteThink: Student Materials: Flip Book
Create online flip books!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
ICT Guy » Blog Archive » Playing with Google SketchUp
Google SketchUp video for using it in classroom
The Netbook Project - Netbook Project - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
1:1 Netbook project
Into the Book: Teacher Area: Strategies
Great site with strategies for reading
ed_immersive_education.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Description of Project Wonderland
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Cool site that allows you to upload you content and choose formats like magazine, book, etc. to publish. Would be great as the kids write their own lessons in our class textbook!
Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers - TheApple.com
Great tips for all teachers with wonderful links as examples and ideas!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
lg3d-wonderland: Project Wonderland
Wouldn't the kids love this! Will have to watch...
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Kids Ed Websites - Kids Educational Websites
Awesome site that links to a daily free high-quality interactive educational site.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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.
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?
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.
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?
Memiary, the weightless pocket diary
Record up to five memories of your day and make them memorable forever. Memiary is the weightless pocket diary. Would be a great way for the kids to end their day!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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
Please take a few minutes and read the inspiring words of this student.
Photo Credit via Flicker: Report Card 1944
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