Friday, May 30, 2014
Sixth Digital Citizenship- Thursday
For our sixth grade students, digital citizenship is a required course. For one quarter we meet together to navigate our way through topics like cyberbullying, social media, communication, media habits and more. The students play games like Taboo to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary that surrounds these themes. They work together to put words to their themes as seen below.
They then embark on a project where they create a piece of digital media that addresses one of the following prompts:
They then embark on a project where they create a piece of digital media that addresses one of the following prompts:
- Every person should know ...
- You might not know it but, ...
- Mom and Dad: Did you know ...
- As a sixth grader, I already know ...
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/29/2014
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These are great tech tools that can really enhance a classroom. GAFE could certainly replace some of them, but I believe many of them hold up well against comparable Google tools.
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Think of this as a "make your own Wheel of Fortune". It would be great for creating a review game or choosing what to read next.
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This site offers data files from UNdata to overlay on Google Earth. Imagine looking at statistics laid out on a globe.
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Find tons of great museums from all over the world listed here.
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- Many teachers I encounter have decided that they need to crack down on — if not entirely eradicate — screen distractions in their classrooms. (A minority of teachers accept it as a form of 21st century doodling.)
- If the activity is engaging and challenging, there is an authentic audience, and prescribed time limits, students won’t mess around.
- The more time I spend “teaching” teachers something from the front of the room, the more inclined they are to check email, Facebook, or whatever.
- Add in the possibility that they they’ll have to present to the entire class, or post their creation online, and they’re even more focused
- the activities are challenging and expectations high
- it’s more like: “This is hard. And I’m not going to show you how to do it. But I expect what you create will be excellent.
- Tell students you’re going to present their work at a conference, or submit it to a state publication, and then watch the heightened focus in their eyes
- Teacher lectures impart useful information and explanations, and they can be lively and engaging.
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Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/28/2014
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Use this tool to create a lesson plan in a creative manner than can be easily understood by other teachers.
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This article offers up suggestions on how to use Evernote, Three Ring, Google Sites, and Kidblog to create digital portfolios.
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- Did I refer to the class as our class or my class?
- 8. If our class were a company, would it be out-of-business now?
- 9. Did students create and experience a great class or simply take a class and get credit?
- 15. Did I take advantage of spontaneous learning opportunities when students’ interests had obviously shifted, or did I maintain an inflexible mindset and vow to never deviate from an archaic lesson plan?
- 17. Was our class set up to promote creativity and collaboration or memorization and silence?
- 19. Were 21st Century skills embedded within daily assignments?
- 22. Did I gain professional wisdom by speaking to my collegial mentor?
- 24. Was the technology in my classroom used in an authentic manner? (Shannon Reed)
- 25. Did I avoid professional negativity by declining to gossip at work?
- 26. Did I manage my stress level by enjoying time with my family and friends, by exercising several times a week, by zoning out while engaged in a hobby, and by simply chilling out every once in a while?
- 28. Did I laugh often with students and colleagues?
- 31. Did I allow students to co-write their own project-based, learning contracts?
- 34. How many colleagues did I observe in-action in their classrooms this past school year?
- did I remember the names of all co-workers?
- 39. How balanced were the assignments this year in terms of requiring creativity, practical thinking, and analysis? (Adam Johnson)
- 40. Did I participate in a professional learning community outside of my school via Twitter?
- 46. Did I consistently blog as a form of professional self-reflection?
- 47. Am I a stronger teacher today than when I first stepped into the classroom at the beginning of the school year?
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This article provides three good tech tools for teachers who want to try a back channel chat and nearly a half dozen ideas for incorporating this type of technology into the curriculum. There are even suggestions for how to use it with students as young as 6 years old.
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- Diigo provides a free, efficient, effective and reliable way to save and organize your favorite websites, online articles, blog posts, images and other media found online.
- Diigo provides a lists feature that allows you to share carefully selected bookmarked websites with your students.
- Adding bookmarks to lists is easy. When you save the bookmark, you are able to allocate it to any list you have already created, or create a new list as you go.
- Diigo has tools that encourage students to collaborate with others to analyze, critique, and evaluate websites.
- Diigo provides opportunities for students to apply higher level thinking skills while researching and gathering information.
- Diigo allows you to gain access to the ‘collective intelligence’ of the internet.
- Use Diigo to provide visual access to websites you have collected using the built-in program ‘webslides’.
- Use Diigo’s advanced tools to link its power to blogs and RSS. Lists of similar websites that you have created can easily be posted onto a blog by using the ‘post to blog’ button.
- Use Diigo tools to enhance professional reading and save time creating summaries of online posts.
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- Access your information from any computer, or even your iPhone or iPad!
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Friday, May 23, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/21/2014
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This site lists methods and tools for making flip teaching videos and many of them are free.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/20/2014
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"What if Andy Warhol had it wrong, and instead of being famous for 15 minutes, we're only anonymous for that long? In this short talk, Juan Enriquez looks at the surprisingly permanent effects of digital sharing on our personal privacy. He shares insight from the ancient Greeks to help us deal with our new "digital tattoos.""
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This extension prevents inappropriate videos from appearing on screen while you are showing students appropriate videos.
Maker Faire 2014 Reflection
This weekend my family and I visited Maker Faire in the Bay Area for the second year in the row. What an amazing experience! My husband, a middle school math teacher, and I walked through on Saturday just marveling at the spirit and energy of each person attending the fair. We attended several talks at the Education Stage and then meandered through the plethora of interactive exhibits. If you like to make ANYTHING (bread, robotics, gardens, model trains, etc), this should be a must! Even our 21 month old son had a great time.
This led me to think. What can I make? I know the answer to that. So then I thought, I wonder what our faculty can make? Could we create a PD day where we host a Maker Faire of our own and teach one another how to garden, sew, solder, woodwork and more?
Below are images and captions from the fair that I found inspiring.
This led me to think. What can I make? I know the answer to that. So then I thought, I wonder what our faculty can make? Could we create a PD day where we host a Maker Faire of our own and teach one another how to garden, sew, solder, woodwork and more?
Below are images and captions from the fair that I found inspiring.
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| How's this for a pony ride? Using mobility cart bases with plastic ponies! |
The images below were taken at the Castilleja School's booth. Check out their Bourn Idea Lab for more information on how they made each of these projects.
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| American history monument designed using SketchUp. |
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| Microscope built using a laser cutter. |
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| Calculus project |
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| 3-D printed art project with ties to sixth grade ancient history. |
The remaining pictures just made me think, "I bet I could do that, better take a picture to inspire myself."
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| A bubble machine that provided endless entertainment for our family. |
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| I can cook and sew, but I can't do anything with an Arduino...yet. |
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| I have enough ripped jeans. Could I make this? |
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| Old ties = new belt |
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| Lamps made from a laser cutter. |
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| Marble run made using popsicle sticks. |
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| Another marble run |
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| Those crazy cupcakes. Could this be a Halloween outfit?! |
Friday, May 16, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/17/2014
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Chrome extension that would likely support English teachers as they develop curriculum based on literature and writing.
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Million Dollar Scholar is an open online platform that teaches high school and college students how to find and win scholarships for school.
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Animated science mysteries for middle school students.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/16/2014
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Why it's important to consistently offer our teachers quality PD.
- The goal must be to provide ongoing professional development that moves an entire faculty forward, consistent with the school's vision and core values.
- New teachers, whether experienced or not, participate in a three-year program—yes, three years—of thoughtfully scaffolded skills matched to the school's chosen direction for teaching and learning. Some topics reinforce the school's traditional strengths; others reflect the major strains of innovation
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/13/2014
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Rubrics for collaborative projects as well as digital projects.
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Tech tool for creating infographics.
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- Article details how to get students to design quality infographics and offers up a few suggestions on which apps to use.
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- myBrainshark (1) is a superb tool that allows students to add a voiceover to PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, videos, and photo albums -- or to simply produce podcasts
- myBrainshark (1) is a superb tool that allows students to add a voiceover to PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, videos, and photo albums -- or to simply produce podcasts
- If you are looking for a tool that also allows for video narratives along with PowerPoint presentations (instead of basic audio), I would suggest Present.me (3).
- PosterMyWall (4) is a fantastic tool for creating artistic, high-quality posters (5), collages, photo calendars and/or photo cards that can either be shared online or printed out and inexpensively shipped home.
- PosterMyWall is slightly restricted in terms of the amount of options available for customization (mostly pictures and text), but other services, such as Glogster (6), offer a wider range of options.
- But Glogster is very glitchy
- Screencast-o-matic (7) is a powerful screen recorder that allows users to capture anything (8) happening on their screen, as well as voice and video from the webcam for up to 15 minutes in the recorder's free version.
- Some high-quality alternatives to Screencast-o-matic are Jing (9) and Ezvid (10), both of which are very powerful and offer unique features.
- Padlet (11) is another free program that facilitates the creation of virtual walls (12) where students and teachers can post sticky notes with almost anything they want.
- Other similar sites are Linoit (13) or NoteApp (14).
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GCT App Submitted!
Alright GCTers, I have submitted my application for the Academy! Boy, that took some work, parring down my resume, writing short answers (really short!- 800 characters) and then making a one minute video that showcases my innovation in the classroom. Whew! I'm glad to have gone through the process.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/09/2014
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An alternative to Hapara.
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Maker meets PE? You decide.
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- There are a few things in this world that will help you be an effective teacher. There’s hard work, loving what you do, and an attention to detail.
- These ideas are broad and simple but useful.
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Intriguing site lets students or teachers read along to stories with audio, movie-style soundtracks or create their own soundtracks for creative writing assignments. Includes a few sample lesson plans for using the site with elementary, middle, or high school students.
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Site lets users create interactive maps of any location. Users add pins, then share stories or information, images, etc. Could be a good tool for students learning about historical places, local communities, etc. Also a good tool for writing short expository texts.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/08/2014
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This site connects teachers with industry experts. Would work well for STEM projects.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/07/2014
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- According to Code.org, 90 percent of U.S. schools are not teaching any computer science. Eyebrows have been raised this year as the U.K. passed a plan to educate every child how to code (3).
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Monday, May 5, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 05/02/2014
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- The 21st Century Fluencies are comprised of six main areas: Solution Fluency, Information Fluency, Creativity Fluency, Media Fluency, Collaboration Fluency, and Global Digital Citizenship. The main focus of these fluencies is to help instill in today's students a set of unconscious skills to help them survive and thrive in the 21st century and beyond.
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