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This is the Google news search about the current events in Syria. As you teach students about how to build a PLN, creating a Google news search (and subscribing to it through an RSS reader) are vital for students to understand. Click on this link to see the current news and click the subscribe button at the bottom to determine how you want to subscribe to the link and which RSS reader you'd like to use (if you don't already have an RSS reader.) I use Google reader, but my students use iGoogle.
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Teaching Resources, Classroom Resources & Lesson Plans - TES Resources
D-Day is June 6. Here are some lessons and presentations you can share with students to help them understand the meaning behind D-day and what happened.
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In the news - United Nations in last-ditch attempt to prevent all-out war in Syria - Resources - TES
The situation in Syria is grave and many are trying to prevent war. If you're discussing this situation in your class, here are some resources to help discuss the situation.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 05/29/2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 05/29/2012
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Geological Society of America - Educational K-12 Teacher Resources
The US Geological society has an incredible set of experiments, lessons, and activities to talk about weather in the classroom.
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How Do the Seasons Change in Each Hemisphere?
This Internet research activity has students looking at different points on the globe and finding out about weather in that area. I like the grid that this activity uses. You could also integrate this into an Excel activity.
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5 Fun Games that Teach the Weather
This website has 5 games to teach the weather. It starts with an activity that has a world map on the wall. I think that every classroom should have a world map, particularly if you're going to collaborate globally. Once a student knows another student from somewhere, it is incredible how that point on the globe becomes real.
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If you want to teach students about hemispheres and weather, this powerpoint is a place to get started. Interestingly, many students don't understand that seasons vary by hemisphere until they collaborate globally. If your students are collaborating cross-hemisphere this is a nice powerpoint to use to get started.
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 05/28/2012
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This is the Google news search about the current events in Syria. As you teach students about how to build a PLN, creating a Google news search (and subscribing to it through an RSS reader) are vital for students to understand. Click on this link to see the current news and click the subscribe button at the bottom to determine how you want to subscribe to the link and which RSS reader you'd like to use (if you don't already have an RSS reader.) I use Google reader, but my students use iGoogle.
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In the news - United Nations in last-ditch attempt to prevent all-out war in Syria - Resources - TES
The situation in Syria is grave and many are trying to prevent war. If you're discussing this situation in your class, here are some resources to help discuss the situation.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 05/28/2012
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Pollution From Asia Affects US Climate - Slashdot
We are interdependent on this planet.This is no surprise that they are finding that the pollution in China and India are affecting the climate elsewhere - like here in the US. When I went to Beijing last year, I came home and my hair started falling out. I wasn't sure if it was related but I did find the correlation suspicious. We've seen this for years - we would outlaw chemicals that my Dad could use on his US based farm only for grocery stores to start buying produce and crops grown in other countries with that very same chemical used on the crops. This inconsistency not only hurts the US economy but in the long run hurts the world. We need to be responsible stewards of our planet.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 05/26/2012
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This is an activity to help students roleplay and discuss bullying situations. Prepare and plan ahead to create awareness in your school but also note that you should understand the definition of bullying. Every time someone yells at another- it is NOT bullying behavior. Bullying implies unequal power in a relationship and relies on intimidation and is unfair. When two "equal" parties disagree you have a disagreement, usually. I do think that often the term bullying is overused to talk about tough circumstances that may or may not be bullying at all.
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World Environment Day collection
June 5 is World environment day. Here are some lessons and resources that you can use to talk to students about maintaining a healthy, sustainable world.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 05/25/2012
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I'm a celebrity French Version - to practice past - Resources - TES
There are some fantastic MFL (modern foreign language) resources that you can use - here's a celebrity gameshow to play in French class.
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World Environment Day collection
June 5 is World environment day. Here are some lessons and resources that you can use to talk to students about maintaining a healthy, sustainable world.
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African Music PowerPoint - Resources - TES
Another nice music powerpoint slide - this one on African drumming and music which includes some rhythm games. This particular teacher on TES has some very nice music resources and is worth following. What I do when I find someone that I like is to click the "follow" button and then you get notified when they upload new lessons.
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Film Music PowerPoint - Resources - TES
When I taught digital film, I had them create a silent movie and then add sound effects and a musical score. Each student used the same film but edited it differently. It was shocking to them how much difference a good soundtrack made. In this powerpoint, you can take students through great composers for film.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 05/25/2012
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog: 10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Summer Break
I wrote this blog post about how to get the most out of your summer break. Here are some tips.
and am getting ready to make my "goal poster" for the summer. (I have goal posters from the last 5-6 years in my office - love looking at them.) Someone tweeted me that she was getting ready to make her goal poster and I thought I'd share this post with you for those preparing to "get out." -
7 Ways To Use Pinterest As A Writer
This post has some information on how you can use Pinterest. If you're a company or organization supporting educators and want to dissect that pin and know how to get the word out about what you're doing, here are some tips.
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Two Brooklyn Schools Examined for Cheating – SchoolBook
More cheating scandals begin to brew. When children transferring out of a school drop from 90th percentile to 30th - something is up and that may be test fraud. Read this new york times article and also, if you want to know how to find statistical anomalies that point to cheating - the first Freakonomics book is an essential read.
"According to The Times, last year P.S. 31′s “math scores were nearly perfect, and 90 percent of its students passed the English test, more than 40 points above the citywide average. To celebrate, staff members tied a sign to the building: ‘School Report Card P.S. 31 is #1 in New York City.’” The school has 550 students, in PreK to fifth grade.
At P.S. 257, where most of the preK to fifth-grade students are black or Hispanic and poor, “62 percent of the children at the school had a score of proficient or higher on the state English exam.” -
5 Things You Need To Know About The Chromebook | Edudemic
A nice write up about chrome books to help people understand about these tools. One important piece of advice: bandwidth is essential with cloud based computing - with no cloud you have no computing.
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TESiboard Interactive Resources Index - Resources - TES
An index of interactive white board resources that you can use. This list of free resources is a wonderful place to fill out your library for the fall. This would be a great place to spend during planning time as you download and organize resources for your IWB for the fall by standard. (Make folders)
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Is Agile the Future of Project Management? | EDUCAUSE
In Flat Classroom and with my students we use a Trello board which is a web app used for Agile development. This app makes sense for schools and for personalized learning projects like the Personal Project done by my computer students. I couldn't track all the little pieces without it. Scrum, Lean, Agile, KanBan - these are all terms for project management systems and I think that as educators implement projects, this is a great place to look to handle large complex tasks with teams of people in efficient ways. Meetings are often a waste of time and should be to do what you can ONLY do face to face.
This research posted on Educause's website seems to back up this assertion.
"Gartner predicts that by the end of 2012, agile development methods will be used on 80 percent of all software development projects. Project Management Institute’s research shows that agile project management tripled from December 2008 to May 2011, and can help decrease product defects, improve team productivity, and increase business value. -
Oracle Loses In Patent Case Against Google : NPR
When will we see an end to all of these court cases - are these companies really that bad or are they just fighting for existence? I doubt that the 150,000 fine will even pay for the lawyers on both sides not to mention the cost to the federal government. I think these companies should have to start footing the bill for the federal judges and people whose time they are monopolizing.
"A federal jury ruled Wednesday that Google didn't infringe on Oracle's patents when the Internet search leader developed its popular Android software for mobile devices.
Wednesday's verdict comes about two weeks after the same jury, with two additional members, failed to agree on a pivotal issue in Oracle's copyright-infringement case against Google. As a result, Google Inc. faced maximum damages of only $150,000 — not the hundreds of millions of dollars that Oracle Corp. was seeking. -
Were you trained in data and assessment? – DEN Blog Network
Ginny Washburne on her Discovery Education blog shares how she doesn't feel that teachers are prepared for data-driven instruction. In my opinion, we should have a good interpretation interface on the back end of the data to help teachers understand the areas where they need to improve. It shouldn't be rocket science to realize that your students don't understand mitosis.
"Everyone agrees that we are asking more and more of teachers, to “wear several hats” if you will. One of those “hats” is being able to drive instruction using data. Do you think you were adequately trained to interpret the data you receive? -
More Parents Are Saying No to Pearson's Field Tests – SchoolBook
There is a growing resistence to standardized testing as parents get organized, this New York Times article gives an overview of some of the things happening.
"Resistance also appears to be growing more organized. Groups like Change the Stakes are helping to spread information about opt-out procedures and have created a spreadsheet to help parents navigate the field testing landscape.
ParentVoicesNY has created a boycott form letter that parents can download, sign and then submit to their school. The group also has direct connections with more than 20 schools, according to Kevin Jacobs, a public school teacher who is one of its active members."
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