Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Teacher Tools in Learning Village
Where is the first place you go to look for ideas for a lesson on a certain topic? We all have our favorite places to go. Some of your commonly used resources may be listed in the image above. Did you (as a WSFCS teacher) know that you can go to one place and be able to access all of the sites listed? These Teacher Tools for you to search in are all linked to the front page of the WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse. I was impressed to be able to find them all in one place, but what even caught my attention more was that if you search for your grade or subject in Learning Village, there are links to specific things in most of these resources. That means you won't have to take time to search for the pieces that fit with your curriculum area and Standard Course of Study. You might also be able to find some lesson and project ideas within Learning Village depending on your curriculum.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Lost Colony
When I searched for information about The Lost Colony to share in my 4th grade Social Studies class, I remember struggling to find good information online that was useful for 4th grade. I have been looking at the NC History Digital Textbook on LearnNC, and I think I have found a solution to my problem. Information about The Lost Colony is located in the Pre-Colonial (to 1600) section. Although this digital textbook is geared more form secondary students, portions of the information can be used with elementary students.
I think that good background knowledge can be presented using information from The Lost Colony: A silent "cittie" (this section is towards the bottom of the page). Since the reading level is higher than elementary, this would not be a good section to assign for student independent reading. I see lots of places to stop and ask questions to check for understanding and to provide clues on strategies to use to read nonfiction and informational text. The words that are linked to definitions could also provide good practice for students in using context clues to determine unknown words.
Located near the top of that webpage in is an illustration which could be used at the beginning of the class or lesson to possibly get students predicting what the lesson could be about. Another idea is to use it more towards the end of the lesson for students to use the information learned to create a conversation the two figures could be having.
The next part of the story, The Search for the Lost Colony is one that students particularly enjoy since it is a mystery. The first paragraph on this page provides a great introduction to learning about the various theories about what happened to these colonists. After reading that paragraph to students, I can see having a good discussion about the information we get from different sources. The three ideas presented here (The Lumbee, A Yound Mayde in the Chesapeake, and Two Factions) could be good for a class discussion or project.
The information and links in the Learn More section in the sidebar could be used as things for groups of students to look at and report back to the class. Those areas could also be used for differentiation or for "early finishers" to look at. The related topics that are also listed in the sidebar could be good research or project topics for this lesson. This lesson could be connected with writing by encouraging the students to write about what they think happened to the lost colonists, or another LearnNC idea could be used to encourage the writing of a mystery.
NC SCOS Objectives that could be covered with this lesson:
Social Studies 3.03
Language Arts 2.01, 2.03. 20.5. 2.06
I think that good background knowledge can be presented using information from The Lost Colony: A silent "cittie" (this section is towards the bottom of the page). Since the reading level is higher than elementary, this would not be a good section to assign for student independent reading. I see lots of places to stop and ask questions to check for understanding and to provide clues on strategies to use to read nonfiction and informational text. The words that are linked to definitions could also provide good practice for students in using context clues to determine unknown words.
Located near the top of that webpage in is an illustration which could be used at the beginning of the class or lesson to possibly get students predicting what the lesson could be about. Another idea is to use it more towards the end of the lesson for students to use the information learned to create a conversation the two figures could be having.
The next part of the story, The Search for the Lost Colony is one that students particularly enjoy since it is a mystery. The first paragraph on this page provides a great introduction to learning about the various theories about what happened to these colonists. After reading that paragraph to students, I can see having a good discussion about the information we get from different sources. The three ideas presented here (The Lumbee, A Yound Mayde in the Chesapeake, and Two Factions) could be good for a class discussion or project.
The information and links in the Learn More section in the sidebar could be used as things for groups of students to look at and report back to the class. Those areas could also be used for differentiation or for "early finishers" to look at. The related topics that are also listed in the sidebar could be good research or project topics for this lesson. This lesson could be connected with writing by encouraging the students to write about what they think happened to the lost colonists, or another LearnNC idea could be used to encourage the writing of a mystery.
NC SCOS Objectives that could be covered with this lesson:
Social Studies 3.03
Language Arts 2.01, 2.03. 20.5. 2.06
Friday, January 29, 2010
New Job!!
Hmm. . ..I think I have written another post with this title within the last year. Last year at this a time, I wasn't even thinking about a technology (well maybe not too much). I was finishing up my classes for Gifted Education licensure. Now I have gone from teaching 4th grade, to teaching gifted education and enrichment classes, to being a K-5 tech facilitator (focusing on tech integration), and in less than a month to joining the WSFCS Instructional Technology team as a District Instructional Technologist. It is a little overwhelming but really exciting.
Monday, January 18, 2010
PBL and Technology
Putting the Nerdy Teacher Back in the Classroom
Wow! This is a great example of PBL in a classroom integrated with technology. In this blog post she talks about the steps she took to develop questions and higher-level thinking activities for her 21st Century Classroom.
If I go back into a classroom, this is the kind of thing I want to be able to do with my students. Shis managing the technology in her classroom as a tool for learning. I read this blog some in the past when he mostly gave technology integration ideas. I can't wait to see what she blogs about in the future now that she has moved from a technology integration specialist to a classroom teacher.
Wow! This is a great example of PBL in a classroom integrated with technology. In this blog post she talks about the steps she took to develop questions and higher-level thinking activities for her 21st Century Classroom.
If I go back into a classroom, this is the kind of thing I want to be able to do with my students. Shis managing the technology in her classroom as a tool for learning. I read this blog some in the past when he mostly gave technology integration ideas. I can't wait to see what she blogs about in the future now that she has moved from a technology integration specialist to a classroom teacher.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday Tech Tips
This year I have been sending out Tuesday Technology Tip emails to the staff at my school (along with some tech facilitators and media coordinators at a couple of other schools). I normally include at least one thing related to ActivInspire (which we are trying to get everyone at my school to use this year) and something else technology related, which is normally either something I find on twitter or on the iLearnTechnology Blog (thanks Kelly). I post the things I send out on my Technology Blog normally and try to remember to tag them with Tues_Tech_Tips.I have gotten some thanks for sending out these messages throughout the year. I got 2 emails about the tips I sent out yesterday (a bit unusual). One came from the Curriculum Coordinator at my school(in charge of Black History Month Celebration happening soon):
"Just wanted to tell you that I had a chance to look at the link.
Girl; YOU ARE JUST SIMPLY GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO! AWESOME LINK! "
The other one came from the media coordinator at another school in this school system: You are a GENIUS. Love Today's Tuesday Tech Tip.
When I asked what he liked so much, I got this response: "The links for the African American Biography were exactly what I needed for a project I had just goten done talking to a teacher about doing on biographies. Plus this morning, there was an announcement our students need to get ready for Science fair. "
I did sit in on lesson planning meetings last week and heard teachers talk about the Science Fair coming up soon as well as Black History Month. While the information and resources I included in this week's Tuesday Technology Tip may not have been the most cutting-edge technological resources or tools, but it was what teachers were looking for at that particular time. The teachers who got this email with timely resources and links are more likely to use them than if it was just a really interesting tool (to me). It is about the technology going along with the curriculum, not making the curriculum fit the technology.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/iheartlinen/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
New blog inspired!!!!
Imagine my surprise when I opened twitter this morning (tweetdeck actually), and saw this message from a teacher that, as far as I know, I have never actually met:@mwedwards You have inspired me to blog with my class! http://room6kindkids.blogspot.com/ Having fun and learning! (from @teach1quilt2)
From reading her profile on twitter, I know she is a Nationally Board Certified 1st grade teacher from Montana who enjoys quilting, reading, as well as spending time with family and friends. I am not really sure what I have done to inspire her to blog with her class, but I am glad that I did what I did. I do have links to the class blogs that I kept with students in 1st, 2nd,3rd grade as well as AG students posted on my blog. I have shared blogging resources (since I bookmark just about everything I can find on blogs and link most of it to the pageflakes I created on blogs). Maybe it was just making stuff available and showing what I had done that inspired her . . .
I saw great results with the students I worked with using blogs. At first writing a comment to a blog post (assignment or idea) took some getting used to, but students were soon begging to be able to type on the blog. I enjoyed coming up with creative prompts and Problem-based Learning (PBL) activities to get them started. This year I am not in a classroom working with students, and in some ways, I miss the student engagement with the blogs that I got last year. I found it much easier to come up with things for them to write about than finding things for me to blog about :)
Added later: After I saw where I inspired a blog, I went to look at it. Yay! It's a great looking blog. I tweeted about the blog on twitter, added myself as a follower, and added a comment about looking forward to seeing more on the blog. Tonight, I got another message from this lady (Kathy Sather): "Rm 6 cheered when we saw you were following us! :) More to come."
Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnett/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Skills and Tools
Blogging * WebConferencing * Pocasting * Creating a Wiki
These skill posters and a blog titled "It's not about the tools. It's about the Skills" can be found on the Langwitches Blog: The Magic of Learning. The message conveyed in these posters is something that I think many teachers hear but don't understand at first. In Reading Class, teachers don't try to make sure that students understand everything they can about the textbook that is assigned to them. Teachers do focus on using stories in that book to teach certain skills that students need to learn to be successful in the future. In a Math Class, the teacher doesn't teach specific problems to prepare students just how to solve that open problem. A teacher uses a math problem to help students discover how to use certain skills to be able to solve other problems in the future. The Reading book and Math books are just tools the teacher uses to accomplish the goals of instructing students on specific skills to help students learn. The technology tools that a teachers chooses to use to assist in her insttuction serves to same purpose: to help students learn. We don't know all that the future will hold for these students, but we do know the skills we are teaching will be needed for whatever students encounter.
images by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Tools don't make the Teacher
Tonight's twitter edchat was concerning the interactive nature of interactive white boards. Comments kept appearing about how it is the teacher that makes the difference not the tool or piece of piece of equipment. I remember someone commenting that mud can be interactive if in the hands of a good teacher. Teachers need to have the training and support to make the best instructional decisions on how to use interactive white boards or anything (technology-related or not) in the classroom. Teachers also need to have the freedom to make decisions about what will or will not work best in their individual classroom for learning to be facilitated. Yes, administration can "require" that technology be used, but it is really up to the teacher to use it effectively at the right times to promote student learning. There are lots of things that technology allows a teacher to do in his or her classroom, but there are also lots of good things a good teacher can do without using technology. Technology, like any tool used in the classroom, should be used with the ultimate goal of enhancing student learning.
Different color heads still make bugs . . .
My three year old was playing with a game tonight (Cooties). Instead of playing correctly, she was just making bugs by putting the pieces together. When she and her dad played the other night, they made sure that the heads and bodies matched (same color) as well as all bugs having the same sets of legs (shoes, skates , . . .). Tonight when she was on her own, she pulled a green head off and put it on a red body. Then she looked at me and said, "It is still a bug even if it doesn't match."
Her small comment got me thinking. We may not do things the same way but as teachers we are working towards the same goal: student learning. We use many different tools, technology-related or not. It is not about what tools we use, but it is about what we are trying to achieve. Our classes look different, our students are different, our ways of teaching are different, so the way we "build our bugs" is different, but they are still bugs (hopefully bugs that have learned something).
Her small comment got me thinking. We may not do things the same way but as teachers we are working towards the same goal: student learning. We use many different tools, technology-related or not. It is not about what tools we use, but it is about what we are trying to achieve. Our classes look different, our students are different, our ways of teaching are different, so the way we "build our bugs" is different, but they are still bugs (hopefully bugs that have learned something).
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Twitter as a Treasure Chest
I have found lots of new things (blogs mainly) to read and to add to my google reader using Twitter tonight. Two of the blog posts I read tonight talk about the importance of twitter to a PLN (especially concerning #edchat). I could not agree more! I have learned so much and been "granted access" to so many great ideas and resources by participating in Twitter. Notice that I said PARTICIPATING and not just reading. Even though I am not sure that I directly did anything that lead me to find new blogs for me to follow tonight, I do feel like that by interacting and feeling like "part of a group" I am exposed to more options. I like to see what people retweet and then go check out the person they retweeted to see what I might be able to gain by making that connection (that sounds a bit selfish, but . . . ).
Here are the ones I found tonight to add to my list of things to read . . .
Here is one I found a few days ago that I think deserves to be here too:
When I decided to write this post (a few minutes ago), I wasn't really sure what title to give it. But as soon as I started working it, the comparison of Twitter and a Treasure Chest popped right to my mind :) I really see Twitter as a Treasure Chest since it contains lot of valuable information/resources and . . . you never know what you might find . . .
Here are the ones I found tonight to add to my list of things to read . . .
Here is one I found a few days ago that I think deserves to be here too:
When I decided to write this post (a few minutes ago), I wasn't really sure what title to give it. But as soon as I started working it, the comparison of Twitter and a Treasure Chest popped right to my mind :) I really see Twitter as a Treasure Chest since it contains lot of valuable information/resources and . . . you never know what you might find . . .
Friday, January 1, 2010
My Learning
I was recently asked about the last thing I learned and how I learned it. I had a presentation to finalize earlier that morning. I wanted to do something "new" but ended up doing a presentation using PowerPoint2007. I was pretty sure we would not be able to view it in that "newer" version, but I really liked some of the things I was able to do using it (backgrounds, colors, fonts). I decided that I needed to figure out a way to put it on my blog. I tried using slideshare, but some of the fonts and hyperlinks did not work. I had some luck using powerpoints in voicethread in the past, so I tried that too. Again some fonts and colors and no hyperlinks worked. I remembered hearing something about SlideRocket last year from a Discovery Education Shining Stars Webinar. I recommended that a friend try it out, and she liked it, so I decided to try it too. I was pleased that my colors, backgrounds, and fonts stayed the same. After "playing around" a little with the options that are available in that program, I figured out how to add hyperlinks. I did not really want to change the presentation that much, so I hyperlinked the little yellow stars I added.
I thought about that question about learning again this morning as I was "playing around" with the way my blog looks. I have really enjoyed and seen the benefits of using blogs with students and teachers in the last couple of years. I have been working on "fixing up" the way my blog(s) look in the last little bit. After seeing an interesting background on another blog, I looked to see where it came from and went there too. I have now started using shabbyblogs.com for my blog backgrounds. There are also all kinds of neat extra things to add to the blog that can be found there. I learned about how to add those certain things by following instructions on thecutestblogontheblock.com (where I used to get blog backgrounds from).
Well, I decided this morning that I wanted to figure out a new way to display the labels on my blog. I like the way Sam Walker displays the labels on the Kimmel Farm Elementary Blog, so I went and looked at it. Sam is my friend and would help if I sent him a message (email, twitter, or facebook) but since it is New Year's Day, I did not want to bother him. I decided to see what I could find out myself, so after reading back through his tweets on twitter and finding nothing, I searched the internet for "blogger label cloud". I found directions on how to create an animated bloggger label cloud using Blogumus on the Blogger Buster site. I didn't like the way the animated label cloud looked on this blog (so it is still plain for now), but I like the way it turned out on my Technology Blog.
So again, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, saw that it was possible, and "played around" until I figured it out. :)
I thought about that question about learning again this morning as I was "playing around" with the way my blog looks. I have really enjoyed and seen the benefits of using blogs with students and teachers in the last couple of years. I have been working on "fixing up" the way my blog(s) look in the last little bit. After seeing an interesting background on another blog, I looked to see where it came from and went there too. I have now started using shabbyblogs.com for my blog backgrounds. There are also all kinds of neat extra things to add to the blog that can be found there. I learned about how to add those certain things by following instructions on thecutestblogontheblock.com (where I used to get blog backgrounds from).
Well, I decided this morning that I wanted to figure out a new way to display the labels on my blog. I like the way Sam Walker displays the labels on the Kimmel Farm Elementary Blog, so I went and looked at it. Sam is my friend and would help if I sent him a message (email, twitter, or facebook) but since it is New Year's Day, I did not want to bother him. I decided to see what I could find out myself, so after reading back through his tweets on twitter and finding nothing, I searched the internet for "blogger label cloud". I found directions on how to create an animated bloggger label cloud using Blogumus on the Blogger Buster site. I didn't like the way the animated label cloud looked on this blog (so it is still plain for now), but I like the way it turned out on my Technology Blog.
So again, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, saw that it was possible, and "played around" until I figured it out. :)
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Teaching and Learning in an Era of Disruptive Innovation
Presentation to NEA from author of Dangerously Irrelevant Blog:
*audio of presentation and further comments can be found on blog
*audio of presentation and further comments can be found on blog
Storybird
I am interested in learning more about Storybird and trying it out.
Here is one post about doing Collaborative Digital Storytelling using this tool found on The WhiteBoard Blog.
"Storybird provides a very user-friendly way of combining images and text to tell a story, and then share that story with other people. You choose images from a huge bank of ready-drawn pictures which also help to provide inspiration for story ideas. "
Here is one post about doing Collaborative Digital Storytelling using this tool found on The WhiteBoard Blog.
"Storybird provides a very user-friendly way of combining images and text to tell a story, and then share that story with other people. You choose images from a huge bank of ready-drawn pictures which also help to provide inspiration for story ideas. "
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Helping Others
I enjoy helping others. Several people have come to me (whether they teach at the school where I work or not) for my help in the last few days, and I have loved being able to help them. That may sound like a selfish statement, but it is not meant that way. I just think that is neat that I get to help others figure things out. I enjoy "playing around" with things to figure them out (but I will look at the directions and ask for help if I can't figure out what to do).
Someone this week (from another school) contacted me with some questions to help out her family member (who is at another different school). I admitted that I was not sure how to do what she was wanting to do, but told her that I would be more than willing to see what I could find out and work with her to try to make it happen. For advice on the situation, I went to Twitter and posted a question. It is a bit funny that a response came from a person who teaches in the same school system, but at another school. After emailing and playing phone tag with the person needing the help, we finally got to talk. She was able to take the bits and pieces of information I had sent combined with the bits and pieces of information she had figured out (or gotten from someone else). Although the ending product (which you can see here) may not have been what she intended originally, she was able to create something that she is proud of and is going to enter in a contest to support her students and her program.
I guess the title of this post might should have something to do with how connections make things possible . . .
Someone this week (from another school) contacted me with some questions to help out her family member (who is at another different school). I admitted that I was not sure how to do what she was wanting to do, but told her that I would be more than willing to see what I could find out and work with her to try to make it happen. For advice on the situation, I went to Twitter and posted a question. It is a bit funny that a response came from a person who teaches in the same school system, but at another school. After emailing and playing phone tag with the person needing the help, we finally got to talk. She was able to take the bits and pieces of information I had sent combined with the bits and pieces of information she had figured out (or gotten from someone else). Although the ending product (which you can see here) may not have been what she intended originally, she was able to create something that she is proud of and is going to enter in a contest to support her students and her program.
I guess the title of this post might should have something to do with how connections make things possible . . .
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Mistakes can work out . . .
There are times when nothing seems to go right . . . you have to make a choice about how to react in those situations. Those instances can be some of the best unplanned learning experiences.
A teacher that I work with had 2 google accounts (one connected to a gmail account and one connected to another email address). In her attempt to make things easier for herself, she deleted the account linked to the other email address. She did not realize that deleting that account would also delete her blog (which is one listed on the featured blog list for the county). After calling google and figuring out there was really not a way to get it back, she just decided to start a new blog. She was really upset (even a few tears I think). I am impressed that she cared that much about (saw the importance of) her blog that was created at the beginning of the school year.
She is using the things she learned from creating the first blog to make the newly-created blog even better. On the website where she got the background for her first blog, she went exploring and found other tips that she (and others like me) could use. For example, she found directions for adding a signature (which I did last night) and directions for changing the font for the blog post titles (which she did yesterday) on thecutestblogontheblock.com. She used shabbyblogs.com for the background for her new blog.
So although she was really upset when she discovered her error in deleting the original blog, it has turned into a blessing in disguise, even if she doesn't see it that way yet . . . .
Added later: I wasn't going to give out this person's name, but since she posted a comment, I will give a link to her newly-created blog : http://stephscurriculumcorner.blogspot.com/
A teacher that I work with had 2 google accounts (one connected to a gmail account and one connected to another email address). In her attempt to make things easier for herself, she deleted the account linked to the other email address. She did not realize that deleting that account would also delete her blog (which is one listed on the featured blog list for the county). After calling google and figuring out there was really not a way to get it back, she just decided to start a new blog. She was really upset (even a few tears I think). I am impressed that she cared that much about (saw the importance of) her blog that was created at the beginning of the school year.
She is using the things she learned from creating the first blog to make the newly-created blog even better. On the website where she got the background for her first blog, she went exploring and found other tips that she (and others like me) could use. For example, she found directions for adding a signature (which I did last night) and directions for changing the font for the blog post titles (which she did yesterday) on thecutestblogontheblock.com. She used shabbyblogs.com for the background for her new blog.
So although she was really upset when she discovered her error in deleting the original blog, it has turned into a blessing in disguise, even if she doesn't see it that way yet . . . .
Added later: I wasn't going to give out this person's name, but since she posted a comment, I will give a link to her newly-created blog : http://stephscurriculumcorner.blogspot.com/
Thursday, December 10, 2009
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