Mar
29
Are your home-grown students (aka your own kids) home today? with you? all day?
Is this why you have already escaped to your laptop?
Here is are some sanity rescues….Here are some great ideas from the Make and Takes blog
Easter Eggs dying with no mess
Organize the Holiday Chaos with Easter Crafts
Yarn Egg Wreath is Pretty Perfect for Easter
Easter Bunting with Plastic Eggs
Thanks Make and Takes blog!
Mar
28
Steve Young, CTO of Judson, Texas ISD writes, “There are many schools that have either piloted or implemented 1:1 student-to-computer initiatives. These are nothing new. The success of these programs, much like other education initiatives, has varied. Most technology and curriculum leaders now recognize that there is much more to student and school success than just putting a computer in the hands of a student and getting instant miracle results. Just as a new hammer will not help a bad carpenter build a better house, a computer in the hands of a student will not turn the tide in the midst of bad teaching or ineffective school leadership. But there is now fairly convincing evidence that properly implemented 1:1 computing is a contributing factor to school success, as evidenced in the rather convincing results from the Project Red study. ISTE has published a book about this report called Revolutionizing Education through Technology. A free electronic edition of the book is available at ISTE site. I highly recommend that any superintendents, curriculum leaders, instructional technology directors or anyone else seriously looking at 1:1 programs read this book and consider all that it takes beyond a device to make 1:1 really succeed.”
Read the entire post at this link
Mar
27
Spring has taken its own sweet time arriving. As I type this, it is 28 degrees outside.
But perhaps it can be nudged along with some classroom decorating. I am going to a friend’s classroom for a “Butterflies are Free” make-over in mind.
And, of course, I will not forget the teacher’s lounge!
I am using these Free watercolor butterfly décor printable available in pdf format at the Fab ‘n Free website/blog. The blog post includes decorating ideas and a free Easter pattern printable as well.
I am sprucing up the windowpanes with tiny wheatgrass plants I found at the organic grocery. No grocery nearby? The Make and Takes website tells how to grow wheatgrass from seeds.
I can just feel the tap of warmer weather!
Mar
25
PBS TeacherLine has more than 30+ courses starting Wednesday, March 27. Act now to save your spot!
Our online professional development offerings span the curriculum for PreK-12 educators, and are designed to improve your effectiveness in the classroom. Most courses are six weeks in length, with prices ranging from $145 – $595. View the full catalog and check out the featured courses below:
Reading / Language Arts
Science / Math / STEM
Instructional Technology
Instructional Strategies
Social Studies
See you online!
Full Spring Catalog • Common Core Alignment • School & District Solutions • Annual Schedule • Grad Credit
Mar
23
A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~Alexander Pope
~~~
Mar
21
A BFF is an acronym for “Best Friend Forever.” These websites and tips are so good that they will become your technology BFFs!
Been a while since a Tech B.F.F. was featured. Today’s Tech B.F.F. is Soo Meta, an innovative and easy-to-use digital storytelling mashup site.
Here is a sample video, (made in about five minutes) on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.
NOTE: Best viewed with Firefox browser.
Use SooMeta for whole group and independent class movies. SooMeta is a graphically appealing alternative to powerpoint. Consider using SooMeta for:
Reading: book/character/author summaries
Math: computational processes/mathematician biographies
History: timeline explanations/major battles/key dates in history/historical figures
Science: scientific method/scientist biographies/virtual experiments
Each create story renders with a link and an embed code for you to play from your free account or embed into your website/wiki/blog.
…or perhaps to email to the next great film star competition!
~~~
To visit the main OOPS page, click here
To view more Tech B.F.F.’s click here
Mar
20
How does a seed turn into a fruit? Why do flowers wilt? Do plants eat dirt? The emergence of spring presents us with countless teachable moments – let PBS LearningMedia help you to share them with your students!
Check out these seasonally inspired resources:
Energy Flow Grades K-5 | Interactive
Help young learners to better understand the flow of energy in the environment.
The Hydrologic Cycle Grades 3-8 | Interactive Invite your students to explore the intricacies of the hydraulic cycle.
Geology Grades 4-6 | Video Illustrate the impact of earthquakes, volcanoes, water, and glaciers on the planet.
Life Cycle of a Seed Plant
Grades 6-12 | Interactive Introduce your students to the life cycle of a flowering seed plant.
What is PBS LearningMedia? PBS LearningMedia is a FREE digital media content library designed to support curriculum-based teaching and learning from PreK through 12th grade. The service offers over 20,000 digital resources drawn from PBS programs like NOVA, FRONTLINE, and Sid the Science Kid as well as trusted educational producers like NPR, WGBH, and NASA.
Wow! How Do I Get Started? It’s easy: visit www.pbslearningmedia.org to create a user name and start searching for your favorite resources right away!
Mar
18
The Google Reader Blog announced last week that it will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). A regretable decision. I liked Google Reader’s functionality to friend, follow and share stories with others. GR let readers share stories with each other, and comment on them.
Retaining Reader data, including subscriptions, can be done through Google Takeout— Google Takeout’s Reader page. The Google Reader phase-out will also affect the Google App which you may have downloaded for your mobile phone. I have not found an effective, free alternative to Google Reader so far. Newsblur is the closest in design and similarity of use, but there is a 64-feed limit for the free account.
This post on Lifehacker also describes how to export all your feeds and put them into a new reader.
Mar
16
Today’s Ed. Quote arrives as a video by Alan Watts.
“How would you really enjoy spending your life? You do that and forget the money…”
~~~
Mar
14
Today is March 14, which corresponds to the first three digits of Pi. Because pi is 3.14159….some schools hold their celebrations until 1:59.
Pi is called an irrational number; it has an infinite number of digits: 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679…First 100 digits of Pi
Pi is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. In other words Pi is the number you get when you divide the circumference of a circle (the distance around the circle) by its diameter (the distance across). It is typically written as 3.14.
March 14th also happens to be the birth date of Albert Einstein—which makes it a double math celebration. You can watch NOVA‘s “Einstein Revealed,” which exposes the hidden life of Albert Einstein and traces the birth of his groundbreaking ideas. See it at: http://to.pbs.org/15OBsMm
A brief history of Pi: by Rhonda Cratty
My Favorite Activity to celebrate Pi Day:
***Read an excerpt from the book Life of Pi. I like to read Chapter 56 on fear since math is often fearful for students (and others of us!). Here is a post which spotlights just Chapter 56.
Other Activities to celebrate Pi day: by Rhonda Cratty
Look for other Pi activities at the following websites: http://www.homegrownhearts.com/piday.htm http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson335.shtml http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/ http://www.teachpi.org/activities.htm
This blog registered on Edubloggers Directory.
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