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Cell Phones in Education

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Teachers Using Message B…

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Alan Beam's Page

Profile Information

School / Work Affiliation: Holton High School

Blog: http://abeam.wordpress.holton.k12.ks.us/

Website: http://www.holton.k12.ks.us/prin

Skype Account: abeam2

Twitter / Plurk / Other Account: abeam

About Me: I'm currently the high school principal at Holton High School. To revisit the classroom I have returned for one block teaching College American History I and II. You can learn more about me and what I do on the web by visiting my website. My student blog site is http://wildcat.wordpress.holton.k12.ks.us/ If you want to heard my reflections related to my days as a building administrator check out the blog listed below. A different twist then what I write here.

Teaching College History during the normal school day!

I've returned to the classroom this year to try out many of the ideas I've been talking with my staff about. Examples:

ical - to delivery daily instruction and weblinks,

DreamWeaver - to design my website which contains links to ppt, study guides, reading assignments, field trips, documents, additional weblinks, tons of other resources http://www.holton.k12.ks.us/prin/collegeamhist (this actual also has the beginnings of my online General Sociology class,

Cell phones - I collected the cell numbers of my students and figured out which students had unlimited texting. Then used this site http://www.cheapcellphones.com/onlinemessaging.htm to figure out how to add the cell numbers into my address book. From there I sent text messages to my students from class tips, study tips, test reviews or trival.

GarageBand - students created audio clips as reports from the past to creating their own campaign songs with a modern touch.

Blogging - I ask my students to blog at least once a month. I start off by posting a question of the month which they are to respond to before the end of the month. Visit http://wildcat.wordpress.holton.k12.ks.us/ click on College American History to the right to limit what you see. (You will also find our "Town Meeting Activity" http://www.holton.k12.ks.us/staff/abeam/ah/9900/out/civilwarproject/civilwarproject.html

Ok more to come ...

Alan Beam's Blog

Another update on Cell Phone Use

Posted on February 11, 2009 at 1:12pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

In an attempt to help students prepare for college I did not provide them with a study guide. Instead I created points in the lesson where we stopped and discuss what would be good questions over the material covered. About the third day I used polleverywhere.com and simply ask students to text me questions. Then I open the screen on the projector so as the questions came in the class as a whole would answer them.

I saw several benefits here. 1) Students got to share what they… Continue

Hmmmmm.. Will It work? (Cell Phone Update)

Posted on February 1, 2009 at 1:26pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Well after days of searching the web, my tech guy told me about School Central (http://yourschoolcentral.com), a site we use to post messages as a district through texting. So after a few more days working through the instructions I finally took it to my class. I asked the students to create their free accounts and follow the directions to join my group. Then after sharing the number and directions on they could send or respond to texts the texting began. In reality only a handful of students… Continue

Post on Cell Phone Blog site

Posted on January 15, 2009 at 1:51pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

The following I posted at http://www.classroom20.com/group/CellPhonesinEducation/forum/topics/using-the-cell-phone

I've used the PollEverywhere on our student laptops. I'm going to try and setup a few of these this semester on cell phones. I should note those students who do not have unlimited texting I simply e-mail them the same material. I give them more time to reply back as well.

Delete

Using the cell phone part two. Today .. I used the polleverywhere… Continue

Study Guides & Homework ... I Wonder

Posted on January 5, 2009 at 2:24pm 4 Comments 0 Likes

By returning to the classroom there were a number of ideas I wanted to try. One of my ideas dealt with teaching students the importance of study guides while addressing late work.

How often do teachers find giving students assignments and on due date discovering a handful not turning them in. Why do students not turn in their work? I think there are a number of reasons: 1) They don't care, 2) They don't see the importance of the assignment in the process of their learning, 3) They… Continue

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At 8:28pm on November 24, 2010, Willyn Webb said…: Alan, You have such great ideas! if I could contact you to discuss some of your ideas I would be very grateful. Could you give me your email? Thanks, Willyn Webb 970-250-8636 teachinggenerationtext@gmail.com

At 7:38pm on February 1, 2009, Jack said…: Hi Alan. I was wondering if your students and teachers would be interested in participating in a nationwide SAT Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com Please let me know. Thanks!

At 2:38pm on January 6, 2009, Kate Fanelli said…: Yes, foldable notes like in your example. But Dinah Zike has a bunch of them that has compiled into a book. At the bottom of this web page you can see some other examples of foldables. I usually recommend the format that I think best fits the notes for that unit.

www.dinah.com/manipulatives.php

At 10:28pm on January 2, 2009, Mark Cruthers said…: Hi Alan,

With your initiatives in Education Technology for your high school, I recommend you take a look at Wiziq's virtual classroom and authorstream's power point presentation platform. Both are web based platforms, have a bunch of features and free basic service.