All Blog Posts (9,941)

October 11, 2007

It was a long but successful day. Each class had a pop quiz and I think everyone seemed to do well. We completed a venn diagram that compared two chracters from two different texts. The class was put into groups to establish appropriate questions to ask Laurie's mom. I put them into groups and some students were not happy. There were groups that worked better than others and some students rolled their eyes or gasped when they found out who was in their group. I explained that this was only… Continue

Added by Jacqueline Marien on October 11, 2007 at 3:10pm — 2 Comments

Todays pilot group (6th grade students) building a 3D virtual Mars colony using Edusim

Added by Rich White on October 10, 2007 at 9:04pm — No Comments

October 9, 2007

Today was my first observation from my supervisor. While it went very well and I have positive feelings about I can say that the night before I could not get to sleep and my mind was in all different kinds of directions. However, once she got there my nerves were at ease as we spoke before class as well as after class. She sat at my cooperating teacher's desk and I felt so comfortable that I had forgotten she was even there. Prior to my supervisor coming I had told my C.T. to jump in as I… Continue

Added by Jacqueline Marien on October 10, 2007 at 2:24pm — 1 Comment

October 9, 2007

Today started as if there was really school on Monday. We dove right into the unit for the day. There were new vocabulary words on the board, (due to the copier being broken I had to improvise and go "old school"). Once we reviewed the vocabulary, I handed out the story for the day "Charles" by Shirley Jackson. As we read through there were a couple of questions to ask and things to correct such as the word "rubbers" which students mistook for protection when in reality the author was…

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Added by Jacqueline Marien on October 9, 2007 at 3:07pm — 3 Comments

Loose Cannon on the Deck of the Good Ship Politically Incorrect

I started a new blog. It is totally independent of any ties to my school or school district. I can say things there without concern for self-censoring material inappropriate for a "public servant" to say.

It's just a place where anyone can come to express what they REALLY think.

Come check it out at

www.Farbucks.typepad.com

Added by Greg Farr on October 9, 2007 at 2:22pm — No Comments

Using eBoard

In my previous post, I committed to using Web 2.0 tools for student blogs and online literature circles. So what I've done is to start with using eBoard for history review! OK, it's not what I had planned to do, but it was a successful start with collaborative tools.

eBoard costs $39 a year, but I think it's worth it. The interface is clean and attractive, and it's easy to use for teacher and student as well. If you'd like, you can visit mine at… Continue

Added by Peter Goetz on October 9, 2007 at 2:14pm — No Comments

Google buys Jaiku - Microblogging on the rise?

Google buys Jaiku - Microblogging on the rise?

http://tinyurl.com/ywoh5z

“While it’s too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the coming months to expand in ways we hope you’ll find interesting and useful. Our engineers are excited to be working together and enthusiastic developers lead to great innovation. We look forward to accomplishing great things together. In order to focus on innovation…

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Added by Rich White on October 9, 2007 at 11:35am — No Comments

First resource pack is now available for Edusim

Its called "Under the sea" - and is intended for the K-1st grade age group: http://edusim3d.com/?page=parts.php&part=3

Added by Rich White on October 8, 2007 at 9:38pm — No Comments

Educon2.0 Conference

Chris Lehmann has asked that those of us on Twitter post about the upcoming Educon 2.0 conference.

For complete information see the Educon 2.o wiki. Cliotech also has a very thorough blog post on the conference.

Here is the vital…

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Added by Kelly Christopherson on October 8, 2007 at 7:44pm — No Comments

Software Policy Question for EVERYONE

I am just curious what your district's software policy is, regarding the ability for a teacher to bring in his/her own legal software and downloading freeware or shareware programs for use in the classroom. We were told today that we must have all software (freeware, shareware personal, school…

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Added by Mrs. Deines on October 8, 2007 at 7:22pm — No Comments

Developing Technology-Based Interactive Lessons

Below video tutorials are provided with the necessary examples that will outline the essential elements in developing an interactive whiteboard lesson. In these tutorials, you will learn how to utilizing video, content and other multimedia resources such as Google Earth kmz…

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Added by Mike King on October 8, 2007 at 3:11pm — No Comments

Student Response Systems

I am not sure how many people are using these in a K-12 environment but at the university level thay are being used to good effect. They allow teachers to see (more or less) how they are doing, as they teach, by giving students the opportunity to answer questions throughout the lecture. The ability to quickly survey knowledge can help determine (on the fly) how the content needs to be adjusted.

My experience, having been on both ends of the SRS is that, as a student with a clicker…

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Added by gerry davis on October 8, 2007 at 12:05pm — No Comments

K12 Online Conference has started!

The preconference keynote with David Warlick was recently posted on the site listed below. Check it out and pass this on to other teachers!

Preconference Keynote: Inventing New Boundaries by David Warlick

Added by Chris Prout on October 8, 2007 at 9:00am — No Comments

Avatar Webcam Applications

Avatar Webcam Applications:

To express unique characterization to project-based activity teachers can have students use Avatar characters to write and read the content of the lesson or script. The script is a…

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Added by Mike King on October 7, 2007 at 11:31pm — No Comments

Teacher, teacher can you hear me?

When I first began teaching, one of the most stressful times was when

the director would come in to supervise/evaluate. I knew when he was

coming of course but, still, it would cause me no endless stress. Would

the lesson work? Would the students listen? Would I remain my

composure? The lesson was orchestrated and each time, thank goodness,

it went without a hitch. This is how it was for the first two years of

teaching. After that, like most other teachers to whom… Continue

Added by Kelly Christopherson on October 7, 2007 at 10:33pm — No Comments

Open Source Software

Over the past few years I have been reviewing various open source software applications. In the next series of blog’s I will share some of my findings which will include open source software applications for art, astronomy, computer science, games, internet, keyboarding, multimedia, and office. The first open source software…

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Added by Mike King on October 7, 2007 at 9:52pm — 1 Comment

Google Earth and Postcard Geography

From http://www.edtechvision.org

Years ago when I taught 4th grade I participated in a classroom exchange called "Postcard Geography". My students eagerly awaited postcards that we exchanged with schools all across the US. We created a large bulletin board with a map of the US and pinned the postcards next to the city is came from. It was fun to read about the area around the school and we often referred to our postcards as we studied the…

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Added by Colette Cassinelli on October 7, 2007 at 4:14pm — No Comments

Creativity and Technology Integration

In most of us there lies a realm of creativity especially within children. Products of creativity are within all of us and the expression of divergent thought can be framed in both its quality to originality and appropriateness. Each of us would like to take…

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Added by Mike King on October 7, 2007 at 4:01pm — No Comments

Beginning

So, I've never blogged before!!! I'm experiencing it for the first time, and it's so exciting. I'm not sure what to even write about except that I'm hoping to share and gain some insights for others in engaging students and providing them with opportunities through technology use that they may not have otherwise.... I can't wait to see what I can learn!

Added by Teri Rossman on October 7, 2007 at 3:52pm — 1 Comment