March 2012 Blog Posts (96)

From coma to consciousness….

When there is a clash between creation and chaos at incomprehensible demands, the artist can only afford to hit out frantically in undeterred passion. Reeling under the the flings and stings of cancer, Sandip Ghosh could push himself from the fringes of oblivion by virtue of the psychic force, his mastering impulse, which prevented his senses from getting blighted and battered. This emotional refusal to resign to the inevitable finds inimitable release in…

To what extent is Blake an apocryphal visionary?

As a fun activity in the short time we had between the end of PSSA's and the beginning of Marking Period 4, I challenged my 7th grade Mechanicsburg Middle School Pre-Algebra kids to research and create paperslide videos relating to a topic they had ALREADY learned during the year.  Prior to beginning, I showed the students what a paperslide video was, how it was made and what it should look like by USING paperslide examples. 

I allowed the students to create their own groups of 2 or 3…

En dentro del ministerio del poder popular para la agricultura y tierras del gobierno bolivariano de Venezuela se encuentran los apartados que se nombran fondas cuyos misión es de "Crear, promover y consolidar la construcción de un nuevo modelo socio productivo en el país.” Entonces, la visión de las fondas consiste en “ser una institución destinada a consolidar el desarrollo agrario socialista, coordinadamente con el Poder Popular, para garantizar la inclusión social, el desarrollo y…

1] Of India’s three predominant objectives at the Durban Conference, which one, you consider, the most important and why?

2] In which two areas has India’s effort been commendable? Why are the areas significant?

3] What makes the existence of Kyoto Protocol short-lived? Cite 2 reasons.

4] Identify the most important decision that Parties took at Durban. Was it justified? Cite a reason.

5] What makes the role of the LCA important? Cite 2 reasons.

6]…

I had the opportunity this week to speak with Dr. Rita Girondi, the owner of Training Masters, Inc. Her company produces the Klickers system demonstrated in the video above. When I was in school (too many years ago), multimedia meant cheesy filmstrips narrated with cassette tapes. Now, it's PowerPoint slides with remotes where students can vote on the correct answer to questions. 

We had a great discussion and we touched on the fact that it's…

Being a college student and going through the education program and taking all the classes needed for education can be stressful for me at times. I always have moments where I feel like I have so many things that need to be done and so many things to be learned that it does put a certain amount of stress on me. At first, especially when I don't understand how to do something I have the sense of feeling like I would be a failure as a teacher. I always have put a lot of pressure on myself and…

I am currently investigating different Interactive Whiteboards to . I am looking for opinions on which board has the best supporting software to help boost engagement in the classroom. I would appreciate any opinions or personal experiences with a few different brands. Anything you can tell me about the ease of use, the pre made tools that are made available to you, and the advantage or disadvantages of the board would help tremendously. The 5 I am currently looking at are SMART boards,…

Hello,

I am a 4th and 5th grade learning support teacher. I have a few students who have challenges with print size and their vision. I was recently reading an article about a federally funded program named Book Share which allows students with print specific disabilities the chance to instantly download, enlarge print, and have a computer generated voice read the book out loud.The books are free to the students and are available on the program the same day that it is uploaded on…

Hoy, ayudé a mi amigo Ramón. Enseñé a el la gramática y la estructura de párrafos. El es buen estudiante y trabaja duro. Es difícil entender los principios complicados de la escritura. Tuve que exponer las partes de un párrafo: la oración temática, el cuerpo y la ultima oración. Pasamos por un paquete que nos ayuda a explicar los objetivos del tema. Al fin del paquete había una mini prueba, desafortunadamente el no sacó buena nota. Este solo significa que el puede mejorar sus habilidades en…

En la escuela secundaria tomé mi primera clase de español.  La profesora era una mujer muy simpática que recién había mudado del sur de España.  Cuando supo que tuve un nivel de español elevada para mi edad, se puso tan emocionada a veces que me encontraba después de clase y me hablaba y hablaba.  Como nunca había escuchaba un acento de castellano fuera de la manera chilena de hablar, yo la miraba con ojos grandes y una cara de nerviosa.  Y no entendía ni una palabra.   

Cuando una…

Me da pena que no haya podido prestar tanto tiempo a mi área de servicio que quisiera.  Tengo un conflicto de horario—irónicamente, durante las únicas horas que la clínica de Good Samaritan Touch está disponible para estudiantes que quieren dar servicio medical, tengo un curso preparándome para un examen que determina la posibilidad de mi carrera de medicina.  Así que no he tenido la oportunidad para conocer bien mi campo de servicio, el lugar donde prestaba servicio, o las personas que…

Smartboard:  Tips and tricks using the Magic Pen tool.  You might not know, but the Notebook's magic pen tool does three awesome things that can enhance any lesson using the Smartboard.

I have been recently trying to find new ideas to have my students learn through technology.  I have most recently had my students create a budget presentation in PowerPoint and share them with each their classmates not only through a presentation, but also on the class moodle page.  The students took pride in this project and learned a lot more about budgeting than I could teach them.

What other ways have you recently had your students present their information that they learned other…

A piece of software that I have found helpful in creating a future Flipped Classroom is the app ShowMe. My students have created a few tutorials with this app already. It gave the students the most enthusiasm that I have seen from kids in regard to fractions. They loved the process. 

Our steps were: 

1. They needed to pick a particular fraction that they were…

I have been exploring the benefits of virtual classrooms, games, and simulations in a learning technologies graduate class. Anyone have experience with these technologies at the high school level? 

I teach high school chemistry and have used a virtual chemistry lab for 2-3 experiments per year for the last four years.  There are set labs that students can work on from a lab manual or they can experiment freely in a either an organic or inorganic lab with access to a stock…

Hohli charts is a simple method of creating dynamic data sets that then display as charts and graphs.  This web 2.0 tool would be great and simple for students to use in a k-12 educational setting.