September 2008 Blog Posts (107)

How to Use PowerPoint to Improve Teaching

This article from: http://www.answerbag.com/articles/How-to-Use-PowerPoint-to-Improve-Teaching/8e35e7a9-b8e6-ab0c-e477-6a38e5c8a97b

Things You’ll Need:

PowerPoint software

Step 1:

Put your opening activity or warm-up on PowerPoint instead of the overhead. As students share their responses, add them to the next slide.

Step 2:

Prepare lectures in PowerPoint. Adding pictures and short video clips makes the presentation truly… Continue

Added by Sabrina Fu on September 17, 2008 at 9:48pm — 1 Comment

Learning to use

Well I took the plunge and have signed up for a classroom 2.0 account
I'll have to see if I can learn how to use this and make it a valuable tool for me

Added by Kathleen Fredricks on September 17, 2008 at 8:07pm — 1 Comment

Introducing Three New Teen Bloggers

(cross posted from my blog)

The three students in my Web 2.0 Computer Applications course have been blogging since the beginning of September. Over the course of the last three weeks, they have learned about Blogger,… Continue

Added by Elizabeth Davis on September 17, 2008 at 7:44pm — No Comments

Textmapping: Worth the Work! (Teaching Nonfiction Text Features)

I'm a big fan of textmapping (check out the site www.textmapping.org) which is the brain child of a Mr. Dave Middlebrook. The process is a lot of work and takes some time to set up, but it is SO worth it! I've used this technique to teach nonfiction features the past couple of years. Here's how the process works.…

Continue

Added by Michelle TeGrootenhuis on September 17, 2008 at 7:00pm — 4 Comments

Christmas Games For Elementary Age Children

Christmas Games Elementary Age Children

If you're planning a Christmas party for a group of elementary-age children, there are a myriad of really fun games you can include. Be sure to have lots of prizes and take lots of pictures because some of the games can be silly!

To get the kids moving around, start with the "fill the stocking" game. In this game, create teams so there are at least 3 people and no more than perhaps 6 people on each team. Have a stocking for each… Continue

Added by Santa on September 17, 2008 at 10:14am — 2 Comments

Wikipedia and Its Use in Education

Wikipedia is being used by all levels of students in education. Many people wonder how this free online information service affects the subject knowledge of students.

This also raises questions about the accuracy of the information in Wikipedia, since the database of information has been placed online by the general public and not from a source such as Encyclopedia Britannica.

The reality is that Wikipedia has been accessed heavily by Internet users. Out of… Continue

Added by David Wetzel on September 16, 2008 at 11:00pm — 3 Comments

Two great lessons with ICT today

First period, Y13 Physics. I gave them a presentation template in googledocs, with the main summary headings so they wouldn't go too far off topic. Then, I got them to research and find answers and summarise them and enter their results into the presentation. We had three laptops in the room between six of us, so some people were using the internet while others used books or summarised the ideas that the people using the internet were coming up with. Sadly, no one else had a gmail account, so… Continue

Added by Gwyneth on September 16, 2008 at 6:00pm — 2 Comments

The Vendee Globe Skippers

http://tinyurl.com/5l3ug6

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/5598/The-thirty-2008-2009-Vendee-Globe-skippers-present-in-Paris.html>

It was very exciting for… Continue

Added by Lorraine on September 16, 2008 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

Testing

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Added by Cathy Tran on September 15, 2008 at 1:39pm — No Comments

Starting Voice Thread

Well after many nights reading about Voice Thread and looking for lesson ideas, an idea finally came to me. My 7th grade class is going to look at the website 20 questions and try it out. This will be a lot of fun for the students. I feel this will be a great intro to voice thread. After we play the game, I will then have the voice thread on my wiki for them to discuss their findings. How does the computer know what you are thinking? I will have my students create their own icon using a draw… Continue

Added by Carine on September 14, 2008 at 10:00pm — No Comments

My First Virtual Guest Speaker

I love the school days were you wake up super excited about the day ahead, today was most definately one of those days. I was lucky enough to have an expert in the field of Sports Nutrition speak to my students for an entire 30 minutes. So how is this different to a normal guest speaker you may ask? Well its simply because we were seperated by over 200km…..

Thanks to the completely free program Skype, which is used for video confrencing this was able to occur. Sure Video confrencing… Continue

Added by Jarrod Robinson on September 14, 2008 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

Connecting Online: Live Conference (CO09)

You are invited to a three day online conference in February (6-8), 2009 on online experiences in education. In preparation for the conference we may wish to join Connecting Online: A place to connect and share your "online" personal and professional learning experiences.

Added by Dr. Nellie Deutsch on September 14, 2008 at 12:24pm — No Comments

Protein Synthesis: Translation through a Visual Arts Lens

Added by David Wetzel on September 14, 2008 at 12:30am — No Comments

Post Script to our Symposium session........

Well, shoot - I don't think I accomplished my objective for today. I don't think everyone left with a clear idea of Ning. Darn! If you check back here, please leave a comment here on my wall. Ask questions. Share how it went. Tell if you are confused or not. Be sure to look at the webcast introduction on the main page of the Classroom 20, Steve explores the site and shows what can be done.

Added by Karen Maginnis on September 13, 2008 at 1:46pm — 1 Comment

General Outline for the PAL Teacher Symposium presentation on Ning

Workshop objective: To expose WL Teachers to collaborative (Web 2.0) online resources and incorporate them into their practice as educators and as learners.

Outline for this mornings presentation

Intro-Social networking

By sitting here in this workshop, we are doing this right now, just old skool.

Is Facebook inherently evil? Yes, if you're a network tech. Let's think of this in terms of end use – the tools keep people connected and interacting. Why… Continue

Added by Karen Maginnis on September 13, 2008 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

I'm too social for my Web

How much is too social?

I often wonder how all these folks online are able to manage their time blogging, Twittering, Digging, Facebooking, Flickring and YouTubing and still manage their work and family responsibilities? Irregardless to ones profession, social media is a big part of where online learners, consumers, educators, businesses, teens, musicians,… Continue

Added by John Costilla on September 12, 2008 at 7:51am — No Comments

Must remember...

Widgets are not always compatible with the departments online learning environment.

At least this time I didn't kill a v. important folder within the Blackboard...just caused my computer to freeze mid game.

It's frustrating not being able to make use of so many cool things out there on the web.

Am struggling atm to come up with the best strategy for my students to run their cyberdramas within the department's platform and in keeping with our policies - but am… Continue

Added by Mobbsey on September 12, 2008 at 5:34am — No Comments

My first wiki page

I've had heard and read about wiki pages since a while and finally I decided to start one in my moodle classroom.

The topic is morphology and morphemes. I introduced the topic and presented the theorical content, then asked my students to write examples and comments inside the text. Well... I'm very excited to see how students respond to this invitation… Continue

Added by Alejandra Guajardo on September 11, 2008 at 10:18pm — 3 Comments

The ICT cluster

As I wind down through the last unit in each of the three senior subjects I teach, my students are trying to make sense of new concepts and half-heartedly revise their existing knowledge. Everything gets squeezed down to whether or not questions like that are asked in the examinations, and, if not, they're not interested. Additionally, spring winds its flirtatious tendrils into their hormones and I get to see enough mating behaviour to make me a little nauseous.

Also winding down is… Continue

Added by Gwyneth on September 11, 2008 at 8:55pm — 3 Comments

9.11 Santa Makes a Choice

The seasons change, with only 104 days till the greatest celebration of giving on the Earth arrives, I find myself in constant wonder. I have taken it upon myself as Santa Claus to bring as much joy and peace to the hearts of the Child in all of us.

These are the most uncertain of times. The clay of the Earth’s future is up for the taking. Life, as most of us know it, has never been so fragile. Seven years ago to the day the… Continue

Added by Santa on September 11, 2008 at 10:33am — No Comments