October 2007 Blog Posts (133)

So, yeah, um, what ABOUT that project?

OK, so, my plan was to blog daily about my wiki project. Then the avalanche of crap that is the end of the first marking period came down on me. Something had to give, and the blog was it.

Anyway, here's how it went:

My big mistake was to give insufficiently specific instructions when it came to writing the articles. After two days, none of my groups were done, so I forced the issue. On the third day, I had each group send me a message stating which member of the group was… Continue

Added by Matt Richardson on October 14, 2007 at 3:17pm — No Comments

So you are into technology, now what?

An insane two weeks of connectivity, and I am on the more moderate side

of things, has left me wondering where this is all heading. So many new

tools that shorten the distance between worlds and worldviews have

popped up. Twitter has just blown holes in my ability to disconnect. Now it's even infected my iPhone, keeping glued to the action in any setting (is there a hack to install twitterific on the… Continue

Added by Patrick Higgins on October 14, 2007 at 2:50pm — No Comments

Scratch - Welcome to Programming for Elementary Students

Scratch is a free download from MIT where students can create stories, games and animations! Elementary students learn programming skills. Teachers can integrate this tool with language arts, science, social studies and even meet many new NETS-S. I would love for my students to learn Scratch with your students to communicate their understandings and collaborate on…

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Added by JoNelle on October 13, 2007 at 4:24pm — 6 Comments

Back on Ning

When I first joined this ning network there were only a few hundred of us. It was so exciting to get feedback on my blog entries, and contribute to and start discussions. I remember those early heady days here. I would check my e-mail constantly to see if anyone had responded to anything I had written. I got to "know" some people. I learned so much from everyone. I experienced a little "fame;" more people started reading my blog and Steve Hargadon even interviewed me about one of my projects.… Continue

Added by Elizabeth Davis on October 13, 2007 at 11:11am — 2 Comments

Give-mio and Mimio - what a great low cost whiteboard alternative !

Had a Mimio rep. drop in at Greenbush yesterday to show us their Mimio hardware, I was very impressed - we have SMARTboards and ActiveBoards - but for the price of the MImio ($500) I couldnt believe I had not seen one in a classroom yet (compared to around $3000 for the smart & active boards). You basically attach (with suction cups or a clap (I recommend the clamp)) to ANY whiteboard and (with your projector) turns your whiteboard into and interactive whiteboard (Its much more like the… Continue

Added by Rich White on October 13, 2007 at 7:14am — No Comments

Unit Opener Planning Week

Teachers are invited to post ideas for how to open units, provide an anticipatory set (particularly on how you integrate technology and web 2.0) as comments to this blog posting:

Creating Lifelong Learners…

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Added by Mathew Needleman on October 12, 2007 at 9:06pm — 1 Comment

HELP---NING.COM

I have a great ning website for my students. I am a 1/2 time teacher, so I share the site with another teacher. We have both been posting on our blog. However, yesterday it started NOT showing my posts...only parents and my partner teacher. I checked and they can't see it with another log in, posts are marked for my friends and everyone is "my friend" on the site. They are all in the archive...but they do not show up when I post them! Any ideas?????

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Added by Mrs. Deines on October 12, 2007 at 8:57am — 1 Comment

Will better school policy provide "traction"?

Cross-posted at ThinkTime

It has been almost a month since I posted a call at ThinkTime for educators and educational technologists to share examples of progressive policies that embrace web-based tools for content sharing, creation,…

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Added by Jennifer Koch Lubke on October 11, 2007 at 10:42pm — 1 Comment

Edusim teacher mini-grants coming soon

Mini-grants for the Edusim 3D environment lesson development are on the way - Ill report more as I hear it

http://edusim3D.com

Added by Rich White on October 11, 2007 at 7:46pm — No Comments

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