November 2008 Blog Posts (108)

Year 6 Graduation

Last night was the Year 6 Graduation Dinner and Presentation Night. The girls had a lot of fun dancing and singing into the microphones. Their parents helped get the event together and did a great job getting the party together. The teachers, Annie & Lisa had prepared a poem based on the Dr Suess book, O' The PLaces You'll Go

Added by Chris Phyland on November 25, 2008 at 8:26pm — No Comments

New to Ning

I am here at the VITTA conference and have heard all about NING over the past 3 days. This is my opportunity to have a go at making my own Ning. It's actually easy and lots of fun. I can really see how having a Ning will open up an educational community for me. It's also the opportunity to ask questions about things that I might otherwise be a bit embarrassed to ask face to face! Looking forward to adding to my Ning and extending my group of colleagues.

Added by Maree Leopold on November 25, 2008 at 8:26pm — No Comments

Starting up with Classroom 2.0

Today we are exploring Classroom 2.0 as a tool to learn about all things ICT and Web 2.0. We have 11 participants in the room and they are all adding a blog post.

Added by Helen Otway on November 25, 2008 at 8:26pm — No Comments

VITTA Conference

Hmm. VITTA conference. 3 days away from school (good). 3 days work accumulated and waiting for my return (not good). Still, learning some new things, reinforcing some old things and doing some networking.

Added by Graham Cahill on November 25, 2008 at 8:24pm — No Comments

Wordle in the classroom

During my homeroom class today, I had students create "posters" of what they are grateful for. These posters were created in Wordle. I learned this was my students first introduction to this Web2.0 activity. There was great enthusiasm and students consistently were trying to create longer "thankful" lists to see how they turned out. I showed the posters to our 7th Grade Counselor and she was so excited, she brought down a student aid and copies of the posters… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on November 25, 2008 at 1:00pm — 2 Comments

Teachers have value.

I came upon this post @ Dumb Little Man. I love these posts because every now and then in the midst of searching for technology tips or Web 2.0 stuff you come across a little jewel like this. The question is simple, are you adding value? A few years ago, I would have wanted monetary value, better this or that, but as my kids get older and I look back at how often I… Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 25, 2008 at 8:23am — No Comments

G-cast, Netvibes and my French classes

So, a Spanish teacher on campus told me how she had set up an account on G-cast, and gave the PIN to her students and they called in speaking assignments on the land line or their cell phones. This seemed rather cumbersome to me, but I went and explored the site. Lo and behold! They have… Continue

Added by Karen Maginnis on November 24, 2008 at 9:00pm — 2 Comments

The New Media Litearacies

Discovered this video from my PLN. It was created by the The New Media Literacies Project.

According to their site..."Project New Media Literacies (NML), a research initiative based within MIT's Comparative Media…

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Added by Rob Jacobs on November 24, 2008 at 8:20pm — No Comments

Thinking about the Digital Youth Project

I have the pdf open and I'm wading through it and thinking about the presentation on my experience in using web2.0 technologies in the classroom. It's really interesting, and I am totally getting my geek on just thinking about all the cool stuff. I am just getting resources together right now - and am about to investigate a site that says it records your bibliography online so you don't have to do it the hard way. Sounds great to me.

I also have a classroom full of emo kids,… Continue

Added by Gwyneth on November 24, 2008 at 4:49pm — No Comments

Tutorial & Game: Determining Website Accuracy

Free Online Materials from the 21st Century Information Fluency Project

We've just posted a revised version of our Accuracy MicroModule.

We've also added a practice game that helps students practice:

finding embedded evidence

checking evidence for accuracy

triangulation of data

This is one of about… Continue

Added by Dennis O'Connor on November 23, 2008 at 4:04pm — 2 Comments

Network Challenge

I challenge the network to incorporate the use of one technology tool in their teaching in the next fortnight. Then tell us about it on your blog. For example, you may ask kids to interview the oldest person in their neighborhood using a podcast. This can be done through what many kids (or their parents) already own-a cellphone. The interviewer simply calls into a Gabcast channel, set up easily by the teacher in advance, entering the secret… Continue

Added by Durff on November 23, 2008 at 7:37am — No Comments

Using games as formative assessments

One area that I feel does not receive enough attention by classroom teachers is the concept of formative assessments. Recently a tweet from @clifmims reminded me how I use games as a form of formative assessments. As I considered the variety of formative assessments I have used, I realized that games were where I saw students enjoying and participating the most. Any points earned in a game are for BRAGGING rights only. Below are variations of games and… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on November 22, 2008 at 9:48pm — No Comments

NCTE Presentation

Although we had a small group, I think the presentation went well. Most of the participants seemed to enjoy it and, even more importantly, find something in it that they could use. I will have all of the documents up on my teacher web page with the district, but I will mirror them here just in case anyone comes looking. I haven't used this site very much, but I'm going to start keeping more of my docs and ideas here.

Added by Jennifer Hall on November 22, 2008 at 9:04pm — 1 Comment

Boston Globe News About Our Teacher at Sea

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/11/23/come_sail_away/
http://vg.sitesalive.com/daily-updates/ships-position/ There's still time to come on board!

Added by Lorraine on November 22, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Netbooks for Students

Through a series of grants and funding, my school, Hawkesdale P12 College has purchased a set of 16 acer aspire ones, 1gb ram, 120gb rom for mobile use by staff and students. The increasing use of web2.0 tools and technological access has placed huge demand on our computer lab and pod. At any one time there could be a combination of students from up to 4 classes in the computer lab, when space is available. Staff try to get timetabled into… Continue

Added by Anne Mirtschin on November 22, 2008 at 1:00am — 4 Comments

First Screencasts

I just uploaded my first two screencasts using Camtasia. Both were done using the 2001 version of Camtasia Recorder, because the Camtasia Studio trial version that I just downloaded would not work on my computer. I ended up finishing the second project using Camtasia Recorder, Audacity for the narration, and MovieMaker to insert a video clip because Camtasia did not record the embedded one.

Creating screencasts is a good project for students, because it allows them to design… Continue

Added by Antoinette Go on November 21, 2008 at 7:44am — No Comments

Shift Happens again..?

I've seen versions of this over time and obviously what we see are the basic threads of rapid information growth, our place in the global technology world, and a sense of urgency to jump on board. Meanwhile jobs are being lost, more houses in foreclosure, companies are shutting down, bailouts are being requested by leading banks, car companies and the like. With more information and more access and more "connectedness," where are these new jobs? I'm excited about the promise of 2049, but what… Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 21, 2008 at 6:59am — No Comments

Guidelines for a Successful eTeaching Career

After the teachers get the answer to the first question, how do I start teaching online, they invariably would ask, how do I make money by teaching online? It's the same as offline world. Either you can work for someone or work for yourself. There are quite many platforms that you can use to conduct your own virtual classroom and allow you to work for yourself and build your own teacher brand, for example WiZiQ. Now, the basic question is how do I use the platform to build my… Continue

Added by Alfajri Alwis on November 20, 2008 at 11:19pm — No Comments

Possible School-wide addition of Interactive Boards?

Yesterday afternoon, the Health Teacher in the room next door invited the principle to come with her into my classroom. She had seen me using my Promethean Board and was VERY impressed. The principal enjoyed the short few minutes he observed of the board's usage in the classroom. Then when my students began an activity, I invited him to come and play at the board. He saw the many possibilities for math, language arts, social studies, and of course the science I had been showing. In the last few… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on November 20, 2008 at 9:25pm — No Comments

Fun for Students this Christmas

DOWNLOAD THIS TO YOUR COMPUTER AND SEND IT TO EVERYBODY.

IT'S SANTA'S 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS ADVENT CALENDAR. EACH DAY BEGINNING 12.01 THROUGH CHRISTMAS A NEW DOOR OPENS AND SANTA GIVES YOU A PRESENT! So all the adventcalendar videos for this year are uploaded please subscribe now and you will get the videos released in time for christmas - day by day! - it's gonna be great this year. Your own personal digital adventcalendar on your… Continue

Added by Santa on November 20, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments