The following is my response to an email from a prospective teacher. She asked for suggestions on how to become most qualified to work in a school that is supportive of its students.…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on January 2, 2011 at 3:30pm —
Comments
I thought I'd share my most current uses of
Wordle.
First - Teacher Planning: I was just assigned a student teacher. To help her comprehend the "big ideas" of our state core, we pasted the sections of the core she will teach into Wordle. When the Wordle was created, the maximum number of words was lowered to 35 from the "Layout menu." This helped her see the main ideas she should spend the most time on during her teaching time in my…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on January 14, 2010 at 5:54pm —
Comments
Creating a list of websites that let students learn concepts in a non-drill & kill format. These activities can be for any subject or grade level. Please take a few minutes and share your favorite activities with me in this
Google document.
I'll be posting all results here when data is collected.
Added by Glen Westbroek on November 23, 2009 at 8:51pm —
Comments
I was contemplating movies that inspire or encourage teaching. As I reflected on this, I thought back to the first time I watched Stand and Deliver. This movie was inspirational as I watched a teacher demonstrate an unwillingness to accept poor performance by students. At that this point, I changed my thinking - worrying about the individual student and their success in class. Lately, I have again altered my thinking to be more along the lines of "What did we learn" rather than "What did I…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on September 20, 2009 at 8:37pm —
No Comments
As I began this year, I considered how to motivate students to succeed in Science. I realized many who think they “cannot do science” instead just do not complete their work. I, therefore, decided to not give a grade to work turned in “incomplete” but require these students to come to my classroom during our school’s “flex” time. We run flex time on Tuesdays - Fridays. This is 30 minutes where students who have either an “F” or “Incomplete” grade in any class are required to work with that…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on September 4, 2009 at 5:21pm —
Comments
This past year, I tried to incorporate many web 2.0 opportunities in my lessons. I have the challenge of my district blocking and/or preventing student work to be published online. I, however, volunteered to pilot several web 2.0 tool activities with my students. Each experience required that I provide feedback on possible concerns or explain how the tool benefited my students' learning. I was thrilled recently when my district's technology director said he was going to propose changes to our…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on August 28, 2009 at 5:30pm —
Comments
My school was assigned a new principal this year. He and I have chatted several times about what technology is in the building. He came from a technology rich high school. As he has walked our building, he has been surprised at the lack of technology many classrooms.
I was tasked to provide my principal with ideas on what technologies we should add at our building. Currently, there are two classrooms that are very technology rich. Many classrooms do not have more than a teacher…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on August 26, 2009 at 4:00pm —
No Comments
For several years, I have used Essential Questions in my classroom. Many of these questions were changed when we changed units or in conjunction with projects. I was bothered because it seemed like I spent more time thinking of a new essential question for the next unit and we never really spent enough time on the previous Essential Question.
I, therefore, spent a great deal of time this summer reflecting on what I perceived the purpose of Essential Questions to be. I also reviewed…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on August 13, 2009 at 8:16pm —
Comments
Recently I attended a conference where we discussed collaborative tools. Many at the conference had never used a
Ning,
Twitter,
Facebook,
Delicious,
Diigo, or other…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on July 26, 2009 at 6:00am —
Comments
After attending NECC 09 in Washington D.C. I determined to consider my next year’s teaching. In the process, I realized there were some changes I wished to make in how I work with my students. Perhaps the most important of my changes is a desire to allow students to choose the most appropriate tool to use when doing an assignment. As I thought about it, I realized I wanted to see what others might consider important as well. I posted the following on Twitter:
What will you do differently…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on July 9, 2009 at 5:00pm —
Comments
I've had a LOT more iPhone apps recommended given by my
Twitter friends. Remember that I learned recently that the maximum number of screens you can have on your iPod/iTouch is 9. Each screen can hold a maximum of 16 apps. This means the most apps you can have at any time on the device is 144.
9-toolbox… Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on May 26, 2009 at 8:30pm —
Comment
Yesterday I received a new iPod Touch. Wanting to have as much "geek fun" as possible, I wanted to install some apps on it. I, however, had NO idea what apps to install. With that consideration in mind, I posted a link and asked my Twitter friends for suggested apps I could use. All links bring take you to that app's page in the App Store.
NOTE: I learned recently that the maximum number of screens you can have on your iPod/iTouch is 9. Each screen can hold a maximum of 16 apps. This…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on May 19, 2009 at 8:30pm —
No Comments
I'm enjoying the
American Chopper TV show tonight. They are designing an Intel bike today. It has the Intel logo in many locations along with some great paint job work that look like chips. It has a Quad "V Twin Motors" delivering a LOT of power. The guys are impressed with the results and said they want to put it on a magazine cover! There is even a "computer inside!" The computer is called a "Switchback." This…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on May 2, 2009 at 9:09pm —
No Comments
Perhaps you, like me, have read and considered the power behind Wikis, Blogging, as well as wondered what's all the HYPE about Web 2.0. Or, maybe you have considered all of the many suggestions about what the best tech tools are or wondered if the World is really going Web 2.0. It seems that many discussions on Classroom 2.0 have been lively and provide great ideas on how we, as teachers, can use web 2.0 tools with our students. I had a handle on these topics and have enjoyed my attempts to…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on April 10, 2009 at 7:30pm —
Comments
I was asked to help with a District Professional Development training on 21st Century Skills today. One of the first things that I did was to to Twitter and ask my PLN for help. I posted the following ... "In District PD on 21st Century Skills. Please reply w/where R you from, what is your favorite on-line 21st Century tool & why do you use it?"
Below are screenshots of the responses to my tweet. Thanks to everyone who responded - the information was well received!…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on March 26, 2009 at 9:30am —
Comments
During our eMints class on 2/3/09, we spent a our time reviewing
Blooms's Taxonomy. We reviewed printed versions of Blooms's Taxonomy and I shared the
Learning in Action version. After discussing Blooms Taxonomy and the associated verbs, we were asked to create our own "rubric" using appropriate verbs from those associated with Blooms Taxonomy.
I relied on…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on March 4, 2009 at 9:00am —
No Comments
I was trying to compare
Facebook with
Twitter by a friend recently. While I was able to describe the friendship activities that happen on
Facebook, I wanted to use very few words to explain
Twitter. I turned to my PLN on
Twitter and asked: How would you describe
Twitter in 5 words or less?”…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on February 12, 2009 at 8:00pm —
No Comments
Yesterday, @
eduinnovation and I were discussing the idea of changing job titles on
Twitter. As a result of that discussion, I posted the question: “If you could change your job title, what would it be?” as a Twitter poll. The following are responses that were given. No requirements on job title were given. Below are the responses from all who participated. I enjoyed reading and contemplating the ideas behind each…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on February 12, 2009 at 7:30am —
No Comments
Kelly Hines tagged me in her
recent post, so I want to do my best oblige. Here are 7 things that you don’t really need to know about me.
1. I did volunteer service for two years in
Vlaanderen (Dutch speaking Belgum) for my church. As a result, I learned to speak Dutch…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on December 31, 2008 at 12:31pm —
Comments
I've spent most of my free time (as well as some that should have been used in other ways) helping the teacher next door recently. She learned of a grant in our state that is designed for implementation of technology in the classroom. Over these several hours, she has picked my brain regarding IWBs and what they can do. Each time we meet, I feel like she is doing a better job of finding ways to wring water out of a dry sponge. When I think I've told her everything I know, she finds a way to ask…
Continue
Added by Glen Westbroek on December 10, 2008 at 7:42pm —
Comments
