Thursday, March 31, 2011

March - Most Popular Posts

March was a pretty good month on the blog.  I found a lot of interesting resources and had 39 blog posts.  For the month of March, here are the most popular posts.

1.) 10 Resources for Teaching Writing with Technology - A lot of valuable resources out there for writers and English teachers. 

2.) 10 Resources for Teaching Reading with Technology - If you teach writing, you probably teach reading, so this list is worth checking out as well.

3.) 10 Wikis Worth Checking Out - I just posted this yesterday and it came in third place.  Not bad for 24 hours. 

4.) Idea Paint - A Technology in its own right, Idea Paint allows people to paint a whiteboard anywhere they want.  A fantastic idea. 

5.) INTEGRATING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY - An acronym of Web 2.0 resources for students, teachers, and administrators. 

Some Other Good Posts:
- It Isn't Going Anywhere - My 400th post about Social Media in Education. 
- Group Tweet - A valuable Twitter application for teachers who use Twitter with their students. 

The Independent Project

The Independent Project(Link to New York Times Article) is about a group of 8 students at Monument Mountain Regional High School who set out to form their own school.  The essentially formed a school within a school.  Each student involved in this project developed Independent Endeavors.  The idea was to find something that you are passionate about and create it.  What were some of those Endeavors?  Wrote a Novel, Wrote a Play, Created a Short Film, Experimented with Culinary Arts, or Learned to Play the Piano.

Students are coming to school and getting an education in material they have no interest in learning.  These students felt that if they were going to spend 6 hours of their day, 30 hours a week at school, they wanted to learn something that interests them.  I was very intrigued with the video below.  I applaud the school for supporting these students.  I also like the idea of an Independent Endeavor.  What would your students do?

To learn more, see the video below: