Weekly Core Subjects Resources

Well, Spring Break is over, so back to the ole' daily grind.  Not sure how much blogging will happen this week.  Will spend the majority of my evenings studying for the Kentucky Principal's Test that I am taking this Saturday.  Wish me luck!  But enough about me, time for some resources.

English
1.) Here is an interesting concept.  It is called Newspaper Blackout.  Students take a newspaper and black out all the words to create a story, poem, quote, or whatever.  What a neat activity for English teachers.  The link will take you to a "blog," but in reality, this would be a neat classroom notebook to create.  I could see this same format being used in other subjects when wanting to find the most important parts of an article/story.

2.) Cummings Study Guides provides various study guides for Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and various other types of literature.  There is a vast index worth checking out.

3.) Capitonyms are words that sometimes should be capitalized, while other times they should not be.  This resource will help students in K-12 become for familiar with those words.

4.) The Basics of APA Style is a web-based slide presentation that also includes voice over.  It does a good job of explaining APA formatting.

5.) "The Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating, documenting and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, founded the Favorite Poem Project shortly after the Library of Congress appointed him to the post in 1997."

6.) Knowing Poe is an interactive website designed to share about Poe the Person, Poe the Write, and Poe's Library.

Mathematics
1.) From Free Technology for Teachers is 7 Good Sources for Math Videos.  Looking to integrate video into your math class?  This is a great start.

2.) Looking for some online calculators?  Jeff Lay's Ed Tech Blog has 15 Websites for Free Online Calculators.

Science
1.) "Anatomy Arcade makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome free flash games, interactives and videos.  Anatomy Arcade is perfect for the novice teenager in the classroom, right through to students and professionals of health care looking for a fun way to revise." (Source: Free Technology for Teachers)

2.) Here is a collection of Earth Science Power Point Presentations that might be worth checking out.

3.) Planet Science is a website for free & fun Science resources for children, young people, teachers and parents.

4.) Solar System Scope is probably the most complete interactive solar system application on the web.  A must see for any Earth-Space or Astronomy teacher.  

Social Studies
First, my apologies for not properly citing some previous resources shared by Ken Halla who writes several valuable Social Studies blogs.  Lifelong learning is valuable, even if it is a quick lesson in web based resource sharing.

1.) Here are Ken Halla's blogs.  I recommend adding them to your reader if you teach social studies, or share social studies resources with teachers. US History Teachers Blog, US Government Teachers Blog, World History Teachers Blog, Social Studies and History Teacher's Blog, and Teaching High School Psychology Blog.

2.) I liked teaching with political cartoons, and thanks to the Internet I am able to find several on the web.  The British Cartoon Archive is a valuable site for teaching with political cartoons.  (Source: Active History)

3.) From the Teachers Domain comes a video, questions, and background essay about Nuclear Meltdowns from Frontline and a focus on Chernobyl.  A valuable lesson with the recent events in Japan. 

4.) GeoGames is a Flash game that lets you drag-and-drop onto the Planet Earth. You can rotate your planet, test your geography skills, and print a copy when you are done! There’s a timer, so you can track your scores. Try playing on a SmartBoard.  (Source: Free Technology for Teachers)


5.) HistoryBuff is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing free primary source materials for students, teachers, and anyone who loves history.  The sites primary focus is on how news of major and not so major events in American history were reported in newspapers of the time.  You can also find panoramas of historic sites in America.


6.) Click 2 Map is a website that allows users to create maps with their own points of interest and then embed them onto a website.  It is very similar to Tripline. 

EdTech and Balloon Animals

Yeah, I am going to go there.  I spent the last couple days in Louisville visiting family and one of the nights we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack.  While eating there was a man there that my brother knew.  He happened to be making balloon animals for the little kids, or adults who were kids at heart.  We had just left the zoo and my son loved the giraffes, so he had him make one of those.  You can see it below.

Since my brother knew Balloon Man of Kentucky, he didn't charge us for the giraffe.  A gracious gesture for sure.  But as we were sitting there, we watched him start making balloons for other customers.  He made a penguin and a butterfly for some kids at another table.  It was an entertaining experience to watch him work.  But then, something caught my eye.

The dad took out his credit card and gave it to the Balloon Man of Kentucky, who promptly took out his cell phone and scanned the father's debit/credit card on an attachment on his phone.  He put in a total, the dad signed the "receipt" using his finger, and thus a purchase was made.  Of course we called Balloon Man of Kentucky over to ask him what that was.  It was an app called Square.  It also allows you to take a picture of the customer and geotag it, email them a receipt and provide you security in case they argue that they did not make the purchase.

So, how does this relate to EdTech?  Well, not directly, but indirectly.  This is the type of business world that our students are going to be entering.  As educators, are we preparing them to think about retail, marketing, and business in this manner?  The technology outside of schools is changing, and as educators, I think it is our responsibility to bring this to their attention.  Balloon Man of Kentucky saw a change in spending (more card use and less cash use) and took advantage of the opportunity to manage his business.

Kudos to him.

Weekly Core Subject Resources

A welcoming April Spring day in Kentucky. Lots of rain in March, so it is good to see the sun today. UK plays today, so guess where everyone in this state will be tonight? I will probably watch the game too, but I cheer for their rival, so I won't be watching it for the same reasons....he he.

English
1.) Synonym Finder is a website designed to helps writers from using the same words over and over. You will also find antonyms and definitions as well, and examples of use in a sentence.

2.) Wordis is a website where visitors can share their thoughts on any word. "Share your insight, your story, your vision…We give you words; everything else is after you."

3.) Memidex is a free online dictionary and thesaurus with a simple interface, complete inflections, auto-suggest, adult-filtering, frequent updates, a browsable index, support for mobile devices, and millions of external reference links for definitions, audio, and etymology. It's fast too.

4.) Idioms 4 You is a website dedicated to providing several examples of English idioms. Not only can you read them, but you can also hear them. The author of the website has recorded the samples of idioms for visitors.

Mathematics
1.) Dan Meyer is a math teacher and math blogger. He recently did a TED talk "Math Class Needs a Makeover." If you are a math teacher, I highly recommend watching his talk.

2.) Uses for Math is a website that provides lessons and activities for how math can be used in the real world. Everyday jobs, sports, medicine, and even solving crime.

3.) The Math Worksheet Site allows users to create an endless supply of printable math worksheets. The intuitive interface gives you the ability to easily customize each worksheet to target your student's specific needs. Every worksheet is created when you request it, so they are different every time.

Science
1.) Wonderville is a fun, interactive destination for kids to discover the exciting world of science. This award-winning site encourages exploration and curiosity, while helping kids discover how much fun science can be.

2.) The Science Spot is a website for middle school science teachers that provides links to various web resources. You will also find lessons and activities as well.

3.) Late Nite Labs offers students and teachers hundreds of preset and customizable science labs that can be conducted completely online. Teachers can get access for free, but their is a cost for students. So it is a great tool to use in the classroom by the instructor. It should probably be the other way around.

Social Studies
1.) Best of History Web Sites is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more. (Source: US History Teachers Blog)

2.) The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on around 35,000 slave voyages. You can search the voyages database, examine estimates of the slave trade, and search through a African names database.


3.) The Demographic Chartbook provides a wide-ranging audience of persons interested in American history – including historians, other social scientists, teachers, and students – with graphics portraying the demographic history of the United States, as shown by the decennial census of population. (Source: US History Teachers Blog)

An EdTech Tip for Adminstrators

In the coming years I plan to be finished with my Administration certification and pursue an assistant principal position.  When I get to that position, I don't want to forget several of the awesome tools and services that are available to teachers that can be adapted to being an administrator.  The first order of business for a new administrator is to setup some Google Alerts.

With Google Alerts you can add in the search terms you are looking for, determine the source of alert you want (Everything, blogs, news, etc), determine how often you want to receive alerts (as it happens, daily, or weekly), and the volume of results (All results or just the best results).  You then provide the email attached to your Google Account.  You can see the image below of the menu options.

So how could administrators use Google Alerts?  Here are several ideas:
1.) Get alerts for your school district
2.) Get alerts for your school
3.) Get alerts for your name in case it is in the news
4.) Get alerts for your school mascot/athletic teams
5.) Get alerts for your town/city/neighborhoods
6.) Get alerts for Central Office staff as well.

How would you use Google Alerts?

Ye' Old Stomping Grounds

I learned this week that the Technology Integration Specialist job that I have had the pleasure of doing last year and this year is not going to be renewed (There is always a chance that could change, but not looking likely) due to state budget cuts.  This move will take me back to teaching Social Studies again.  I am disappointed that I will no longer continue to do this job, which I have loved.  There is, however, some excitement about returning to the classroom to use and share so much of what I have learned about in these past two years.

At the same time, I feel there will be a bit of pressure on me to "prove" that I can do what I have been encouraging so many other teachers to do.  I am not worried about that pressure, I just know that it is going to be there.  I always like a challenge, and I feel going back is a challenge, because so much in education has changed since I "left" the classroom.  Like I said, there is some excitement about interacting with the kids again, but there is less excitement about the increased "paper work" that now goes with teaching.

The best thing about these past two years is my increased passion towards the teaching profession.  I have learned some valuable lessons.  I have learned about some valuable tools.  I have met (both face to face and online) some outstanding educators, administrators, students, and technology staff.  Looking back, I feel like my brain has been overloaded with #edchat, #edtech, and everything in between. 

Because of this new found knowledge and passion, what will I be doing differently with my students?  This is definitely just the short list.  There are several classroom management and instructional tools/ideas that I will also incorporate into my classroom as well.  I will have high expectations for my students when it comes to being engaged in my classroom.

1.) I will be using Twitter and Group Tweet to interact with students and provide homework, extra credit, links, resources, etc.  I also hope to use it as a teaching tool like the Teaching Paperless Blog did. 
2.) I am contemplating creating a Facebook Page for students which I will provide information, extra credit, etc.  My first order of business though, will be to explain to students how to make their profile private.
3.) I want to have my students writing blogs.  I am not sure yet how I will integrate that into Social Studies, but I am researching ideas.
4.) From the video The Independent Project, students talked about their "Individual Endeavors" that they did.  I would love to incorporate something like that into my classroom.
5.) I will be incorporating more video and webpage production as well.  I want students to be creating as much as possible
6.) I will have to completely revamp my lessons and lecture because I will have so many new tools at my disposal.
7.) Create a blog for my students to interact with as well and provide an area for discussion over various topics.
8.) Using videos, like TED Talks, to create discussion.  Most of the videos I showed before, were just time consuming.  I really want them to invoke discussion among my students.
9.) Use available resources to teach history by teaching today.

So what will become of "The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness?"  Well, my goal is to keep it going.  Whether I can post to it as often is still up in the air because I will be focusing more on student lesson and activity development.  My blog might turn into a combination of resource sharing and classroom sharing.  I really am not sure, I just know it will be something I think about over the summer.

Would love to hear what you all think, and if you have gone back to the classroom, what have you done differently?  What new things would you do with your students?