These past two weeks have been really busy and I was involved with a lot of things that kept me from routinely checking Twitter. The one thing about Twitter is that if someone post something on Twitter, chances are it will be posted again later that day, or even later in the week. That is why those that are new to Twitter shouldn't worry about always checking their account for fear of missing something. Now on to the what I was able to get from Twitter. Still some GREAT stuff.
1.) Artsonia - A Kids Art Museum. You can purchase the Art as well.
2.) The Top Ten Educational Technology Advocacy Issues from ISTE - This is what we should all be sharing with our politicians and Boards. Also from ISTE, six strategies to connect educational technology integration to School Improvement.
3.) If you have not seen The Nerdy Teacher Blog, you need to. He has been doing some great post about what he has learned about technology integration from quotes in movies. Always a great read!
4.) 6 Technologies That Will Shape Education
5.) 100 Sites to Download All Sorts of Things
6.) An A-Z Toolkit for Education
7.) 200+ Articles about using Twitter for Social Media
8.) Examples of School Docs and Sites in Libraries - Pretty good list.
9.) 5 Trends in Educational Technology Leadership - For all of us hoping to work as a CIO some day, rather nice list.
10.) Great list of resources for Student Teachers.
11.) Find songs that meet your mood - Stereomood
12.) Oh how Seniority and Tenure is changing...Education is in a major change right now. Article
13.) How to delete Facebook Applications and why you should
14.) Screen-cast of the VocabAhead website where vocabulary is made into videos.
15.) 50 Sites in 60 Minutes
16.) Social Networking For Teachers Wiki
17.) Twelve Free Tools from Microsoft
18.) For fun - Great scenes from movies and videos with Lego figures and stop motion photography.
19.) From the Educators Royal Treatment - Experience is Always the Best Teacher
20.) Colorado's Plan for Teacher Evaluation - Article
21.) Building Schoolwide Literacy in the Elementary Classrooms Using Web 2.0
Hope you find something useful or entertaining. Teaching should always be fun, and sometimes, that means playing with the great sites we are sharing with our students.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Friday Focus - My First Digital Publication
Recently I have been seeing numerous and wonderfully put together digital magazines involving integrating technology in the classroom. Seeing them motivated me to create my own. So often, we as teachers (myself included) are throwing up PowerPoint as our main form of enhancing lecture, as well as integrating technology.
Students are burnt out on PowerPoint. We use it to much, and we have them create them to much. Slide Shows are great, but they are no longer the only method of delivering lecture notes to your students. Plus, how is that making lecture interactive with your students? How are they LEARNING from your lecture notes if all they do is copy them down?
I recently did a presentation at the TeachMeet Nashville Conference on using Web 2.0 to enhance lecture. I created my presentation using Prezi. I wanted to be able to enhance that presentation, so I created a digital magzine. You can find my publication here. I used word and then uploaded it using Issuu. You can also see the publication on the sidebar of this blog at the very top. Click on the center of the publication and it will open full screen. Or, you can see it below.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, ideas, or ways that you have improved lecture in your classroom using Web 2.0.
Students are burnt out on PowerPoint. We use it to much, and we have them create them to much. Slide Shows are great, but they are no longer the only method of delivering lecture notes to your students. Plus, how is that making lecture interactive with your students? How are they LEARNING from your lecture notes if all they do is copy them down?
I recently did a presentation at the TeachMeet Nashville Conference on using Web 2.0 to enhance lecture. I created my presentation using Prezi. I wanted to be able to enhance that presentation, so I created a digital magzine. You can find my publication here. I used word and then uploaded it using Issuu. You can also see the publication on the sidebar of this blog at the very top. Click on the center of the publication and it will open full screen. Or, you can see it below.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, ideas, or ways that you have improved lecture in your classroom using Web 2.0.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Must See Monday: A-Z Cool Tools
Everyday I come to realize the power of my PLN and PLN's in general. Through Twitter I was able to follow the KySTE conference that was in Louisville , KY in March. By following the KySTE Hashtag on Twitter I was able to discover and communicate with other Kentucky educators who are on Twitter.
One person that I met and started following was Jeremy Renner who is a Technology Resource Teacher for the Jefferson County School District. I also was able to attend his session about his favorite 10 Web 2.0 tools for education while at the conference and came away with one of my new favorite tools, Typewith.me.
Last week I received an email from Jeremy about a Digital Magazine that he had created called A-Z Cool Tools. Jeremy was asking for my thoughts and opinions about what he created. I was impressed with the organization and creativity of the publication, as well as the many resources it contains. I am currently working on my own Digital Magazine as well based on my recent presentation at the TeachMeet Nashville Conference. The A-Z Cool Tools provided further inspiration.
In the A-Z Cool Tools you will find links and information about a plethera of Web Tools that you can use in your classroom. A great resource for teachers, but definitely worth sharing with Elementary teachers because many of the links have an elementary teacher feel. It is also a great resource for Library Media Specialist as well.
Check out this great resource and share with teachers. Encourage them to view my blog and leave comments for Jeremy so that when he reads the post he can see what others think about his A-Z Cool Tools
One person that I met and started following was Jeremy Renner who is a Technology Resource Teacher for the Jefferson County School District. I also was able to attend his session about his favorite 10 Web 2.0 tools for education while at the conference and came away with one of my new favorite tools, Typewith.me.
Last week I received an email from Jeremy about a Digital Magazine that he had created called A-Z Cool Tools. Jeremy was asking for my thoughts and opinions about what he created. I was impressed with the organization and creativity of the publication, as well as the many resources it contains. I am currently working on my own Digital Magazine as well based on my recent presentation at the TeachMeet Nashville Conference. The A-Z Cool Tools provided further inspiration.
In the A-Z Cool Tools you will find links and information about a plethera of Web Tools that you can use in your classroom. A great resource for teachers, but definitely worth sharing with Elementary teachers because many of the links have an elementary teacher feel. It is also a great resource for Library Media Specialist as well.
Check out this great resource and share with teachers. Encourage them to view my blog and leave comments for Jeremy so that when he reads the post he can see what others think about his A-Z Cool Tools
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Think Twice Thursday - Educational and Technology Journals
It is amazing how changing jobs provides an opportunity to realize things you have always wanted to do, but never made time for. I now make time for so many things that a couple of years ago I did not see the value in making time for. I Tweet, I blog (obviously), I use Digg and Social Bookmarking. I value my cell phone as a professional, not a personal communication device. Those are just a few...probably a whole blog post on just that topic alone!
Recently though, I found value in another aspect of education; journals and magazines that discuss topics that are pertinent to my job and education in general. I have a new respect for learning about what is going on in education, not just in Kentucky, but all over the United States, and in many cases, the world. I also like to read and follow journals on technology, so that I can keep myself up todate on new and exciting changes in technology that might benefit education (iPad, foldable screens, etc)
So the question then becomes what Educational Journals do you read? Well, there are tons that you can find on many different subjects and even content specific journals. What I also like is that so many of them can just be emailed to you and you can have a digital journal. Makes for storing, saving, and using the resources a lot easier.
First and foremost, I suggest Education Week. You can also find them on http://twitter.com/educationweek. They have different subscription offers, and one is free to get a limited amount of articles, but you can still read main articles for free on the front page, as well as some other resources.
Another one that I got a free membership to is THE Journal, Technological Horizons in Education. They also have free newsletters on different topics related to technology in education. They are also on Twitter as well @THE_Journal.
If you are looking for some specific journals, you can find some using this list that was compiled by Professor Ross Perkins at Boise State University. On the lsit you can find links to the journals as well. There are so many journals on this list, I don't even no where to begin to tell you to focus. Many I did not know about, and many that don't get a lot of attention, but have great resources.
Think Twice about subscribing to some of these journals and discovering your own education news source.
Recently though, I found value in another aspect of education; journals and magazines that discuss topics that are pertinent to my job and education in general. I have a new respect for learning about what is going on in education, not just in Kentucky, but all over the United States, and in many cases, the world. I also like to read and follow journals on technology, so that I can keep myself up todate on new and exciting changes in technology that might benefit education (iPad, foldable screens, etc)
So the question then becomes what Educational Journals do you read? Well, there are tons that you can find on many different subjects and even content specific journals. What I also like is that so many of them can just be emailed to you and you can have a digital journal. Makes for storing, saving, and using the resources a lot easier.
First and foremost, I suggest Education Week. You can also find them on http://twitter.com/educationweek. They have different subscription offers, and one is free to get a limited amount of articles, but you can still read main articles for free on the front page, as well as some other resources.
Another one that I got a free membership to is THE Journal, Technological Horizons in Education. They also have free newsletters on different topics related to technology in education. They are also on Twitter as well @THE_Journal.
If you are looking for some specific journals, you can find some using this list that was compiled by Professor Ross Perkins at Boise State University. On the lsit you can find links to the journals as well. There are so many journals on this list, I don't even no where to begin to tell you to focus. Many I did not know about, and many that don't get a lot of attention, but have great resources.
Think Twice about subscribing to some of these journals and discovering your own education news source.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wiki Wednesday - Subject Based Wiki's
Recently many of my Wikis post have been focusing on Web 2.0 and software of the such. Recently I thought it would be great to find Wikis related to different content areas so that teachers in my building and in your buildings could find something that fits their needs for the content they are teaching.
I came across the Classrooms For the Future Wikis. They have a Wiki for every Core Subejct plus Tech Ed and Foreign Language. There is also a Wiki for Students if you have students who want to get involved with collaborating with other students.
The Social Studies Wiki is broken down by ways to get connected and then by topics routinely covered in Social Studies classrooms. These page provides links to several resources based on the topic of choice. There is also a new section of Lesson Plans and Activities. Share your own and get it started. If you are a Social Studies teacher, see what you can use, and then see what you can add.
The English Wiki has a lot of the same pages and links, but they are of course for English based teachers. So find the topic that interest you and use or add to it.
The Math Wiki is a great resource by providing links to videos, lessons, and resources broken down by math topics. See what you can use, and see what you can add.
The Science Wiki offers quite a few resources and links dedicated to the Science content. See what you can use, and see what you can add.
The Foreign Language Wiki offers resources for Spanish, French, German, and Latin. You also have the opportunity to add a language of your own if it is not listed. There are plenty of links and resources for your use. Remember, see what you can use, and see what you can add.
The final Wiki is the Technology Education Wiki. There is not much to this one yet, but I think with time, we will see it blossom. See the links on the main page and see what you can add.
The Student Wiki is a place for students to find an area to collaborate and share the happenings in their school. It also offers links to resources for students.
Remember, the success of a Wiki is only determined by its visitors and contributors, so help make these successful for others.
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