I saw this video awhile ago but my wife brought it to my attention again. It was shown at her district’s first day back event. If it caught my wife’s attention then I knew I should share it with others. She is normally unimpressed with technology. But the video is more than technology. It is new way of teaching, thinking, communicating. Some teachers are not going to be comfortable with the message. It means changing old ways and modifying standard operating practices. Change can be scary. What do you think?
I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Michael Hall (www.drmikehall.com ) this morning for breakfast. He was here working with our Freshman Academy teachers this week and I was able to steal him for a few hours. It was a wonderful two hours and he gave me some direction to my job. However, he completely overwhelmed me with information and possibilities. There is so much to do where do I start? Where do I find the time and the money? Thankfully today is Friday so I have the weekend to digest everything and organize my thoughts. Once I do that maybe I can re-focus my efforts in building 21st Century classrooms and implement some of the suggestions he brought forth. Thank you Dr. Hall.
This week I had the pleasure of passing out laptops to the high school teachers. The freshman academy teachers were the first recipients and they were very excited. I look forward to passing out the reset next week. My only regret is that we could only take care of the high school this year. Next year the middle level and elementary teachers are on my list. We need to make all classrooms 21st Century Learning classrooms and this is a start. Below is the slideshowI used at my presentation.
[slideshare id=97042&doc=hs-laptops540&w=425]
So you have listened to the recording and done some reading. What do you think? Will right brainers rule the world? I found Pink’s ideas interesting. I couldn’t help but to think about the times I chose something more expensive because of design. Is this going to be the defining skill that separates us from the rest of the world? If so, how can encourage this in our students? Do our teachers teach this way?
Check out this page that maps the world based on categories such as wealth, alcohol consumption, housing prices and more. What kind of class discussion could this spark? How the world really shapes up | the Daily Mail
I’ve been doing some surfing around on the web looking at resources for digital storytelling and came across three useful tools that teachers can use and kids can use: Voicethread, Digital Storyteller, and Scratch. I am sure there are many more, MS Photostory being one. But no matter which is used I find the art of digital storytelling very appealing in the classroom and a process that supports, encourages, and teaches 21st Century skills. Each of the sites above offer a different flavor to their digital storytelling method, approach, and service. I was particularly intrigued by Voicethread because it seems very easy to use and is kind of like a audio blog to elicit comments from readers.
SMART has online tutorials that are quick two-minute presentations of SMART Board basics. They are a great way to familirize yourself with the features and uses of a SMART board. Visit http://smarttech.com/trainingcenter/tutorials.asp
RSS – Real Simple Syndication – is way cool. The web is huge and there is soooo much out there how can you read it all? The anwer is RSS. What this handy dandy feature does is bring the web to you in very simple, short, concise portions. Let’s say you have ten websites you like to visit. Going to those websites on a regular basis takes up a lot of time and energy and sometimes the stories on them are not worth your efforts. With RSS you can subscribe to a website and then recent postings are sent out to you along with a short description of them. This allows you to visit the sites you want and read what interests you most – think of it as kind of sneak peak to a website. I use iGoogle as my home page and as my RSS reader but there are other ways to gather and read RSS feeds. Visit http://www.edutopia.org/tech-teacher-RSS to learn more about RSS and/or watch this video:
A few weeks ago I attended a SMART board training in Pendleton, Oregon. The half day training was a great introduction on how to use a SMART board and the software that SMART offers. The Notebook software from SMART was great. Since our district owns some SMART boards we are allowed to download and use this software districtwide. It is awesome. Even without a SMART board teachers can prepare and share notes with students using this software. The tablet PC’s we have at some schools makes this even easier. One thing that caught my eye and intrigued me at this training were the SMART Airliners. I would love to get my hands on a few of these to explore how they can be used in classrooms. Go to http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/item.php?itemID=9608 to view a fun, interesting, and informative classroom video highlighting the use of SMART boards.
