June 30, 2008
Want some images from France to use in your curriculum? Then check out Bibliothèque de Toulouse’s photostream on Flickr. It’s full of wonderful images of France at the turn of the century.
If that isn’t enough to get you excited, how about this….drum roll please. . . The Smithsonian Institute has joined flickr. And you thought that the images added by the Library of Congress were cool? Well, they are, but so are the images added by the Smithsonian. Currently, the Smithsonian has added almost 900 images to it’s account with more coming in regularly. Check out the pictures by the Institutes’ first photographer Thomas Smillie
They are pretty cool and you’ll be impressed.
Flickr is really starting to become a great image resource for teachers. If you haven’t checked it out yet - or set up your own account and started marking favorites for future lessons, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon and get started.
Are any of you out there using flickr for personal or professional purposes? If so, what are you doing and how is it working?
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June 20, 2008
I just recently read an article that I found in EBSCO in the Pioneer Library about Twitter - a pretty new social networking tool, and wanted to share some of the key points of the article with all of you Utah educators out there.
Twitter is a social networking tool that lets you update people about what your doing, on the web. There are quite a few of us at UEN who are twittering these days and you can sign up to follow my Twitter feed by clicking on the link on the bottom, right hand side of this blog.
One of the main attractions of Twitter is that you get to be part of a community, and get a glimpse into the lives of family and friends, or people in the same profession as you. For example, I logged in to my twitter account and did a search for the term “education” and found over 1000 teachers.
Twitter is what you call micro blogging and though direct classroom application may not be immediately visible, there is a lot of potential. A secondary teacher could “follow” all her students and vice versa and discussions that may have run out of time in class could be carried on using Twitter. Or, parents could twitter teachers questions about class projects - the possibilities can really be endless.
A few other fun education oriented ideas with twitter:
1. Twitter Fiction (www.twitterfiction.com): The trick is to write a very short, “microstory” in 140 characters. Yeah, your school will probably filter this site, but it might be something fun to check out.
2. Twitter Poetry (http://twitter.com/TwitterPoetry): Have students write poems with their twitter postings - apparently the short character list (140 max) lends itself to Haiku?
3. Twitter lists for book lovers (www.twitterlit.com and www.kidderlit.com): Find some great reading materials for you and your students.
So, think your interested in signing up and using Twitter? Great, I think that’s a lovely idea and then we can follow each other and I can learn about all the cool education stuff you are doing and you can read about my brilliant ideas.
(information drawn from Multimedia and Internet@Schools May/June 2008 issue. Article titled, “What’s all this noise about Twitter” by Mary Ann Bell)
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June 19, 2008
McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation Teacher Development Grants $10,000 awards for K-12 educators
Our mission is to serve as a catalyst in maximizing the skills and creativity of educators at the K-12 levels and in cultivating pioneering approaches to teaching that result in dynamic student learning. The foundation sponsors proposals that enhance student learning and educational quality, paying particular attention to those that best serve the at-risk and under-funded. The Teacher Development Grants provide funding to individuals or small teams of teachers in the formation and implementation of groundbreaking K-12 classroom instruction. The grants provide opportunities for teachers to integrate fresh strategies that encourage critical inquiry and to observe their effects on students. Teachers have the opportunity to reflect and write about their projects, as well as to share their results with other teachers. The foundation awards grants to individuals in amounts up to $10,000 per year for a maximum of three years, provided the eligibility requirements continue to be met.
Contact Information
Contact Website: http://www.mccartheydressman.org/teacher.html
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June 9, 2008
Google Earth Lessons is a great teacher resource with a world of integration ideas organized by teacher directed or student led activities. You can see video guides to build your own knowledge of the Google Earth Software. I tried this Google Earth lesson developed around images of a parking lot in Las Vegas. Students estimate the number of cars the lot will hold, then get an actual calculation using the on-board measuring tools. They can count the number of spaces in the lot to confirm their calculations.
Many of the activities are built in the UK., so you’ll see words like “colour” and “maths,” which lends a bit of charm to the whole project. Be sure to visit the support blogs for more ideas, and the screen shot database is a big time saver.
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May 27, 2008
Are you interested in learning more about how the Internet is changing the face of childhood and adolescence as we know it? A recent episode of the PBS program Frontline explores the impact that growing up on the internet is having on the youth of America.
If you are interested in more of this fascinating series, you can watch the entire episode online and participate in discussion groups and more.
Frontlline: Growing up Online
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May 23, 2008
As the school year is winding down and summer is knocking on our door, it’s a great time for reflection and preparation for the new school year. If you’re interested in bringing a little more technology and resources into your classroom for next year’s students, then creating or updating your my.uen page is a great way to start.
My.uen is website that you can create specifically to meet your needs and the needs of your students. Post assignments, announcements, links to homework help websites, information about upcoming field trips and class projects. Post polls for your students, a dictionary, currency counter and a lot of other cool widgets and tools to keep them coming back for more. Make a super cool page that students visit frequently and becomes an integral part of their learning experience in the coming school year.
Not sure how to get started or what to put on your page? Well, check out some of these my.uen pages from UEN instructors.
Tim Stack’s my.uen page
Ross Roger’s my.uen page
Ann Howden’s my.uen page
Karen Krier’s my.uen page
Cory Stoke’s my.uen page
Do you have an amazing my.uen page? If so, share the link to your page with us in the comments section of this post. We love to see great examples from teachers out in the field.
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May 13, 2008
My favorite kind of classroom is one where, when I step through the door, all I see is student work, projects, and displays. I love it when the walls are covered, bulletin boards are done up, and projects are even hanging from the ceilings. Most teachers do their best to display the work of their students and now there is an outlet for you as teachers to share your displays with other teachers around the world.
Classroom Displays is a wonderful blog created by Linda Hartley, a teacher in the United Kingdom. In her words, The blog has been created to explore and celebrate the use of displays in classrooms all over the world. As well as sharing ideas and best practice I hope that by looking at, commenting on and tagging each other’s displays we can investigate what works and doesn’t in the classroom and explore some of the reasons.
Linda Hartley has set up a flickr group where members share their displays of student work as well as open comment lines on her blog and wiki. Please explore and maybe even join her flickr group and share some of your own great displays.
Posted in Ann, strategies, teacher opportunities No Comments »
May 8, 2008
If you’re a music teacher on a limited budget (aren’t they all?) or just looking for a great Mother’s Day idea, visit the Historic American Sheet Music collection from the Library of Congress. Annie’s previous entry reminded me that our LOC offers so many documents that would be great for classrooms. For a fun idea this week, the Library’s Web sites are rich with images, posters, music and other items relating to mothers. The cover as well as the sheet music for “That Wonderful Mother of Mine” comes from the in the American Memory Web site of nearly 8 million digital items. And even though it’s from 2003, this list of resources has some other fun links. Here’s to all the Mother’s (and teachers) out there.
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May 6, 2008
For those of you out there teaching Social Studies curriculum, or those of you that are just curious for a great websites or samples of Americana, then Our Documents is a great website for you to explore. Our Documents is a website hosting primary source images of the 100 milestone documents of American History. You can explore the history of these documents, find great teacher resources, and see images of the documents in their original form.
Want to study President George Washington’s Farewell address? Well what better or more cool way to study the address than to look at and read it in the former President’s actual handwriting?
This is definitely a website worth checking out. Visit Our Documents at www.ourdocuments.gov for more information and primary sources.
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April 30, 2008
There are often times in a school year where as teachers, we need a little bit of help in our lesson planning. Be it because we’re a bit worn out, or because the students interest has peaked with regards to a current event or major political, social, or economic issues, but occasionally we need some lesson help. This is where the New York Times Learning Network comes in (www.nytimes.com/learning ). The New York Times Learning Network is an amazing resource and if you haven’t had the time to check it out, or didn’t know it existed, then it’s time you give it a look.
The Learning Network is wonderful for lots of reasons. Here are a few:
- Daily Lesson Plans complete with extension activities, curriculum connections, and the complete news article for students to read.
- Teacher, Student, and Parent Resources.
- Test question of the day, word of the day, science question of the day - all could be used for great bell ringer activities or a fun way to get the day started.
- Letters to the editor and Ask a reporter sections where students can feel a little more involved in what’s going on in the news today.
The New York Times Learning Network is definitely a website to keep in your teacher arsenal. You never know when you might need it.
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