JOIN this VoiceThread Tribute to Steve Hargadon, the founder of Classroom 2.0. Steve was the 2010 Leadership Award Recipient (CUE)
The following grants are available:
Learning & Leadership Grants
Amount: $2000 (Individuals)
$5000 (Group Collegial Study Projects)
Opportunities for teachers to engage in professional development and facilitate staff developments for their colleagues.
Opportunities for teachers to engage in professional development and facilitate staff developments for their colleagues.
Eligible Individual Study Projects:
- Summer Institutes
- Action Research
Eligible Group Study Projects:
- Collegial Study
- Mentoring Experiences for New Teachers/Faculty
- Study Groups
- Action Research
- Lesson Study
Student Achievement Grants:
Amount: $5000
Funding to assist teachers in providing instruction to improve academic achievement by engaging students in critical thinking & problem solving lessons that will strengthen their knowledge and meet state standards.
Suggested Proposals:
Assisting low-income or minority students with honors/
advancement placement courses/ or challenging curricula.
advancement placement courses/ or challenging curricula.
Watch
Turns Tweets Into Newspapers
This app will incorporate stories, live links, video, and photos in an easy to read newspaper. It will update your newspaper daily. You can send the link to your newspaper to your friends and followers on a daily basis. You can also embed your twitter newspaper into your blog.
paper.li is an app for Twitter and Facebook. However, I found this app difficult to use with Facebook and chose http://www.postpost.com as an excellent alternative. Read the previous post entry regarding the PostPost application for creating a Facebook newspaper.
But YOU be the judge.
PostPost.com
Turns Your Facebook
into A Newspaper
http://www.postpost.com will turn your Facebook entries into your OWN interactive real-time Newspaper. Try it and within 30 seconds you will have a personal newspaper to share with your family and friends. How innovative.
Engineer Girl Essay Contest
“Relief from A Disaster”
Grade 3-12 Deadline March 1, 2011 by 6:00 p.m. (EST)
Win from $100, $250 or $500
What do you need to do?
1. Select an item designed to be used in a disaster zone
2. Research the item for your essay entry.
Grades 3 – 5
§ Describe how it works, key elements, why it was designed that way.
(500 words or less)
Grades 6-8
§ Describe how it works, key elements, why it was designed that way.
§ Describe how different types of engineers (civil, mechanical, electrical, etc.) might have contributed to the final design of this item.
(750 words or less)
Grades 9-12
§ Describe an item that is used for disaster relief.
§ Explain how it works. Point out key elements of the design and
why it was designed that way.
why it was designed that way.
§ Describe how different types of engineers (e.g. civil, mechanical, electrical, etc.)
might have contributed to the final design of this product.
might have contributed to the final design of this product.
§ Discuss the constraints designers faced in the creation of this product and potential changes/improvements needed if it were used in a different disaster relief scenario.
§ Be sure to include your references.
(1500 words or less)
Got Company Coming In An Hour?
FlyLady adds humor to her helpful tips.
Listen carefully because she will save your diginity. Lol!
Want to check out more of her podcast episodes?
Scroll down on my right hand side of my blog and listen.
Click play and enjoy!
Why All Learners Need Laptops Now!
Credit: Twitter - @wirededucator
Google Docs: http://bit.ly/e2PiE1
This document is open to anyone who wishes to contribute.
Google Docs: http://bit.ly/e2PiE1
This document is open to anyone who wishes to contribute.
Reasons:
1. textbooks are expensive
2. textbooks are heavy
3. textbook history is incomplete
4. schools are poor
5. digital curriculum is plentiful
6. media is powerful
7. laptops are affordable
8. not all kids learn the same
9. learning should be differentiated
10. hyperlinked writing is powerful
11. creativity is essential 
12. learning is 24/7
13. your competitors have them already
14. better windows into learning
15. education is about empowerment
16. republics need critical thinkers
17. our kids deserve them
18. laptops today are equivalent to needing paper and pencil yesterday
19. teachers/students are shackled by the contents of traditional textbooks
20. Students need to be able to connect with others around the world
21. Students need to be able to collaborate electronically with others
22. Students need to be able to use Web 2.0 Tools to learn and problem solve
23. Learning needs to be anytime, anywhere and move at the speed that students want.
24. Students are usually not allowed to use the technology in their pockets..so Laptops!
25. Because learning doesn’t stop at 3:30 
26. Because we should be using less paper
27. They are a good motivational tool
28. They facilitate access to an authentic environment & authentic audience
29. They provide an excellent medium for shared learning/project based learning
30. They are a mobile, versatile discovery vehicle tailor-made for experiencing learning opportunities
31. The screen of an Internet-connected laptop is a window to the world’s information
32. They are a great way for students to teach their teachers.
33. Students will begin to push their own learning.
34. Teachers will also see more authentic work.
Contributors:
1. Wesley Fryer, Denton, Texas, USA
2. Al Steeves, Rothesay, New Brunswick, Canada
3. Chris O’Neal, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
4. Terry Kaminski, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada
5. Trisha Andersen, Loveland, Colorado, USA
6. Mike Renne, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
7. Jeannie Chiasson, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
8. Camilla Elliott, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
9. T. Lewis, New Brunswick, Canada
10. Pam Lowe, Missouri, USA
11. Kurt Paccio, Nazareth, Pennsylvania, USA
12. Kern Kelley, Newport, Maine, USA
13. Reba Gordon Matthews, California, USA
Remixes:
It is asked if you use this list in a blog post, presentation, or other published work, to please link it in the above google doc link. This will allow others to see it and contribute.
Also (if possible) please give attribution credit to this entire group.
1. SlideShare by Wesley Fryer: 1-2 September 2010
2. Techie Teacher Blogspot: 13 December 2010
Xerox is sponsoring the "Let's Say Thanks" project which gives Americans the opportunity to thank our U.S. troops by sending a free personalized postcard http://www.letssaythanks.com/.
The postcards were selected from a pool of entries from children from all over the country. Their submitted entries depict patriotic scenes and hometown images. I absolutely love the children's drawings! I can only imagine how wonderful these cards will make our troops feel when they receive these wonderful gifts of thanks.
The process is very easy:
1. You choose your desired design
2 Select a message from a pre-generated message list OR design a personal note.
3. Xerox then prints the postcards on Xerox iGen3 Digital Production.
4. Xerox will mail the cards in care packages via Give2TheTroops, a military support organization.
Let's give our U.S. a GREAT BIG Thank You through the gift of our children's artwork.
ScreenToaster IS BACK - Oh My!
Wow...one of the best screen capturing web-based tools...SCREENTOASTER...IS BACK.Below are 3 web-based alternatives that I had read about on various blogs. But none have compared to Screentoaster at this time.
Screencast-o-matic - (aka "Screencasts")
This is one of the first screencasting web-based applications.
Read more about these tools on Richard Byrne's blog, "Free Technology for Teachers" http://bit.ly/eyJCPQ
Please leave your comments on what other screencasting tools you found. Good luck with your search.
2010 Edublog Award Nominations
My Nominations for The 2010 Edublog Awards are:
Best class blog: Jan Abnernathy - Techno Tigers Blog
These students showed excellent use of the Web 2.0 tools available to them to produce authentic products for their literature responses.
These students showed excellent use of the Web 2.0 tools available to them to produce authentic products for their literature responses.
Best educational webinar series: 2010 Global Education Conference
This was an innovative project that brought educators & administrators from all over the world to achieve a common goal of assisting schools in educating our young people and developing better global citizens. This conference provided a myriad of professional development sessions that could enhance the learning in any educational arena. Deadline December 3, 2010.
This was an innovative project that brought educators & administrators from all over the world to achieve a common goal of assisting schools in educating our young people and developing better global citizens. This conference provided a myriad of professional development sessions that could enhance the learning in any educational arena. Deadline December 3, 2010.
The 2010 Global Education Conference
A 5-day- 24 hour Education Conference
A Global Blast!
Homepage: http://www.globaleducationconference.com/
The 2010 Global Education Conference has ended. What a fantastic learning event! This conference provided learning around the world clock for over thirity-thousands logins for five wonderful days. I would like to thank conference co-chairs Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray for all their hard work. Steve Hargadon is the founder of Classroom 2.0 social network and Lucy Gray is the founder of Global Education Collaborative network.
A 5-day- 24 hour Education Conference
A Global Blast!
Homepage: http://www.globaleducationconference.com/Recordings of Sessions: http://www.globaleducationconference.com/recordings.html
The 2010 Global Education Conference has ended. What a fantastic learning event! This conference provided learning around the world clock for over thirity-thousands logins for five wonderful days. I would like to thank conference co-chairs Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray for all their hard work. Steve Hargadon is the founder of Classroom 2.0 social network and Lucy Gray is the founder of Global Education Collaborative network.
I am still catching up on my sleep. Zzzzzzz.....
In this virtual learning environment I was able to learn from educators from all over the world about a variety of learning/teaching topics. I was able to walk away with a huge toolbox of web tools and an enlighten view on the purpose of global connections among our students. It is important for educators, as myself, to assist students in having a global perspective in order to problem-solve many of our world's issues. It is our responsibility to provide an active global learning environment where our students can gain the knowledge and skills needed to have a broader global perspective.
Below are SOME (and believe me these are just SOME) of my favorite sessions. There were so many I could have discussed, but I it would take to five days - LOL!
As a treat, I got the wonderful opportunity to moderate the following session, which I also recommend for viewing:
Presenter: Charles Kilfoye
He provided an excellent session on the equipment, applications and resources needed to be a successful online educator with a high quality and engaging learning environment.
My other favorites....
Presenter: Sue Wyatt
Get your students involved in this bi-annual global blogging challenge. Your students will have the opportunity to interact through their blogs with other students/classes from around the world. Blog themes will include "BAD" (blog action day) and "One Day On Earth".
Deadline December 3, 2010.
Presenter: William Theobald
Website Resources: ePals, Skype, and Wikispaces
This session encourages teachers to connect their classroom to the world and explains how global connections can assist with teaching Geography, Cultural Studies, English as a Second Language (ESL), and meeting Technology Standards.
Presenter: Akesha Horton
Currently working on her Ph.D in Sydney, Austrilia via Fulbright-mtvU-Fellowship Program sponsored the U.S. Department of State.
Some of her research questions are:
- - "How do urban youth in the 21st century define global citizenship?"
- - "What does it mean to be a global citizen?"
Presenters: Joanne Kaminski and Jan Wells
This session discusses how to use Skype as an additional tool for teaching and connecting with classrooms and other professionals around the globe.
- - skype.com
- - IDROO - A Whiteboard for Skype
Presenters: Jay Graham & Rod Murphy
This objective of this session is to assist educators in using VoiceThread as a tool to allow students to share their ideas and experiences with those within their school and other schools around the globe.
Presenter: Rita Zeinstejer
This session discusses meaningful ways of exposing language learners to authentic situations that will assist them in developing their language skills. It discusses how to use microblogging, wikis, videos, and other collaborative tools to get students interacting, exhanging culture and sharing experiences through the language they learned.
Class Blog: http://ritamz.ning.com
Presenter: Lisa Thumann
This information packed session will give you a quick tour of how to use Google Docs, Forms, and Sites as tools to facilitate and foster Global collaboration.
Presenter: Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
This session informs educators on the importance of keeping our students globally aware and connected. Participants are given the steps on how to become globally connected and what tools are available.
Presenter: Patti Duncan
Learn about the resources available through Discovery Education Network (DEN) that will assist STEM educators in sharpening their students thinking and problem solving skills.
http://www.siemensstemacademy.com (STEM Education)
Presenter: Gayle Berthiaume
It is a "small world" and learn ways to use digital photography, podcasts, social networking, and other Internet resources to engage students in global activities that will promote collaboration and global citizenship.
Additional suggested resources:
- - Gapminder.org (for upper grade teachers)
- - Wiggio - Easiest way to work in groups
- - Sesame Street-Panwapa.com -Where Kids Shape the World
It's Here!A 5-Day - 24 Hour
Technology Conference
for
Educators
November 15-19, 2010
The Global Education Conference
It is Online and FREE - No Formal Registration
Link: http://www.globaleducationconference.com
Link: http://www.globaleducationconference.com
Twitter Hastag: #globaled10
Conference Description: It is a global conference that is making a effort to connect educators from all over the world and present educational activities and initiatives.
All sessions will be held in the Elluminate platform in multiple time zones and multiple languages.
~ The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~
Sydney J. Harris (American Journalist)
2010 DEN Fall Virtual Conference
Discovery Education Network
I intended to publish my entry about this event earlier, but I am really new to blogging. And... I am learning that old news gets old very fast. So my blog date and publish date are not the same. LOL!
But anyway....On Saturday, Oct. 23rd, I also attended an all day technology conference from my bed.
How? Virtually.
Discovery Education Network (DEN) held their Fall Virtual Conference on that Saturday for 6 hours. Over 1000 educators from all over the world were in attendance. Some educators met at designated conference hotspots, but most of us enjoyed and learned virtually. You were able to gain updated and innovated technology lessons.
Check out the recorded sessions: (MPEG4- video format)
Now that I have attended two virtual conferences within two months - Do you think it will be the trend of professional developments in the future? Let me know your thoughts.
As you know, I love to give links to SOME of my favorite sessions (see below).
Digital Storytelling in a Web 2.0 World
Whitney Mihoulides - - http://bit.ly/h1l0DJ
Whitney Mihoulides - - http://bit.ly/h1l0DJ
Out of This World Ideas for Showcasing Student Work
Porter Palmer - - http://bit.ly/eeRZYN
Porter Palmer - - http://bit.ly/eeRZYN
Ten Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Video – and Two You Did
Hall Davidson - -http://bit.ly/gwqZGE
Hall Davidson - -http://bit.ly/gwqZGE
Dropbox - FREE online file storage utility
Tired of carrying around 1-3 flashdrives or trying to locate them somewhere in your desk or computer bag?
Have you ever forgotten to bring your laptop / flashdrive/ external hard drive to a meeting and you really need that certain file?
Tired of trying to email large files?
Well...Here's the perfect answer and MUCH MORE!
Install Dropbox > Connect to the server > Link your Dropbox Folder to your computer > It operates like any other folder > Automatically synchronizes all folder files to your Dropbox online account
If you are not at your computer, you simply log onto your Dropbox account from anywhere and access those same files.
You can also modify/ add/ delete files from any computer using your online Dropbox account and it automatically updates those same files on your computer.
AMAZING - Yes!
I own (4) computers and I rarely use my flashdrive or external drive anymore because DROPBOX is my FREE virtual 2GB Hard Drive.
You can also share files and gain 250MB of free additional storage for you by referring others to use Dropbox. You can earn up to 8GB of free storage.
Dropbox is Free for Windows, MAC, and LINUX or upgrade to Dropbox Pro for up to 50GB of space.
Dropbox Link: http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQ1NDQ4NDE5
Watch the Dropbox Video Tour.
~ The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~
Sydney J. Harris (American Journalist)
Have You Heard? - Have Interactive Board Anywhere!
I just happened to be on TeacherTube and ran across this video about the Epson BrightLink 450Wi Projector that allows you to have an Interactive Board ANYWHERE. Wow -- on a wall, on a whiteboard, or even on a big sheet of paper.
A portal virtual whiteboard.
So does that mean..... I could carry the projector around w/ my computer and have an interactive learning experience ANYWHERE?
Hmmmm-- Interesting --Watch the video.
Here is the link to learn more about the Epson BrightLink 45oWi in action.
http://www.epsonbrightlink.webengager.com/Education/
A portal virtual whiteboard.
So does that mean..... I could carry the projector around w/ my computer and have an interactive learning experience ANYWHERE?
Hmmmm-- Interesting --Watch the video.
Here is the link to learn more about the Epson BrightLink 45oWi in action.
http://www.epsonbrightlink.webengager.com/Education/
Yes, I am Still Teaching and Loving Every Minute
One of my former students (20+ years old and about to get married) found me on Facebook (HOW I don't know - I just opened the account that day and we don 't have mutual friends). Wow, the powerfulness of Facebook. But anyway in her first post on my wall she stated she was happy to find one of her favorite teacher (can you see me smiling - LOL) and then she asked, "Are you still teaching?" And.... my first response was Yes, and Loving Every Minute!!
This is the absolute truth. I can't see myself doing anything else besides helping, teaching, facilitating, and motivating young people so that they can be successful and productive citizens in our society. I hope that I can give them enough tools to overcome any obstacle they may face with an empowered sense of self. Well... here I go into another exciting year of teaching.
I hope that EACH and EVERY teacher has a wonderful and successful school year. Teach something NEW and EXCITING this year......I AM!
~ The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~
Sydney J. Harris (American Journalist)
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