Learning 2.0

I had the opportunity to attend Tech Forum Southwest in the backwoods of Austin, Texas on Friday, November 6. Clarence is a middle school teacher from Snow Lake, Manitoba and he shared his take on information literacy, web bias, and the importance of recognizing that much of knowledge today is constructed online. The Tech Chicks live blogged the keynote.

Clarence Fisher's blog: http://evenfromhere.org

Loading mentions Retweet

100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School - http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/10/25/100-google-tricks-that-will-save-you-time-in-school/

If you’re a Google user, you will definitely find some great tips here. Learn how to generate better search results, use Gmail and Google Calendar to organize your life, and tips on using Google services on your cell phone.

SMART Board Thanksgiving Resources - http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/smartboard-thanksgiving-holiday-resources.html

Interactive Thanksgiving timelines, Turkey stories, Notebook files, and primary games related to Tom Turkey Day.

Teacher Training Videos - http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/

This is another nice site with video tutorials mainly covering web 2.0 applications and open source software. Some of the applications covered are PBWorks, Audacity, Jing, XTimeliner, Podcasting, etc.

Loading mentions Retweet

I’ll be out at the Region 4 Technology Applications Conference on Wednesday so I’m sending this a little early. Enjoy!

We Podcasted Today! So, Did you Learn ANYTHING? - http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/10/19/we-podcasted-today-so-did-you-learn-anything/

Really nice reflection on using podcasting in elementary classrooms. Take a read, take a listen and let me know if when you’d like to start podcasting projects in your classroom.

A Lifetime of Color - http://www.alifetimeofcolor.com/

A collection of lesson plans that incorporates Art in cross-curricular activities including Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. If you like this, also check out 73+ Lesson Plans for Arts and Media Educators.

Free Clipart - http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/homepage.htm

I’ve seen a LOT of clip art sites but none with this kind of quality. This site has clip art that was drawn by one artist so the look is very consistent. Use this site to find images to spruce up your Notebook files. Good stuff!

SMARTBoards and Inserting Sound Into Notebook - http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/2009/10/smartboards-inserting-sound-into-notebook.html

This is a short video tutorial to help you insert sounds into your Notebook files. Using sounds for student feedback in Notebook is a great way to make your lessons more interactive and engaging for your students.

Loading mentions Retweet

Our 7th graders just finished a unit on Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, and Digital Citizenship. I love it when we can use fun technology to showcase what they've learned. To this effect, students created a poster using Comic Life illustrating a certain focus on the subject. They also created short audio public service announcements that were posted to Posterous, my new favorite blogging platform. Take a look and leave a comment if you like.

Loading mentions Retweet

SMART Boards and Halloween Resources - http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/smartboards-and-halloween-resources.html

If you are looking for Halloween related activities for your SMART Board (or without your SMART Board), take a look at this blog post from Teachers Love SMART Boards. It has an extensive list of games, SMART Notebook files, sound files, clip art, puzzles and interactive activities… all Halloween related.

SMART Boards Teacher Online Training - http://www.teacheronlinetraining.com/library/mod/resource/view.php?id=746

Here are some free training resources, links and tips to help you get more out of your SMART Board.

Loading mentions Retweet

Virtual dissections for earthworm, grasshopper, fish, sheep organs

www.froguts.com/flash_content/index.html

Frog dissections

Online Dissections
Online dissections allow you to experience actual dissections without all of the mess.

Crayfish Dissection
Try to identify structures from actual crayfish dissections. Structures are numbered to help with identification.

Earthworm Dissection
Learn about external and internal earthworm anatomy. Just point and click on the earthworm.

Frog Dissection Quiz
Think you know all there is to know about frog dissections? This quiz is designed to help you identify internal and external structures in the male and female frog.

Squid Dissection
Try to identify structures from actual squid dissections. Structures are numbered to help with identification.

The Virtual Pig Dissection
Become familiar with the parts of a pig. Learn about organ structure, function, and male or female pig anatomy.

Best Online Dissections

There are a number of online dissections on the net. Here are some of my favorites:

Cockroach Dissection
Photographs of a cockroach dissection. Also contains information and pictures of cockroach parasites.

Cow's Eye Dissection
Step-by-step instructions, tips, and hints on how to do a dissection of a cow's eye.

Froguts
Participate in an online dissection of a Bull frog. Must have Macromedia Flash Player to view this demo.

The Interactive Frog Dissection Tutorial
The title says it all! Dissect a frog without smelling any formaldehyde.

Rat Dissection Guide
Covers rat muscular and digestive systems with images from an actual dissection.

Rat Dissection Guide II
Covers rat respiratory, circulatory, and urogenital systems with images from an actual dissection.

Sheep Brain Dissection
A step-by-step guide on how to dissect a brain. Learn about brain anatomy, structure, and function.

Virtual Cat Dissection
Learn about cat external anatomy, skeletal, muscular, respiratory systems and more.

Virtual Fetal Pig Dissection
View a simulated dissection of a fetal pig. You must have Shockwave plug-ins to view animations.

Virtual Mouse Necropsy
Instructional guide for the dissection of a mouse. Includes detailed diagrams.

More Online Dissections Information

For more information on online dissections see:

Virtual Frog Anatomy
Guide for identifying anatomical structures in the male and female frog. Images are labeled.

Virtual Frog Dissection Quiz
Think you know all there is to know about frog dissections? This quiz is designed to help you identify internal and external structures in the male and female frog.

University at Buffalo: Dissections Online
Contains a large collection of animal dissection information.

Websites/ data bases for Science Fair projects

Science Buddies

http://sciencebuddies.org/

Hundreds of Science Fair Projects For Students

Free Science Fair Project Ideas for Grades K-12

Science Fair Projects

Free Science Fair Projects

Websites/data bases for genetics ( We will be doing research reports on disorders; I am also looking for genetic puzzles and games which involve Punnet square crossings)

Interactive Biology

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/biosites.html

Lane ESD Oregon Interactive Science (created by a friend of mine)

http://www.lesd.k12.or.us/insttech/vtc/science_interactive.html

Discovery Ed Genetics Curriculum Center

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/curriculumcenter/genetics/wordplay.html

Punnett Square Calculator

http://www.changbioscience.com/genetics/punnett.html

Punnett Square (defined by Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punnett_square

Interactive Site on Punnett Squares

http://www2.edc.org/weblabs/Punnett/punnettsquares.html

Collection of Links about Punnett Squares (from eMints)

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001476.shtml

Websites/databases for identifying plants and insects for collections for student projects.

Plant Pest Identification Aid

http://vegipm.tamu.edu/imageindex.html

http://plants.usda.gov/

http://www.mountainnature.com/Plants/PlantID.htm

http://riley.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=8&tax_level=1&tax_subject=7&want_id=135&topic_id=0&placement_default=0

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

http://www.insectidentification.org/identifying.asp

I have never had training in creating a digital storyboard, or how to guide students in creating a fully digital product.  Maybe you could suggest some things on Atomic Learning that could help get me started.

Video Storytelling Guide - http://atomiclearning.com/k12/en/digital_story

StoryBoard Pro Software - http://atomiclearning.com/k12/en/storyboardpro - this is a software app that can be downloaded and run from your computer. There are some video tutorials available as well to get you started. If you need assistance, let me know.

Digital Storytelling Guide (from Univ. of Houston) - http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

Seven things you should know about Digital Storytelling - http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf

SciVee – Making Science Visible – sort of a YouTube for Science - http://www.scivee.tv/

Digital Storytelling for the Science Classroom  - http://beyond-school.org/2007/12/07/one-for-the-science-teachers-a-new-crop-of-sci-tubes/

You can also talk to me about how to approach a project like this. Just let me know.

Digital microscope camera?  I submitted a request to Germaine this summer and told her you had mentioned the possibility of ordering one through technology budget- where do we stand on this? They are only about $100.

You and Mark need to get together and figure out what you each want and then present it to me and we'll see what we can do.

Loading mentions Retweet

Scoring Guides and Differentiation

This seems to be the year to explore all aspects of differentiation. Today, I am going to share with you some resources that relate to scoring guides, or rubrics, which can help differentiate learning with respect to assessment. Scoring guides and rubrics are great ways to assess projects that may not be as objective in nature (i.e. multiple choice exams) so that accountable consistency can take place when assessing big assignments with less than clear-cut answers.

RubiStar – http://rubistar.4teachers.org

This is my go-to site for creating scoring guides for class projects. You can start with a template rubric that you can then customize to your needs and then you can save it for future use or editing. Best part of this site is that it is 100% free.

iRubrics - http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm?

This is another free rubric generation site. I haven’t looked closely at it but it looks similar to RubiStar.

Roobrix – http://www.roobrix.com

If you rely heavily on scoring guides or rubrics to assess student work, this site is a MUST HAVE. Teachers who tend to use rubrics for grading can inadvertently cheat students out of a grade if they simply use the number of points earned divided by the total possible points. Check this site out to learn more how it works and how it can better generate scores that are more in line.

Assessment and Rubric Information - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

This site contains a huge amount of information and resources relating to using scoring guides and rubrics.

General Articles about Rubrics and Scoring Guides
from http://www.bestteachersites.com/web_tools/rubrics/

1. 10 Uses for Rubrics You Never Thought Of
2. 5 Features of a Highly Effective Rubric
3. How Rubrics Make Elementary Teachers Day Easy!
4. How Rubrics Make Middle School and High School Teachers Day Easy!
5. How Rubrics Make Scoring Quick And Easy
6. How to Create an Outline for a Rubric
7. How to Make a Rubric in Less Than 5 Minutes
8. How to Tell If Your Rubric Works?
9. Students Grading Themselves? - Rubrics Can Change Everything
10. The Pros and Cons of Using Rubrics
11. Why Rubrics?

Loading mentions Retweet

Tutor USA – free Math tutorials and video lessons - http://tutor-usa.com/videos

Geared more toward high school students, this website presents tutorials and lessons from nearly all math subjects including Algebra, Geometry, and for the adventurous, Trigonometry and Calculus.

Real World Math Using Google Earth - http://realworldmath.org/Real_World_Math/RealWorldMath.org.html

Take one of the best geography tools out there and sprinkle it up with some real world applications to create a great way to teach basic math skills. If you need Google Earth loaded on your computer or need some extra training, let me know.

Creating Original Artwork - http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/2009/09/smartboards-original-artwork.html

OK, and for you right-brainers (who Daniel Pink thinks will eventually rule the world). This is perfect for those SMART Boards and creating original artwork. Give it a try and appeal to your inner-right brain. Gayle and Leslie, check the site out and schedule some upstairs lab time to bring the kids.

BTW, Wednesday’s after school meeting will be technology training. We will be taking a bigger look at our new technology professional development tool called Atomic Learning. See you all there!

Loading mentions Retweet