There's an interesting article on the New York Times learning network which talks about a new book by David Shenk.

The book certainly looks interesting. It takes a look at research about the impact of genetics on learning and addresses some of the myths that have formed around "gifted and talented" learners.

Here's the link:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/teacher-q-does-the-gifted-label-get-in-the-way-of-developing-real-potential/

Many teachers have asked how to make a contact group. These groups are very handy for emailing grade level teams, office staff, and parents. Here's the lowdown:

Note: for the pictures below, if you need to see the larger version of a picture, click on it to make it bigger.

First of all, open up Zimbra and click on the "Address Book" tab.

Next, find the "New" drop down menu.

Choose "Contact Group"

The next screen is where the real magic happens. You'll give your group a name, select the members for it, and add those members to the group. <click picture to enlarge>

Once you've finished the above steps, all you have to do is save the group.

Now all you need to do to make use of your group is to type the name of your group in the "To:" line of a new email.

It's that time of the year again...

Here's a page that might be useful to anyone new to the survey or who needs help logging in and getting started.

http://community.saugususd.org/dlindsay/page/CTAP+Teacher+Proficiency+Profile

I have been using the SUSD wiki pages to create newsletter-like postings with resources for students/parents to use for each major area of the curriculum. The nice thing is that even though it is a lot of work now, they'll be right there for me next year. Although some weeks I have more time than others, and sometimes I drop the ball in updating the site, ultimately it should be rather complete since I don't have to update finished sections each year and can concentrate on ones that I skipped over.

If any other 6th grade teachers want to see if the resources might be useful to them, you can get a list of topics on the webpage here. What's there are offsite links for more practice, short video tutorials and/or media clips, and in some cases there are online quizzes that students can take to gage their progress. Likewise, if you view the resources and find yourself scoffing because you've found something better, please let me know! I'm always on the hunt for better resources.

Here are some annotated screenshots documenting how to make a group, add students to it, and assign a writing task in the My Access program. I also included how to make your own prompt. Select "Fullscreen"option from the bottom right corner toolbar if you can't read the writing.

Reuters posted this short article today which I found interesting:

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE49Q34A20081027

Tech Bytes was recently added to iTunes, which presents another way to subscribe to and view the podcasts. If you've found any of the episodes to be useful, please feel free to comment on the iTunes site. Your reviews might lead others to the podcast which would give more of an educational payoff to this hobby of mine. Here's the link: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293582232. You have to have iTunes installed (it's free) for this service to work.

Also, please give feedback. If there are issues with the podcast or ideas that you might have for future episodes, please submit them. I'd be happy to credit you with the tip! I'm also thinking about creating an episode or two on the student blogs and teachers' experiences with blogging. If you'd like to participate in an interview or roundtable discussion, I think it might be kind of fun.

Please be patient with me in the upcoming days; I'll be reposting the techbyte movies in order to get the subscription information working properly. My intent is not to spam the SUSD community page, so I'm sorry if you've already seen the last three tutorials. I've got new ones on the way, but I want to make sure the subscription feeds are working properly. 

Come back in the next few days and I'll have directions on how to subscribe to Tech Bytes so that they come to you, rather than you having to hunt them down here.

Thanks again for your patience.

Another 6th grade teacher, Scott Ritter, and I were talking the other day about how researching using the internet demands a scholarly, critical approach. We often talk about how you can't rely on the internet for information, but the fact of the matter is, you can't expect TV and Newspaper media to be wholly unbiased either. That said, people approach (and if they don't, they should) web resources with a healthy bit of skepticism. You have to evaluate the merit of the websites you go to, check resources, and triangulate with more resources. But most don't treat their LA Times with the same degree of skepticism, and that is a mistake.More ...

I found this interview where James Gee shares his opinions about possibilities in education. I found many of his ideas to be interesting.

Here's a tool that is useful for outlining and creating mind maps. 

 

I started a weekly staff-meeting training last year that I decided to call Tech Bytes (depending on how you emphasize certain syllables, you can get hilarious results). I created a video version of the trainings that I will continue to add to. They can be found here:  http://community.saugususd.org/dlindsay/page/Tech+Bytes

The "Bytes" are generally less than 5 minutes in length and present web tools and other technology tips that could be useful to educators. I'm working on getting them set up in itunes, but this being my first time, I'm finding the process a little new and more complicated than I thought it would be. With any luck, I'll be able to add a subscription button so those of you with video ipods or other mp4 players will be able to get the segments "pushed" to you whenever I create a new one.

Please let me know what you think, I'd love to get feedback on the sound clarity and level, usefulness of the content, and style. Please feel free to also comment or email me with ideas that you'd like me to include in future Bytes as well.

Here's the first show; hope its not too rough:

Alright, so nobody commented on the movie that I posted from Johnny Lee about creating a cheap smartboard-like system on your own (see original post here). I interpreted this to mean that people either thought it was a hoax, was not doable by normal humans, or they just didn't look. Well, I also decided that to signify a casting of the gauntlet.

So I accepted your challenge, and I get to stay on the island.

If you're interested in the project, here are the two websites that I used:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/       The project as described by its creator

http://www.uweschmidt.org/wiimote-whiteboard    Necessary software for mac implementation

 

In preparation for my split class this year, I went through the process of comparing standards addressed in each grade level, and provided this information to parents on my curriculum wiki pages.

I am sharing the link to my wiki page in hopes that anyone else who has a 5th/6th grade split can make use of my efforts. In order to get to the content, scroll down and click on the subject area that you're interested in. Feel free to copy what you feel is relevant, but please credit the page you got your information from. You are free to edit the text as well to make it more pertinent to your classroom, but attribution must still be provided.

There are some links within the text as well, which you will lose if you just straight-copy the text. You can either copy the block of html source code if you're comfortable doing that, put in the links yourself, or edit them out if they aren't valid for you. 

Anyway, it is the correlation that represents the bulk of the effort, and sharing that will hopefully help someone out. Here's the link: http://community.saugususd.org/dlindsay/page/

   I created a doc that could be of use for collecting data for the upcoming tech survey. The first two pages should be copied back to back and given to teachers. The third page can be handed to your admin for completion. Much of the document was 'grabbed' from the actual .pdf sent from CDE. They wouldn't allow copying directly as text so I had to snap screenshots to create it. Despite some slight blur, I think it will serve its purpose nicely.

   You'll need to edit the top of the first page to indicate who your staff should give the info to and when you're asking for it. Now I just hope that CDE doesn't change the document too much over the next few years.[ You do not have permission to access this file - Login ] 

   I'd have to see the study before I make some assumptions. Ok, no I don't. Let's jump right into the assumptions.More ...

Subscribe Free
Add to my Page