Wow! What an opportunity for the classroom…The Olympics!

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION NEWS:

Experts Say Schools Need to Screen for Cheating February 12, 2010, The New York Times, by Shaila Dewan

Outlook Grim for Cash Strapped Schools February 15, 2010, Boston Globe, by Associated Press

Failure Rate for AP Tests Climbing February 4, 2010, USA Today, by Jack Gillum and Greg Toppo

THIS WEEK’S LINKS:

LIVEBINDERIT-I absolutely LOVE this site and can’t say enough nice things about it! This free online tool allows you to create virtual three-ring binders (complete with dividers) containing links to website over any subject you desire. The fantastic customer support just blew me away!!

WEB 2.0 IN THE SECONDARY CLASSROOM LIVEBINDER-websites collected here are for almost every area of study in the secondary classroom

OLYMPIC GAME LIVEBINDER-websites collected here include lesson plan sites for use during Olympic games of the past and present, sites over the history of the Olympics, and sites over the current 2010 Vancouver Olympics

THE AWAKENING by KATE CHOPIN LIVEBINDER-websites collected here cover the author, scholarly articles surrounding the work, free online versions, and common student study guides

THE GREAT GATSBY-websites collected here cover the author, scholarly articles surrounding the work, free online editions, activities available on the web, and common student study guides

*I’ve also added a link to my video page on Vimeo.

Federal Education study finds that Texas’ proficiency standards lag in math, reading October 30, 2009, Dallas Morning News, by Terrence Stutz

Palo Alto campus searches for healing after suicides October 30, 2009, Los Angeles Times, by Maria L. La Ganga

THIS WEEK’S LINKS:

GLOGSTER EDU-Glogster is a site that allows users to create electronic posters. The posters can include audio clips, video clips, and links in addition to images and text. The original Glogster is great but teeters on the edge of being a social networking site that will probably be blocked my schools with very sensitive internet filters. Glogster Edu allows teachers to set up private classes and really limits the questionable social networking features of the original Glogster.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: The free accounts no longer host video clips. ALSO, beginning February 28, 2010 the free accounts will only host 100 student accounts.

NEWSPAPER CLIPPING GENERATOR-This newspaper clipping generator by Fodey.com is just one tool the site offers. Users can customize the name of the paper, issue date, headline, and text of the article.

TOONDOO-ToonDoo allows users to create their own comic strips and comic books. There are characters, props, and backgrounds that are available and easy to use.

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION NEWS:

Uruguay Becomes First Nation to Provide a Laptop for Every Primary School Student October 18, 2009, Engadget, by Darren Murph

Twitter Lessons in 140 Characters or Less October 16, 2009, EdWeek, by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

E-Learning’s Gender Factor October 14, 2009, EdWeek’s Digital Directions, by Michelle R. Davis

THIS WEEK’S LINKS:

PENZU – this is a great resource for any kind of journal writing or writing outside of class…it’s free and requires only an email address to sign up…when students are ready to submit their work, they just email to the teacher from within the program…click here for a downloadable .pdf on student information-SIGNING UP FOR and USING PENZU

XTRANORMAL -this is a very cool site for beginning animators…students only need to be able to type in text (no microphones or other special equipment required). The site also allows for the addition of sound effects, movement, gestures, facial expressions, change of scenery, changes in camera angles, and has the option of having two characters (which would be great for dialog in both social studies classes and in foreign language classes because it also allows for characters to have French, Spanish, and Italian accents)…click here to see a brief sample

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION NEWS:

Arlington ISD cancels 5th-grade field trip to see Bush September 14, 2009, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, by Melody McDonald

State Board of Education restores Christmas to social studies textbooks September 18, 2009, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, by Shirley Jinkins

Cursive writing may be fading skill, but so what? September 19, 2009, Associated Press, by Tom Breen

Initiative focuses on early learning programs September 20, 2009, New York Times, by Sam Dillon

THIS WEEK’S LINKS:

VFOLIO – This free service describes itself as a service for “personal portfolio & resume websites” that includes the ability to have pages that include cover letters, resumes, work samples, image gallery, an easy email link to send, and the ability to share on Facebook along with simple website settings and a semi-personalized URL. This site would be good for work-program classes.

MOSAICGLOBE – Aimed at more of the artistic community, this creative portfolio service has a free element and a paid upgrade element as well ($9 and $14 per month). A free account will get you 1GB of space, a monthly bandwith of 1000MB, 5 pages, and 25 images per gallery. It also has over 100 available styles and, while not required, will accommodate CSS alterations for advanced users.

CARBONMADE – This creative/artistic online portfolio has both free and paid elements ($12 per month). It is incredibly simple to use and includes no super-compressed videos, allows Flash projects, and can accommodate a Google analytics code to monitor traffic. The free account allows 5 projects and 35 images.

OK, so originally this week I started out with the idea to begin a multi-part post/podcast on student presentation options which was a great idea, but I got sidetracked really quickly. After signing up for and exploring three different online flashcard services I decided to spend this week and focus only on those three services. All three services have many of the same features (options for sharing and review games that are created in addition to the basic flashcard feature) so I really wouldn’t recommend one over the others. It depends on what feature you feel could be most useful to you/your students

EDISCIO -This is a great free “collaborative flashcard tool.” What makes this so great is the ability to create teacher and student accounts. The teacher accounts can create classes and allow teachers to invite people to use the flashcards. You can “schedule your learning” (meaning that it will prompt you to learn by schedule…so many cards per day) and you can see the stats associated with any review session. As a creator of a “cardbox” of flashcards you can adjust the following options: a) is it public/private? b) use only by invitation? c) who can invite people? d) who can edit cards? e) who can add cards

QUIZLET - Two things make this free flashcard service special: 1) they have a test creator which would be great for students who need the extra practice and 2) this site is testing out a voice recognition module in addition to games and the ability to edit who is able to see and edit the cards which would be great for special education students with modifications or maybe just auditory learners. On a side note, the Space Race game is really fun

STUDYSTACK -This is another free flashcard service that does what many of the other services do (allows you to share, create, edit, play games, etc…) BUT this service allows you to send the cards you created to your phone (including iPhone), PDA, or iPod. Games it includes are hangman, bug match, targets, scramble, and it creates crossword puzzles.

This week includes a brief discussion on what’s going in California and the possible decision by the Los Angeles Unified School District to open up 250 schools to organizations outside of the school district (that vote will come up in January) and some updates on the i3 “Investing in Innovation” grant possibilities.

Dangling Money, Obama Pushes Education Shift article in the August 17, 2009 New York Times by Sam Dillon. This article discusses some of the recent developments in educational policy by the Obama administration regarding NCLB and changes states are making in order to assure their eligibility for federal funding.

Thompson website on opportunities for federal grants – this website by the Thompson company provides links to several educational grant opportunities

Free Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government – this site provides resources probably better suited for secondary teachers and is heavy on social studies content
US Department of Education website – provides a surprising number of resources (not just for teaching, but for test preparation, resources for parents & teachers, statistic, and a whole slew of resources you never knew you needed)

National Archives and Records Administration home page – lots of resources…my favorite section is the “Explore and Interact” section for teachers
Toolbox for Primary Source Documents -National Archives toolbox for evaluating and using primary source documents that includes great free .pdf documents for download and use in the classroom

Many school districts have already posted letters, notices, and even plans about how the district intends to handle any H1N1 or “Swine Flu” outbreaks on their district websites. While the flu is a very serious health issue to contend with, it’s also a stepping stone into history that can be used to bring history to life and provide valuable lessons as to how the Spanish Influenza of 1918 compares to today’s “Swine Flu” epidemic. Most of the sources listed here would be better served for use by secondary students (grades 8-12).

NARA The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 -This is the official National Archives and Records Administration site of the US Government. This particular online exhibit is about the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 and the site does a really good job of showing the effects of the flu all over the United States from cities, to military installations, to Indian reservations…it also includes letters, hospital records, and military records and it is an outstanding display of primary source documents.

The American Experience: Influenza 1918 -This PBS site was originally designed to go along with the PBS film “Influenza 1918.” While I have never actually seen the film, the resources are fantastic and would make a great starting point for a teacher to create his/her own material over the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. The site includes great maps and timelines in addition to the teacher’s guide.

CDC: 1918 Influenza Epidemic -This is the official US government site of the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC covers the Spanish Flu of 1918 pandemic with very scientific language. It includes the biological basis, the three different waves of the influenza, and the animal host origins. It also has some really good graphs.

CDC: H1N1 Flu and YOU -This is also a portion of the CDC site and covers questions and answers about the H1N1 (Swine Flu). It includes information from how it spreads, to preventative measures you can take, and includes some common misconceptions of how the flu is spread. This site would be great for a health class.

Know What to Do About the Flu -Wow, an entire site created by the United States government on the flu! This includes the latest flu news, the WHO pandemic, how the flu affects businesses & employers, schools, FAQs, economic impacts, travel, and LOTS of other current resources.
GAME: The Great Flu -This free online game is about the spread of influenza and how to combat it. Players choose a type of flu (the difficulty level of the game depends on the flu chosen) and then decide how to allocate resources to combat it (ex: sending researchers out to infected areas, antivirus development, quarantine, etc….). INCREDIBLY INTERESTING!!!!

Let’s talk about how the recent development by California in approving some online digital textbooks is affecting the development of online resources for teachers in general.

FREE Resources for Teachers:

VOCABULARY.COM -This is a free site that helps to develop vocabulary for SAT/ACT and specific subjects at the secondary level.

CREATESPACE -This service allows you to create and collaborate in order to sell your original material. It’s associated with Amazon and includes free publishing tools and even tracks your sales for you.

SCRIBD -This allows users to create and share documents online (in all kinds of formats). It also allows the user to search materials that have already been created and are available to be shared.

GOOGLE BOOKS -This is another free Google application that allows users to download many books for free and even has an iPhone app available.

Websites for Teachers:

DIGITAL HISTORY -from their website “This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston.”

NORTH CAROLINA DIGITAL HISTORY -This is a great example of a state-specific online textbook. It has lots of multimedia resources and links available.

CALIFORNIA LEARNING RESOURCE NETWORK -If you’d like to see what the state of California has approved in their digital textbook this is the link for you.

COLLEGE WRITING.INFO -This site has been set up by the University of Minnesota and has lots of resources on writing and preparing students for college writing.

CK-12 FLEXBOOKS -This site allows users to customize books and chapters in math and science only. It’s free and really innovative.

BEYOND TEXTBOOKS -This is a Colorado site set up to encourage collaboration and creation of digital resources for the classroom.

CALIFORNIA DIGITAL TEXTBOOK INITIATIVE REPORT -This link sends you to the .pdf download of the report.

Articles Used to Research the “Digital Textbooks” Podcast:

June 1, 2005 Study: These factors retard digital teaching

May 21, 2009 California considers open digital textbooks

July 27, 2009 The Rise of Digital Textbooks

August 8, 2009 In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History

August 11, 2009 College e-textbooks go to class in iPhones

August 12, 2009 California names first digital textbooks that meet standards for high school math, science

Wow, this is my first podcast and I really don’t think that it should’ve taken me three hours to do what is basically a 7-minute recording (but I got really nervous and started over and over and over again). Hopefully the podcast will evolve into something that won’t make me so nervous.

Right now I’m hoping that the podcast will be posted regularly on the weekends (probably Sunday evenings).

BLOOM’S DIGITAL TAXONOMY This site takes a familiar concept (Bloom’s Taxonomy) and puts a digital slant on it, meaning it takes Bloom’s terms and adds technology verbs (ex: for “applying” which usually includes implementing, carrying out, and using it adds running, loading, playing, operating, uploading, sharing, and editing). This would be a great site to help teachers integrate technology into their lesson plans via Bloom’s Taxonomy.

THE COPYRIGHT SITE This site has been set up by the University of Alabama’s College of Education. From their website, “This site is dedicated to helping educators everywhere in the United States understand the issue of copyright. As an educator, there are three main issues you need to understand. They are: the Public Domain, Fair Use, and Intellectual Property. We have tried to make them as simple as possible, and have included more complex definitions and explanations in more detailed legal-like form if you would like to do more research.”

SOSHIKU This is a free site that allows users to create an online school calendar…but wait, there’s more…in addition to a calendar it’s also organized by classes…you can enter assignments and then have reminders text messaged and/or emailed to you. This would be awesome for “forgetful” students and might even help with special ed modifications that require assignment notebooks. Let’s face it, seems like almost all students carry phones…why not start using them as educational tools?