The Wonderment of Free stuff for teachers
Free Tech 4 Teachers
Is a collection of hundreds of free resources for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. I have spent a good deal of time on this site, and have only scratched the surface. I hope to look into this site further and bring in some for our professional development.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Great 1:1 laptop examples and other iTunesU goodies
The Wonderment of great tech infused lessons
While researching South Hamilton's 1:1 laptop initiative I stepped into a whole pile of awesome. iTunesU has hundreds of resources from universities, museums, and other professional educational sources. The one that I found was through the University of South Florida College of Education. There are tons of videos and descriptions of technology infused lessons available for download and the best part... they are all free.
There are many universities with classes available through iTunesU; Texas A&M, MIT, Harvard, Yale, USF,UC Berkley, UofM, and Stanford to name a few. ALL of the information in iTunesU is free. Topics range from the very complex to the simple. If you don't already have iTunes get it here (BTW it's free too).
While researching South Hamilton's 1:1 laptop initiative I stepped into a whole pile of awesome. iTunesU has hundreds of resources from universities, museums, and other professional educational sources. The one that I found was through the University of South Florida College of Education. There are tons of videos and descriptions of technology infused lessons available for download and the best part... they are all free.
There are many universities with classes available through iTunesU; Texas A&M, MIT, Harvard, Yale, USF,UC Berkley, UofM, and Stanford to name a few. ALL of the information in iTunesU is free. Topics range from the very complex to the simple. If you don't already have iTunes get it here (BTW it's free too).
Monday, April 6, 2009
1:1 Plans and Community Feedback
1:1 Plan
The goals for South Hamilton's 1:1 are:
1) Increase Student engagement
2) Increase Literacy levels
3) Increase student access
4) Increase student's educational opportunities
The 1:1 would mean that starting in the 2009-2010 school year every 7-12 grade student will be given a laptop computer to use for the duration of their time at South Hamilton. Every summer the laptops would be returned for maintenance and updating and that same machine would be given back in the fall. All the computers that are currently in labs at the MS/HS would be moved to the elem building to update and increase numbers of computers in that building. This program would be on a four year rotation. After the first four years are up the laptops would be replaced with new laptops and the old laptops would be taken to the elementary and put into carts so each classroom has a laptop cart. So by the year 2014-2015 SHCSD would be 1:1 K-12
Timeline:
4/13/09 School Board Agenda item for discussion
5/09 School board action item
5/26-5/28 Professional Development
Summer 2009 purchase 390 Macbook Laptops
August 2009 community meeting
August 19th 2009 laptops are handed out
PD will continue throughout the school year.
As South Hamilton CSD continues to evaluate the possibility of a 1:1 laptop initiate we need your input. All stake-holders need to be given the opportunity to weigh-in on the initiative, so to accomplish this an email address has been setup to allow for communication with the South Hamilton Administration.
LaptopFeedback@s-hamilton.k12.ia.us
The goals for South Hamilton's 1:1 are:
1) Increase Student engagement
2) Increase Literacy levels
3) Increase student access
4) Increase student's educational opportunities
The 1:1 would mean that starting in the 2009-2010 school year every 7-12 grade student will be given a laptop computer to use for the duration of their time at South Hamilton. Every summer the laptops would be returned for maintenance and updating and that same machine would be given back in the fall. All the computers that are currently in labs at the MS/HS would be moved to the elem building to update and increase numbers of computers in that building. This program would be on a four year rotation. After the first four years are up the laptops would be replaced with new laptops and the old laptops would be taken to the elementary and put into carts so each classroom has a laptop cart. So by the year 2014-2015 SHCSD would be 1:1 K-12
Timeline:
4/13/09 School Board Agenda item for discussion
5/09 School board action item
5/26-5/28 Professional Development
Summer 2009 purchase 390 Macbook Laptops
August 2009 community meeting
August 19th 2009 laptops are handed out
PD will continue throughout the school year.
As South Hamilton CSD continues to evaluate the possibility of a 1:1 laptop initiate we need your input. All stake-holders need to be given the opportunity to weigh-in on the initiative, so to accomplish this an email address has been setup to allow for communication with the South Hamilton Administration.
LaptopFeedback@s-hamilton.k12.ia.us
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Facebook... Not so bad?
The Wonderment of Social networking
There are tons of ways to interact with people on the internet; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, Ning, del.icio.us, IRC, Gaming sites, Last.fm, and many many many more. One of the big reasons those sites are blocked in schools is "for the safety of the children", which I tend to (sort of) agree with. What if those social sites could be leveraged for education? Below you will find some links to articles about social networking and you can form a conclusion on your own.
USA Today For teens a friend online is usually a friend offline too.
Social Networking in Education (wiki)
Wired Don't tell your parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
Education Trumps Filtering
Youtube Video Goomoodleikiog
Now there are many arguments for and against social networking in the school, but I think with the ever rising tide it would be wise for a forward thinking school system to hop on the 21st Century bandwagon.
There are tons of ways to interact with people on the internet; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, Ning, del.icio.us, IRC, Gaming sites, Last.fm, and many many many more. One of the big reasons those sites are blocked in schools is "for the safety of the children", which I tend to (sort of) agree with. What if those social sites could be leveraged for education? Below you will find some links to articles about social networking and you can form a conclusion on your own.
USA Today For teens a friend online is usually a friend offline too.
Social Networking in Education (wiki)
Wired Don't tell your parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
Education Trumps Filtering
Youtube Video Goomoodleikiog
Now there are many arguments for and against social networking in the school, but I think with the ever rising tide it would be wise for a forward thinking school system to hop on the 21st Century bandwagon.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Timeline Template
The Wonderment of the Timeline
This is a timeline template built in MS Excel and can be used to create a timeline for class assignments. It works quite well, with one LARGE exception, no dates before 1900. All instructions are included on the template sheet.
Template Download
This is a timeline template built in MS Excel and can be used to create a timeline for class assignments. It works quite well, with one LARGE exception, no dates before 1900. All instructions are included on the template sheet.
Template Download
1:1 Update
Update on 1:1 work
Over spring break Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Large, Mrs. Huegerich, and Mr. Hehr all visited Westside High in Omaha Nebraska. Westside has been implementing a 1:1 for 5 years, this year moving into the 8th grade as well as 9-12. The school support 2500+ student laptops. This was a very enlightening experience and I was blown away by the great integration strategies I saw and the complete openess of student education. I only hope that a SHCSD laptop initiative would be as successful as the one that was visited. More visits and workshops are planned for other teachers to see how we need to teach in a 21st Century classoom.
A 1:1 laptop committee was started to help brainstorm and think about implementing a 1:1 at South Hamilton. Ten teachers and administrators were selected to be a part of this descision making group. They will tackle many differnet topics and questions that have yet to be solved. There are many questions yet to be answered; insurance? Professional Development? Legality? Internet in homes? I hope that as a committee these questions can be answered.
My hope is to present my final proposal to the School Board at the May meeting. There will be much more information to come out on this topic, please check back for more posts about the 1:1 here at SHCSD.
Over spring break Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Large, Mrs. Huegerich, and Mr. Hehr all visited Westside High in Omaha Nebraska. Westside has been implementing a 1:1 for 5 years, this year moving into the 8th grade as well as 9-12. The school support 2500+ student laptops. This was a very enlightening experience and I was blown away by the great integration strategies I saw and the complete openess of student education. I only hope that a SHCSD laptop initiative would be as successful as the one that was visited. More visits and workshops are planned for other teachers to see how we need to teach in a 21st Century classoom.
A 1:1 laptop committee was started to help brainstorm and think about implementing a 1:1 at South Hamilton. Ten teachers and administrators were selected to be a part of this descision making group. They will tackle many differnet topics and questions that have yet to be solved. There are many questions yet to be answered; insurance? Professional Development? Legality? Internet in homes? I hope that as a committee these questions can be answered.
My hope is to present my final proposal to the School Board at the May meeting. There will be much more information to come out on this topic, please check back for more posts about the 1:1 here at SHCSD.
Bloom's Taxonomy Redux
The Wonderment of the changing student mind
One of the many reasons that we are looking at giving every 7th-12th grader a laptop is because the minds of students are changing and how we educate them also needs to be changed. For years (since the 50's to be exact) understanding and learning has been placed on a continuum called Bloom's Taxonomy. Educators were asked where does the students' level of learning fall in Bloom's Taxonomy?
Bloom's Taxonomy circa 1956
Knowledge: Recall data or information.
Comprehension:Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.
Analysis:Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy:
Remembering: Recalling information
Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts
Applying: Using information in another familiar situation
Analyzing: Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Evaluating: Justifying a decision or course of action
Creating: Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things.
Allowing students to create and evaluate based on their levels of understanding gives educators a clear picture of weather the student is on the right track or re-teaching will be required. Below is a great little piece on Bloom's Taxonomy in a digital natives world of learning.
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A Take on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy:
Andrew Churches has taken Bloom’s taxonomy, which was written and developed in the 1950s and adapted it to modern day instructional technology. The end result is a 44-page document uploaded by Churches to Scribd and free to download and read at your leisure.
Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12
More links to further learn about Bloom's Taxonomy and other references used:
More on Bloom's Taxonomy
The Digital Native (wiki article)
Digital Natives
Scott Church
One of the many reasons that we are looking at giving every 7th-12th grader a laptop is because the minds of students are changing and how we educate them also needs to be changed. For years (since the 50's to be exact) understanding and learning has been placed on a continuum called Bloom's Taxonomy. Educators were asked where does the students' level of learning fall in Bloom's Taxonomy?
Bloom's Taxonomy circa 1956
Knowledge: Recall data or information.
Comprehension:Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.
Analysis:Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy:
Remembering: Recalling information
Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts
Applying: Using information in another familiar situation
Analyzing: Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Evaluating: Justifying a decision or course of action
Creating: Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things.
Allowing students to create and evaluate based on their levels of understanding gives educators a clear picture of weather the student is on the right track or re-teaching will be required. Below is a great little piece on Bloom's Taxonomy in a digital natives world of learning.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Take on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy:
Andrew Churches has taken Bloom’s taxonomy, which was written and developed in the 1950s and adapted it to modern day instructional technology. The end result is a 44-page document uploaded by Churches to Scribd and free to download and read at your leisure.
Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12
Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Internet & Technolog Education-Teaching Business-Annual-Repo
More links to further learn about Bloom's Taxonomy and other references used:
More on Bloom's Taxonomy
The Digital Native (wiki article)
Digital Natives
Scott Church
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