Here we are at the end of the year. I just saw a ustream that sums up a year as a teacher. It is very touching so I thought I’d share. The singer is Kevin Honeycutt with Essdack.
Image Source http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/341792
This website is a free site that allows you to download and personalize a wide variety of awards. There are 9 pages of educational awards alone. They download in PDF version. You can type the information in but you are not given the privelages of saving what you type. You must print at that point.
This is a great resource to have at the end of the year when teachers are giving awards to students for a variety of reasons.
Image source: http://www.myawardmaker.com/templates/education.html
One of my principals does a weekly assembly on the topic of bullying on Wednesdays. Our district has a No Bullying Allowed policy. At North Fairview we have staff NBA shirts that we wear every Wednesday. The students respond well to the assemblies that often include enjoyable stories. Mr. Albert is a wonderful speaker, so we decided to share these assemblies with the educational community as well as parents and local community members by posting them in a podcast. Enjoy our first week’s podcast.
Image Source: http://nba.podomatic.com/
Have you heard the buzzwords plurk and twitter? They are social networking sites that teachers can use to build professional learning network (PLN). A PLN is a group of teachers you choose to follow/communicate with through plurk or twitter. Twitter and plurk are very similar. They are both microblogging sites that you post your status in less than 140 characters. You can also respond to other people’s status’. Plurk is a bit more conversational and easier to follow the responses.
There are directories that can help you find other educators on twitter or plurk. Another suggestion I have is to find an educator or educators that you like to follow and follow their friends. That will help you build your PLN.
Once your PLN is built you should give as well as receive. It is a great place to ask questions. It is important that you answer others’ questions as well. The more you give the more you’ll get.
My PLN not only is a wonderful resource for me, it also inspires me to be a better professional. I read about the wonderful things others are doing with their teachers and I am inspired to do more with my teachers. If I have a question I put it out on my PLN. I usually have mutliple responses within a short time.
Look me up. I will help you build your PLN. My username is @lsadler for both twitter and plurk.
Plurk:
http://www.plurk.com/
http://plurk4teachers.pbwiki.com/FrontPage Directory for Plurk
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/home
http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/ Directory for Twitter
I was asked to help a student teacher integrate technology through clickers. I made a copy of the directions for her ahead of our meeting and gave them to her to review. When we met she was still quite disjointed as to what needed to be done. As we discussed how she wanted to set up her lesson and what was the purpose of her lesson she began to realize what she needed to do to prepare for the lesson. She will be using clickers for an end of chapter test. She did not have the test ready to be synced with clickers. We scheduled another planning session to put the test questions into the clicker software. I will also help her when she implements her clicker lesson.
The moral of this story is that sometimes teachers need to plan how to plan. I need to remember that when I am offering support. People don’t always know what they need to know and that is okay. It is my job to find out what they know, what they need to know, what they want to know, and support them in gaining that knowledge. It was a good experience for me.
I learned of an alternative to Skype this morning. It is a free website that does not require a downloaded application. All you need to do is register for free. You can also record a message up to 10 minutes long and send it to someone. This would be a great way to communicate with friends, family, other classes, or colleagues. The preferences are easy to set and change. If you are using a video chat program I encourage you to check this out.
Do you want to use an educational YouTube video but are worried that the internet won’t work or you would like to archive a video for future use? Here are two options for you to download a video from youtube.
You can download a Firefox add-on that will allow you to download videos from youtube as well as many other sites. You have to install the add-on in order to use it. Once it is installed you will have an icon next to your address bar in Firefox. If the site you are on has video that is supported the icon will be colorful. You can click the icon to begin your download. You may need an additional SWF player for this type of download.
http://www.downloadhelper.net/install.php
Image Source: http://www.downloadhelper.net/install.php
Kick Youtube:
You can also find a video that you want to download and replace the www. with the word kick and return. It will take you to a site within youtube that allows you to download the video as flv or mp4.
Click either flv or mp4 and click the green go button. The green go button will change to a blue down button. You will right click (control click for mac) and save link as. It will ask you where you want to save your file. You decide where and it will begin the download process.
I learned of another way to convert YouTube videos at the 2009 MACE conference.
If you are in the Seaman school district and would like help with either of these processes please contact your ITS for support.
If you like watching YouTube videos in your classroom but don’t want to show the adds and stuff you can use this handy tool.
As I walked through one of my elementary buildings today I was completely taken with how well the teachers are integrating technology. Kindergarteners were listening to a CD of educational music. First graders were using a document reader to share money from various countries. Second grade teacher was setting up the interactive whiteboard for a lesson when her kids returned from recess. Third grade was editing a writing sample with a document reader. A fifth grade teacher emailed me about how wonderful her new webcam is to show fraction manipulatives. Sixth grade was using a document reader with a splitter to two classrooms to provide direct instruction to two rooms simultaneously.
Three years ago when I walked through my schools there would be no evidence of technology exept the occasional music and/or overhead projector.
I am impressed with the growth our district has made in this field and I am proud of my teachers.
Copyright is not just a buzz word. It is the law. There are some great sites for teachers to use to learn about copyright rules and fair use for education. There are also some wonderful resources for teaching students about the restrictions of copyright rules.
Here are a couple of resources for teachers to learn about as well as present copyright law and fair use.
Image from: http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/midweb/FairUse/Site/Fair%20Use.html
There are some other resource links on this page
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml
In teaching students about copyright laws it is also important to bring up the topic of plagarism. There is a site that allows you to check a student’s work for plagarized material.
http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/
Learn about plagarism here:
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1604
Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
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