Tools 4 Tuesday: PicLit & Build Your Wild Self!

PicLits – Inspired Picture Writing
http://www.piclits.com/
Grades 2-12+

====================

Build Your Wild Self - Build yourself out of various animal parts! Great for creative writing, animal traits, adaptation, etc.

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Wonder Wednesday: Favorite Teacher Movie... Which still inspires you?

Participate in the poll above... (by Nov. 22)
Which one is your FAVORITE teacher movie (notice that Waiting for Superman is NOT on the list).

Below are the results from the last poll... (click image to see it larger)
Only 7 respondents, but seems like most teachers are back into the school routine pretty quickly. Good thing since it's already almost Thanksgiving! Then Christmas/Winter break! Then 2nd semester!!!

Manic Monday: Time-Saving Teaching Tips

Check out this list of time-saving (or sanity-saving) tips from "I Love That Teaching Idea" website... Lots of adds, but good stuff from real teachers. Consider submitting your own ideas!

Take 5! Integration Update - October 7, 2011 (Vol.3/#4)

Issue #4

“Take 5” is a weekly update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15-30 minutes a week to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!


===================================

 This Week... 

Alone Together (webinar highlights from author Sherry Turkle)
Learn more about how people (we) are interacting via technology these days!

Plan Ahead for a Free & Clear Weekend!
Here are some tips to shift your work away from the weekend or reduce it all together. 

Tools 4 Tuesday:
Microsoft Lesson Plans & Speakaboos
 

 Upcoming Learning Opportunities
(Email me if you know of other opportunities!)

• 1. In-District Professional Development Opportunities that count for REVS' 7 required hours of PD for 2011-12

• 2. Formative Assessment and Understanding the Newly Revised State Standards in Math and Science – at Rossford HS on Oct. 20 (5-8pm) Register at link above; Cost is $15, which can be paid by REVS (see email from Michelle)
  

• 3. NWOET Fall 2011 Conference (Educational Technology) at BGSU on LAST CHANCE... Monday, October 10th ($69 for early bird registration)

• 4.  National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Conference (in Toledo at SeaGate!) - Thurs - Fri October 13 & 14; Full Conference = $80-$105; special Thursday evening (4-8pm) sessions ($25)

• 5. In the right margin of this blog, enter your email to receive future postings into your email Inbox (Take 5s and more!) -- expect 1-3 posts per week.

a NEW format for this year... 

Scroll through the blog below or click these links to see what has been posted already in these areas:

• Manic (hectic) Mondays – Tips and information related to time-management, time savers, and organization (in honor of The Bangles... yes, they are still a group!)
  
• Tools 4 Tuesday – Tools, websites, or teaching strategies
• Wonder Wednesday – Questions to ponder about teaching, learning, and life
• Thinking Thursday – Videos providing plenty to think about
• Fun Friday – Lighter fare for wrapping up the week

Thinking Thursday: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (webinar)

Image from: http://book.4kindle.us/buy/alone-together-expect-technology-ebook-QjAwNERMMEtXMA!!.html

Note: this post is filed under "Digital Citizenship" and "Information Literacy" to point out that sometimes knowing what we SHOULDN'T do is just as important as what we SHOULD do. Moderation AND true human connections are two keys that should help unlock a promising future.

=============================

From the Wed, Sept 28, 2011 webinar hosted by HSM... 

Sherry Turkle on her book: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

=======================

From her session: (either quotes or paraphrasing) 

Main quote (and sums up her book):

“We’re too busy to think and too busy to connect… we’re in continual contact, but we end up alone together” 

...

Many people now have an “I share, therefore I am” mentality, which is “not good for collaboration and not good for innovation.” Meaning… the “Old way was: I have a feeling, I now want to share it; the New way is I want to have a feeling; therefore, I need to send a text” (or post something online, etc — to get feedback, validation, etc.) 

...

In other words, “we need ‘them’ to make ourselves real.”

...

“Social media is a performance."

...

"(Their device) is the place for hope in their life... where something new will come to them, the place where loneliness can be defeated." 

...

“We’ve moved from conversation to communication."

 ...

 Hyper connection is NOT collaboration!

...

“Even the happiest/most satisfied users of these technologies are paying a price” (somewhere).

...

“We’ve moved from multitasking to multi-lifing”... (where people have on-screen lives and/or realities, sometimes several). 

...

 (Technologies today) “make it easy to hide” - we can choose who to reply to or contact. 

...

When you text, you have time to think about what you’re writing... (which is a pro); but people become phobic about real-time interaction due to a fear of showing our (real) selves (con).

...

“Younger people don’t know how to apologize face to face.” 

...

“We are less willing to give each other our full attention.” 

...

Ironically, in our more complex world, there is "decreased time available to us to sit and think uninterrupted"... and due to the shear amount of (emails), we "begin to expect or even demand fast answers, and in order to get them, we are asking each other simpler and simpler questions. So we're dumbing down our questions to get the simpler answers, even on the most important matters. We’ve (essentially) "put ourselves on cable news," which is "not a good climate for innovation."

 

“People of all ages admit they would rather send a text than talk.” (which is sometimes a good, thing, but not always) 

On Solitude – “If we don’t learn (how) to be alone, we will only know how to be lonely... Loneliness is failed solitude, just as connection is failed conversation.” 

Benefits & Costs - “There are MANY bounties of our ‘always on’ culture.”To make it better, Our “always on” culture -- we must face it’s costs — knowing how to be alone; solitude is needed to energize and restore, which can lead to innovation and even collaboration. 

We should avoid the notion or analogy of these technology behaviors as an addiction, since that implies the solution is to completely rid it (technology) from our lives, which is not possible. Now is a time of opportunity to develop practices that help us use technology effectively... for connections and collaboration, which lead to innovation. 

...

Favorite sentence in book - "Just because we grew up w/ the internet, we assume the internet is all grown up" (that it won’t change in the future). It can and will, as will how we work with it. But the time to make corrections is NOW! 

...

People are in "performance mode on the network" where so many put a false self online or only share good news – people don’t want to leave a digital trace online of those types of things. 

...

Schools and businesses should be teaching uni-tasking! 

In workplace, try the email reply “I’m thinking” -- and "model an approach to business life" to create that time to think (rather than react right away).

======================= 

How can you help teach or model appropriate tech behaviors for your students (and/or your peers!)?

Plan Ahead for Free & Clear Weekend!

Although all of these Time Saving Tips may not work for you, some might save you a little time this weekend so you can re-energize and be ready for next Monday! Wheeeee! (FYI -- the woman above tried some tips!)

Some of their suggestions include: Grade less, Email proactively, not reactively, and Schedule your fun (which is what Neil Fiore similarly suggests in his book The Now Habit -- he refers to it as scheduling "guilt-free play" FIRST before other tasks).

Scholastic has more ideas available at their Managing Your Time page.

.

TOOLS for Tuesday: Microsoft Lesson Plans

Microsoft in Education Lesson Plans

Have you ever used one of the activities from this website before? You can search by topic, subject, time constraints, program/application, and more! Lots of detail in each to support the process of technology integration.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/plans/Pages/index.aspx

TOOLS 4 Tuesday: Early Elementary- Speakaboos

Speakaboos provides stories, songs, games, and worksheets that can be used with our without a SMART Board... Even has Spanish versions! There are many Arthur stories and classics songs, such as...
“Wheels on the bus go round and round”, Alphabet song, and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”!
Sign up for the free access, or pay $$$ for more resources.

Take 5! Integration Update - September 23, 2011 (Vol.3/#3)

Issue #3

“Take 5” is a weekly update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15-30 minutes a week to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!


===================================

 This Week... 

  

Students Today: Campaigning 2.0
Oh... kids these days! A story about Kathy B's (JH) daughter's bright idea!

Wonder Wednesday: Take the poll... (top of this blog)
  How long does it take you to get back in the routine?

Email Time Saver Tips
 5 strategies to save yourself and recipients' time!

 Upcoming Learning Opportunities
(Email me if you know of other opportunities!)

• 1. In-District Professional Development Opportunities that count for REVS' 7 required hours of PD for 2011-12

• 2. Formative Assessment and Understanding the Newly Revised State Standards in Math and Science – at Rossford HS on Oct. 20 (5-8pm) Register at link above; Cost is $15, which can be paid by REVS (see email from Michelle)
  

• 3. NWOET Fall 2011 Conference (Educational Technology) at BGSU on Monday, October 10th ($69 for early bird registration)

• 4.  National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Conference (in Toledo at SeaGate!) - Thurs - Fri October 13 & 14; Full Conference = $80-$105; special Thursday evening (4-8pm) sessions ($25)

• 5. In the right margin of this blog, enter your email to receive future postings into your email Inbox (Take 5s and more!) -- expect 1-3 posts per week.

a NEW format for this year... 

Scroll through the blog below or click these links to see what has been posted already in these areas:

• Manic (hectic) Mondays – Tips and information related to time-management, time savers, and organization (in honor of The Bangles... yes, they are still a group!)
  
• Tools 4 Tuesday – Tools, websites, or teaching strategies
• Wonder Wednesday – Questions to ponder about teaching, learning, and life
• Thinking Thursday – Videos providing plenty to think about
• Fun Friday – Lighter fare for wrapping up the week

STUDENTS TODAY: Campaigning 2.0

One of our JH social studies teachers shared this story with me recently... It shows great application of technology knowledge and skills and how those (along with knowing about her peers’ propensity for multitasking and connecting with others) can be very practical and efficient when running for political office! 

“I just wanted to share with you my daughter's 21st century campaign for student government. She is running for vice-president of her university's student government. On "free wings" night at the local Buffalo Wild Wings, she handed out her campaign flier to students waiting in line for their free wings. On her flier she included her picture, what she was running for, and..... a QR code that takes you directly to her campaign Facebook page! She said many students scanned the code on their smartphones while waiting in line! So much for campaign buttons and making posters!”

Maybe the QR campaign t-shirt is next?!?!?! (see sample image above!) 

UPDATE: By the way... she won!

Wonder Wednesday: Are you "on a roll" yet?

Participate in the poll above to share how long it takes you to get back in the routine of teaching again once school starts... is it 1 week? 2-3? or much longer? (or never!?!?!?)

Below are the results from the last poll... (click image to see it larger)
Only 12 respondents, but Interactive White Boards seem to have "won" over Web 2.0, but just by a hair. And watch out for iPads...