Great for Students AND your own Kids

At times I tend to be an NPR (National Public Radio) junkie (exciting I know), and I often get great ideas from their programs. Yesterday at lunch I came across a new program NPR created to celebrate kids' books. As I investigated further, I thought to myself, "This would be great for grade school and middle school reading, but also for those of us with kids at home!" So I thought I'd share.

It's called The Back-Seat Book Club. Starting in October on the PBS show All Things Considered, a new children's book and author will be featured each month. You can choose to read the book with your class or child/children, or you can go the NPR.org website for a link to the author's site where you can listen to the book online for free. You then have the option to join in the conversation with that book's author. Students can write the author and tell him or her what they thought about the book or ask the author questions about the book - a great way to get students and kids thinking and talking about what they've read.

I'm going to try to incorporate this into my daily Drop and Read time with my students. Perhaps you could try this in your classroom, or give it a go at home with your own kiddos. Just turn off the TV, sit, and listen together for 10 or 15 minutes in the evening. Give it a try!

Trying Twitter?

I was slow to come to love Twitter. A constant stream of everyday babble and gossip?
No thanks- I get enough of that in the high school's hallways.

But then Roger Adkins at ESU 16 taught me the first rule of Twitter- It's all about who you follow. I’m sure following Lady Gaga or Ellen DeGeneres can be rewarding, but I’ve benefited daily from following national tech leaders like rushtonh, dwarlick or megormi. You can also follow “threads,” which are designated by a hashmark (#); K12, edchat or even "3^rd grade science" are just a few examples. Instantly, you have access to like minds across the globe.

The only (and I do mean only) reason I have not pushed Twitter more as a staff development tool for the district is because of filtering issues. Unfortunately, we have students who have learned to use social networks to cheat. I’m hopeful we will soon be able to open up Twitter to staff during the school day. In the meantime, check out Twitter at home some night, search for skrab, dmhelzer and ogschools, and give us a follow.

You don’t even need to actually Tweet to benefit from Twitter; just get an account, sit back and dip your toes into the stream of knowledge as it rushes by!

Book Reviews: For Students, By Students

Looking for a way to spark enthusiasm in middle-high school readers? Check out this blog of book reviews written by Logan High School students in Logan, West Virginia. I'm looking forward to having my students get on and read reviews to help them find books that interest them. I've had the great privilege of meeting their teacher, Laura Baisden who is also the director of the Coalfield Writer's Satellite and co-director of the Marshall University Writing Project, at a few conferences I attended last school year. She is an incredible teacher who is always willing to share resources---thanks Laura!

Creating Your Own How-To Videos

Tired of explaining how to use some piece of technology over and over again? Here's a simple fix: record a tutorial video demonstrating how to complete a task using Jing.

Jing is an easy, free downloadable program that allows you to record a tutorial type video on your computer. The program takes a video of what you are doing on your computer---so you can demonstrate where to click, what to open, etc. At the same time, it records your verbal instructions creating a pretty slick tutorial video that can be easily shared with others. Here's a sample video I created to teach my 9th graders how to create a Google Site.

Applications:

• Use it to explain how to complete a technology task
  
• Teachers can pull up an essay or other assignment on their computer screen and record their oral feedback while pointing to specific portions of the assignments and then send the link back to the student
• When you're sick or can't be at school, use it to explain what you want your students to do and send it to them so there are no confusions what they are to be doing

Educational Documentaries

Some of you might be interested in perusing this educational site I came across, Snag Learning. I was looking for some good, educational films or documentary snippets I could show my World Cultures class for Hispanic Heritage Month and stumbled on to this site.

You can search by subject, and I've added the links here to make it easier for you, (arts & music, foreign language, history, math & science, political science & civics, world culture & geography) or search by grade level, or by specific channel (your choices are PBS, National Geographic, Explore, and Sundance). The few I checked out were really good. There are some full-length films, as well as some shorter 10-15 minute films that you might be able to work into your lessons if you need an extra "boost" to show your students something and not just talk about it. Let me know what you think...

Not Your Great-Grandfather's Classroom...

I was struck by this picture I stumbled across on Twitter.

I've been reflecting this week on the new instructional tools and practices our staff have discovered this week. I know it can be intimidating- perhaps downright scary- to introduce all this into your classroom.

One great resource is the Tech Tutorials page at www.internetforclassrooms.com. Filled with Tutorials for topics ranging from Mac basics to Podcasting, this site can make it a little easier to move classrooms into the current century.

The Learning Network - New York Times

I have had good success with some of the lesson plans and ideas from the The Learning Network, a site dedicated to teachers and students which utilizes content from the New York Times. You can search for lesson plans by curriculum or topic. Or start simple and follow the Student Opinion pages (an online blog) and have your students comment/blog on the topic of the day if it seems like it might fit your class. Either way, it should get your students thinking and writing.

For an easy start... Here's a link to 150 questions you could try (surely there's one that might work for you).

Give it whirl if you like and see what you think! ~ :) Loree Cain

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

OHS teacher, Shane Fruit, sent me this RSA Animate lecture from the absolutely fabulous Sir Ken Robinson about the paradigm shift needed in education. If you have ten minutes to listen in...do it! It presents great ideas for what needs to happen in the world of education.

Prezi...A New Way to Present

The first time I saw a presentation created on Prezi, it was as shocking as being slapped in the face with a fish (sorry for the bad simile...we're working on figurative language in English class!). It was so out of the ordinary and honestly, way cooler than PowerPoint. Then I started creating my own Prezis; when I found it was easy--I fell deeper in love.

Benefits:

• Your trusty PowerPoint or Keynote slides can be "Prezified!" There's a simple import tool to "Prezify" your existing presentations
• It's cloud-based (meaning it's on the internet), so if your computer crashes...your Prezis aren't lost
• It's more interactive and visually pleasing than Keynote or PowerPoint
  
• Video, images, hyperlinks, and sounds can be embedded
• Prezis can be made public and editable--so a person can search for a Prezi that's already been created by someone else and then use it in your own class or make a copy of it and tweak it for your own use
• People can collaborate on Prezis and create one together
  
• Prezis can be printed as handouts for your students
  

Applications:

• Use it to create presentations that will knock your students right out of those uncomfortable desks
• Have your students create their own Prezis---they can embed them on their own blogs or websites OR email you the link for viewing and grading

Take a few minutes and learn how to use Prezi! Here's the Google Docs presentation I "Prezified" to create for our teacher in-service tomorrow:

NETA 2012

Mark your calendars and plan on attending this year's NETA conference on April 26-27 in La Vista. If you haven't attended NETA yet, bug your administrators until they let you go. Or...submit a proposal to present at this year's conference. It's a top-notch professional development opportunity and a great way to network with teachers.

Google Docs

I feel blessed to teach in a district that holds a Google Apps for Education license (GAFE). I can do so much more in my classroom with Google Docs. Rather than writing about it in a boring blog post, I'll let you check out a boring presentation! Here's a portion of my presentation that I created for last year's NETA conference. It contains how I use Google Docs in my classroom and some student work and feedback about the tool. If you haven't used Google Docs yet...don't wait another day!