17 Free eBooks for Teachers and Parents Over the last eighteen months I've created and offered seven free ebooks for teachers. In those ebooks I've covered Google tools, web search, video creation, blogging, and other resources of interest to educators. All seven of those ebooks are available in the right hand column of Free Technology for Teachers. Silvia Tolisano, author of the excellent Langwitches blog, has an awesome free ebook about digital storytelling. Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators also provides a good explanation of digital storytelling in general and the benefits of using digital storytelling in your classroom. The Digital Storytelling Teacher Guide is a free twenty-eight page ebook produced by Microsoft. Terry Freedman served as the editor of the free ebook The Amazing Web 2.o Projects Book which is comprised of the contributions of 94 people. Ana Maria Menezes offers a 53 page free ebook titled 20 WEBTOOLS Applied to Teaching.
Notes Evernote’s a great notebook app. It makes it simple to write notes down, record audio or drag in images to remember everything, and then find it all again quickly with a click. But then, what makes Evernote so nice — something so many people rely on — is far more than just being a notes app. Well, now you can. (more…) All right all you note taking app aficionados, there’s a new plain text note taker on the block: Just Type. This app is definitely worth a look, but is it worth switching to? (more…) You’ve got a lot of things to write down, but you want to keep them safe. We’ll take a look at all Bluenote has to offer! So you’re focused working on something, when suddenly you come up with an amazing idea, or think of something that you’d like to remember for later. A simple piece of paper next to your computer might do the trick, but since you’re already working on your computer, why not do it there? (more…) Let’s find out. (more…) I know what many of you are probably thinking. (more…) (more…)
App of the Week: Snapguide Name: Snapguide Cost: Free Platform: iPad and iPhone Touch, requires iOS 4.3 or higher What do the teens you work with really like to create? Do they like to make handmade objects of some kind? Do they have a special drawing or painting technique? Snapguide is a website, but it’s also an app, and the app makes it really easy to take pictures or video of steps in a process and integrate them into a guide. Then she opens up Snapguide on her device and taps on Create. The teen baker then uploads the step-by-step videos or photos from her device and captions each one with an explanation of each step. When all of the steps in the process have been added the teen chooses a cover image for the Snapguide. The last step before finishing a Snapguide is selecting a topic for the guide. Once the Snapguide is complete it can be published to the Snapguide site and made available to others who then get to learn from the teen. Snapguides can be fun and interesting for teens to create, and to view.
Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look. Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills , but I figured I’d save you some time. Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new. Hack a Day - Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks (short tutorials) every day from around the web and one in-depth ‘How-To hack’ guide each week.eHow - eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects.Wired How-To Wiki - Collaborate with Wired editors and help them build their extensive library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips.
What Teachers Should Know about 21st Century Students Technology has radically transformed the notion of teaching and learning. New teaching methods have emerged and others faded away and as John Dewy once said " if we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." Let's face it, we are living in a digitally focused world. Think about how many cell phones and iPods you confiscate each week . We seriously need to adapt our teaching strategies to the new vicissitudes created by technology and particularly the increasing surge in the use of mobile devices. As a teacher, you might be trying to improve your teaching practices to fit the 21st century educational paradigm.
ISS Expedition Webcasts presented by NASA Endeavor To participate, you need to be connected through 1) an internet browser; and 2) a telephone (or through the computer's audio-VOiP) at the same time. Select a webcast below to register: * All times Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) ** Registration closes 3 days before the session. NASA boasts a strong presence on the International Space Station (ISS) as Mission Specialists conduct vital research and work with developing technologies that will impact life in space and on Earth. For each Expedition (e.g., 31, 32)—approximately every three months—3 astronauts (one U.S.) go up to the ISS, and 3 astronauts (one U.S) return home. Join NASA Endeavor and NASA's Teaching From Space office to explore NASA's most relevant classroom resources. Webcast Overview: Introduction to ISS Expeditions [NASA Endeavor] Curriculum Overview [NASA Endeavor and Johnson Space Center's Teaching From Space Office] Questions
Tim Fredrick's ELA Teaching Wiki / FrontPage Visit my ELA Teaching Blog at E-mail me with questions at tim.fredrick@nyu.edu How I use portfolios in my classroom Introducing portfolios Making a Table of Contents How to Present the Portfolio During the Conference Criteria for Judging Portfolios Narratives Using a Timeline Using an Event Map Cause and Effect The following lessons use "Super Size Me" as the text Using Cause and Effect Maps, Part I Using Cause and Effect Maps, Part II: Things Get Serious Determining Author's Purpose with Excerpt from Fast Food Nation Beginning Super Size Me Reading Nutrition Guides Fast Food and Kids Playing the Doubting Game - Responsibility for Obesity Concluding Super Size Me and Introducing Audience and Purpose Character Traits Characterization Character Goals, Motivation, and Obstacles Lessons Introducing character goals, motivation, and obstacles Practicing character goals, motivation, and obstacles in literature circles Various Character Analysis Lessons Character Analysis Paper Book sort
Program | Search Results Details Purpose & Objectives The purpose of this session is to discuss the relevancy of new and emerging technologies, i.e. the toolkit that iPads brings, in classroom settings. The workshop will showcase how to use the iPad to turn your classroom into an engaging learning environment and discuss ways to bring its interactive applications into the classroom. The covered topics include how to integrate this amazing resource in math, language arts, social studies and science classrooms and to integrate creativity and productivity tools across the curriculum. The workshop will discuss how to meet all students learning needs in an engaging and personalized way. Free as well as commercial apps will be demonstrated including applications for productivity and creativity, language development, math fluency, social studies, reference, science, audio recording and thinking games that meet many curricular objectives and learning goals. Outline Our Story on Integrating iPad devices - 20 min iPads4Education
TICAL - Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership Since TICAL is a portal, most of the resources you'll find in the database live elsewhere on the web. However, TICAL has created the following original content for use by our registered members. Tools & Templates: Curriculum Integration Tools & Templates: Data-Driven Decision Making With this Google Form template you can survey three different stakeholder groups, students, teachers, and parents, to access data relating to school climate. Do you still have teachers submitting requests for supplies or room scheduling through email or paper forms? Tools & Templates: Operations and Maintenance Tools & Templates: Professional Development Looking for a tutorial on programs such as Microsoft Office? Tools & Templates: Technology Planning
Guerrilla Learning Program | Search Results Details Purpose & Objectives For those who have already begun using wikis, this session focuses on the advanced techniques that allow wikis to become scalable and function efficiently in educational settings of all kinds. Wikispaces Founder Adam Frey will provide a back end look at current wiki technologies and techniques from his experience with managing over 1 million wikis and best practices. Vicki Davis, award winning classroom teacher and co-founder of the Flat Classroom project, NetGenEd Project, Digiteen, and a Week in the Life elementary Flat Classroom project will share the techniques that allow the scalable, functional use of wikis with hundreds of student editors and the features that allow individual teachers to segment, manage, and assess their own students. Outline Intro: Welcome & Backchannel - Adam Survey the audience I. II. B. C. III. IV. Supporting Research Presenter Background Ben Curran will be the backchannel moderator for this session.
Leadership Lessons: Ten Ideas to Take into 2012 To kick off 2012, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what I have learned about leadership and being a principal. I am always learning; however, here are the key lessons that I want to remember and apply to this year. Not in any particular order, here are the ways I hope to become a great leader and great principal. 1. Communication Is King, Communication Is Key I can't say it enough, or in enough ways; that is my motto. 2. I find that I often tell people "how" to do things . . . how to write report card comments, how to conduct parent meetings, how to work with a student, how to organize a classroom . . . and the list goes on. 3. Not your hard drive, your words! 4. I often have teachers and staff approach me and say, "Can I do this?" 5. There are people in my school who are experts at what they do. 6. To be aware, you have to be where the people are. 7. Following up on things I say or ask is a necessary way to add meaning to what I do. 8. 9. 10. A Final Note
ideas about information Edit: Despite my clarifications, people are still misinterpreting my original post as a proposed ‘solution’ to the problem of the Library degree, so I’ve rewritten this to stop that happening. To embark upon a Library Masters in 2014 is a huge undertaking. Assuming you do it part-time, whilst working to support yourself, you’ll spend between ten and eighteen thousand pounds over two years, along with, at a conservative estimate, 1500 hours of your time.[1] The question is, does the Library degree really represent the best use of this investment? What if you were to spend the same amount of time and money on a self-structured curriculum of study, events, conferences, training, and building an online portfolio, whilst continuing to work in an information role. I think you would. The problem with the Library degree I have many issues with the MA/Msc in Library & Information Management (or similar) as it currently stands, in the UK. What do we do about it?