Booktalks – Connect your class to a NZ author. Have a look at this new resource – Classes can use Skype to set up video interviews.
This is a brief presentation on Libraries as the are and as they should be by an American Library expert. Provides food for thought>
And finally, an excellent TED talk on maths which, while it is aimed at Secondary level, discusses the importance of critical problemsolving – ie not providing answer choices. Again worth listening to.
Why we need to take social networking seriously. An update on the statistics:
Following on from Mark Treadwell’s talk on Monday, I like the post below from Doug Johnson which reaaly illustrates the point about memory…….
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 06:51AM
I was visiting with a local Verizon telephone support person yesterday (we were both chaperones on a middle school field trip - great fun). She made an interesting comment about her job.
When someone calls with a question about his/her cell phone operations, the person providing support is expected to use a database to get the correct answer. If the support person does not go to the database but relies on memory instead, it will result in a negative performance evaluation. Things change so quickly in the field that not checking for the most recent "fix" is irresponsible.
A system that rewards good interpersonal skills and the ability to find and use information? A system in which a good memory is not only unecessary but possibly a liability?
The ability to memorize has always been a critical skill for success in traditional education. (Memorize the capitols of all the countries in Central America, the quadratic equation, today's Spanish vocabulary words, the three branches of government, the dates of World War II ... )
Are we rewarding an obsolete skill set when we give top grades to those with good memories? After all, wouldn't you want your physician, car mechanic, airline pilot, etc. checking for updates rather than relying on a good memory?
Really worth a listen.
Being part of the Schools Loop means we can access the KAREN network for resources such as these:
http://wiki.karen.net.nz/index.php/KAREN_Content
Online magazines which have content relating to teaching and leaning. Perhaps this is why I need an IPad??
http://thejournal.com/home.aspx
http://www.bbcfocusmagazine.com/
Interface magazine. As you know, the print version of this magazine is well written – aimed at teachers. There is also the website which is worth visiting for links.
A Short video on the reality of bottled water:
Beyond Google
This pdf has some ideas which will help you and your children move beyond the first 2 pages of Google search results. Help children make sense of the answers they are getting for their questions.
I also try to encourage children to use the tools on our search page. If they are prepared to do some thinking about where the best place is to search for information before they actually go to Google the results will be much better:
Michelle C sent me this site which I have been using with younger classes for Internet Safety.
Called Think U Know it also includes links to the very good New Zealand based internet safety site called Hector’s World. There are links to this site on our main page.
Did You Know 4.0. This is an update (Sept 2009) on the earlier versions. Worth looking at and thinking about the ramifications for us and the children we teach.
Now some websites for you.
For the Smartboard:
TES has a whole heap of free resources:
And a couple of videos that are relevant to what is happening in schools today. The first one is Mark Treadwell who Steve and I heard last year. Mark describes the renaissance of the 14th-16th centuries and makes comparisons with the changing learning landscape of the 21st century.
Other videos relating to education and learning with a New Zealand focus are at EdTalks:
Finally, Don’t forget ICT PD Day on Wednesday (24th). I’ll be working extensively on Knowledgenet today but if there are other things you want to deal with there should be time for that as well.
After a bit of a rest, the ICT Blog is back! First up a recap of the goals for the year, then some websites you might find useful. Don’t forget to use Interface. It seems to be written for teachers by teachers and has a wealth of ICT related information and links.
I am very interested in personal learning networks and how technology can facilitate learning in this way. Spend 3 minutes watching this video and ask yourself if this isn’t a good way to learn? It throws the old homework question out the door!
Some of the sites mentioned in the video:
Sites of the Month:
Edutopia article on using video in the classroom.
Video Collections:
Video Collection Site – organised into subject areas.
Smartboard videos on the Smart youtube channel:
Supermarket maths – which queue is the quickest
Powerpoint to Youtube conversion tool – display your class powerpoints on Youtube.
Train your brain. Set up an account and watch yourself improve!
Goals for the Year (and progress from last year!)
What’s happening this year …..
Search engines are changing. In fact the whole concept of searching is changing. Microsoft has just launched their competition to Google search:
Then there is Wolfram Alpha. A search engine that answers questions.
This is more a knowledge search than an information search and its output is in the form of a summarised table. Wolfram only searches reputable databases. It’s in its early days but could well be the future in searching
There are Links to both these search engines on the Wellesley search site.
And if you are interested in searching Flickr Images, try Tag Galaxy. I can only describe this as a breathtaking way of searching, refining the search and re-refining the search for images. Works really well on the smartboard.
Videos are a powerful tool in the classroom, but it’s sometimes difficult to find the right video for what your class is doing. This site has catalogued a whole lot of videos for class use.
Social networking for book readers. Want to set up a group? What about a class group??
http://www.goodreads.com/ http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/114.Educator_Book_Club
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivitySearch.aspx
Fantastic Maths site with games and (as you’d expect) illuminating activities for mathematicians of all ages. Some of the activities would be great for the smartboard. Highly recommended.
Remember that KnowledgeNet provides access to digital learning objects, and there’s plenty of maths ones there. Just log on, go to search and use a key word to search through the dlos. These respources are too good to ignore so have a look:
The main menu of the Wellesley maths pages has links to various interactive games and maths drill activities that some of us have used over the years. Again lot’s of these are great for a short, sharp smartboard session.
Don’t forget the New Zealand website NZMaths:
Links to lots of useful classroom maths activities and resources. And I guess I should mention the Assessment Resource Banks:
Login information is easy to remember and ARB provides access to a wide range of assessment examples.
And, for the Smartboard:
This is hard to describe Universcale - A site from Nikon that compares size from very very small to very very large. Would be good to use on the Smartboard.
A Virtual Keyboard: Play it on the smartboard. Simple but clever
Edutopia Magazine is a part of the George Lucas Education Foundation. In it’s web form it contains articles for US Public schools, but many are relevant to us.
Edutopia article on using Youtube videos to inspire creativity in young artists: http://www.edutopia.org/arts-youtube-video-art-music For example: Claude Monet:
Van Gogh:
Also read: Art in Schools Inspires Tomorrow's Creative Thinkers
Also from an Edutopia article on Virtual Libraries, The New York Public Library has:
As more and more information is in non tactile forms, are Libraries having to look at ways of providing access to their digital collection as well as providing access to digital information from other sources
And another plug for Wordle – a tool for creating word clouds from text. The words which appear most frequently are given more prominence. This is a fantastic tool – simple to use - I can imagine all sorts of classroom uses for this tool. As an example, the Wellesley vision from our website produces this:
So, what happens if you use a poem???? – What poem is it?
and finally, Artscope lets you view 3500 pieces of artwork from the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art:
http://www.sfmoma.org/projects/artscope/ (Takes a wee while to load!)
Just when you thought I wouldn’t bug you with any more blog emails, here’s another one! If you get a chance, have a look at some of these links – some are good to use with your Smartboard and some provide some thought provoking ICT/Learning stuff.
I’m also writing this blog using Microsoft Live Writer which is looking to me like a very easy way to post blog entries – ie write them off line, then post them directly when you have them finished. Regular blog writers may want to try this tool.
I think I’ve posted this before but I like videos and this is a great commercial!
The above site is worth a browse……..
1,000-year-old fishing trap found on Google Earth Britain's most ancient fishing trap has been discovered off the coastline of Wales after research carried out on Google Earth.
Try this timezone map - Good smartboard tool??
Interactive science and engineering for 9 to 12 year olds. For interactive, read game!
Or try these byte sized activities from the BBC for Year 1 / 2. ps I think the narrator eats pork pies and drinks scrumpy!
Wow Science investigation! Teenagers armed with only a £56 camera and latex balloon have managed to take stunning pictures of space from 20-miles above Earth.
Are our kids Narcissistic??? The growing expectation placed on schools and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding a generation of narcissists, an expert has warned. A BBC article
Or try Don Trapscott’s view:
Video of the Week:
More next week!
More than 1 in 5 employers said they found information on social networking sites about prospective employees
Top areas of concern:
Careful what you put on your facebook site!
