World-Shaker

Here are the first two:

Spread enthusiasm among your colleagues. You can’t do this on your own, so think carefully about the “pitch” you’ll make to your colleagues. Show them some examples of how collaboration can make a difference: Perhaps you could visit another school, view a video of successful collaboration, or discuss articles like this one. You may want to do some advance thinking about topics that really lend themselves to interdisciplinary teaching.

Consider starting small. Organizing and executing an interdisciplinary unit can be a daunting task. There are many ways to experiment with this concept without committing to a large unit. Consider skills or experiences that correspond with your students’ needs. For a few weeks, could your grade focus on analyzing informational texts or strategies for identifying unknown words in context? Is there a broad theme, such as “change” or “relationships,” that could be highlighted over the next month?

The first one is no surprise (TED.com), but the other four are pretty new to the scene. I’d recommend a click through.

Nothing technical-just an overview. I’d recommend a read since Google Drive is widely expected to launch this week (and compete with Dropbox).

pencilblots:

I found this awesome lesson plan track for The Great Gatsby. Being that I inherited five classes, and two of them are doing Gatsby, this is a huge help. I learned about getting into these classes at 8 am Thursday, and not to indulge too much because I don’t want someone talking about this, the teacher that was there was not doing what she was supposed to.

The kids are bored, and frustrated that nothing has been happening all year. I am going to try to kick this out, and be fun. They are all good kids, from what I have seen of them. Any other suggestions, teacher buddies?

Signal Boost

Fair Warning: Only two or three of these are free. The rest are pretty affordable, though. My favorite is Animation Creator HD (about $2). iTunes links to each app are available on the page.

Here’s the first argument:

Technology in Online Learning

Online learning programs are also beneficial because they allow students to interact with technology more frequently. Because of the prevalence of technology in today’s world, an online component can be advantageous for college graduates.

Though traditional classroom-based courses can incorporate technology, online programs require students to use computers and the Internet as a means to an end. Students who complete such programs might understand technology on a deeper level and can apply advanced skills throughout their academic careers and professional life.

Exactly what it says. A ton of resources here. Worth forwarding on to any language teachers you know :o)

I’ve included three below. And before I get some Android/Anti-Apple nonsense in my Ask box:

iBooks Author allows PDF export if the book will be shared at no cost to the student (or end reader). It’s also arguably the easiest to use consumer-level program for creating interactive ebooks. Oh, and it’s free.

1. Curate learning. For decades teachers have been able to supplement adopted curriculum materials with newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and video clips. However, until the development of online curation tools, such as wikis or web-based journals, there was not a simple mechanism for organizing these resources and making them available to students.
   
   iBooks Author provides a powerful tool for teachers to use when curating instructional materials. Unlike many web-based resources, these materials can be organized into a book-like format while still incorporating interactive features, such as hyperlinks, video clips, presentations, 3-D objects, and photo galleries. iBooks Author is designed to make quick use of materials you already have, including text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
   
   
2. Publish easily. iBooks Author gives teachers and students a free and accessible tool for creating digital texts. iBooks Author could easily be used by students to publish a short story for their school site digital library or as a tool for creating a portfolio of all of their work over the school year. In addition, schools and districts have expressed a great deal of interest in publishing their own materials for staff for both professional development and information updates.
   
   
3. Share for free. With iBooks Author, writers have multiple options for sharing their completed texts. Free and fee-based books can be shared directly with the world through the iBookstore. However, school districts and teachers who want to share their texts locally can choose two different export options: PDF and the .iBooks file format.

Some good, free options here.

Three ideas with accompanying and compelling examples. This would be a great lunchtime read.

Posting for these ideas:

• Divide students into staged groups that rotate with different assignments. Make one group the “first responders,” the second group the “arguers,” and the third group the “consensus builders,” to insure that students engage with their peers.
• Teach and model “social citation.” Rather than include “I saw that one of you explained how condensation affects a steam engine,” try this: “Check out Beth’s explanation of the effects of condensation on the steam engine for a good model.” On some assignments, require that students cite posts from their peers that they support or take issue with.
• Seed a discussion by requiring some students to summarize exclusively. Obviously this responsibility will have to rotate as well, but it’s a good way to assist readers in quickly understanding the differences between positions in a discussion.

An outstanding Edutopia guest post from Steven Anderson (one of the top educators in the field of edtech), with a free copy of a social media policy currently being used in a real public school. Here’s the introduction:

More and more, social media is becoming a part of our daily lives. Just today, Mashable is out with a report that says Pintrest (which is less than a year old) is the #3 social network in the U.S. This report mentions that the amount of monthly traffic Facebook receives is seven billion page views, and Twitter receives 182. Again, these are just U.S. statistics. If we were to look at the numbers worldwide, I would guess they would be much, much higher.

But it isn’t just adults who are moving more of their lives to online spaces. In a recent Pew Internet survey, 73 percent of all teens used social networks daily. The most popular of these is Facebook; however, Twitter, Myspace and even LinkedIn are not far behind.

And it isn’t just teens. The #1 social network for kids under the age of 13 is Club Penguin. It is visited more times each day than the New York Times.

This data is staggering.

A great list. I’ve included the content areas they’ve covered:

1. Drawing
2. Geography
3. Health
4. History
5. Maps
6. Math
7. Mind-Mapping
8. Music
9. News
10. Note Taking
11. Photos/Pictures
12. Reading
13. Resources/Research
14. Science
15. Studying
16. Writing
17. Thinking
18. and Miscellaneous

Posting for this exchange:

What factor is most important to college completion?

SS: Relationships.  At WGU, we’ve found that a close working relationship with an academic advisor is the most important factor to completion.  We’ve also found that linking advisor compensation and employment to student completion rates is very effective.  That’s a much more active role than the 1970s approach of creating a student center and hoping that students that need help seek it out.   Weekly check-ins with an advisor ensures that students stay on track.

There’s nothing groundbreaking here if you’re already familiar with Google+, but if you’re new to the party, this is a great place to start!

I thought this was an interesting perspective. It’s pretty LA focused, but still worth a read.

But my main point here, looking back at my quote from Sawyer, is that the best thinking comes from working alone and then sharing ideas. This is not to say that the writer who writes alone is only thinking his own thoughts—not at all. Every person is a collection of all the things that he has seen and heard and read since he entered the world. Reading and writing are social acts, even when done in solitude.

It’s not that our students need to block out the thinking of others; it’s that our students need to learn how to work out their thinking on their own. As writing theorist Peter Elbow says, they need to learn to “talk reflectively to themselves.” We can encourage this by dedicating large chunks of class time to solitary writing, providing writing prompts that provoke personal awareness, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity. I do this, and for some of my students, these times of quiet in my classroom are the most reflective, meaningful times of their week. They’ve told me so.