No Fooling: Top 10 list for 4/1/11

BONUS - April Fool's resources:

Ning of resources

http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/forum/topics/april-fools-day-ideas

Top 100 April Fool's jokes of all time
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/index


Spaghetti Harvest
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_swiss_spaghetti_harvest/


Gmail Motion
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

Top 10 Resources of the week! No Fooling here!

10. Pretty overwhelming and pretty amazing at the same time. Links and images organized by topic or theme.  Pretty cool!  You can set up an account, make this your homepage, personalize the “MyFaves” section and get almost anywhere you need to go.

http://www.allmyfaves.com/?utm_source=newsletterdesign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=contentlink&utm_campaign=redesign

  

9.  Great guy, Great resources, Great site, Don’t know what else to say

http://kevinhoneycutt.org/

 

8.  QR codes in education.  More than you every thought was imaginable

http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit/51894

How it’s used in advertising and marketing: http://10.1.23.3/contentfiltering/blocked.aspx?id=461903778432515813

7.  Sick of all the distractions on You tube, give silenttube a try...

http://silentube.com/

6.  Is twitter a two way street?  My PLN would say so, Freakonomics, says NO!

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/03/10/freakonomics-radio-is-twitter-a-two-way-street/

5.  Good blog post on “why you aren’t as successful as you want to be.”  I like some of the ideas here.  I often get lost in the to do list and miss out on focusing on my goals or personal vision.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/notsuccessful/

4.  Bounce – seems to be a cool way to annotate over a website and share it with students
http://www.edutechintegration.com/2011/02/bounce-collaborate-on-website.html

3.  8 Quick online word games

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-quick-online-word-games-play-vocabulary/

 

2.  Risk taking in the classroom is always an interesting topic of discussion.  Standardization, data-based and research-based decisions and actions often stifle the creativity and passion of educators.  Every once in a while it’s okay to not be “research based”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/why-schools-should-try-things.html

1.  Math teachers and dorks like me will LOVE this.  Enter a number and it’ll tall you everything you every wanted to know about it but were afraid to ask

http://numbergossip.com/

Top Videos of the week:

Let’s use video to reinvent education.

This video inspired me to FLIP my classroom.  What does it mean to "FLIP" your classroom.  I no longer give notes/lecture/have students write things down during class.  Class is time to investigate, try things out and make mistakes while I'm there to  provide guidance.

Resources on Flip Teaching:

University of Northern Colorado: http://mast.unco.edu/programs/vodcasting/

Blog post on Flipped classroom: http://21k12blog.net/2011/02/13/the-flipped-classroom-advances-developments-in-reverse-learning-and-instruction/

Electric educator blog: http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/2010/09/flip-your-classroom-through-reverse.html

875 TED TALKS in a neat spreadsheet, yum!  I love the short summary!
http://www.openculture.com/2011/02/875_ted_talks_in_a_spreadsheet.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OpenCulture+(Open+Culture)

I love Seth Godin, I love education, I love this video

Okay seriously,  Dan Meyer is the SICKEST (as in he is very good) educator I know.  I wish I had half the talent and skill he does.  You’ll see why here:

ADE Application Video — Dan Meyer from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

5 for Friday (DOUBLE EDITION) 3/4/11

So I seem to be running at double speed lately.  I have too many great things that I find and the top 5 is becoming harder and harder.  In the interest of not limiting you to only 5 great resources a week, I'm going to do a couple DOUBLE-UPS when necessary.  Today being the first double up I will share with you 10 of the coolest things I've found this week and 2 of the coolest videos that have crossed my path.  As an aside the video list is getting a little ridiculous, I may need to do a top 5 one week of just videos.

Here they are, the top 10 resources I found this week in no particular order:

Free magazine for the “creative educator”  I like Free it's my favorite number.

http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/

As we seek to learn more remember you don’t have to be an expert, you just have to be willing!  The will to check this out is the first step.

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/parents-teachers-you-dont-have-to-be-an-expert-580.php

Free site for finding educational videos.  Thousands of videos categorized by every subject imaginable

http://www.watchknow.org/default.aspx

A little overwhelming, but a little amazing too.  The best of the web organized and categorized for you, yum!

http://highdefteacher.com/

I need to share a large file, how can I do that?  There are a number of ways, here’s three….

http://techronicity.blogspot.com/2011/02/sharing-made-easy-transferbigfiles.html

pleasenotify.me is a simple, free service to let you send tasks to people, and be notified when they're done.  I like this as we embrace 21st century skills and students "turn in" things digitally this service will allow you to know when things have been updated, etc.

http://pleasenotify.me/

I like this post when considering doing something different.  As I start a new unit 4th quarter that I haven't taught in 8 years, I begin the unit with trepidation….change isn’t easy..

http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/change-isnt-easy/

You can never have enough Icebreakers!

http://www.icebreakers.ws/

Differentiation is the word of the year.  But what does it look like?

http://www.maggiehosmcgrane.com/2011/01/differentiation-what-does-it-look-like.html

And my top two favorite videos of the week:

Inside Finland:  The world’s most successful school system

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-finland-phenomenon-inside-the-worlds-most-surprising-school-system-588.php

Jon Stewart solves the nation’s education crisis….fun and informative

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/jon-stewart-offers-solution-to-education-crisis-in-dairyland-592.php

BONUS material:

Oh my the way, the iPad 2 was announced this week, kinda a big deal.  Read more about it here:  http://www.apple.com/ipad/?cid=CDM-US-DM-P0010191-EDU

Interested in attending a FREE webinar from Dr. Marzano on "the highly engaged classroom"  sign up here http://www.marzanoresearch.com/Professional_Development/events.aspx?event=59&sf1087988=1

RSCON11 Keynote Presentation: The Networked Teacher

Today I was working on lesson plans when a well-known educator (Shell Terell @shellterell) tweeted about the keynote speaker (Dr. Alec Couros) beginning in 10 minutes.  The presentation was oing to be on “The Networked Teacher.”  I wasn’t doing anything so I figured I’d log in, give it a listen while I went along with planning, after all it was free.  Next thing I know it’s an hour and a half later and I haven’t planned a thing.  It’s was awesome:

The chat from the educators who were involved can be found here: http://goo.gl/7VEw3

His presentation resources are here: http://goo.gl/ARHaK I’m going to highlight a few of them here…

1.  Tools that exist for free on the web make it too easy not to network in some way.  Working alongside some of the best of the best makes you a better teacher.

2. The monopoly is ending – too much is free and too much is open to everyone, people are less held up in their classrooms doing only what they know.  Teachers are starting to reach out to other teachers across the world to share resources.

3. We are smarter together – If we all continue to build the collective intelligence items on a DOK of less than 2 will be simply something we call can easily find and we can devote more time to sharing at a deeper level.

4. Some fo the best teachers aren’t our teachers – you have to be willing as a teacher to know what you are good at, what you know, and not be afraid to go out and bring in or go to the best of the best to teach our students.

5. Geography doesn’t matter – There’s skype, google chat, etc. to go to others and bring people from all over the world into the room.  

6. Audience makes a difference – Don’t be afraid to publish your thoughts on the web.  You never know when an idea can find an audience and go viral.  The passion to collaborate is necessary.

7. Sharing is vital to learning – in today’s world we learn and grow more in a collaborative environment.  The sharing of one’s ideas and publishing of not only how you teach but how you learn benefits the common good.

8. Network literacy and digital literacy – As a crucial part of 21^st century skills we must educate students, teachers and community about how to interact in a global, flat, and digital society.

9. Networks allow us to make the world better – Being careful not to fall into a world of passive activism networks allow us to help each other out and build a Professional (personal) learning Network (PLN) that will enable use to be better educators for our students

10. The end of education and the beginning of learning – As we continue to revise what education looks like in the 21^st century it is paramount for us educators to strive to open doors for others, be a gateway to a better world.  Education is no longer a “sit and get” process like it was when I went to school.  Learning needs to happen at school and learning can’t happen without collaboration.

Resources I learned about:

Alec Couros Bio: http://reformsymposium.com/blog/2010/12/11/opening-keynote-dr-alec-couros/

Twitter chat schedule: http://goo.gl/NJ0HG

TEDxProject: http://tedxproject.wordpress.com/

Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/

Be a mentor to others, or be mentored: http://www.edupln.com/group/theteachermentoringproject

Other presentations from the conference can be found here: http://reformsymposium.com/conference-details/meet-the-presenters/

The recording will be available here: http://reformsymposium.com/conference-details/blog/2010/12/11/opening-keynote-dr-alec-couros/

RSCON11 resources: http://bit.ly/rscon11resources

Horizon report: http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2010/

Just funny: http://manbabies.com/

Ridiculous Youtube videos:

Sharing the moral Imperative: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=610

Virtual Choir introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyLX2cke-Lw

If you are on twitter and would like to check out the notes from the conference search twitter hashtag: #rscon11

Alec’s brother tweeted this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0P4NZ4Mwmg

Alec Couros Self slanderous behavior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jXZR3pWKxQ

Slides I loved

5 for Winter Break 12/22/10

Okay, first of all there are two links:  Link 1 and Link 2. The links are to a company put together a list of FREE web 2.0 tools. For those of you that were in my session on our half day you probably remember that web 2.0 tools are all tools where students (anyone) both create and share their work. Check it out, there are great resources, most of which I have used so I can answer any questions you may have.

As the winter break approaches this is a great opportunity for me to say THANK YOU to all who subscribe. It means a lot to me to know that I'm helping someone out there and even if you check out one link I provide I'll know that my efforts are worth it. If you see someone who might benefit from this e-mail/blog post forward it on I'd love to grow the distribution.

Your 5 resources:

17 free e-books for teachers and parents - I downloaded them all, great reads over break.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/12/17-free-ebooks-for-teachers-and-parents.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+freetech4teachers/cGEY+(Free+Technology+for+Teachers)

Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you're into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all here. What's great is kids can read other kids work and comment on it, very cool.
http://figment.com/

GREAT! Discussion on using technology to complete assessments, what would you do?
http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/1659

Harvard’s must have guide to social media. It's from Harvard, it must be good.
http://edudemic.com/2010/11/harvards-must-have-guide-to-social-media/

Guess the google – best game on the internet, the kids love it!
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/game/?l=6


Winter Break BONUS LINK!!!!!!:

Top 100 tools for learning 2010 - What I love about this is it shows the list for 2010, 2009, 2008, you can really see how tools have trended over the years. I don't use all of these but a lot of them.
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100-2010.html


Your Video of the week:

The next generation of Activboards from Promethean, I want one! (fingers crossed the new science building has these)

6th Graders and Reading a Website

One of the reading strategies I am asked to discuss is reading a webpage.  We did a lot with this earlier in the school year by using this AMAZING webquest.  So I was wondering what to do next?  I sought out some help through Twitter (@cmcgee200) and a few members of my PLN sent me a few links for great things to try.  Here's what I ended up doing:


The Lesson

• Complete Lesson 45 from Daybook: Reading a Website
• Gave feedback on Lesson 45
• Gave students opportunity to read through three websites
• F-shaped pattern fo reading web content
• How users read the web
• Usability 101:  Introduction to usability
• Started a google presentation, shared with anyone with link and gave editing preferences to the class.  Told each student to take one slide to communicate learning.

The set-up

• Copied Daybook lesson 45: reading a website
• Reserved a computer lab
• Created google presentation, shared to anyone with a link
• Used google shortener for all the websites and the google presentation

Evidence of Student Learning

• Here's what students made, scoring guide posted on slide 2: Presentation here

What will I do differently next time?

• I will add the activity of having kids research the “northwest tree octopus” and the http://martinlutherking.org/ website which are both Hoax websites. (thanks @Ideaguy42)
• Use www.twurdy.com to find readability of searched websites. Great way to help students determine reading level appropriate to their own personal level.

5 for Friday 12/10/10

12/10/10 Top items recorded from twitter and my google reader:

I use to think, now I know….. a few more from Lyn's great blog post:

I used to think my good ideas should stay in my classroom. (I worked hard developing those lessons!) 

Now I know more students will benefit from the expertise of teachers who share. (Collective genius. Sharing is caring.)

I used to think I never had enough time. (Lesson plans…grading papers…surviving…) 

Now I know it’s important to work smarter, not harder. (Make time for the things that matter most.) 

I used to think a child who scored poorly on an assessment didn’t study hard enough. (They had a study guide one week in advance! What is the deal with that kid?) 

Now I know a student who doesn’t perform well on an assessment does not have the problem. (The teacher does.) 

To read the whole blog post (and steal my thunder) or to comment on Lyn's post (she is awesome!) go to: http://principalposts.edublogs.org/2010/11/18/now-i-know/

Here are your TOP 5 resources of the week!

Teachers network:  The place to find out about grants, lesson plans, pd, etc, seems pretty cool..

https://www.teachersnetwork.org/index.htm

12 great free video tutorial sites to brush up your tech skills

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/12-great-free-video-tutorial-sites-brush-tech-skills/

Assessment Do’s and Don’ts: I needed to be reminded of a few of these.

http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/1682

Instapaper – This application allows you to bookmark something to read later.  When working between computers and mobile devices this tool is a great assistant.

http://www.instapaper.com/

Inside the Bullied brain - Why we can't overlook bullying in schools.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/28/inside_the_bullied_brain/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Ideas+section

Video of the week:

Differentiation: Charting a course - This is a great video on differentiation.

http://blip.tv/file/4221908?utm_source=player_embedded

6th graders and Typewith.me

I have been teaching "note taking" as my reading strategy this week and was seeking a way to get kids to collaboratively take notes.  After much debate and consideration I decided to use typewith.me.  We have already used googledocs so much I felt it was time to show students what else is out there....

This lesson was so much fun for the kids and me.  We had a blast, the room was completely silent with intermiten bursts of laughter.  Every kid was engaged and was BY FAR the best lesson.  I often get scared that something won't work or that kids won't like it, it all worked out, kids loved it, they had fun and they practiced a new skill.  We will finish the products on Friday.

Lesson Plan

1. Teach note taking as a skill by completing lesson 43 in the daybook activity.
2. Give feedback on lesson 43.
3. Teach note taking in the content area by giving them a section of a textbook and asking them to write a two column response. (How to)
4. Give feedback on determining supporting detail to a concept.
5. Have students read an article and publicly organize their thoughts on what they feel is important.

Set Up

1. Copies of Lesson 43 in daybook.
2. Copies of content area textbook (I used two pages from my science textbook from Prentice Hall)
3. Copies of article to read and take notes on
4. Reserve the mobil lab
5. limit number of students per document to increase collaboration (see image below)

Evidence of student work

Go to the following links see what they did, or watch my screencast below: (Directions and scoring guide for the activity located on the typewith.me document.)

TypeWith.me- 9Ubzoia7YE

TypeWith.me- FcRtEOCOoY

TypeWith.me- Idx0KajBdg

TypeWith.me- TNXdyLVRYr

6th graders and Voki

Continuing the integration of technology and Web 2.0 tools into the curriculum I sought out a way to integrate technology using the website www.voki.com.  We utilized their free resources and turned an assignment via google docs.

Setup:

• Ensure students can use multiple tabs.
• Teach students how to copy/paste.
• preview voki on one day, create it on another.
• Create google doc of student names, share with anyone who has the website.
• Use url shortener for google doc website. (my example: http://goo.gl/d1hDR)

Lesson Plan

• Introduce making connections:  review connecting text to self (life experiences), introduce text to text (movie, song, television show, etc.).
• Practice skill of making connections text to text.
• Ensure skill of making connections text to text by utilizing in-class spiral and giving feedback.  Show Voki.
• Secure lab for students to create Voki and show their strongest connections.  Have student create their Voki, publish it, copy the embed code, paste embed code into google doc created by teacher.

Mr. McGee’s Reading Strategies

“Connections through Vokis”`

Student name: Gabi
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!



Student name: Ivan
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Katie
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Naomi
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Pieter
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: James C.
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Gillian
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!



Student name: Carlow
Voki Code:


Get a Voki now!

/
malu


Student name: Kaleb
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Alison
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Tyler
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Carter
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Kevin
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!



Student name: James K.
Voki Code:c
Get a Voki now!

>Get a Voki now!




Student name: Bridget
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!


By the By... JUSTIN BIEBER ROCKS!


Student name: Avery
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Lauryn
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name
Get a Voki now!

: Isaac
Voki Code:



Student name: Scott
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!



Get a Voki now!




Student name: Izzy
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Sabrina
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!




Student name: Miranda
Voki Code:
Get a Voki now!

Web Resources 8/18/10

The coolest Kindergarten class in the world:
http://forcuriousteachers.blogspot.com/2010/07/holy-smokes-look-at-this-kindergarten.html

What makes a GREAT teacher:
http://goo.gl/qJhP


One of the BEST sites for scheudleing appointments and getting people to a meeting:
http://www.pleft.com/


Do more with powerpoint:
http://goo.gl/oUif


Facebook resources for parents:
http://www.facebookforparents.org/

Today's Meet

This looks so cool!




Where will I use this?  I would use it to host review discussions around various topics in preparation for an assessment.  I would use it to interact with students/parents around specific topics.  I see great things here!

You decide...

Which is a more valuable resource for teachers?

http://www.teachers.tv/ 

or

http://teachertube.com/