10 Tips on Creating a School 2.0 from Chris Lehmann

In the above video, Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philly speaks on the future of education (which is now) at the #140 Character Conference this Tuesday. In 12 minutes, Lehmann sums up the ever-changing world of education, how it is affected by the real time web, what schools need to do to change and how we can get there. What seems like a painful task for our nation seems pretty simple for Lehmann.

Freeology

Freeoology is a website that has a free school stuff directory with dozens of free printable forms for teachers. Free graphic organizer forms, calendars, awards forms, and coloring pages are just some of the things you can find.

Addressing Plagiarism

Thanks to Nathan Grimm, SR Education Group ∙ Program Manager for sharing this great article about how teachers need to address plagiarism in their classroom.

Creating Your Own Certificates For FREE!

Certificate Street is a website that offers free templates to create certificates so you can print them out. You can browse through all the categories templates. For school, sports, special occasions, blank certificates etc.

A vision of 21 st Century Teachers

Thanks to the Educational Software Blog for sharing this video.

This video is a vision of the 21st Century Teacher. Just take a look at it and rethink about the importance of technology integration in your teaching. Eighteen classroom teachers "speak out" on the topic of tech integration and 21st Century skills for students.

Cover Story

This article is the cover story from this month's edition of the .

Rub•ber Room (noun) A confining mindset where thoughts and possibilities bounce around but never turn into action. At whatever level you teach, K-12 or college, the continual cliché to “Have a positive attitude” is intended to keep you inspired and refreshed in the classroom. Drawing from hilarious or serious lessons as a teacher and former student, this article digs down below that cliché with examples of what makes us tick as people, so we can in turn be better teachers. It is an exploration and celebration of our childhood motivations, passion to teach, and the special quality that fires us up to walk into a classroom each day.

Visit the New-and-Improved ReadWriteThink.org

To visit the new website and other resources :

Check out the new ReadWriteThink tip sheet for 13 must-see (and use) features of the new site Visit ReadWriteThink today and you'll find everything you need for tomorrow's lesson plan!

Virtual School Day

We have a Virtual School Day tomorrow Wednesday, January 27, 2010. These are some great links for students, teachers to use while working at home.

For Students:

Arcademic Skillbuilders*
Research-based and standards-aligned free educational math games and language arts games will engage, motivate, and help teach students.

StudyTag
Is a learning community that helps you Ace every single quiz and test you take.

Homework Spot
Is a free homework information portal that features the very best K-12 homework-related sites together with engaging editorial in one high-utility, educational spot.

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper
"B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper has grown into one of the most comprehensive research sites maintained by a kid..."Family PC Magazine

High School Ace
The Academic home Page for High school Students

Middle School websites
Learning websites for Middle School Students

Middle School Web
Middle School resources

Preschool and Kindergarten Games
Games for Kids

Starfall
Free public service to motivate children to read with phonics

Top 100 Preschool Sites
List of 100 preschoo sites for you do dive in.

AudioOwl
is a great resource for free high quality audio books. Audio books, like the ones found on this site, can serve as a great free resource for all teachers and students

For Teachers

East Side Middle School Library
Middle School teaching resources

Classhelper.org
Is an educational resources site dedicated to providing useful tools and materials to the teaching community. Our resources include math worksheets, crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, class project "HOW-TO" articles, classroom teaching aids, discussion forums, and other educational materials.

Scholastic
Teaching resources for all subjects.

Larry Ferlazzo's Top Tools for Teachers
"These “The Best…” lists highlight what I think are the best educational websites". Larry Ferlazzo

Virtual Learning Links

The Amschool Curriculum Wiki has a page on Virtual Leaning Sites.

Webquests
The Amschool Curriculum Wiki web quests sites.

Discovery School Lesson Plan Library
Free lesson plans written by teachers for teachers. Like you. Classroom Resources has hundreds of original lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school students. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans.

Education Innovation

The title of this post is "Education Innovation" Which is also the tittle of Rob Jacobs Educational Blog. I found Jacob's blog to be fascinating for administrators, teachers and parents to read because his focus is on how education needs to be innovating.

Here is one of his posts.

Do We Limit Our Children's Creativity?

Do we limit our children's creativity? Take a look at this short clip about one child's creativity and the reactions from parents, teachers, and doctors. I think you will find it thought provoking.

Educational and Shared on Diigo

This is a collection of web 2.0 tools that have been put together by Jasper Isaksson, a Swedish teacher who created this map of tools to share with educators.



Quick links to resources to mathematics teachers.



Is a website with Thousands of Free Worksheets, Printables, Coloring Pages, Flash Cards, Songs for Kids, Educational Videos, Fun Activities, Thematic Units, Teacher Tools, and Lesson Plans for Teachers!



This is a list of top ten websites young learners can use. The list was created by Gail Lovely

The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (EET) is a collection of short multimedia articles on a variety of topics related to the fields of instructional design and education and training. Created by the San Diego State University which owns all information copyrights.



The Virtual Courseware Project produces interactive, online simulations for the life science laboratory or for earth science field studies. The activities are designed to enhance an existing curriculum and include online assessments. They can be used by students ranging from middle school, high school, or college classrooms.

Differentiated Instruction With Discovery Education

This is a presentation by Jennifer Dorman

Differentiated Instruction Made Simple

View more presentations from Jennifer Dorman.

ESL Teaching Materials

My English Images, a site for English instructors and English teachers working with ESL and EFL students. Have fun exploring the site. There are lots of images and worksheets available for download. Use these images to catch your student’s attention, spice up your lessons, illustrate your ideas and explain some great language points.

© 2008 - 2009 F Michael Kloran author and creator of this site.

Grounded Tech Integration/ Technologies for Teaching Mathematics

This is a piece from the November's edition of Learning Leading with Technology, ISTES' s member magazine.

Look Inside >> November 2009

New way to share!

Lee Kolbert started this VoiceThread and I think is a great example of how teachers share and add to their own personal learning network.

The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this incredible list of resources.

New School Year Resources

This list of resources has been compiled by Kristina Robertson (2007), who wrote an article "Gear Up for a New School Year" for the website Colorin Colorado.

• Colorin Colorado: First-Year Teacher Resources

  These resources for teachers just getting started include strategies, advice, and lots of ideas!

• Learning the Language

  Learning the Language is a blog sponsored by Education Week and written by Mary Ann Zehr. The blog tackles difficult policy questions surrounding English-language learning, explores learning innovations, and shares stories about different cultural groups.

• Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day

  Larry Ferlazzo maintains an award-winning educational blog and free monthly newsletter where he disseminates links to innovative Web sites for teaching ESL.

• hELLo Newsletter

  The free hELLo Newsletter, produced by the Big Deal Book, is available by email subscription and online. It specifically targets K-12 and Adult ELL educators, program directors, and media specialists by providing access to imaginative and interactive Web environments and free materials.

• A to Z Teacher Stuff: Activities for the First Day of School

  A wealth of links to creative first day activities, including ideas such as an "I Can't Funeral" and "Dear Me" letters.

• Scholastic: Back-to-School Resources

  Links to many back-to-school resources, including examples of welcome letters.

• Scholastic: Welcome to the First Day of School

  Article providing ideas for many first day activities to start the year in an exciting way.

• ProTeacher Community

  This website has many original "first day of school" ideas submitted by classroom teachers, and many are grade level specific.

• Activities for the First Day of School

  A list of activities, lesson preparation tips, ice breakers and classroom organization from Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk.

• I Love That Teaching Idea: First Day Ideas

  First day of school ideas submitted by teachers, categorized by grade levels and subject areas.

• Education World: Fourteen Great Activities for the First Days of School!

  An article that includes 14 creative first day of school activity ideas.

• The First Days of School

  This is a very popular book that can be found in many new teacher orientation programs to help teachers get off to a good star in the new school year. This link goes to the book's Amazon page.

• AFT: Managing Your First Day of School

  The American Federation of Teachers offers tools for teachers in this section of its website, including tips for planning and managing the first day of school.

• Colorín Colorado: ELL Starter Kit

  The Colorín Colorado "Starter Kit" has many helpful forms to help educators keep better records of their students’ literacy and language skills, a list of Spanish-English cognates, and helpful phrases and words in Spanish.

• Colorín Colorado: Back-to-School Resources

  Lots of links to helpful resources for new as well as experienced teachers and other educators who are looking for more information on how to start the year right with their ELL students.

• Icebreakers for Students

  On About.com's Secondary Education website, you can find many icebreaker ideas for starting the school year and new classes. Many activities can be used for the elementary level, as well.

A great writing site

Great Source iwrite is a collection of writing resources and support for educators, students in grades 5-12, and parents.

A variety of templates, tutorials, and graphic organizers introduce and explain the major forms of writing (narrative, persuasive, expository,research, response to literature) and help students develop practical writing skills – from coming up with a topic idea to publishing a polished work. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft for Learning Essentials, these tools offer solid instruction from the popular, research-based Write Source series of writing programs.

Nuevas Tecnologías Aplicadas a Educación

Este articulo fue escrito por Ana Maria Sanchez de Argentina. El mismo describe como las nuevas tecnologias estan siendo aplicadas en la educación. Agradesco que me haya permitido copiar y publicar dicho articulo en el blog.

Desde distintas corrientes teóricas, se establece que la función de la escuela debe ser la preparación de las nuevas generaciones para su incorporación en el mundo del trabajo. Ahora en este marco de estas problemáticas, una manera de dar respuesta a las exigencias del mundo productivo y garantizar a toda la población un mínimo de conocimientos de índole tecnológica, consiste en ir incluyendo como contenidos de la educación obligatoria algunos aspectos que refieren al conocimiento y el uso de nuevas tecnologías de la información. A partir de la reforma del sistema educativo se incorpora como contenido básico común el aprendizaje a NTICS de la información, en particular los procedimientos básicos de uso de la computadora, promoviendo su uso como medio de enseñanza y de aprendizaje en cada una de las áreas o asignaturas escolares.

Como bien afirma E. Litwin: la solución no consiste, en disponer de un técnico medianamente capacitado a cargo del área de informática y del dictado de clases de computación, sino en la capacitación de todo el personal escolar.De lo contrario la autora plantea esta hipótesis: ¿cómo se puede enseñar a los alumnos/as a valorar los aportes de las NTICS de la información o promover la utilización de las mismas como medios facilitadores del procesamiento, almacenamiento y la transmisión de la información, si el personal docente y no docente de la escuela continúa ejecutando los registros y archivos técnicos-pedagógicos, administrativos en forma manual??

“Los educadores, en cualquier etapa de su carrera, tienen la responsabilidad de influir en los docentes recién iniciados para que traigan ideas y energías nuevas a la profesión, y para que eviten sucumbir a la tentación de la rutina; para que los docentes en la mitad de su carrera salgan de su depresión; y los experimentados transmitan sabiduría en lugar de descreimiento:” M. Fullan y A. Hargreaves-“La escuela que queremos”-“Los objetivos por los cuales vale la pena luchar”-Edit.Amorrortu Madrid2006

La actividad como unidad de análisis determina una singularidad metodológica que se practica en el aula, un método se caracteriza por las tareas o actividades dominantes que propone a profesores y alumnos. Las tareas mediatizan, expresan el estilo de los profesores y articulan sus competencias profesionales, una serie de tareas apelan a la interacción de los planteamientos didácticos y curriculares con los aspectos organizativos del sistema escolar. Las tareas resultan viables dentro de un modelo de organización escolar y de un tipo de aula determinada, tienen un significado personal y social complejo, por su contenido, por las pautas de comportamiento que exige, por las relaciones sociales que fomenta, por los valores ocultos en la misma, etc. Deduciendo entonces que la estructura de tareas para concretar el currículum sea, al mismo tiempo, una estructura de socialización más amplia de los sujetos, tanto de los alumnos como de los profesores. Modificando las tareas se cambian microambientes de aprendizaje y las experiencias posibles dentro de los mismos, por esto resulta interesante poder analizar la estructura de la práctica, teniendo en cuenta en las condiciones que se desarrolla, fundamentando la posición de que un currículum en la realidad no puede entenderse al margen de las condiciones en las que se desarrolla, por lo que resulta prioritario analizarlo plasmado en actividades prácticas.

En mi opinión, el aspecto más crítico a tener en cuenta en una propuesta didáctica, es la falta de estrategias de enseñanza que contemplen aspectos tecnológicos como recursos educativos y la descontextualización de los contenidos con el entorno socio cultural del momento.Contextualizar contenidos y promover el uso de Nuevas Tecnologías resulta prioritario comenzar a implementarlo en distintas área curriculares. Estas situaciones resultan motivantes en el alumnado, propiciando actividades más innovadoras adecuadas a la era digital y al contexto socio cultural de los jóvenes.El uso de celulares como recurso educativo, la digitalización de producciones realizadas por los alumnos, el ordenador, sofwares informáticos, documentar proyectos realizados por los alumnos y publicarlos en Blogs o páginas Web, jerarquizan sus producciones, motivándolos a ir aumentando el grado de complejidad en sus actividades. Por ello es necesario la capacitación de docentes en informática (como bien afirma E. Lipwin) para que las NTICS puedan ser utilizadas en todas las áreas curriculares, y no tan solo en la sala de informática.Les dejo el acceso directo a la página Web de Ntra. Sra. de Luján (Lomas de Zamora), encontrarán algunas estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas, a fin de ir incorporando gradualmente las NTICS.http://secundarialujan.webs.com/

BibliografíaEdith Litwin- “Tecnología Educativa-Política, historias, propuestas:”-

Edit-Paidós Bs As 1995“Estrategias de Enseñanza” –

Rosa Rottemberg/Rebecca Anijovich- Carpeta de Trabajo UVQ-“La relación entre contenidos y estrategias de enseñanza”

M. Fullan y A. Hargreaves-“La escuela que queremos”-“Los objetivos por los cuales vale la pena luchar”-

Edit.Amorrortu Madrid- 2006Ana M. SánchezProf. Artes VisualesEst. Licenciatura Educación-UVQ

Teachers Work Part 2

My post on "Teachers Work" was going to be published in two parts, here is Part 2 for you to watch:


Inquiry based science Grade 5C



Making Meaning of Geometry Grade 10

Teachers Work

AST teachers received the formal extensive training on differentiation in the 2006. Throughout this year and the last we have seen differentiation techniques (centers, small group learning, learning exhibitions, project based lessons, kinesthetic learning) in our teachers classrooms.

We are thankful to those teachers that are willing to share their work with us and for that I acknowledge them by presenting their work which will be posted by parts (1,2,3).

PART 1:


Manipulating Time 2nd Grade

Secondary Centers