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.

Free Web 2.0 Project Book

Thanks to Free Technology For Teachers Blog for writing about this great free ebook

Terry Freedman's free ebook The Amazing Web 2.o Projects Book.

Terry Freedman served as the editor of the book which is comprised of the contributions of 94 people. I took a look at the book last night and was impressed by what I found in the 121 pages of The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book. Within the book readers will find 87 web-based projects. Each project in the book has defined objectives, defined grade level or age range, links to additional information (including how-to's) about the project, and tips for teachers planning to use the project.

Gallery of Writing

Get inspired and visit a remarkable place on the Web where writing comes to life. Students can read published work, upload their own writing and create a gallery for their work.

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.

The Beginner's Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips

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The Beginner's Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips

Resources Found on this Article:

E-Field Trips
www.efieldtrips.org
This organization hosts electronic field trips with four main parts: the Trip Journal, theVirtual Visit (a streaming video), an Ask the Expert tool, and a hosted Web chat.

Access Excellence Resource Center
www.accessexcellence.org/RC/virtual.php
This site lists a collection of mainly scienceand health-related VFTs and online labs.

Gail Lovely’s site
www.gaillovely.com/VirtualFieldTrips.htm
Lovely provides a hot-linked list organized into live journeys, “interactive environments,”
travelogues, e-museums, building and place tours, map-based visits, and read-along visits

K-12 Instructional Media Center

The K-12 Instructional Media Center, has over 2,200 carefully selected and annotated resources that provide you with the tools you need to create exciting, topical lesson plans and curriculum. Is used as a professional development by the Stanford School of Education and the Exploratorium, K12IMC.org is a non-profit resource, maintained by Dr. Bonnie Tenenbaum.

Review Documents

Thanks to ilearn Technology Blog for writing this post!

What it is: Crocodoc is a new online tool that is quickly becoming a go-to application in my technology toolbox. Crocodoc lets you easily share and review documents online including pdfs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides.

It is as easy as 1-2-3

1. Upload the document from your computer or a URL (no registration required!).

2. Mark up the document using the built in highlighter, sticky notes, strike out, and text.

3. Share the unique URL of your Crocodoc with others.

This is an easy way to collaborate on projects, edit student work, and critique written works. Since Crocodoc was released last week, I have used it to share numerous documents with my students, edit a technology grant, send a lesson plans to teachers with notes about how to use them, and added my suggestions to a PowerPoint presentation. It is SO easy to use, and since it doesn’t require registration, it is perfect for the classroom.

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.

Educational Video Site

Neo K-12 is an educational website that has videos, lessons and games for k-12 kids. You can create your own play list of videos once you sign in for an account. You can search for any subject videos, create your own quiz game and also create photo presentations.

World War II Relived through Sand Painting

Thanks to Open Culture Blog for writing about this incredible artist.

How did the artist Kseniya Simonova win the Ukrainian version of Britain’s Got Talent? By using the art of sand painting to recount the story of Germany’s invasion of Ukraine in 1941. Life was somewhat ordinary, then it all fell apart. And, by the war’s end, an estimated 10 million Ukrainians were left dead. It’s a difficult story to tell. And I’m referring not just to the story’s content, but to the actual medium too. Thanks Steve for the heads up on this one.

For more sand painting, check out the work of Ilana Yahav.

A Maths Dictionary For kids!

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/ 

Thanks to Lauren Grossberg for writing about this math site.

A Maths Dictionary for Kids, an online resource for math terms and visual aides, has been updated for the 2010 year. Started by an Australian K-6 teacher, it now includes more terms, definitions, and visual aids than it has previously had. This site is great because it provides straightforward and understandable definitions of the sometimes complicated math terms. Along with over 400 definitions there is a small diagram or some sort of interactive activity or game to help students visually see the term's definition. Just like any other dictionary, all the math terms are arranged alphabetically.

 A Maths Dictionary for Kids is a great resource to help students when they are working on homework assignments, individual in-class assignments or larger group projects. The visual clues that go along with each definition are helpful for students who find it more difficult to visualize the actual meaning of a math term.

Have Fun With History!

American History Teachers, homeschoolers, and history buffs now have an online resource full of American History streaming videos, activities, links and resources - because history is fun!

This website can make your American History class even more fun. It has history videos, activities, subjects and more.

Using PREZI on the classroom

I've written about Prezi before on the Amschool Web 2.0 Resource Blog.

Prezi is a zooming digital presentation editor. I’ts simply cooler than powerpoints.

This amazing tool has offered FREE license to educators who are willing to use it actively in their classrooms. This license includes a 500 MB of space storage which is a lot. Still you can use the 100 MB they offer to anyone for free.

If you want to see how Prezi works check this "7 Wonders of the World" Presentation:

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World on Prezi

If you liked it just sign in to have your own account. If you want to know what to do with it in the classroom just follow this simple 8 ways:

Learning About The Haiti Earthquake

Larry Ferlazzo, created a list of resources to learn about the earthquake in Haiti.

This are just some of the sites he included on the list. If you want to check the rest of themjust go to his blogsite.

A Tent in Port-au-Prince is a panoramic view of life inside a tent for a Haitian family. It’s from The New York Times.

Eyewitness in Haiti is a slideshow from LIFE.

Haiti: Three Weeks Later is from The Boston Globes’ Big Picture.

The New York Times has posted a panoramic view inside the devastated Cathedral in Haiti. You can certainly get a sense of the strength of the earthquake by looking at it.

Two new infographics just came out showing which countries are giving how much to help victims of Haiti’s earthquake:

One is from the British newspaper The Guardian and is quite easy to understand.

The other is from GOOD Magazine and looks far cooler, but the information is not particularly accessible (at least to me).Stephen Downes also points out that Canada’s sizable contribution is not included in it.

Major Earthquake Hits Haiti is a collection of all Washington Post photos on the disaster. The Post also has a special page on the quake that’s regularly updated.

Hope for Haiti Event Raises Millions is a Breaking News lesson for ELL’s.

CNN has an incredible 360 degree video from Haiti. I have never seen a 360 degree video before. Thanks to Jerry Swiatek for the tip.

The Big Picture has The Faces of Haiti.

Here’s a good interactive map.

The BBC has a very interesting interactive map and information on relief supplies getting to the island.

Museum of Animal Perspectives

The Museum of Animal Perspectives (M.A.P.) collects and displays wildlife
imagery that has been captured using remote sensing cameras. The M.A.P. is curated and coded by video naturalist Sam Easterson. Most remotely sensed videos and photos that are presented on this URL are embedded within the website by using codes that are readily suppliedby Flickr and YouTube.

The videos are geolocated on a Google Map according to where they are typically found in the world. The Museum of Animal Perspectives could be a handy resource for elementary school and middle school science teachers who would like to provide their students with videos, in geographic context, of animals their students are learning about. -Richars Byrne-

Learning History of the World

Thanks to Richard Byrne for writing about this amazing resource

The BBC and the British Museum have partnered to create an excellent interactive timeline called A History of the World. A History of the World presents images of artifacts from various eras in world history. The objects are displayed in rings arranged to match each era. Click on any object in the ring to see a larger image and to read about the significance of each artifact. You can browse the collection by clicking through the rings of images or you can browse by location, by historical theme, or by dates.

A History of the World

Online Posters!

A glog is an online poster that allows students to add images, video files, sound files, text, and hyperlinks. Glogs address multiple learning styles and easily incorporate student research and educational content into a web publication. They are free, use no ink, and are fun!"Jan McGee

I've written about Glogster before in the Amschool Web 2.0 Blog. I found this Web 2.0 application to be so amazing and fun for students and teachers.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:

• I found this wiki with information about using Glogster in education. Toolkit4Blog Walker Wiki
• Traci Blazosky has already put together an excellent Glogster tutorial
• Glog On!

  View more presentations from West Monroe High School.
• Glogster Presentation

  View more presentations from digitalmaverick.
  
  

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.