Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My Friend Dan...


This was created on the "speechable" site. Interesting...

It saves as a .png and you can email and link to family and friends...

Thursday, October 16, 2008

My Voki


Get a Voki now!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

DEN Midwest Conference




iVelvet, iShelly, and iPam went to Glen Ellyn, IL for the DEN Midwest Conference this weekend! We learned a lot, ate a lot, and had a GREAT time!!! Bonus - Velvet won a prize!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

R U a Google Educator?

Google is holding their teacher academy in Chicago on September 24th!! So close to us! Applications must be in by August 24th!
Click here for more info...

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Games

I envision that gaming could be a way to engage our students and keep them learning. It would be great if the MAPS test could just be a game. I believe the data would be more accurate.
GLS - Right here in Madison!

Involve the teachers...

The key to building our learning community...take the time to involve the teachers and teach them. I look forward to the time I will have to do that next year.


Learning to Change

Friday, May 2, 2008

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Would you like to win a new computer lab for your school?

Each week on the show, they have a "club question" that was submitted by a student. If your question is selected, you win a new computer lab for your school.
The questions need to be geared towards 1st-5th curriculum.
Go to Are you Smarter than a 5th grader? and click on "Classroom Club Challenge" to download the entry form.
Good luck!

Monday, April 14, 2008

A vision of K-12 students today

This video really makes you think about how we need to change the way we deliver content to students. We need to engage them more. Our learners have changed, we need to change also...

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I am a bridge maker!

My official title is a Computer Resource Teacher. I like "technologist" though...
Click here for the explanation...

Friday, April 11, 2008

Are you paying attention??

Click here to watch - Pay Attention

We showed this to our TIP class, but I think it's a powerful video worth watching. It really makes you look at the way you teach and how we need to adapt to meet the needs of our digital students. :)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Why Blog?

I had two 3rd grade teachers start classroom blogs today! YIPEE!! Shannon said her kids were so excited they stayed in at recess just to finish their entry! Their links are at the bottom of my page.
Click Here for some articles and even a video that Shannon found about blogging with kids!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I am such a geek!

www.blabberize.com

Can you imagine using a photo of a famous person and talking?? Perhaps an idea for some students???

R U visual?

Check out this news site! WOW!

WEMTA

It's amazing the inspiration you get from attending a conference. I have all of these thoughts swirling through my head! Let me share a few...

I have added many sites to my del.icio.us site (on the right). If you don't have a delicious site, we need to talk!

I saw two spectacular presenters named John Pederson, Jennifer Wagner and David Jakes called "Really Cool New Tool Trio Face Off" They had some AWESOME sites and tools. I will let you check out their sites, but the ones I think I could use right away is Google Spreadsheet with forms and ZoomIt. I already use Creative Commons/Flickr with my 3rd/4th graders and it has been a wonderful resource for copyright free images for our Powerpoint and Photostory projects. (You can also use Creative Commons for music and video files.) These guys were really fun. They showed us the tools and entertained us at the same time!

I saw a good differentiation presentation by an 8th grade teacher and the GT teacher from Silver Lake, WI. They used Blooms Taxonomy and the multiple intelligences to put together an excellent unit on the Civil Rights Movement. Spectacular! We are so powerful as a team!
They let the students choose the project. They are responsible for their own learning and the teacher is the facilitator! One of the 4th grade teachers I work with, Margo VandeZande, allowed her 4th graders to choose their project for their Native American unit and it is AMAZING to watch the learning that took place(and the fun!).

David Jakes talked about how students are networking online through blogs/wikis/social networking sites and that we need to use these tools to facilitate their learning. It's time for a change in how we teach. We need to extend our classroom past the walls. Let's go global!

Transformation

In the past 9 months, my school has been fortunate enough to gain access to many different tools and opportunities including  Sphero balls, ...