Flipping the Classroom with Ted Ed

May 7th, 2012 No comments

Ted Ed makes flipping the classroom a great deal easier! Often times teachers mention (and I know what they mean!) that it is time consuming to produce their own videos for students to engage students before class. Well, Ted Ed makes this a whole lot easier. They offer an increasing number of the insprirational and informative TED videos as engaging interactive lessons for students. Selected videos are animated, cartoonized, or made more visual in sume manner.. The video  lesson includes a follow up questionaire and additional resources.

The best thing about Ted Ed flipping? Well, it has to be the ability to flip ANY YouTube video. Ted Ed allows the user to to apply your own titles, your own questions, your own resources, and provide your  own link to any  YouTube video lesson you customize-not just the ones on their site.

 

Categories: Online Tools, Resources Tags: , ,

Twitter in ES

March 20th, 2012 Comments off

Quite a few classes in elementary school here at ISM are using twitter as another way to communicate with the world. The classes that are tweeting are using one joint class twitter account and allowing the students in the class to take turns writing tweets throughout the day. The tweets focus on the learning happening both in the homeroom class and the learning that happens in specialists classes. Parents and others interested can follow the class tweets on twitter or by visiting the blog, where there is a twitter feed placed in the sideboard. see image below

We are finding that the students want to write on twitter because they know their words will be on the web for others to see. Having a real audience gives writing a purpose and gives the students  a voice.

Some thoughts:

-students write tweets, teachers handle the social aspect of following other tweeters

-gives teachers many teachable moments on appropriate language, spelling and grammar. We are also learning when and how to use ‘text speak’.

-many reluctant writers find writing on twitter less intimidating so they are willing to take risks with their writing

-we are beginning to connect with other tweeters across the school and across the world, including other classes & authors

Example of the twitter feed on an ISM blog:

Categories: Announcements Tags:

Wallwisher: Multiple Uses

February 27th, 2012 Comments off

 

 

 

How can you use Wallwisher.com?

1. Get feedback on school trips.
2. Gather resources collectively.
3. Student responses to presentations, media,questions, etc.
4. Generate brainstorming ideas.
5. think of your own…


How to set it up?

1. Go to Wallwisher.com
2. Choose build a wall.
3. Choose a URL name.
4. Enter name and email.
5. Choose a picture
6. Choose public or private.
6. Share by giving out address or embed into a blog post.
7. Start adding Sticky notes.

Notes:
notes limited to 160 characters
can embed pics and video links into posts


Dropbox is currently offering 5GB of free space for beta testers to test their new camera upload feature.

February 6th, 2012 Comments off

Dropbox is currently offering 5GB of free space for beta testers to test their new camera upload feature.

I tried it this morning at home and am letting it run all day and
confirm that it’s working properly. For every 500mb of pics / videos
uploaded, you’ll get 500mb free up to 5GB. Not a bad deal if you’re a Dropbox user.

Here’s the link – not sure how long it’ll be available.

 

Categories: Online Tools Tags: ,

The Future is Here

January 30th, 2012 Comments off

Can you see the possibilities of using these future technologies in your classroom?

Eye Tracking


Smart Window


Interactive Projectors

These devices are here already.

On the Go

Is he ultimate presentation tool an HD interactive portable projector? Check out the new Pico

7 Tips to Add Some Punch and Zing to Your Blog Posts

November 8th, 2011 Comments off

Three Things

After perusing all the teacher blogs in Middle School, a few things stand out:
1. Teachers have  increased the frequency of their posts.
2. The diversity of topics covered has increased

and the focus for this post..
3. many posts lack an engaging look and feel

pic source@Flickr

Here are…

7 Tips to Add Some Punch and Zing to Your Blog Posts

1. Insert a picture per post. Too many posts are large black blob of text. Using a picture sets the tone for your blog post. Be sure to use and show attribution of the Creative Commons photos you use. Two easy way sot do this are by using Compfight and Google Advanced image search.

2. Chunk it. Draw the eye and create a smooth flow for the reader by chunking your text into short(er) paragraphs.

3. Add scanning points. Utilize the bold and text color options to emphasis key words and ideas to your reader.

4. Make lists. Readers like lists. They …

  • draw attention to the most important step
  • emphasis key ideas
  • make it easy to scan

5. Awesome titles and subtitles. Be a student for a second- would you be more likely to click Meet the FlyGuy! or Class Animation Projects.

6. Crisp links. Link the site name itself or a catchy word rather than linking a long ugly URL.

You can check out Mr. Pasamba’s cool class site is a little freiendlier than http://pasambag.ism-online.org

7. Engage your students. Get the students involved by asking a question, creating a contest, requesting a headline to a funny pictur, etc. and encouraging them to respond. Here is a good example of a teacher site that encourages dialogue.

 

Welcome to the HS Student Portal

October 19th, 2011 Comments off

To make learning and communication as easy as possible for HS students, I and David Collett developed the “HS Student Portal“. It serves as a one-stop location for viewing their teachers’ websites, teachers’ calendars they subscribe to, their Google Docs, and important information from the HS Office, CAS, ATAC and ISSBA – all in one location.

Additionally, we built in the functionality to view the ISM Portal, library resources, and even Powerschool.

Simple, effective, fun.

Below you can view the screencast that I created for students and teachers.

 

Sort Google Searches by Reading Level

October 7th, 2011 Comments off

I just learned about this feature yesterday.

1. Search for a topic using Google.

2. Click on ‘More Search Tools’

3. Click on ‘Reading Level’

4. Click on the reading level that best fits.

Categories: ES, HS, MS Tags: ,

Google Apps — 100 Ways To Make You A Better Educator

September 26th, 2011 Comments off

I found this article use in throwing out some ideas on how to leverage Google Apps in Education.  Check-out the below article.

100 Ways Google Apps Can Make You A Better Educator

 

If you haven’t already visited the new ISM Google Apps below is the URL and a screen shot.

 

ISM Google Apps

 

 

40 Alternative Assessments for Learning

September 23rd, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Education Tags: