Summer Refresh

As we near the end of the school year (only one day left!), many realize it is a great way to sit back and reflect on the things you did in your classroom. You have the summer months ahead of you where you don't have to fulfill the everyday needs of your students and can focus on better ways to fulfill them in the coming school year. Plus, there are the summer inservice days that will provide you with new skills and insights to use with your students. But what are some ways that you can help yourself grow over the summer? Through reflection and communication with other professionals!

1. Twitter - You may have heard about twitter on any variety of news and entertainment outlets, and most mock the service, often wondering why anyone would care about what you had for breakfast or the latest shenanigans of the celebrity flavor of the week. While it is true that many users do post such banalities, twitter is a tool that you can use to do for you that which you need it to do. You choose whether to have a protected or unprotected account (in other words, you decide who gets to "follow" you). You choose who to "follow," which would be the users whose posts get fed into your twitter stream, and these users will become your Professional Learning Network (PLN).

Twitter is known as a micro-blogging site that allows you to share information 140 characters at a time. Many users share thoughts and ideas in these little posts, but is it also great for sharing links or having conversations with certain groups of users. One such conversation that happens every Tuesday at 12 PM and 7 PM Eastern is EdChat. Two different discussions are held, and each tweet includes a hashtag #edchat so that all edchatters can follow the full conversation. As you grow your PLN and use of twitter, you will find that it molds into a tool that fits your needs.

There are a great many educators on twitter who are more than willing to share ideas and resources, or even set up a classroom collaboration project between your classroom and theirs. If you do decide to use twitter as a way to build a PLN, let me know and I will help you connect with other educators around the world who are members of my PLN (my handle on twitter is misterlamb).

2. Blogging has become a great way to reflect, share, collaborate, and coordinate in today's connected world. While twitter allows you to share small thought 140 characters at a time, blogging gives you a much larger canvas to work with. There are many educators who use blogs to reflect for themselves or to allow their students to collaborate and reflect on classroom discussions. The service that is used for this blog is Blogger, but there are a multitude of other blogs available out there, including WordPress and Edublogs. Of course, this doesn't include all blogging services, and you'll want to find one that fits needs of you and your students.

If you want to use blogging in your classroom next year, set up an appointment so we can discuss various ways the tool could be utilized in your classroom. If you need help setting up either of these ways to help with reflection, also set up an appointment so I can help you out.

As with anything where you are posting online, always remember that you are a professional and put under more scrutiny than those in other fields. Information that you post online should not be derogatory in any manner, and definitely should not identify students, administrators, colleagues, or parents, especially in a negative manner.

Finds of the Week: January 25-29, 2010

Every week, I will be posting at least one post with my top "Finds of the Week." These could be websites for use in your classroom that have been passed on through my Professional Learning Network (PLN), submitted by fellow teachers at school, or found at a conference. There might be articles with a best practice or suggestions for things that work to help raise the level of thinking in your classrooms.

1. Algebra Lab - This is a site for the math people. This link will take you to a collection of sample math problems for both you and your students to use. It allows for students to try out problems of various skill levels. If you click on "Absolute Value," you will notice it gives sample problems at both the Algebra I and Algebra II level. Provide a direct link for your students to go and practice. When completed, some of the problem sets will even get some feedback.

Beyond the sample problems, you will also notice that there are connections to lessons for the topics, as well as a breakdown of careers that use math and word problems that could be transformed into open ended questions.

Areas of use: Math, science

2. Trebuchet Challenge - This is an interactive web applet that allows for some trial and error in an exploration of how a trebuchet works. Students can apply what they know about projectile motion, potential energy, kinetic energy, and gravity to adjust the distance, power, and accuracy of a trebuchet. Points are tallied on the activity. Have students take and submit a screenshot of their best scores as a competition.

Areas of use: Science, math, world history

3. Penn Manor Blog Site - Have you thought about using blogging in your classroom? Take a look at how Penn Manor High School in Millersville, PA is using blogging with their students to get them to increase their critical thinking and writing skills. There are many blogging platforms out there for use. Penn Manor hosts their own using WordPress. This blog is hosted through Google's blogging service Blogger. If you are thinking of using blogging, set up a meeting with me and we can discuss options.

Areas of use: Writing across the curriculum

4. White House Speeches on iTunes - While it is true that the White House has its own YouTube channel, it is difficult for schools to easily get to the channel, depending on filtering protocols from district to district. In our school, YouTube is blocked. There are still other ways to obtain the videos from YouTube, but I don't see any way that's as easy as going to iTunes and either showing a given speech, subscribing to the feed, or just downloading particular speeches. The 2010 State of the Union address is up. So is President Obama's Inaugural Speech. What better way to get your students more connected to politics?

Areas of use: Social Studies, speech

5. Noteflight - Here's a great one for the music theory classes, or even for anyone who would like to try their hand at writing some music. It takes a little bit of working with to get down how the interface works, but once you get it down, you can be writing your own sheet music (and hearing it!) in minutes!

Areas of use: Music