Saturday, February 9, 2008

K12 Station

Web 2.0 is all the rage these days, but I'll admit that as an old "digital immigrant" I'm still enthusiastic about the availability of content through good old web 1.0. The revolution that has taken place during the past dozen years or so still has me totally amazed.

We no longer have to worry about having information resources available for our classrooms. Instead, the issue is having the time and energy to sort through and select what will best meet our needs for a specific objective. Distractions abound in our present reality. What tools are available to cut through the clutter to find what we need for our classrooms?

K12 Station is one free directory that gives us a very handy way of finding quality content sites quickly that zero in on the concepts and skills that we are teaching.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

MARVEL! Maine's Virtual Library

It is time to re-investigate the incredible resource Mainers have in MARVEL!

What would be the best way to promote it, encouraging our citizens to discover the wealth of authoritative resources that is at our fingertips?

Questions: Have the local TV stations done any features on it? Has it been promoted in Maine's newspapers? Do schools have it listed on their websites?

Any other suggestions?

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Snow Days and Block Scheduling

Written by Richard Byrne.

I'm looking at my calendar right now during SAD 17's second consecutive snow day and realizing that, as a result of snow days combined with block scheduling, when I finally see some of my kids on Friday it will have been ten days since I last saw them. Now I'm not complaining about snow days, but I am wondering what to do when I finally do see my students again. I'll have lost all momentum by Friday so I'll probably just spend the day reviewing and refreshing. This is definitely not ideal, but what else can I do?

How do those of you teaching in a block scheduled school maintain momentum when snow days create large gaps between classes? Any tricks or tips?

Monday, February 4, 2008

There Ought to Be a Law


I had the opportunity to talk with Laura Richter today and learned of her latest powerful project. You might recall that I posted her notebook on doing local/oral history last week. If you think that was great, you must see this latest work:


There Ought to Be a Law

Educational Tools for the Movie

The Noteshare Notebook for the Movie

There Ought to Be a Law is an award-winning documentary by Anita Clearfield, Shoshana Hoose and Geoffrey Leighton on the theme of average citizen versus the government.

Anna Marshall - Artwork
Skowhegan Area Middle School

Related Noteshare Posts

Reporting Out: Today's Telstar eMINTS Session

Share what you have discovered at Telstar's eMINTS session (3:30 - 7:00) today.

Any recipes to share? :)

Thanks so much for collaborating during my absence. Appreciated.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Competition in the Classroom


Jeff n' Dan are at it again with Episode 5 Competition in the Classroom at Wicked Good Learning. Check it out here.



The show's essential question: When and in what ways does a sense of competition harm/help?

Piggybacking . . ..

Competition at LIM Resources Wiki