A Principal's Reflections

OCTOBER 17, 2012

'We have all had our own unique horror stories when it comes to professional development. From a one size fits all approach, to unqualified presenters that lack passion, to leaving a session or entire day for that matter with no applicable ideas and strategies to implement into practice - poor professional development has left many scars. Another glaring void has been the availability of quality opportunities to learn about the latest Web 2.0 tools or innovative pedagogical techniques that have

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 9, 2012

'Yep, another Twitter post. This time, I want to focus on another popular question I get. "If Twitter says you have to be 13 to use Twitter, how do I use it in my elementary classroom?" (See the Update below.) Great question! Twitter''s Privacy Policy says each user has to be at least 13 in order to have a Twitter account. This is to comply with privacy laws and non-collection of data of children.

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Educational Technology Guy

OCTOBER 12, 2012

'Remember the days when you would sit in a classroom listening to the monotone voice of a teacher buzzing in the air and fight a bout of sleepiness? How many times did you have to mentally shake yourself awake or wish that bell would ring? Today, however, teachers can engage their students in a variety of ways using technology. Many teachers have found that the implement of educational technology in their learning environment encourages students to learn.

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Baker's B.Y.O.D.

OCTOBER 27, 2012

'When at home I use the Remote Desktop Connection to access the remote servers at school for all the curricular content I''ve created over the years. Remote Desktop has been invaluable especially when I have to call out unexpectedly and need to create sub plans ( ah, the life of a mom ) or when I want to tweak lessons at home, and now Remote Desktop-ing is even easier by adding the AccessNow RDP Client by Ericom to my Chrome browser.

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Digital Citizenship Laptops iPad Accessibility 129

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EdTechSandyK

OCTOBER 5, 2012

'Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License Last Sunday, I received a note via the contact form on my blog that was a first for me in many ways. It was the first time I had ever been contacted by a parent via my blog, the first time I could not put a comment out of my mind until I had addressed it, and the first time I ever thought about the impact a school''s 1:1 take-home technology initiative could have on a family.

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iPad Meeting Technology Course 109

The 21st Century Principal

OCTOBER 23, 2012

'With all the talk about having a “world-class education system” from politicians and policymakers, one would think that our schools would be undergoing major reforms designed to create exactly the kinds of schools that foster 21st century learning and education. Too often though, I suspect this isn''t the case, because these individuals define “world-class” as simply “having the best test scores in the world” because in their next breath they lament just how poorly American students compare wit

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 3, 2012

'A while back I wrote about Class Connect. Founded by a pretty awesome guy, Eric (you remember, the kid who slept at AOL while coding in the middle of the night?), the goal was to provide a platform for teachers to share resources, easily, in an organized way. Now, Eric has expanded Class Connect and changed the name to Claco. And he has created a service that could be very valuable to classroom teachers.

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Common Core Facebook Twitter Video 204

Educational Technology Guy

OCTOBER 16, 2012

'MyPhysicsLab is a free site that contains, you guessed it, physics lab simulations. They are simple and created in Java, but illustrate the physics concept quite well. They are organized into topics: springs, pendulums, combinations, collisions, roller coasters, molecules. There is also a section that explains how they work and the math/physics/programming behind creating them.

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Software Resources Twitter Google 213

Baker's B.Y.O.D.

OCTOBER 20, 2012

'"The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back." - Marcus Annaeus Seneca I''ve been struggling with the logistics and assessment of student writing for my entire academic career and I''m not using hyperbole (again). I''ve written about peer editing and I know that works to help improve students'' writing, but when it comes to the teacher putting a grade on the paper, I have issues.

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The Innovative Educator

OCTOBER 30, 2012

'Students interact with music, video, apps, social media and other digital content each day, but do they understand the rules that govern this content? To help teachers with this increasingly relevant topic, Microsoft has released a free curriculum that addresses digital citizenship, intellectual property rights, and creative content rights. The Digital Citizenship and Creative Content program is aimed at secondary students and offers cross-curricular classroom activities that align with the Am

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Digital Citizenship Secondary Social Media Microsoft 83

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

Training

The 21st Century Principal

OCTOBER 15, 2012

'In 2012, the powerful inertia to keep schools and school districts the same continues to dampen and neutralize any efforts to innovate and change how schools operate. We are still on a march to obsolescence. A recent example of this inertia in North Carolina, was when school districts tried to innovate with changing their school calendars. School districts shifted their calendars to better align their semester schedules with student needs.

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A Principal's Reflections

OCTOBER 14, 2012

'Two of my Social Studies teachers were recently invited to Washington DC on October 4, 2012, to deliver a model lesson that illustrated the effective use of technology. The following is a guest post by Rebecca Millan who attended with her colleague Nicolette Perna. For more information on this event check out the summary provided by ISTE. As a social studies teacher, being asked to take a professional development trip to Washington DC is an extremely exciting offer.

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 25, 2012

'I just got back from a wonderful few days in Indianapolis. No, it wasn''t to see a race or for the fabulous food. I went to engage with other thought-leaders from around the world (yes over 10 countries were represented) and talk, share, learn and grow. The ISTE Leadership Forum (#ISTELF12) was a new event this year. The idea was to bring together district and school level leaders to talk about what issues we are facing with technology and to learn with each other.

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Educational Technology Guy

OCTOBER 25, 2012

'The Physics Front is a free site that contains teaching resources on Physics and Physical Science. The resources are searchable and are arranged by level: K-8 Physical Science, Physics First, Conceptual Physics, Algebra Based, and AP / Calculus. Resources are then organized by topic. It''s part of the ComPADRE education community resources. There are lesson plans, links to other resources, technology, links, and other resources to help educators when teaching Physics or Physical Science.

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Resources STEM Software Twitter 204

This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.

Technology

Baker's B.Y.O.D.

OCTOBER 7, 2012

'Claco (in Beta right now, but you can request an invite ) provides a place for educators to store all their resources including files, bookmarks, websites, videos and just about any other content imaginable in organized and tagged online binders. Claco also allows for easy sharing with other educators, parents, and teachers with the ability to "snap" binders and files from other Claco users or share via Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

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mauilibrarian2 in Olinda

OCTOBER 7, 2012

'Yes, of course there are more than five things I took away from the Google Teacher Academy ! This little list is just a pupu* to start. 1. Let''s jump right to the Grand Prize (yes, I sometimes do eat dessert first!). The email invitation at the end of the training to become a member of the very active Google Certified Teachers Group assures me that the awesome learning I experienced at the Google Teacher Academy will continue.

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Edmodo Google Facebook EdTech 81

Nik Peachey

OCTOBER 11, 2012

I’d like to share a couple of videos with you that I have used recently in the courses I teach. I find these videos particularly interesting because they show such contrasting approaches to learning and in particular - for want of a better word - elearning. This first one is from the early 1950’s and is about something called a ‘ teaching machine ’ which was created by behavioural psychologist B F Skinner.

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Technology Education iPad eBook 81

A Principal's Reflections

OCTOBER 7, 2012

'Adobe recently announced its next-generation Adobe Acrobat XI software, complete with cloud services to help K-12 and higher education teachers and administrators handle complex document challenges and alleviate productivity inefficiencies. Additionally, AXI’s new, more intuitive editing and exporting tools helps students showcase their academic achievements more easily.

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Adobe Tablets Software Android 187

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 30, 2012

'A while back a friend of mine, Patrick Larkin , was a high school principal. (He has since moved up in the world to Asst. Superintendent ) He was regularly blogging for his staff and at the end of his weekly posts of updates, things to remember and such he had a list of things that had him thinking. It might have been a video, blog post, article, something, that had piqued his interest and he wanted to share.

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iPad Video Twitter Technology 180

Educational Technology Guy

OCTOBER 25, 2012

'Symbolab is a site I learned about from David Kapuler on his blog. It is a "Science and Math Search Engine" and makes it easier to find science content online. It specifically searches for science content using semantic search tools. You can search from the site, or use a free download for Chrome and Firefox. The other unique feature that truly sets it apart is that it lets you use math and science symbols and equations to search.

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STEM Twitter Resources Google 196

Baker's B.Y.O.D.

OCTOBER 22, 2012

'Both my 9th grade Honors students and my one section of 12th grade general-level students start the year off studying the Hero''s Journey concept and connect it to literature. The freshmen work with their summer reading books ( The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Abarat by Clive Barker) and the seniors apply the concept to Beowulf. For both sets of students, they are at the cusp of a new beginning: the freshmen need to be called to action and learn how to think for themselves, and the seniors need

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Edmodo Digital Citizenship Assessment EdTech 106

EdTechSandyK

OCTOBER 19, 2012

'My school district is taking a step into the world of using iPads in the classroom with a small, targeted implementation of a pod of iPads on several campuses. "Yea!" and "Oh my gosh, how do we do this in the best way possible?!" There are several great posts about implementation Dos and Don''ts out there, like these from Tony Vincent , Carl Hooker , and Terice Schneider.

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iPad Mobile Learning Mobility EdTech 80

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

Comparison

SpeechTechie

OCTOBER 1, 2012

'Before I go any further, I must acknowledge that I stole the phrase "Appy-Picking" from the terrific EdCeptional podcast.imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Have you listened to EdCeptional lately? I must confess that I am not a big fan of the fall. Many of us seasonal affective disorder (SAD) sufferers view haybales, pumpkins and mums as harbingers of death.

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Common Core iPad Data Examples 80

A Principal's Reflections

OCTOBER 24, 2012

'A few weeks ago I published a post titled Doing What It Takes To Support Student Learning (Part 1). In a continuation of that piece I am posting a second student reflection on a summer learning experience that our school supported for one of our students. Mr. Sheninger, I would like to thank you for generously supporting my trip to the Foundation for Free Enterprise’s Summer Business Camp.

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The Innovative Educator

OCTOBER 25, 2012

'Editor’s note: I feel fortunate to be living during a period in our history where for the first time we can easily form social learning circles that bring together from around the world, experts, authors, and others that share passions and can engage in rich and meaningful dialogue. The power of the technology to connect in ways never before possible is a game changer when it comes to learning.

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Common Core Study Examples Groups 74

Educational Technology Guy

OCTOBER 18, 2012

'SciencePrimer is a free web site that has some great science resources. The site has illustrations (animations with explanations) of concepts, practice questions and problems with hints and solutions, calculators and conversion tools, and a science glossary. The illustrations are really good. They include interactive animations that let you change different specifications or characteristics, an explanation of the topic, and videos.

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Resources Software Twitter Google 189

Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions

The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.

LMS

Baker's B.Y.O.D.

OCTOBER 14, 2012

'Having all students involved in a focused class discussion instead of being prompted and lead by the teacher, requires all students to be invested in the process. When the discussion is structured so that all students are vested in the process, students can use critical thinking to practice crafting and supporting arguments. In this video posted on Edutopia , KIPP King Collegiate High School teachers learn to facilitate fishbowl discussions to promote the Socratic process in class.Using a criti

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EdTechSandyK

OCTOBER 14, 2012

'I''m so glad @NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger arranged to have @CoolCatTeacher Vicki Davis''s Edscape 2012 keynote broadcast live via Ustream yesterday! I really enjoyed hearing Vicki as she encouraged all of us to invest in our own positive attitudes and outlooks so that we may impact the lives of our students and do what is right for them in spite of circumstances which may exist in our school systems.

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SpeechTechie

OCTOBER 17, 2012

'I am very excited about a recent release, an app I helped develop for Smarty Ears Apps - ATEval2Go ! Author Chris Bugaj worked with us to design this app, which helps assistive technology professionals (a diverse group that tends to include SLPs like Chris) complete all aspects of an AT eval, including background information about the student or classroom, environmental observations and student goals, and recommended tools and strategies.

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Assistive Technology Report Video Strategy 76

Learning with 'e's

OCTOBER 29, 2012

Informal and self regulated learning are defining characteristics of 21 st Century education. Various commentators suggest that as much as seventy percent of learning occurs outside of formal educational settings (Cofer, 2000; Dobbs, 2000; Cross, 2006). If these are accurate statistics, they present a significant challenge to schools, colleges and universities.

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BYOD PLE MOOC Learning 72

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