The BIG Picture

During my daily professional development time (a.k.a. reading blogs, articles, Twitter, etc.), I came upon a site from my del.icio.us network. My Wonderful World created by National Geographic provides students, parents, and teachers with resources to get a GLOBAL perspective. There are links to information, lessons, links, and much more. One of my favorite aspects is the link to Test Your Global IQ. I did not do very well on these! The resources are divided into age level and role.

It Takes a Community

Bobby Hobgood from Learn NC conducted a session at the NCaect conference about culturally responsive teaching. The suggested resources focused on meeting the needs of Latino students but the real key to creating a culture for learning is to realize we all bring our own history and our own perspective into the classroom. Teachers are challenged to blend all represented cultures to create a community of learners. A framework for creating this shared culture stresses the importance of:
Establishing inclusion - make sure everyone feels respected and connected
Developing a positive attitude toward learning - make it relevant and offer choices, build real world connections and my world connections
Enhance meaning - lesson has to matter to the learner
Engender competence - students have to believe they can be effective learners

Suggested resources from Learn NC included:
Helping Latino Students Feel Comfortable in your Classroom http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/latinosclassman2006-01

Climbing the school ladder: A challenging task for migrant Latino students http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/brdglangbarriers/1.1

Reaching Latinos through Social Studies
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/latinossocialstudies

It is okay to be different: Teaching diversity with Todd Parr http://www.learnnc.org/lessons/Readwritethink200606212024

Bridging Language Barriers
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/brdglangbarriers/1.3

Funds of Knowledge
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/brdglangbarriers/2.1

Don't put it down, put it up
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/harwell-braun1

InTime Multicultural Education
http://www.learnnc.org/bestweb/intime

How do you learn math?

Using manipulatives can help students learn and understand Math. When involved and actively working with physical objects, concepts are visualized for the learner. The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) helps students interact with math skills through web-based virtual manipulatives. Using a SmartBoard or ActivBoard to access the website gets the students up and participating. Physically touching the board and managing the problems as they are presented help them understand the concept.

Teacher Tube

While I was at the conference, I had a chance to sit in a session presented by Jason and Jodi Smith. One of the things they discussed was http://www.teachertube.com/. This is a site that they created as a resource for teachers around the world. It's similar to youtube, but this site targets teachers. It's a place where teachers can learn and share teaching strategies with the best and brightest teachers around the world. There are currently 67,000 members and 14,000 videos divided by subject and school level. It's free to join and a fantastic resource. Check it out and upload vidoes of your greatest teaching moments to help out other teachers to become better educators for our students. By the way, I don't get any money for endorsing this site. I just think it's a very useful resource.

Discovery Education Streaming Plus

I am interested in learning more about the new features in DE streaming Plus with more videos and more materials to make it even easier for teachers to correlate the materials to the SCOS.
There is a new Planet Earth that has fourteen programs, a teacher's guide with learning objectives, discussion questions and writing prompts.
I spoke to Holly Fischer and she was willing to allow us a preview into the streaming Plus. Would anyone else like to look at the new streaming Plus?

Ustream.TV is it good or what?

While attending the NCAECT Conference last week March 13 -14, I had the opportunity to see a Web 2.0 tool that I had not seen before. Ustream.tv a free web-based application to allow you to do live interactive broadcasts over the internet. For me this will help out some of the schools that I work with to open them up and bring them into the 21st Century. While in the sessions the some of the presenters were using this tool as a simulcast of the conference. This tool allows you to broadcast live video and sound, record the input, share via posting directly on the screen integrates well with other applications. This is something that I am really looking forward to using very soon.

Yugma- Desktop Sharing and Collaboration

While at the NCaect conference, I learned about a free web 2.0 tool called Yugma. Yugma allows you to share your desktop in real-time. At anytime, you can empower an attendee and have them take over as presenter. Their desktop is then shown and they take control of the mouse and keyboard. There is also a built-in whiteboard feature for collaboration. Yugma can work with Skype if you want audio or video with the presentation as well.

Welcome to the WSFCS Instructional Department blog!

Please add us to your feed reader or bookmark us and check back regularly! We will be adding lots of instructional resources for teachers to use technology.

Are Flakes for You?

Do you have password dementia – then Pageflakes is for you. While at the NCaect Conference I learned about Pageflakes. This website is among the growing popularity of websites using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a group of inter-related web development techniques used for creating interactive personal publishing solutions. You can create your own homepage and access it without having to sign in. Pageflake is organized into tabs with each tab containing selected user content called flakes. Each Flake varies in content; information such as RSS/Atom feeds, Calendar, Notes, Web search, weather forecast, del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos, social networking tools like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, email and user-created modules.