Class Discussion...100% Participation!

I may be on to something here...

I have just ventured into some uncharted ed-tech territory, and I think it went fairly well considering it was my first run. My sophomores are reading George Orwell's Animal Farm, and we're about halfway through the book. I wanted to reward them for working so hard on the first half of the book, so I figured I would show about 25 minutes of TNT's film adaptation just to give them more insight to the story.

Then I thought, "What good is watching a movie if there's no discussion or follow-up to create opportunities for deeper understanding?" This is where the technology came into play. I used Today's Meet, a web application that is very similar to Twitter. Students are given a web link that directs them to a virtual chatroom where they create a screen name and are able to submit comment of 140 characters (letters, numbers, spaces). I originally heard about Today's Meet in Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology for Teachers. You can take a look and read his post on Today's Meet and other backchanneling tools.

I printed off the 15 page transcript of my 1st period class discussion, and I look forward to re-reading our discussion to take a closer look at who was actually doing some real thinking.

I will be posting our discussions at a later time for you to take a look at. In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to visit Today's Meet and think about ways you can incorporate this tool into your own curriculum.

Need Math Help?

While checking my Google Reader subscriptions, I came across an excellent math resource on Kevin Cummins' excellent blog Edgalaxy. He featured the site Algebrahelp.com. This site includes lessons, worksheets, and exercises for students, teachers, and maybe even parents who need to brush up on some their math skills so they can help out with their kid's after-dinner homework. After about 5 minutes of browsing around Algebrahelp.com, I was able to figure out how to determine GCF (greatest common factor). This was something I distinctly remember struggling with as a math student back in my own grade school days.

Maybe Algebrahelp.com can help you out? Check out the site here.

Save Yourself a Few Seconds With Quicker Printing!

I just picked up this tip from a conversation I had with Janice Ventresco. She told me how to store my print username and password, which allows me to skip the step of typing it in when I need to print. Follow these easy steps to save yourself a few extra seconds everyday:

Step #1 : Go the print screen just as you would to print any document, PDF, or spreadsheet. Select "Properties" option


Step #2: Select the "Details" option


Step #3: Story your username and password!


A simple solution to a simple problem. Thanks Janice!

Google Docs Tip Sheet

I came across a tip sheet on Steven Anderson's blog Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom. A great resource!
Google Docs - Tipsheet and Resource Guide

Daily Student News Broadcast by CNN!

My most recent post highlighted a great resource in C-SPAN Classroom. A related website that would benefit students from a variety of content areas is CNN Student News. This is a great resource for current events that I have come across recently. This website features a new 10 minute news broadcast everyday targeted for middle school and high school viewers.

Check out "What is CNN Student News?" for more information, or go directly to the website to watch the latest broadcast. Discussion questions and other teacher materials are also provided by CNN Student News. Follow any of these links to take a closer look.

C-SPAN Classroom for Social Studies Teachers

C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies, history, or government teachers who are looking to pull relevant C-SPAN programming into their curriculum. C-SPAN Classroom also offers instant access to over 100,000 videos featuring the latest political speeches, congressional proceedings, and news conferences. Take a moment to browse through this one-of-a-kind website! Video clips, current events, debate topics, discussion questions, lesson plans, and much more can be found at C-SPAN Classroom.

Clipped from: www.c-spanclassroom.org (share this clip)

Stay Informed With Google Reader

In today's age of technology,
news and information can be found everywhere. Aside from newspapers, magazines, and television, people access the Internet from their computers and mobile devices to stay up to date on the latest news and information from a variety of sources. Instead of visiting each of these sources and checking to see if anything new has been added, why not have the news delivered to you? Google Reader gives you the ability to read and follow multiple blogs and websites from one location. Any page that has an RSS (Really Simply Syndication) feed can be added to your Google Reader listing.

Take a look at My Blog List for a few really good education/technology blogs you can follow. All you need is a Google Account to get started. For more information go to Google Reader or check out the video below.