The ten minute video, “Hearing Student Voices,” by National Writing Project 1st grade teacher, Renee Webster, provides a fantastic window into the ways a skilled and sensitive teacher can use simple audio recorders to transform reading and writing experiences for students. The technology tools in this case, digital voice recorders, ARE important for the learning
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(cross-posted from the Yukon Public Schools Learning Showcase website) This semester, students taught by Debbie Callison at the Yukon Middle School 6th Grade Academy have been writing and sharing their poetry online using free, interactive websites hosted by Kidblog.org. All the posts written by students, as well as comments submitted by others to each website,
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I’m proud to announce the worldwide publication and release today of Rachel Fryer’s first eBook, “Snowflake Gets Lost.” I’m the proud papa of Rachel (age eight) who worked from August 2011 through January 2012 during “writing workshop” time in her 2nd grade class in Oklahoma City Public Schools to author this book. Rachel’s classmate, Madison
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(cross-posted from playingwithmedia.com) This semester I’m working on a contract basis (thanks to federal grant dollars) as an “innovative instructional coach” in Yukon Public Schools. This morning I helped one of our sixth grade teachers facilitate her first lessons using free, ad-free class blogs hosted by KidBlog.org. In this post, I’ll share some of the
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(cross-posted from Professional Development Reflections from Yukon PS) On January 26, 2012, we attended a full-day workshop about “Common Core Transition” led by Jan Hough with Marzano Research Lab. These are some of our takeaways from the day. Handouts from Jan’s session are available on the OSSBA website. Writing Across the Curriculum One of the
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These are my afternoon notes from Jan K. Hoegh’s presentation on 24 January 2012 in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Curriculum Improvement Commission. (This is the link to my morning notes.) Jan is a consultant for the Marzano Research Lab. (@marzanoresearch on Twitter – Jan is not on Twitter yet.) MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE
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These are my morning notes from Jan K. Hoegh’s presentation on 24 January 2012 in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Curriculum Improvement Commission. Jan is a consultant for the Marzano Research Lab. (@marzanoresearch on Twitter – Jan is not on Twitter yet.) MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The official description of this
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This afternoon I started a new eBook project using a collection of favorite Bible verses from the Friday morning men’s group at our church. The idea is pretty simple: Include verses from the NLT and MSG translations, complying with the copyright permissions for each provided on the YouVersion.com Bible website. Along with the verses, include
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For the first five weeks of this semester, I’m teaching a fifty minute “life skills” class on Thursdays for middle school students participating in a three hour after-school program at our church. The program is called “Tiger Club,” and middle school students enrolled at Central Middle School in Edmond Public Schools are involved. I was
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These are my notes from Dr. Sharon Wilbur, Tiffany Neill, Levi Patrick and Pat Turner’s presentation, “What’s So Common About Common Core?” at the Oklahoma Association of Elementary School Principals (OAESP) mid-winter conference on January 19, 2012, in Oklahoma City. The conference is sponsored and organized by the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration (CCOSA).
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These are my notes from Karen Robertson‘s presentation on January 9, 2012, for the school board of Yukon Public Schools providing an introduction to the Common Core State Standards. Karen is the Executive Director of Curriculum and Assessment at Yukon Public Schools in Oklahoma. Common Core state standards initiative – state-led and developed common core
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Merry Christmas! As a Christmas treat, I’ve created two discount codes I invite you to use and share. Today and tomorrow only (through midnight PST, December 25th) anyone worldwide can download any of my “Playing with Media” podcasts for FREE instead of paying 99¢ each. Available sixty minute podcasts / screencasts include: Narrated Slideshows iPhoneography
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Living as we do in a sea of digital information, we all need to set and manage clever “information traps.” The reason is simple: Every day we encounter useful, digital “stuff” we want to save for later and in many cases share with others. In this post, I’ll describe how to use Zoo Tool, Posterous,
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With the recent release of the Kindle Fire by Amazon.com as well as Barnes & Noble’s color tablet, more people than ever are reading and interested in eBooks. Apple’s iPad remains (IMHO) the unquestioned leader in the touch tablet computing world, but the increasing number of eReaders and tablet devices at lower price points will
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Thanks SO much for all the uplifting words of support and encouragement shared today after I successfully defended my dissertation for my PhD! There were so many kind comments shared I can’t reply individually to all of you tonight. It was an overwhelming response, and I am filled with thankfulness for the support of many
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Necessity can motivate us to learn new things, and that was the case today as I finalize my dissertation and my “List of Tables” following my table of contents. Although I’ve been using the provided “table of contents” feature of my word processor to automate pagination of major paper sections, I hadn’t figured out (until
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Here is a quotation worth considering in our communications landscape awash in information: From “Democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education” by John Dewey, published in 1916. In Chapter Fifteen: “Play and Work in the Curriculum” he wrote: Doubtless the fact that children normally engage in play and work out of school
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These are my notes from Karl Fisch’s luncheon keynote at the November 10, 2011, Innovative Learning Institute hosted by the K-20 Center at the University of Oklahoma. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Links from Karl’s breakout sessions are available on Google Sites. This session is available as a no-edit audio podcast via
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The decision by Google’s design team for Google Reader to integrate Google Plus “1+” sharing into Reader is understandable from one vantage point, but its current implementation is very poor and represents a functional downgrade for millions of Google Reader users. Brian Shih, the original (and former) program manager for Google Reader, was on the
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I love National Geographic magazine and have been a subscriber since college. This evening I had my first opportunity to experience the magazine in its new, digital form on the iPad, and I have to say I’m amazed by the experience. While I can be sentimental about the feel of paper pages when I read,
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