Welcome to my newest home on the web! I hope you are joining me from my previous home for My Technication or maybe you are reading my blog for the first time. In either case, I'm glad you made it! The blog should look pretty much the same (for now) so you should be able to still look at older posts. I will be deleting the old address in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Doodle4Google
I discovered the Doodle4Google competition last year and with the help of our wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Coffman, we got the ball rolling with 15 participants. Even though we had made announcements about the competition and the deadline, I got a LOT of students who cam up to me after the deadline asking if they could still participate. So I was pretty sure I would do this again.
This year I was even more determined to get the word out about the competition. I know this has nothing to do with technology, but I can't help that I want students to be creative! This is a great little competition and this year we had 32 participants and some great entries! If you've never heard of this before, each school is allowed to send 6 entries to Google. Students are to re-create the Google logo based on that year's theme. This year, the theme was, "If I Could Anything, I Would...".
At our school, we have chosen to vote for the top six doodles and this year another teacher asked about doing honorable mentions, which I was all for! Take a look at our winning entries and honorable mentions:
A post on Mr. C's Class Blog alerted me that the regional competitions have taken place and voting for the national winner is upon us! Sadly, none of our entries made it past regionals. However, a student at Thornburg Middle, Ryan Watson, from our neighboring county, Spotsylvania, made it in! Way to go! Go vote for Ryan here!
This year I was even more determined to get the word out about the competition. I know this has nothing to do with technology, but I can't help that I want students to be creative! This is a great little competition and this year we had 32 participants and some great entries! If you've never heard of this before, each school is allowed to send 6 entries to Google. Students are to re-create the Google logo based on that year's theme. This year, the theme was, "If I Could Anything, I Would...".
At our school, we have chosen to vote for the top six doodles and this year another teacher asked about doing honorable mentions, which I was all for! Take a look at our winning entries and honorable mentions:
A post on Mr. C's Class Blog alerted me that the regional competitions have taken place and voting for the national winner is upon us! Sadly, none of our entries made it past regionals. However, a student at Thornburg Middle, Ryan Watson, from our neighboring county, Spotsylvania, made it in! Way to go! Go vote for Ryan here!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Making Over Math
Watch this TED Video, that Free Technology for Teachers posted earlier today:
Dan Meyer brings up some great points about how to get kids more engaged in the problem solving process. He talks about how textbooks help us (teachers) give kids the easy answers when it comes to word problems and problem solving and how that is making kids impatient in the math classroom. Instead of making a straight line from point A to point B, we should be helping to build student's critical thinking skills by giving them visual keys and discussion points to be asking the right questions when it comes to solving mathematical problems.
From a technology viewpoint, I agree with Meyer's ideas about using multimedia examples and practical (real world) examples to teach. I wholeheartedly believe that every time students learn something there needs to be something visual to represent it for them-that's simply how they learn now. It has to be engaging, interesting, and able to grab their attention and make them think. I also think it's important, especially in math, that students realize how a certain formula can be used to calculate something that will use later in life. They need to see that not just careers such as engineering or science are the only careers that use math.
Websites and resources such as flickr.com are great ways to incorporate pictures of real world examples and grab their attention. Then back it up with videos from DE Streaming or BrainPop that give more information or as Meyer states help the discussion along.
Dan Meyer brings up some great points about how to get kids more engaged in the problem solving process. He talks about how textbooks help us (teachers) give kids the easy answers when it comes to word problems and problem solving and how that is making kids impatient in the math classroom. Instead of making a straight line from point A to point B, we should be helping to build student's critical thinking skills by giving them visual keys and discussion points to be asking the right questions when it comes to solving mathematical problems.
From a technology viewpoint, I agree with Meyer's ideas about using multimedia examples and practical (real world) examples to teach. I wholeheartedly believe that every time students learn something there needs to be something visual to represent it for them-that's simply how they learn now. It has to be engaging, interesting, and able to grab their attention and make them think. I also think it's important, especially in math, that students realize how a certain formula can be used to calculate something that will use later in life. They need to see that not just careers such as engineering or science are the only careers that use math.
Websites and resources such as flickr.com are great ways to incorporate pictures of real world examples and grab their attention. Then back it up with videos from DE Streaming or BrainPop that give more information or as Meyer states help the discussion along.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 05/04/2010
MAKE BELIEFS COMIX! Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of All Ages
Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of All Ages
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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