A few nights ago I told my wife, “I need some space.”  While she was jumping with glee and ready to send me packing, I felt compelled to make it clear that I was talking about “Web Space.”  She was only slightly disappointed, but she mustered up the strength to support my blog anyway.   So, I’ve stayed up late the last few nights getting it ready just for you! If you were a subscriber to my blog you should know, I’ve moved it to its very own spot on the web at www.techedknow.com.  

This blog was created to support teachers in their endeavors to incorporate Technology + Education + a little Know-How. 

Share this link with other teachers as I’m sure they will find great resources and tools to use in their classrooms and everyday life.  On my blog you will also find links to other RRISD employee blogs that you will also find helpful in your classroom.

If you would like to learn how to subscribe to Blogs (RSS Feeds) or would like to start a blog of your own please let me know. 

I have decided to move my blog to it’s very own space.  You can find it at www.techedknow.com Please come join me.

Where we give Teachers the Technology Know-How to move their students forward!

This weeks Tech Tip is for the Social Studies Teacher.  You will find that Google has partnered with the NARA to digitize 104 films of history.  You will find them on the Google page http://video.google.com/nara.html . 

I took a look at one of the news reels from D-Day and it was amazing looking at this time in history as it happened.Teachers can use this public domain data by allowing students to view the content as it was in history.  How powerful could this be?! 

You will find clips from NASA, War News Reels, and the Department of Interior.  The Department of Interior video about the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1936 was awesome!  I loved seeing the old machinery working as I gained a new appreciation for the advancement of Technology today. 

I think you will find this a great tool for teaching history and giving students an opportunity to view history through the eyes of the people that lived it.  

Note: I do advise; preview each clip before you show it to your students.  Some things just shouldn’t be seen by certain age groups. 

Weekly Tech Tip

This weeks tech tip is can be used in Social Studies, LA, and Math.

The site is http://www.visualgeography.com/ . 

Social Studies:

Visualgeography.com has pictures of interesting things from most if not all countries of the world.  Such as this dish from the country of Haiti, in North America.

 Students can learn about other cultures by studying the pictures and notes that are on the page.  Each countries map and flag is shown as well. 

Would you have ever guessed that this picture 

could have been taken on the continent of Africa in the country of Ethiopia.  How awesome is that!!  I know I need to get out more.  But I can’t, and neither can many of our students.  That’s why this type of thing is so important.

LA:

I would have my students write compare contrast papers, express their surprise at commonalities, or even use the pictures as writing prompts.  The writing assignments are endless when you begin to look at these pictures from around the world. 

Math:

The site even gives statistics about each country.  The students can do calculations comparing the countries, and charts showing different data.  When I compared the US to Brazil I didn’t know how much alike in size we are. 

U.S.A. is 1.1 times bigger than Brazil
U.S.A. has 1.6 times more inhabitants than BrazilU.S.A.Size: 9,631,418 sq km
Population: 298,444,215 inhabitantsBrazilSize: 8,511,965 sq km
Population: 188,078,227 inhabitants 

I’m learning lots from this site and I’m sure your students can also!  Leave a post and let me know how you use this in your classroom.  Enjoy your Technology!

Weekly Tech Tip

I’m going to stray today and do a back post.

** A few weeks back I did a post about VoiceThread and how it can be used in the classroom. This morning early when I was reading a blog from one of my feeds I found another post about VoiceThread. This post showed a perfect example of how it can be used in the classroom. I had to watch and read the whole VoiceThread!!! It was that good!!! (not normal for me, I get bored easy!) Please, do yourself a favor and look at the VoiceThread - http://ed.voicethread.com/#q.b62276.i322457 You will find students engaged, empowered, problem solving and passionate while learning at the same time. Thanks for the example, Cool Cat Teacher Blog! http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ She even has a follow up post about what her students are doing to extend their learning experiences. Awesome Stuff!!!!

(Note:) I’m only giving an example of how it can be used. I’m not promoting any views in the VoiceThread.

** World Wide Telescope coming soon! This sure sounds exciting for the Education and Science worlds. Here is a description from their web page. “The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe. WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.” You can check it out further at http://worldwidetelescope.org/ I hope to be bringing you more info on this when it’s released this spring”

** What an exciting time to be a part of education in such an “information available” age! When I first started teaching we only dreamed of having this kind of information available to us. Now we can not only have it available we can have our students producing it, collaborating on it, and making it available for the rest of the world to see. There are over 100,000 new blogs created daily with a majority of them being student aged creators. There are about 300,000 new MySpace / FaceBook users every day. This is growing by leaps and bounds.

This is where our students are at: Capturing their interests + Capturing their hearts = Capturing their minds!

 Happy Educating with Technology!

Weekly Tech Tip

Templates are a good thing!  For most of us, templates help us save time to not re-create.  This web page is full of power point templates for game show like activities.  All you have to do is copy the slides and fill in the blanks!  How cool is that!? 

Here you will find: Family Feud, The Price is Right, 100,000 Pyramid, Hollywood Squares, Weakest Link, Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and even Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.  All of these are pre-built for you.  This page also offers links to other templates and teacher resources that you may find interesting.  Enjoy Saving Time and creating fun activities for your students! 

Here’s the link:  http://www.murray.k12.ga.us/teacher/kara%20leonard/Mini%20T%27s/March%20Mini%20T-Games/Games.htm

PS. You will need to know a little about Power Point in order effectively use these.  If you need Power Point training let me know and we can work that out also. 

eXtra! eXtra!

For those of you that subscribe to Blogs and like to keep up with what’s going on in the world, Google Reader is probably the best RSS Reader I’ve found.  Take a look at the different ways Google Reader can be used. http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2008/01/theres-feed-for-that.html

Take a look at the rest of this blog for lots of info on Google Reader and it’s functionality.  

Here is a video that introduces the Google Reader. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5980861656829941065

The New Classroom (Anywhere Anytime Up-To-Date Learning)

TNC (The New Classroom) is the classroom that goes beyond the building, playground and even the teacher. In TNC the students are more involved than ever. I believe that involvement cultivates learning. In TNC you will find blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other web 2.0 activities. Blogs give students a voice while wikis give the students collaborative opportunities and a community in which to belong. I could go on and on about other web 2.0 services, but my goal is to get you involved in a little of TNC for yourself.

Look at how this school is using a wiki: http://arborheights.wikispaces.com  And this one: http://allaboutmath.wikispaces.com

Here is a blog that you should consider subscribing to: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/ It’s a blog for teachers. Lots of ideas here! Of course I must recommend my blog: http://roundrocktechguy.edublogs.org It’s full of ideas of how to use technology in the classroom.

Break out the ipod for more than just music; use it for listening to podcasts. A good podcast for teachers to listen to is The New Teacher Hotline. You can go to www.newteacherhotline.com and click the subscribe button. For a directory of education podcasts you can go to www.learnoutloud.com/podcast-directory

For those of you that are already a part of TNC crank it up a notch and help us get other teachers involved. Reply to this blog post with a link to your blog, wiki or podcast so we can see what you and your classes are doing.

Let this inspire you! 

Weekly Tech Tip

This week my wife was talking about having to give four different spelling test to her students during her Friday spelling tests.  She explained that her district requires them to do leveled spelling tests.  You know as well as I do that if you have a group of 22 third grade students you have several levels.  I’m sure that most of you could imagine the amount of time this takes on Friday to give these tests.    

Well, I got on the prowl for a better solution.  Now whether or not she uses it is up to her.  Here’s what I found, The www.spellingcity.com .  The teacher creates an account (FREE) and creates the 4 spelling lists online.  The students can then go online print out their spelling lists by finding their teacher’s name or spelling list’s name.  This also allows the parents to get a copy of the list whenever they want it.  The students are able to go online play spelling games such as Word Search, Hang Mouse, and Unscramble.  When Friday roles around they go to the computer put on their headphones and go to Spelling City.  They find their spelling list and click on take test, and then spellingcity.com will read the word to them and use it in a sentence.  They type the word correctly in the blank and zip their test is done.  All the student does now is print out their certificate, which has their score on it. 

I must also give you the downfalls of this application. 

1. Most classrooms only have 1 to 3 computers in it.  You’ll have to find a way to rotate your class through to take the test or go to the computer lab.

2. When you print out the certificate it doesn’t show the ones they got incorrect.  If you want that info they will need to print the page after the test and before the certificate. (Once you see it you will understand.)  As with any teaching, it’s good to model it for them before you have them do it.

If nothing else it’s a good tool to use with some of your lower performing students that need extra practice.  I’m sure most of you can find several useful ways to incorporate www.spellingcity.com

Now, go, explore, and enjoy!

Weekly Tech Tip

This week’s tech tip will get all of your students participating and thinking!  If you want to get your students collaborating there thoughts into one location about one thing this is the spot for you.  www.voicethread.com  You can post a picture, video, document or whatever and give your students the link.  They go to the link and post voice comments, typed comments, or even draw on it.  They can hear or read what other students think about the post as well as make there on comments.  This service is free to educators. 

Picture Writing Prompts will never be the same with this technology. 

Imagine doing a science experiment.  Post a picture as you start the project and have students leave comments about their hypothesis, then once it’s over have them go back and listen to see if they are correct.  Then they can leave comments about what they have learned from the experiment. 

The ideas are endless! 

Here is one that I created as an experimental test subject.  Play around with it post comments just to see how easy it is.  You can use your microphone, web cam, type it, doodle on it, or even have it call your phone so you can leave a voice comment on it that way.  You will need to create an account to leave a comment, but don’t worry it’s free.

http://voicethread.com/share/40005/

Now Go and get those students collaborating and thinking!

This weeks Tech Tip is a little different. Rather than the typical Tech Tip, I created a tutorial that many of you can use if you are utilizing the Turning Points System.

If you create your Turning Points Presentation on your teacher computer and transfer it to the computer with the Turning Points System then you’ll need to follow these steps to get going. Also, if you have trouble with the Turning Points Remotes follow these directions. Watch the tutorial as many times as you need to. Here is the link to the quick tutorial, http://209.184.141.5/laurelmountain/Resource%20Pages/Tutorials/TurningPoints/Turning%20Points/TurningPoints_OnPresentationCart.htm

If you aren’t doing Turning Points you are missing out on a great teaching tool. Email me to set up a time that you and your team can be trained on how to use it. You’ll love it!You will also find this and other tutorials on our Campus Web Page under RESOURCES.