Keeping up With the Marians Denver Style

The modern Library/Media Center

Ms.Stodola — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:30:21 +0000

Interesting article from the technology journal t.h.e.

Shared with us by Dave Sanger, this article highlights how we can create a modern library.

Officials at Simsbury High School in Connecticut have created a new hybrid library that combines the technology of a modern media center with the physical space and some print resources of a more traditional school library. http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/01/11/the-library-as-a-digital-learning-space.aspx

Pro/Con website

Ms.Stodola — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:33:50 +0000

While the Opposing Viewpoints database is still your best source for argument papers, ProCon.org offers a brief list of pros and cons on a number of hot topics, including standardized tests, illegal immigration, and privatization of social security. Features include a brief overview of the controversy, a timeline, the top ten pros and cons, and a brief back-and-forth over selected core questions.

What sold me on this website, however, is the presidential candidate questionnaire. Answer a few yes or no questions about hot topics and you will see a graph that shows which candidates agree most closely with you. It’s a great tool for the classroom.

Gabe Zichermann: How games make kids smarter

Ms.Stodola — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:40:48 +0000

This TED video is fascinating. We are not talking about using a video game style to make education more interesting for the kids, but rather how the multitasking skills required by games builds brain matter and offers an intrinsic motivator in seratonin release.

TEDxKids@Brussels – Gabe Zichermann – Gamification

Spent: Financial literacy game

Ms.Stodola — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:25:22 +0000

Shared by one of our CEC teachers, Stacey Hervey…

nteractive Life/budget game! Students have to pick jobs/get insurance etc…..It uses information from the book Nickel and Dimed.

Spent

http://playspent.org/

Do your students need a “reality check”?? Here’s an opportunity for your students to budget and learn how to deal with issues and situations that life throws you…

Could Technology be doing our students a disservice?

Ms.Stodola — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:36:37 +0000

Many people believe that I am an utter technology addict, while in fact, I am a huge fan of the tools that can help the instructional process, but I know that not every bell and whistle has a place in the classroom.

I may tell the kids I am lazy when it comes to research, but I am only lazy when it comes to the time-consuming task of finding credible sources, which is why I go straight to the academic databases before I even think about Google when I am doing important research.

I am a Google addict, but I am acutely aware that Google returns the most popular hits, not the most reliable ones. Our students are Google-hoppers, jumping back and forth, grabbing an information byte here, another there, often forgetting to cite and mostly cutting-and-pasting the bytes together, cobbling together a shallow, broad overview of a topic, not committing the information to their long-term memories, and this is a challenge we all face as educators.

This article echoes those sentiments as well as voicing a few concerns that have lain dormant in the back of my mind for a couple of years.

It may be some good thinking material for winter break…

Researcher: Technology Might Be Returning Us to Stone Age-Thinking

Children and adult minds are changing because of the internet and smart phones—putting more pressure on schools to teach deeper thinking

Digital Citizenship

Ms.Stodola — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:29:02 +0000

My favorite bloggers posted an article about Digital Citizenship this week. While the article has some great links, I would like to take this time to remind everyone that DPS is partnered with Common Sense Media. They offer a strong curriculum including discussion points, quizzes, pre-and post-assessments, and our own district magician whom the children love!

At the High school level, I have some backtracking to do, which is why this is a great curriculum to use at the elementary and middle schools.

Looking for a good wiki?

Ms.Stodola — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:13:21 +0000

Edudemics posted a blog about 30 wiki pages for education that any educator wants to know. Check them out and bookmark a few here: http://edudemic.com/2011/12/open-wikis/

Educational Videos

Ms.Stodola — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:10:07 +0000

First, let me remind you that DPS has purchased a subscription to Safari Montage, which is such a robust database that many schools who were in the pilot continued their subscriptions. Nonetheless, there are some great other sites out there as well.

One that was recently mentioned by Richard Byrne on his blog is Watch Know Learn. I jumped on there and found one of the things a lot of my teachers have been requesting: Lower level tutorials on basic fundamentals. As a high school, we don’t always have the explanations in a basic enough format, but here, I was able to find more of what we were looking for.

The Khan Academy has an extensive collection of videos–mostly for the high school set.

I also found this list of 25 resources you can browse. I have not checked all of these links, however.

Happy watching!

The Top 100 Tools for Education

Ms.Stodola — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:16:25 +0000

The Committed Sardine blog posted a great resource for teachers this week. Created by Jane Hart, this slide show presents the top 100 educational tools as voted on by visitors to her blog. Here they are; see if you agree:

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Free E-Books

Ms.Stodola — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:11:08 +0000

Looking for some E-Books to offer students?
Here are a few great links for you:

FeedBooks has a Public Domain page with plenty of classic titles from which you can choose: http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain

Below are a few more links.

Reference:

Bartleby.com
Virtual Library

Literature:
The Gutenberg Project
Free e-books.net
ALEX catalogue
William Shakespeare archive

Lit to Go
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/
Hundreds of stories and poems in MP3 format ready to be downloaded.

Science and Math:
Cornell University arXiv

Happy Reading!