Great gift idea for Christmas! With these gloves from ISOTONER, you can operate handheld touchscreen devices while keeping your fingers warm. They are compatible with most touchscreen devices including smartphones, mp3 players, ATM's, gas pumps and GPS devices. What makes them work? The thumb and index finger are embroidered with conductive thread that conveys an electrical impulse to the touchscreen, allowing for pinpoint accuracy. Other features: Non-slip palm improves grip and they are water repellent.
Neat! Was doing my daily blog reading and came across this link on Leslye Thiery's blog!
These are interactive sites that teach area and perimeter. Use them on your IWB, with a projector, in centers, with RTI, as links on your classroom blog, or as small group practice.
"A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a lamp to be lit".
The bookClassroom Instruction That Worksby Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock has identified nine instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement across all content areas and across all grade levels. These strategies are:
1. Identifying Similarities and Differences The ability to break a concept into its similar and dissimilar characteristics allows students to understand (and often solve) complex problems by analyzing them in a more simple way
2. Summarizing and Note Taking These skills promote greater comprehension by asking students to analyze a subject to expose what's essential and then put it in their own words.
3. Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Effort and recognition speak to the attitudes and beliefs of students, and teachers must show the connection between effort and achievement.
According to research, recognition is most effective if it is contingent on the achievement of a certain standard. Also, symbolic recognition works better than tangible rewards.
4. Homework and Practice Teachers should explain the purpose of homework to both the student and the parent or guardian, and teachers should try to give feedback on all homework assigned.
Research shows that students should adapt skills while they're learning them. Speed and accuracy are key indicators of the effectiveness of practice.
5. Nonlinguistic Representations According to research, knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistic and visual. The more students use both forms in the classroom, the more opportunity they have to achieve. Recently, use of nonlinguistic representation has proven to not only stimulate but also increase brain activity.
6. Cooperative Learning Research shows that organizing students into cooperative groups yields a positive effect on overall learning.
7. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Setting objectives can provide students with a direction for their learning. Goals should not be too specific; they should be easily adaptable to students' own objectives.
8. Generating and Testing Hypotheses Research shows that a deductive approach to this strategy works best. Whether a hypothesis is induced or deduced, students should clearly explain their hypotheses and conclusions.
9. Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers Cues, questions, and advance organizers help students use what they already know about a topic to enhance further learning.
This week, students in grades 1, 3, and 4 created Wordles. Students used a list of things they were thankful for in their word clouds. Little did they know they were improving their writing, reading and vocabulary skills as well.
A research project has revealed that the incorporation of wordles into classrooms as an instructional tool resulted in the students using more varied vocabulary, more verb tenses, and more accurate grammar in their writing. In addition, feedback on students’ perceptions of wordle as a tool to help them improve their writing was very positive. From the instructor’s perspective, wordles enhanced the teaching of writing workshops and made them more effective and student-centered.
Other Uses of Word Clouds in the Classroom
Vocabulary Development
Language Learning
Pre-reading Activity
Brainstorming
Reflection
Assessment
Define Main Ideas
Also, wordles helped the instructor to foster more student-centered discussion in writing in class and helped students to improve their writing.
On Friday morning the Technology TEAM discussed what timelines we have met this fall. It was exciting to think about what has been accomplished. While getting new computers into the hands of every teacher; we have witnessed exciting things in our schools and classrooms across the district with technology.I was inspired by our sharing and celebration session.Maybe this list will inspire, influence, and motivate other ideas and uses!
What has been happening?
Teachers and students are using:
Kidpix
iPhoto
Digital cameras
Classblogmeister
Skype
Comic Life
ActivInspire Flipcharts
Kidspiration
Google Docs
Wordle
Graphing
Google forms
Kidblog
Google Maps
Blogger
iPads
Blabberize
Photopeach
Together we are learning:
Computer Basics
Interactive Web Sites
We have been creating:
Wikis
Google Presentations
Book Trailers
Math videos
Search Stories
Your Curriculum Technology Partners have been providing:IWB basics, Prism classes, staff development (K-12), MacBook Pro deployment, iPad deployment, Netbook deployment, and supporting new online subscriptions.
