iPad As....

Fellow Curriculum Technology Partner, Carla Haaven shared this site! I bookmarked it and plan to return to it over and over again!

If you have an iPad for personal or professional use, you may want to check out this site too!

iPad As....

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MacBook Pro - Tips and Tricks

On Monday we had a guest technician give us some tips, tricks, and reminders about updating and saving.
We are very fortunate to have our own computers, provided by the district.  These computers are managed by us, and are for our professional use.  These computers should be used by you only (not for use by your students or student teachers), as they are assigned to you and you have signed a contract for them.
Here are some highlights from Monday's class:

• Make sure you are still saving to the server.  Log in with your badge id and your NEW password.  The same password you use to log in to your computer.  It is a good idea to turn your computer off and log back in to practice your password.  Nobody knows your password.  This is your password – you chose it.  No one but you has a record of this.
• Continue to back up to an external hard drive (500 GB).
• Troubleshooting - Restarting fixes ALMOST EVERYTHING!
• You can add or delete programs from you hard-drive and doc.  You are the administrator for your machine.  You can also change scrollbar, mouse and trackpad settings.
• If you like keyboard shortcuts - there are many of them.  See the list provided Monday.
• Printing - set default printer to black and white, if something doesn't print - go into the que and delete it (you are holding up jobs), always check on your printing to make sure you aren't causing issues or printing to the wrong printer.
• DO YOUR UPDATES!  Keep up on updates, and check programs that aren't Apple for updates (MicroSoft, ActivInspire, Firefox, Chrome, etc).
• Finally, wrap your cord the way Bill demonstrated - it will last longer!

10 Skills for the Future - Darin King's Blog

I always enjoy reading Darin's blog.  Here is some interesting reading about skills students will need:
10 Skills for the Future - Darin King's Blog:

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Art Ideas!

Found an awesome site!  I can't believe I hadn't stumble across this art lesson site in the past.  This site is well worth having in your book marks and worth visiting!  Check out Deep Space Sparkle!

A Vision of Students Today

At the FETC Conference, I had the opportunity to see Michael Wesch. He was the KeyNote speaker on Wednesday morning. Michael has created some thought provoking videos with his students and has shared them on YouTube. His experiences and heart are what struck me.

Consider these:

Wonder increases happiness and productivity.  

The brain likes novelty.
A great teacher can breathe life into any room, if he or she steps away from the chalkboard and makes connections with the students.

Teachers are not the experts, students bring and give knowledge to the classroom.

• To question is to: quest for mastery, invite connections, and embrace vulnerability

• True freedom is: freedom to learn, freedom to fail, and freedom to love and be loved

We learn from failures as well as our successes.

Students want to feel they are loved.  That they can love, learn and fail.  

Building Academic Vocabulary

On Monday, I enjoyed watching teachers play games with vocabulary!  Even though we were working, I saw smiles and heard laughter!  I think it is safe to say "Learning can be fun!"
We walked through the Six Steps for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Marzano's research and we played lots of games!
This Flash Presentation reviews the six steps covered Monday.  You can also read more in the following books:

Here are the Web Sites, Links and Web Resources I shared Monday:
Resources:
http://innovativocab.wikispaces.com/Home

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/strategies.html

http://www.visuwords.com/

http://www.snappywords.com/?lookup=hard

http://lexipedia.com/

http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/

http://www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/flashcards.htm

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/flashcard/flashcardmaker.jsp

http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Flashcard_maker/

Graphic Organizers:

http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/clm/media-center/graphicorganizers

http://technology4kids.pbworks.com/w/page/33346396/graphicorganizers

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://www.edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm?gclid=CNbE1YTO0aoCFSE8gwodg1Q91A

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html

Critical Thinking

Darin King shared the following article with the Curriculum Technology Partners. One of the 4Cs we have been talking about is Critical thinking. Enjoy!

Training Teachers to Teach Critical Thinking | Edutopia:

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