21 ST

CENTURY NEWS
PURPOSE:

V o lu me 1, Is s u e 1

10+2 21c lessons in 10 words

1. Robin Moten skypes a BU prof to share his book 2. Kyle Hall redesigns classroom into learning caf replete with loungers 3. Susan Mundys students interview immigrants and create book to share 4. Dan Inloes scares the lunch out of kids with The Thing 5. Bob Carletons class must pick an appropriate tool for presentation 6. Ana Urian gets wordy with her professional online blog: http://f104.typepad.com/professional/ 7. Ben Harwood uses socrative.com for formative assessments with cell phones 8. Holly Zimmermans students draw House of Usher to see symbols 9. Geoff Wickershams students tweet multiple observations on film during class 10. January Hladkis students collaborate through wiki with class in Spain 11. Michael Reeses students play a simulation of the stock market 12. John Rutherfords students design and propose plays to produce together

The purpose of this newsletter is to celebrate cool things, share information and ideas, and to inspire. I included teacher names in case you would like to contact them. If you have something you have found, something you use in the classroom, a question, or an idea, please send it my way.

For Your Viewing Pleasure Apptastic

If Facebook and Twitter were real life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aCyo VNX3uk Showmeall one word. A free screencapture app for smartphones and ipad2. Record voice and drawings and post.

Feeling Tipsy

Ten great tips for using technology. Please keep in mind with tip 8 that the district does not currently support Facebook with students in the classroom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiisteObuhk

Tool Time

Techless Wonder
We all know the best classroom results come from lessons challenging students to think. Barb Harte ( Seaholm) shared with her students a revised pyramid of Blooms Taxonomy and then had them write test questions for each other using the weeks content. They evaluated their questions finding most as the bottom two tiers of the pyramid on the left. Barb had them revise their questions to become at least Applying. Example: what is the third amendment vs. what would America be like without the third amendment. http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/b looms_taxonomy.htm

Prezi.com: Kirk Duncan blew my mind with the group function in Prezi. Multiple groups can simultaneously build a Prezi presentation. Check it out at prezi.com Wiggio: Peter Shaheen has the world listening with Wiggio. It just might be the best tool yet for classroom collaboration and networking. Wiggio.com Digital camera: Dont underestimate what you can do with one--take pictures of documents, record performances and play back to assess, film yourself giving a short lesson at the whiteboard and post it to youtube. Visit your friendly media specialist to check one out! This book gives clear and effective strategies for helping students make higher-level thinking more evident. It also helps them to develop their thinking skills. It has been a popular read among many BPS teachers and transformative in the classroom.