Basecamp is now free for teachers!

That's right! The good folks over at 37signals have made it possible for teachers to use this powerful project management tool for free. This is, potentially, a huge gift to help teachers track student work. I say "potentially" not because the product is incomplete or somehow insufficient. I say potentially because it still relies on the individual teacher to use it to it's full capacity. Basecamp streamlines the process of offering individualized and diversified instruction to our students and evaluating their learning. It allows us to easily track their progress and success.

No matter what they're working on.

Or how long it takes them.

I believe we, as educators, need to take full advantage of this gift. Even if you don't swim in the technology pool (but really, would you read this blog if you didn't), you can still stick your big toe in the water without fear of drowning. Find one or two students in a class and give them a learning extension so you and the student(s) can take this instructional tool for a dip.

Basecamp has great potential. And so do we.

As a teacher, all you need to do to get a free Basecamp Basic Plan is email them at email@37signals.com.

Long time, no blog

Man, the days really have a way of flying by if you're not careful. It's been a couple of months since my last post, and 3 months since my last podcast. Sheeesh. Well, I'm hopeful that I can get a show out this weekend. I've been exchanging some emails with Dan Weinstein of the DanToday educational blog. He has a number of great tools and thoughts dealing with educational technology! With any luck, he'll be our guest on Paradigm Shift's "Season Premier."

Summer is going, going...GONE

Well that was certainly quick. Summer just evaporated.

I'm looking forward to starting school in 12 days, it's the meetings next week I'm struggling with.
:-)

I'm going to do a podcast before school gets going. The only question is "When...?"

Since summer basketball finished, I've been filling my time by doing a little home improvement and a lot of edging in the yard. Have I mentioned how I can't wait for school to start?

A few weeks ago, I started a blog and podcast about the Green Bay Packers. It's called the Packer Podcast. Catchy, eh? No, I didn't stay up all night thinking of the name. It features all the latest Packer news with my own commentary sprinkled in for flavor. So, those of you that are Packer fans, check it out. If you're not a Packer fan, certainly you know one that would love the Packer Podcast! Like the Paradigm Shift, the Packer Podcast is available (FREE!) at the iTunes Music Store.

I've also been reading Young Patriots, a Charles Cerami book that investigates the important roles that James Madison and Alexander Hamilton played in framing the Constitution. I'm not very far yet as I tend to read non-fiction much more deliberately than fiction. So far, I'm very impressed with Cerami's writing. Having never studied Hamilton's background, I didn't realize just how brilliant our first treasury secretary truly was. One of the most impressive things about Hamilton is that he was such a quick study and would consistently gain insight beyond that of his mentors.

I do that, too.
:-)

Well, back to the book...

Thoughts, reactions and strategies for teaching ESOL students

Click here to go to the overview of my blog entries regarding the English Language Learners class I recently completed.

Kathy Schrock Interview Reposted

In honor of the NECC Conference, I'm reposting a link to our Kathy Schrock interview we had under the show's former name. She is incredible! She has so many great instructional tools for teachers! Check it out here.

Podcasting Just Got Easier

Adam Curry's much anticipated podcast recorder, CastBlaster, is out in public beta. I downloaded the trial version free, which is a full-blown version but limited to 10 minutes of recording. It's pretty slick as it automatically adjusts volume levels to keep them consistent and for lead-in voiceovers. I'll use it for my next podcast. It seems to work great! The full version will set you back 50 smackers.

Download Squad has a little blurb on it as well as a link to a very informal screencast about it (the user is experimenting with it as he screencasts)--that served as a pretty effective tutorial for me.

English Language Learners

Here's some thoughts, ideas, and strategies resulting from the Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students class I recently completed in Colorado Springs. We covered everything from the differences between primary and secondary language development to specific instructional strategies to help ELL students in content classes. If you scroll down, you see them in the reverse order that I posted them because this is a blog. So I've added links to the bottom of each post to take you to the next post and make it a more natural read (hopefully).

For those of you, like me, that have a hard time keeping track of acronyms, ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. I didn't even know that before the class started. I'll switch back and forth between acronyms but for the purposes of this discussion, they all mean about the same thing (even though they do have their own nuances and distinct definitions).

Below, I've added the links to all three posts and a brief description of each.

English Language Learners I
Thoughts about some of the obstacles that face ESOL students when attempting to learn the academic language of different curricula.

English Language Learners II
Strategies to help ESOL students to overcome those obstacles mentioned in ELL I.

English Language Learners III
Instructional strategies to help ESOL students decode and comprehend the text they encounter in our content classes.

I have left a lot out from the class as well as from the art of teaching ESOL students. If you have anything to add, please (please, please!) leave a comment or two. You certainly won't be stepping on my cyber-toes as I don't profess to be an expert at, well, anything really. Plus, everyone benefits when we share ideas.

So please feel free to add to this rather quick synopsis.

To start, click here to go to English Language Learners I.

English Language Learners III

Alright, here's my final installment on what I learned in the Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students class I took in Colorado Springs. The required text for this class was the study guide by the same name as the class, Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students from the Center for Applied Linguistics and the Delta Publishing Company. The study guide really helped me structure the material being presented and concetpualize it's usefulness in the classroom. Specifically, it gave me a point of reference for some of the most important strategies that we learned in the class.

One of the strategies that we learned was a lesson modification called Teach the Text Backwards, which allows teachers to increase the comprehensibility of the text their students are reading. Basically, Teaching the Text Backwards gives students several previews of the text they're about to encounter. To demonstrate our learning, we had to produce a lesson plan that used this strategy. I worked with two very bright high school teachers--one taught automotives and the other taught foreign language. We decided to have students produce various car maintenance tutorials through iMovie based on the reading in their textbooks. For a copy of the lesson modification in Word, click here. It will help to make a little more sense of where I'm going with all this if you haven't taken the class.

For this strategy, we start by giving the students some relevance to the text through their lives or a tie-in to their prior knowledge. Demonstrations of labs are popular examples of this. Jim, our automotive teacher, started with a rundown of very common automotive fluids that could be checked, topped off, or changed very easily. Jim held each store-bought container up as he mentioned the fluid. This gives ELL students an opportunity to hear the content language with a visual representation.

With video guides in hand, the students (our classmates) watched an iMovie we produced which showed all the fluid fill and check locations in the car. Their task for this was to match the store-bought fluid containers that Jim held up with the fill and check containers from the iMovie. The iMovie contained audio sound effects that provided hints as to what went in each container, plus there were textual clues as many fill and check caps are labeled. This opportunity also allows students to preview the medium in which their projects would be produced.

That concluded the part of the lesson we were supposed to present to our classmates. From there, we simply explained the remainder of the lesson. Students would do a Think-Write-Pair-Share (a strategy that was modeled and discussed in the class) to review their video guides. Then in their same TWPS, students would identify the key concepts by previewing the Study Questions provided at the end of the chapter.

Each TWPS group would do a blind draw to determine the car maintenance tutorial they would have to produce (possibilities include changing a tire, changing an air filter, checking the fluid levels, checking and changing the spark plugs, etc.). We would make the reading more manageable for ELL students by having each group read the section that pertains to their tutorial, instead of the entire chapter. We would do a Numbered Heads Together exercise (modeled and discussed in the class) to check for comprehension and dissiminate the answers to the study questions. This provides students with a natural springboard to producing their own car maintenance tutorial through iLife.

We also worked with and created curriculum-specific models for using graphic organizers as a resource for ELL students. Graphic organizers are not just teacher to student instructional aides and Anticipation Guides, but they can also be used as student-back-to-teacher learning demonstrations or comprehension checks.

Here's a very quick review of some of the major instructional topics covered in the class:

• Three Principles to Help ESL Students
1. Increase Comprehensibility
2. Increase Interaction
3. Increase Critical Thinking Skills

• Specific Strategies
1. Teach the Text Backwards
2. Text-to Graphics-Back-to-Text Again
3. Demonstrations and Modeling
4. Think-Write-Pair-Share-Square

• Group/Pair Structures
1. Numbered Heads Together
2. Inside/Outside Circle
3. Search and Find
• Investigations
• Jigsaw
• Mix-and-Match

<<<Previous ELL Post

ELL 1
ELL 2
ELL 3 (Top of this post)

English Language Learners II

On my Thursday, June 16 post, I wrote about some thoughts I had regarding some of the difficulty ELL students can encounter when entering our classrooms. These thoughts were spurred by the Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students class I attended recetly in Colorado Springs. If there's one thing I hate it's someone who will pose a problem without offering a solution, which is what I did the other day, because it was getting real late and I had meetings the next day. So, here are some strategies for increasing comprehension in our ELL students, despite the highly specialized vocabularies each content area requires.

Our instructor for the course, Sara, illustrated some of the frustration ELL students can incur in our classrooms. She played a video of a woman speaking Farsi who was, in large part, non-descript in her delivery. The video was 59 seconds long, but it seemed like it was at least three times that. As a class we were only able to pick out a couple of words and that's only because they were cognates. Then we watched the same woman speaking Farsi but more animated this time and with visuals to represent what she was explaining.

Since I can't do the lesson justice and I don't want to ruin it for those who will take the class in the near future, I will not go into any specifics other than to just note that we were able to decipher much more of what she was teaching us, including several details. The second video lasted about 30 seconds longer, but she spoke at about the same pace both times. The extra time came from her demonstrating what she was talking about and pausing occassionally to give us time to process the information. Now, the sceptic in you might raise the point that it took her 50 percent more time to teach it the second time. Ya, but we got it the second time.

Just for the record, I didn't pick out any words from the first video because I zoned out after about 10 seconds of not knowing the language being used. What a great lesson on the perspective of someone immersed in another language.

Later in the class, Sara delivered a short ecology lesson in Spanish. She read it from a book. Since it was Spanish, we were able to pick out a few more words than we were in the Farsi lesson. However, there was also a false cognate in there so that threw a few of us off. Sara questioned us in Spanish about the contents of the lesson and asked that we answer in Spanish as well. As you might imagine, her comprehension check revealed exactly what we learned about ecology. Not much.

Even a couple of the Spanish teachers struggled a little bit with the lesson. Why? They are non-native Spanish speakers--they learned Spanish as a second language. If I remember the structure of my high school and college Spanish classes correctly, we learned much more social vocabulary than academic vocabulary. Hence, Spanish teachers have far greater exposure to social vocabulary than content-specific vocabulary. Again, learning the academic language of different curricula can be like learning completely different languages.

After the check for comprehension, Sara delivered the brief lesson again. This time she provided important vocabulary (in Spanish), which served as labels for graphics and pictures of those words. She pointed to those graphics when she spoke them in the lesson. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to you that we were able follow along with the lesson much better. Plus, we were able to demonstrate our learning by answering in Spanish (one or two word answers) or at least pointing to the answer.

So what strategies did I get from these parts of the class?

1. Label everything in English so ELL students can see the word and have a visual to associate with it. For example, I will label several parts of the computers like the keyboard, mouse, power button, USB, Ethernet, Firewire ports, internal speaker, etc.
2. Being animated in my teaching helps my ELL students as well as my native English speakers.
3. Pointing to objects and acting things out increases their comprehension.
4. Give them repetitive opportunities to see, hear, read, and write important vocabulary. Some of that came from some "getting to know you" activities we did at the beginning of the class. However, those can easily be changed into "getting to know the curriculum" activities, without the writing being too intense.

More thoughts and strategies later...

Next ELL Post>>>

<<<Previous ELL Post

ELL 1
ELL 2 (Top of this post)
ELL 3

English Language Learners I

Whew!! I just finished my Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students class down in Colorado Springs at Cheyenne Mountain High School. We were in class all day for seven days. I learned a ton! My head has finally stopped spinning enough for me to start thinking more extensively about what I learned and how I can use it. I was very impressed with the course as it contained fresh information for me. It gave me some very "do-able" strategies that didn't "dumb-down" the curriculum.

I learned several great strategies which I will reflect on here as I get the time. One general theme that I kept hearing in my discussions with my classmates was how these weren't just great strategies to help our ELL students; they were also effective strategies for helping our resource students! Plus, they would be a tremendous benefit to many of our regular ed students.

It's getting late and I have curriculum meetings all day tomorrow, as I did today. So, I can't get too much out now. However, I did want to mention at least one thing I got from the class before I hit the hay.

We need to give our English Language Learners more opportunities to see, hear, read, and speak our academic language. Now, you might think, see our academic language? Yes, see our academic language. The more I think of it, the more I realize that that the acronyms we use for our English as a Second Language students are entirely insufficient and/or grossly inaccurate.

Think about it.

English may, in fact, be the second language, but each curriculum has a language that has a highly specialized vocabulary. Math is a good example of a curriculum that has an academic language all it's own. Plus, when speaking "mathematically" we often use a passive voice. For example, here's a common math sentence structure: "The product of five and n is twenty."

Forget the fact that an ELL student has to learn that product means the answer to a multiplication problem in math--not just a direct result as it is in our common use of the word or a substance resulting from a chemical reaction as it is in science. Forget the fact that an ELL student has to learn that of and is mean "multiply" and "equal" in math, which are entirely different than their "English" counterparts. Forget the fact that the highly specialized vocabulary we use in our curriculum can be a dicey subject in and of itself.

To me, one of the real barriers that make many English Language Learners reticent to verbalize in class is the mixed messages they get regarding sentence structure in the different classes they attend. Imagine what it must be like for an ELL student to go from a math class that inundates that student with of and is, to a Language Arts class, where of and is are treated like the color red in the movie The Village (dreaded and shunned by all--Those We Don't Speak Of).

Now, I'm not suggesting that we neglect to teach our students to properly verbalize math sentences. And I'm certainly not saying that Language Arts teachers shouldn't teach their students to write with an Active Voice. Our students need to be able to do both.

So what do we do about it? Well, I'll have to address that on the next post as it is getting late and I have even more meetings tomorrow. Woo-Hoo!

Next ELL Post>>

ELL 1 (Top of this post)
ELL 2
ELL 3

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

This week we're taking a look at Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab. The lab offers many features and is free to use. We're all about the free stuff here at The Paradigm Shift podcast. I found this site because Robert Diem has a link to it on his site, The Daily Idiom. Way to go, Robert!

I want to give you an overview of the site first. So let's take a quick look at its features. The site includes:

• Streaming audio and video content through Real Player;
• Over 150 original activities and quizzes;
• Activities and quizzes are categorized according to difficulty level;
• Activities contain a variety of tasks and learning opportunities;
• Pre- and post-listening activities.

You will need Real Player to listen to the audio files. No problem--free download and available for Mac and that other operating system that the kids like.

The Interface

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab is easy to navigate around and has a reasonably intuitive interface. The ESL students I have had working in the lab have been able to move around the site with relative ease and success. It's far too early to demonstrate significant growth (about two weeks), but they have found the lessons to be a fun way to improve their listening comprehension.

eBoard

The show has been posted. Your media aggregator will probably create a new playlist in your audio software called Paradigm Shift. I was recording until the wee hours of the morning after experiencing a number of audio troubles, which were not to be outdone by problems with the PHP file and the feed. I apologize if I sound half-asleep at times. I was determined to get it done, though! To check out the show, click here. To have each show automatically loaded onto your audio player software, simply follow the directions near the bottom of the sidebar on the right.

Check out eBoard!! It allows you to post assignments and attachments online as well as keeping a calendar and gathereing student reactions through iNotes.

We've also got The Daily Idiom by Robert Diem.

Next week, we're going to review Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab.

My brother, Marshall, has just become a published author. His book, Adventures As Dogboy, is available through Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Congratulations, Marshall!! I can't wait to read it!

Flash Drive

A few weeks ago on the show, Kathy Schrock talked about how students could benefit from loading a flash drive with OpenOffice and Mozilla's web browser and email client, Firefox and Thunderbird, respectively. Now, she has even given teachers some text instuctions to follow in order to configure this for students.

Once again, she's done all the testing and hard work for us!

Thanks, Kathy!

Podcasts as an Instructional Tool

Podcasting has exciting potential in education that is just now being explored. On this week's podcast, we're going to talk about some ideas for podcasting as an instructional tool.

Most references and links are contained in our collaborative blog, On The Cutting Edge-ucation. However, there are a couple of additional links I can leave you with.

George Mayo’s 6th grade students at Brandon Middle School :

• •publish an online magazine that consists of student blogs;
• •podcast shows that highlights those blogs.

We've got a couple of fun clips of the students podcasting that you'll definitely want to hear!

Also on the show, I'm going to talk about EduCasters.net, the new site that Steve Dembo is cooking up to help educational podcasters!!

Finally, if you have an idea, brainstorm, thought, or activity that integrates podcasting into instruction, please email me and I'll send out an invitation for you to join the On The Cutting Edge-ucation blog so you can post your ideas. Of course your comments are always welcome either way.

--Eric

n

This Week's Show

Well, I went ahead and did it. I purchased the domain name paradigmshiftpodcast.org to move this site to in the very near future. Paradigm Shift will be the new name of the show because I've become aware of a site that proclaims to own the name Teachnology. The one time I think I've got an original thought and ker-BLOOOEY! :-)

In fact, they even sent a cease and desist letter to Dan Mitchell of Dan Mitchell's Teachnology Blog. In response, he has neither ceased nor desisted. Good for him. He used the name first, I believe.

However, for me and where I'm at, I believe I need to change names for two reasons. Most important, I think it's crucial to set a good example for my students and fellow teachers in terms of copyright law. Secondly, I want to host a show that is original in content but also in how it's identified. Clearly, Dan Mitchell used the name long before I did, so in deference and respect to him as well as the copyrighted site, we'll switch it up.

To make the switch as seamless as possible for our listeners, we'll do a couple shows under both names as we get everything moved over to our server space at PodLot.com . It's important to note that you won't need to change the feed you've entered into your media aggregator to continue to listen to the podcast.

It's past time to get another show out! I plan on getting it out on Friday. We're going to talk about some of the great ideas, thoughts, and examples for using podcasting instructionally that educators have posted at the On The Cutting Edge-ucation site.

So, please join us as we begin our own Paradigm Shift...

Using Podcasting for Instruction

We're building a repository of instructional ideas and strategies for using podcasts in schools.

I'd like to generate a bank of ideas (anything from a quick brainstorm idea to refined activities and units) that teachers could contribute to, draw from, and even refine.

Click here to check it out. If you would like to contribute ideas or activities, just email me and I'll send out an invitation to you.

We'd love to hear from you!

--Eric

Kathy Schrock Interview and the Schrock Guide for Educators

Kathy is the Administrator for Technology for the Nauset Public Schools on Cape Cod, Mssachussetts. Plus, she is the creator and proprietor of the Schrock Guide for Educators at Discovery School.

Join us for this intriguing question and answer session.

The show notes for this one are real simple. Click here to go to the Schrock Guide for Educators. The Schrock Guide is an incredible repository of educational web sites. It has links for curriculum areas, searching tools, and teacher helpers such as Fry's Readability Graph, Assessment & Rubrics, and one of my favorites--Digital Gadgets, just to name a few.

Some of the best features of the site are the Sites of the School Days, the New Sites This Month, the Theme of the Month, and the Content-Rich Sites.

Kathy Schrock puts sites through a very rigorous process before she links them to the Schrock Guide for Educators. Rest assured, these are worth your valuable time. There are great teaching tools throughout the Schrock Guide, so check it out!!

iPodder 2.0 has been released

Click on the title above to get it. It's much better than the previous version!

Single Feed

I just uploaded the Teachnology03-19-05 QuickCast, so if your media aggregator (iPodder, iPodderX, Doppler, etc) doesn't catch it the next time it checks for new podcasts, then you may want to check to make sure you have the following feed entered for Teachnology:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Teachnology

QuickCast about Podcasts and Blogs on our Single Feed

Here's some interesting educational podcasts that I enjoy, and some general information about them. They are not listed in any particular order.

Teach42, hosted by Steve Dembo, blends practical tools with the right doses of philosophy and perspective. On his blog, he has listed several free, open-source software titles for educational uses here . Feed

Kelly Dumont has a weekly podcast, The Educational Mac, that discusses Mac software uses in the classroom. Feed

History According to Bob is a daily podcast that Professor Bob Packett, covering different historical topics. Professor Packett has an effective conversational style to get out his message that includes interesting anectdotes and unique perspectives. Feed

Some recent topics include:

• Otto Von Bismarck - Iron Chancellor or Iron Liver and Lungs?
• Chariot Racing - Ancient Rome's Nascar
• The History of the Finger - The International Gesture of Disdain
• Pirate Rules - Why is my left leg worth less than my right?

Professor Packett has an effective conversational style to get out his message that includes interesting anectdotes and unique perspectives. Feed

Jeff Moore is an educational technology specialist that hosts One Big Head, which discusses educational philosophy, trends, technology-based solutions, research and ideas. Feed

The Daily Idiom, hosted by Robert Diem, examines everyday idioms about three times per week. Feed

Here's some educational blogs I enjoy reading:

Bud The Teacher is, amongst other things, investigating how use blogs and wikis for instruction.

The Education Wonks discusses education-related issues. It also hosts The Carnival of Education, which provides links to informative and interesting educator posts each week.

The Art of Getting By is a written by an educator, though it rarely, if ever, deals with education issues. It also offers an aesthetically marvelous design!

One Feed on Saturday

On Saturday, March 19, Teachnology will delete the feedburner feed that has mobilepodcast in the URL. However, we will continue to provide our listeners with effective instructional tools through our permanent feedburner feed which can be found below:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Teachnology

On Saturday, I will send out a QuickCast on the permanent (and only) feed to verify to our listeners that they have the correct (and only) feed. If you have not received that QuickCast by Sunday morning then simply launch your favorite aggregator and enter the permanent feed address.

Saturday's QuickCast will be a brief talk about a few educational podcasts that I love listening to (besides Teachnology ;->), so you don't want to miss it!

I sincerely appologize for any inconvenience or confusion our multiple feeds have caused to our listeners.

Thanks for listening (and reading)!

Internet4Classrooms and Platonic Realms

What an exciting week! My 7th grade girls won their conference tournament over the weekend. Listen how I seamlessly integrate that into the show as to avoid sounding like I'm bragging (unlike here in the show notes!).

We have a ton of things in the hopper. We've got The Daily Idiom, A Word A Day, and the much anticipated, Microsoft Ad Slogan of the Week. Most importantly, our featured sites are going to give you some great instructional tools. First, we're going to talk about Internet4Classrooms. Then we'll investigate an intense math site, Platonic Realms.

Internet4Classrooms is a links site that has a rich library of helpful sites for teachers and students. The three areas that impressed me the most were Links for K-12 Teachers, Daily Dose of the Web, and On-Line Practice Modules.

On a recent visit to Internet4Classrooms, I found a great math site called Platonic Realms, which is geared toward secondary/post-secondary level math students and teachers. I've really enjoyed Today's Math Moment, which are short shockwave multimedia presentations. For example, today's topic (March 10), Why Isn't 1 a Prime Number, gives an interesting explanation that goes beyond the definition, albeit very quickly. I've also found their Daily Challenge to be just that--a challenge. There's other features that are well worth the time to check them out. This is definitely not a static site that looks the same from one month to the next. Several features change on a daily basis. It's a fantastic math site!

4teachers.org

Just a QuickCast for you this week as grades are due, my girls basketball team is starting its final week of the season, and I'm sorting through our questions for Kathy Schrock and developing a few of my own.

So this QuickCast will not have our other popular features, the Daily Idiom, A Word A Day, and the Microsoft ad slogan of the week. We will resume with those pieces on our next full-featured Teachnology podcast.

We are going to take a look at the very comprehensive 4teachers site.

In an earlier podcast, we looked at one of it's great features, Rubistar. Fortunately, 4teachers didn't just stop there. They have several features that are incredible instructional resources for teachers and students! Plus, they're constantly improving those resources. So click in...

One Vision, One Feed

I'd like to ask you to check your aggregator and make sure you're subscribed to the permanent feed, which is http://feeds.feedburner.com/teachnology.

It's the one that's now available by clicking on one of the XML icons.

I was making a new feed for each show. DOH! Silly me.

Thanks to Russell Holliman of the Treo Podcast for fixing the cluster of feeds I had generated at feedburner and developing one feed for the podcast and one for the show notes. Russell, you da man!

I will delete all other feeds shortly, but we want to make sure we get all our listeners over to the new feed first.

Rewiring the Research Project

Holy smokes, it's been a busy two weeks, but it's time to get the show going! We are going to explore how to frame your essential questions for research projects to elicit higher level thinking from your students. We are fortunate in the Thompson School District to have three exceptional instructional technologists and former classroom teachers who keep us very current on instructional strategies involving technology. Traci Gile, Michelle Logan, and David Grubbs worked tirelessly to bring Rewiring the Research Project to our technology coaches and facilitators earlier this month.

The Developing Essential Questions PowerPoint:
*gives important background information about research projects;
*provides a summary of forming Essential Questions;
*supplies an example of how to do so in a 5th grade classroom.


Framing Essential Questions

Essential questions are at the heart of Rewiring the Research Project. Our Instructional Technologists did a fabulous job of explaining the qualities of essential questions, how to put power behind them, and differentiating them from the important Foundation Questions that the Essential question is built upon. Additionally, they demonstrate how to promote higher-level thinking through questioning with the section: Moving up the Bloom's Taxonomy ladder by avoiding the "What is" questions. This is a brief, yet informative, document that will help educators breath life into the questions we ask our students to solve. There are also tremendous sources listed for the document if you would like a more in-depth evaluation of the material. That said, the first source I clicked on was down at the time (http://www.fno.org/oct97/questions.html). FNO is a terrific education site. Try this FNO page if the FNO cited page still doesn't work.

The Student Pre-Search Planner is a concrete road map that helps student save time and frustration in the long run by planning their research. It's an excellent tool for students! An important Reflecting and Refining Checklist follows the pre-search plan, and it offers a quick way for students to evaluate and adjust their strategies. It also gives teachers an instant look into who may need a little extra help.

The Teacher Research Planner gives us a guide and timeline to setting this rewired research project into motion.

I want to thank Traci Gile, Michelle Logan, and David Grubbs for providing the instructional resources this week. They are fabulous, hard working educators!

Our New Features and the Notes for the Wednesday, 02.02.05 podcast

We're excited to offer a couple of new features to give the show a change of pace and someone else to listen to instead of just me!!

Each week, we're going feature one of the Daily Idioms from this site and A Word A Day (one of them) from this site.

As many of you may know, The Daily Idiom is a podcast produced by its owner, operator, and sole proprietor, Robert Diem. Robert has generously agreed to allow us to air one of the Daily Idioms on Teachnology each week. Thank you, Robert.

Thanks also to MICHAEL QUINION of World Wide Words for his historical perspectives on idioms. To read his take on how "Kick the bucket" originated, click here.

Our thanks also goes out to Anu and Stuti Garg who have been putting A Word A Day on the Internet every weekday (I believe) since 1994. WOW! To visit this very informative site, click here.

If you believe you might be afflicted with resistentialism, click here--not for a cure, just more background information. :-)

Thanks again to Robert Diem, Anu Garg, and Stuti Garg!

LearnAlberta

This week's featured site is LearnAlberta. This is an emerging website that can be used as a learning supplement to other teaching tools . Its resources have been developed by Alberta Learning. Specifically, LearnAlberta is a repository of multimedia resources and lessons for K-12 classrooms. There are a variety of curriculum areas represented here. Being a teacher, parent or student in Alberta, Canada is helpful, but by no means mandatory to use many of the resources. Non-members can simply log in as a guest to access the site. Plus, many of the multimedia resources are available in English, as well as French. Check it out: LearnAlberta has several highly engaging multimedia lessons/tutorials.

To preview what's on the horizon for LearnAlberta, click here.

Next week: We're going to take a look at some ways to rewire research projects to foster higher level thinking.

iMic, Lapel Mics, and Ear Jams!!!!

iMic, Lapel Mics, and Ear Jams are in from Griffin Technologies!

I plugged the Lapel Mic into the iMic and the iMic into my PC.

In the Audacity (iMic comes with it, but I had previously downloaded it) preferences, I selected iMic audio system for input and output (it was in the dropdown menus waiting for me).

I switched the toggle switch over toward the headphones (don't know why that worked) and--bang! I was recording.

Hello better sound quality!

It took longer to open the package than to set it up.

I might just have to throw out a special Weekend Edition of Teachnology for this.

Math Forum

Here's a great math site! Math Forum from Drexel University is an incredible instructional tool for teachers as well as a helpful homework resource for students that also offers challenge problems to extend their learning. There is also a resource for teachers and parents to ask questions about teaching mathematics, called Teacher2Teacher. There's also the Math Tools, which is a community library of technology tools, lessons, activities, and support materials for teaching and learning mathematics.

I appologize if the audio was a big distraction. I ordered two lapel microphones from Griffin Technologies. Once they get here, the show won't sound like some heavy-breather prank phone call.

Thanks for listening!
EJ

Wednesday's Show

I'm sorry I haven't posted any previews for this week's show. My 7th grade girls basketball team had two games on Saturday and really chewed up my prep time for the show. I'm on it now though.

EJ

Treo Podcast

Check out the Treo Podcast! It's one of the best podcasts out there!

Rubistar

Build your rubrics with just a few clicks! Rubistar is a great rubric builder for many curriculum areas. In just a few minutes you can have a rubric built, when it would have normally taken hours. Rubistar allows you to build a rubric by selecting predetermined standards (criteria) and editing them to fit your needs. You can then save and export your rubric to excel for further revision, if needed. Rubistar is an incredible time-saving resource for teachers! There's a short registration required, but the whole process is FREE and EASY! To give it a try, click here!

An email signature you can use...and some sites

I've received some feedback that leads me to believe that there are others out there who may have experienced some similiar difficulties that I had understanding the process involved in getting podcasts to automatically download to iTunes. To that end, I wrote some HTML to help podcasters simplify the process for their prospective listeners or any listeners who play their mp3s directly from Openpodcast or Audio Weblogs.

Here is the final Signature line that I wrote to appear in all my Yahoo emails. You can either edit it to reflect your podcast or keep it as it is to reflect mine--keeping it to reflect mine is much easier.
:-)

If you would like to share this resource with other prospective listeners--especially teachers, students, or administrators (ya, we'll let the administrators in on the fun until they get outta hand) feel free to copy and paste to your heart's delight.

Copy and Paste the passage below the dotted line into your email Signature field. Directions for getting it into your signature field follows it.

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To hear the Teachnology podcasts, click here!

You can have them automatically downloaded to iTunes (free PC download) by following these steps:
1. Download the iPodder software (free) by clicking here;
2. Copy the URL from my feed by clicking here;
3. Paste that URL into the "Add Feed Manually" field in iPodder.

Access the show notes here.
Thanks for listening!
EJ

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Here's how you get the above instructions in your Yahoo! Mail signature field (you can also paste this anywhere that allows you to use an HTML editor--also know as a rich text editor (they have a formatting bar across the top).

1. Login to Your Yahoo! Email account with Explorer--the HTML feature of Yahoo Mail doesn't work in any other browser (Doh!). Sorry, Firefox, I don't make the rules, I'm just imprisoned by them.
2. Click the Mail Options link on the righthand side.
   
3. Click the Signature link under Personalization.
   
4. Check HTML. NOTE: IE6 users will have to check View HTML Source in order for the pasted-in code (below) to be recognized as proper HTML.
5. Check the Add signatures to all outgoing messages box at the bottom (or don't--it's not like I'm gettin' some big royalty check off this deal).
6. Click Save.

**Thanks to FeedBurner for the structure for these directions. FeedBurner is a great (FREE and reliable) RSS/Atom feed republisher that gives you valuable feedback on your feeds!
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Teachnology Podcast 01.05.05

I'm just getting a few things ready for tomorrow's podcast...I'll link later.

I wanted to get some great sites out there from several different curriculum areas.

Interdisciplinary
Brain Pop - Offers several excellent tutorials in math, health, science, english, and technology. There's a 10 question quiz for each tutorial as well as a crossword puzzle and lab activity for many of the topics.

There is a reasonable subscription price; however, they offer a full access 14 day trial period that only requires an email address. They also allow access to a few tutorials from each curriculum area without even signing up for the free trial. This is a good tool that students will find interesting. BrainPop could make this a GREAT tool by reporting student proficiency back to the teacher (like Quiz Lab). How do they know what learning is taking place without some data? Thus, how do they know which tutorials and excercises need revision. More importantly, the teacher has to provide their own independent assessment tool which shouldn't be necessary for the subscription price.

Math
Figure This - Includes several middle level math challenges. Each challenge also has a thought provoking hint that helps the learner become more of a critical thinker. You can also view a short promotional video that explains what the web site offers. One of the nicest features of this site is that the challenges are available in spanish.

Science
NOVA Teachers - Hosted by PBS. There's two things that struck me about this site (other than the name). :-) First, they offer a link to a full lesson plan relating to a recent show complete with answers and a list of National Science Education supported standards. The second aspect of this site that can be particularly helpful to teachers is the Teacher's Guide. This section offers two matrices, sorting their instructional tools by Program Title and by Subject. Each matrix indicates the type of activities available for each resource in a very easy-to-understand format.

Language Arts/Reading
Number2.com - Vocab Builder -Number2 is an excellent free test prep site that helps students prepare for the SAT, ACT, and even the GRE. This site also has a Vocab Builder which adapts to the learner's skill level automatically, and keeps track of the words each learner has seen to allow further attempts. Once the learner gets a word correct twice, it goes into a personal mastered words list.

Social Studies
Marco Polo - This could actually be listed under interdisciplinary as you can search for lessons and student interactives for all curriculum areas/levels from a multitude of online sources. Under the social studies umbrella specifically, the site offers a MarcoPolo Calendar which allows you to access information on historic events and associated MarcoPolo lessons and resources for each day. As if this weren't enough, the site offers Professional Development courses as well.

Health
Kids Health/Teen Health - An excellent resource for students that allows them to explore health-related issues that pertain specifically to their age group. The teen section is geared more toward high school--possibly late midddle school--you'll defiitely want to review content before turning middle schoolers loose on the teen health site.

It looks like the podcast will get pushed back to at least Saturday as I've got a cold and can barely speak. More notes on the other sites later...

podcast

Teach-nology Podcast #1 January 04, 2005

In today's podcast, I'm going to share the rubric I use to allow students to perform daily self-evaluations. The rubric and a student example are in the same excel workbook at this eboard site for my classes.

Obviously, as a computer literacy teacher, it's pretty easy for me to have my students update their excel gradebook every day. However, when I taught math (which seems like decades ago, but was truly only four years ago), my students performed daily (most days) self-evaluations. I think it would be completely manageable for any core teacher to reserve a computer lab one day each week to update their self-evaluation gradebooks.

I certainly believe that if we tell students that being prompt and prepared for class are important aspects to learning, they should be allowed to reflect on their proficiency in those areas as well as on their participation and behavior. The trick is defining each of those areas in a concrete way so they get it. More importantly, I've found that giving the students a piece of the evaluation pie gives them more ownership and buy-in to the process.

Any questions, concerns, consternations, deliberations, revelations, or pontifications feel free to drop me a line at teachnology@hotmail.com. That's technology with an A.