District Wide Information

PhET Simulations

As I browsed the poster sessions at the ISTE Conference this summer, I learned about 
PhET Simulations.  This resource is brought to you by the University of Colorado Boulder. It is simulations presented in a fun, interactive and research-based manner for free.  You can search the simulations by grade level including simulations for elementary, middle, high school and university levels.  The content of the simulations cover physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math. Check out these fantastic web-based simulations (they are written in Flash and Java). 

Socratic Smackdown and the Institute of Play

Learning and play seem to be a great way to engage students.  Socratic Smackdown is a game for students in grades 6-12.  From what I read about the game, it sounds like a great way for students to learn discussion strategies and prepare them for AP courses they have the opportunity to take at the high school. The game Socratic Smackdown can be based on around a text-based question or organized around a debate question.  This game is found on the site Institute of Play where there are more games.  Some are print and play game and others are online.  If you took MarshallTech4Teachers and are interested in gaming, check out this site!

District Wide Information

Banned Book Week

Banned Book Week (Sept. 21-27, 2014) and Banned Website Awareness Day (Sept. 24) are among my favorite celebrations in the library world.  Banned Book Week celebrates the freedom to read.  
The 2013 top 10 challenged books include:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

How many of these books are popular in your classroom?  

Banned Website Awareness Day is to raise awareness of overly restricted blocking of educational websites and academically useful social media sites.  Fortunately, we do not seem to have this problem in our school district.  

District Wide Information

How to Watch the Internet in Real-Time

I find fascinating articles and information on Twitter, this article caught my eye this summer. I thought it was fascinating enough to share with you.  It is amazing how we do not realize, statistically speaking, how rapidly the internet grows each second as accounts are set-up, email is sent, advertisements make money, and much more.  This link How to Watch the Internet in Real-Time starts at zero when you click on it and from there the internet statistics change at an amazing rate. 

Claudette Colvin, Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

As teachers consider plans for teaching about Civil Rights, Black History Month, or other related standards, the award winning (Newbery Honor, Robert F. Sibert Honor, YALSA Award for Excellence in Non-fiction finalist, National Book Award Winner, and Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Honor) story Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose is an outstanding story that illustrates how students can make a difference. Claudette Colvin, is still alive at 75 years old. I read the following article The Story of Claudette Colvin: Students as Historians this summer and felt this story is one I wanted to post on my blog and teachers might consider incorporating in their teaching.  Check out the linked sites as well as the book available (at West Side and the Middle School) in the district.

District Wide Information

This week I am sharing two articles I think you might want to check out!

321 Free Tools for Teachers

Teachers love the word "free," and the linked article 321 Free Tools for Teachers offers many web 2.0 tools that you may want to check out.  This is organized by topic including free tools to create infographics, which follows up from last week's post about visual information.  Two other topics I want to highlight help in terms of copyright compliance: Sites to download Royalty Free and Creative Commons Music for teachers, and free Stock Photos sites for teachers.  Check some of these sites out!  Share the with students too. 

6 Ways Teachers Kill the Joy of Reading 

I am guilty of some of these practices as a classroom teacher.  I continue to have a great interest in helping students develop a "life-long love of reading,"  as many teachers do. I also follow leaders of reading on Twitter and repeatedly hear how we as teachers work to encourage students to love reading, but we also counteract this by our practices as indicated in this article.  Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading In The Wild, shares many best practices to encourage and develop students in our classrooms as "real" readers.  

District Wide Information

Learning Visually
With tools available today, teachers and students can create visuals to help convey information. The article How Visuals Help Us Learn provides information as to how we learn better with visuals in addition to some do's and don'ts when using visuals.  This article refers to another article A Periodic Table to Help You Choose the Best Type of Visualization where A Periodic Table of Visualization allows you to mouse-over each type of visualization to help you find the best kind for the material you are presenting.  Another type of visualization that has become very popular and is an alternate way for students to present what they are learning in you class is infographics.  CoolCatTeacher, Vicki Davis, posted Infographic Tools for Kids.  This offers many great infographic websites as well as comic creators.  The infographic creators highlighted in this article are great for both teachers and students.  Make your teaching more visual with these tools.