I reported earlier about my time spent with Westmoreland County Social Studies Consortium. At this gathering Social Studies teachers got up and explained some of their teaching with technology plans and some of the software that they have used. I finally got a chance to use one of those special websites that doubled as a real time productive software. This website is Prezi presentation Manager . It will make your presentations come alive, so much so you will sit and stare, asking, how do they do it?
I tried to embed the presentation, but I didn't like how it looked. So I will link you to my space at Prezi. Did I mention this is FREE.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
HSI Historical Scene Investigation
If you like watching any of the CIS', you'll like this website. Made for social studies, the HSI website is primarily a site made for research on historical events. Given some primary material and using some inquiry questioning, the investigator must deduce what has happened.
One of the historical events was a picture of President Nixon with Elvis Presley.
Thanks to Cindy Shaffer and Tracey Smeltzer for this website.
One of the historical events was a picture of President Nixon with Elvis Presley.
Thanks to Cindy Shaffer and Tracey Smeltzer for this website.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Debunking Myths about the Census
Richard Bryne does it again. He found another census clip. This time it's from CNN. It debunks the myths going around about the census. If you teach civics download this video.
Census Bureau Story From "Free Technology for Teachers"
You wonder why you read all the tech blogs, then along comes a tip or a cool hack that makes you smile and think this was definitely worth the read. In his "Free Technology for Teachers" blog Richard Bryne displays a video about the American Census. You may laugh at this, but unless you have taught Civics, you know you will use anything to make it interesting. You will find the video below.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Blogs
The nice thing about subscribing to blogs is that you get information quickly. I manage all my blogs through, Bloglines. At the moment I belong to a bunch of different blogs, Cool Tools, Free Technology for Teachers,Hack a Day, Life Hacker, Make Magazine and Wired Top Stories. All these blogs have some sort of tech in common. I find myself reading these blogs all through the day.
Hubble in 3D
If you are interested in science like I am, you will will be interested the Hubble 3D movie. Produced by Disney along with IMAX , this movie is about the legacy of the Hubble.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Happy Birthday Albert Einstein
Set your DVR.....HBO Signature will present the movie "Einstein and Eddington" March 23 9 P.M.
Movie Trailer
Westmoreland County Social Studies Consortium
I have been to quite a few conferences in my time. Some as a Director of Technology for the school district, some as a classroom teacher. And as the case, some were great and some not so great. The following conference was the best I have attended in a long time.
I had the pleasure to attend a county wide collaborative of Classrooms for the Future teachers.
The program had a variety of great topics presented by classroom teachers.
The first presentation was a lesson on developed by Mrs Prather and Mr Facemyere on "Diversity". The premise is that since the Burrell School District was lacking in cultural diversity, the social studies department felt that it needed to introduce a lesson on diversity. Using a variety of tools, especially wikispaces they try to as their objectives states, have students analyze how diversity impacts their own life by exploring multiculturalism at various levels of society. Through this in-depth project, all juniors at Burrell High School will reflect upon their own experiences with diversity and discover how they are part of a global society. This project positively promotes ideas of multiculturalism, diversity, globalization, tolerance, and understanding of one's own culture.
One tip that came from this presentation took me by surprise was to look at McDonald's Menu's from Around the World". The absence of meat on the McDonald's menu from India puts the idea of diversity to the forefront.
The following presentation by Dan Pounds was extremely interesting to me. It was based the idea that the movie "Wizard of Oz' was a parable on populism. He didn't go into it in great detail, but what a great take on a tough lesson. I could see the interest level rise in the classroom.
The next classroom idea came from Rob Jenkins. It was titled "What I did During the war" Scrapbook. Students were to pick 2 years during World War II. According to Jenkins, the area that will be covered by the scrap book will depend on what role the students chose. They can chose any 2 year time period during the war and really any role from a US soldier to German, to Russian, to British. They then choose 4-5 main events that they experienced during their 2 years the scrap book covers.
Great idea.
Showing a nice website, Jeff Leri presented "Xtranormal" This a sort of animator website that permits you do create an animated video using, avatars that speak, different camera angles and lighting. This is an excellent lesson. Below is an example of a video done by two of Mr. Leri's students
Mr. Leri makes Government Xtranormal
Mrs Marla Anthony discussed the ideas of "Edulogs", 'Timetoast and Inspiration. I wish I spent more time using "Inspiration".
Cindy Shaffer finished this fantastic day by discussing "Thinkfinity", the new SAS .
More info can be found at the following wikispace.
http://westmorelandsocialstudies.wikispaces.com/
I had the pleasure to attend a county wide collaborative of Classrooms for the Future teachers.
The program had a variety of great topics presented by classroom teachers.
The first presentation was a lesson on developed by Mrs Prather and Mr Facemyere on "Diversity". The premise is that since the Burrell School District was lacking in cultural diversity, the social studies department felt that it needed to introduce a lesson on diversity. Using a variety of tools, especially wikispaces they try to as their objectives states, have students analyze how diversity impacts their own life by exploring multiculturalism at various levels of society. Through this in-depth project, all juniors at Burrell High School will reflect upon their own experiences with diversity and discover how they are part of a global society. This project positively promotes ideas of multiculturalism, diversity, globalization, tolerance, and understanding of one's own culture.
One tip that came from this presentation took me by surprise was to look at McDonald's Menu's from Around the World". The absence of meat on the McDonald's menu from India puts the idea of diversity to the forefront.
The following presentation by Dan Pounds was extremely interesting to me. It was based the idea that the movie "Wizard of Oz' was a parable on populism. He didn't go into it in great detail, but what a great take on a tough lesson. I could see the interest level rise in the classroom.
The next classroom idea came from Rob Jenkins. It was titled "What I did During the war" Scrapbook. Students were to pick 2 years during World War II. According to Jenkins, the area that will be covered by the scrap book will depend on what role the students chose. They can chose any 2 year time period during the war and really any role from a US soldier to German, to Russian, to British. They then choose 4-5 main events that they experienced during their 2 years the scrap book covers.
Great idea.
Showing a nice website, Jeff Leri presented "Xtranormal" This a sort of animator website that permits you do create an animated video using, avatars that speak, different camera angles and lighting. This is an excellent lesson. Below is an example of a video done by two of Mr. Leri's students
Mr. Leri makes Government Xtranormal
Mrs Marla Anthony discussed the ideas of "Edulogs", 'Timetoast and Inspiration. I wish I spent more time using "Inspiration".
Cindy Shaffer finished this fantastic day by discussing "Thinkfinity", the new SAS .
More info can be found at the following wikispace.
http://westmorelandsocialstudies.wikispaces.com/
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