Saturday, August 9, 2008

Senteo (Clicker)

The Senteo interactive response system provides a direct wireless connection between you and your students. Now you no longer have to wonder if students understand what you’ve taught them. They can tell you with the click of a button.

The Senteo interactive response system is designed to enhance interactive teaching and learning. With it, you display or speak prepared or ad hoc questions, students anonymously key in answers with their remote, and responses are tallied, then displayed on a projection screen or interactive whiteboard. Tallying and displaying results occurs immediately.

To assess student understanding, you can use a variety of question types, including true or false, multiple choice, numeric response and more-than-one-right-answer. Decimals, fractions and negative numbers can also be incorporated into questions and answers.

Daily Technology Use in the Classroom

Teaching Tips: Classroom Use of ELMO Document Cameras

Teaching Tips: Classroom Use of ELMO Document Cameras
These sites focus on using ELMO document cameras in the classroom. There are suggested ideas and lesson plans on how to integrate document cameras in classroom activities.

Document Camera Demo

A Document Camera is an amazing, yet simple, teaching tool that can help you turn your classroom into a spontaneous and dynamic learning environment.

The most exciting aspect of using document cameras in the classroom is the extra dimension that it brings to your presentation. In addition to showing notes and written materials to your classroom with your document camera, you can display three-dimensional objects as well.

Science Classes - students can see the teacher dissecting a frog that is displayed so that all of the class can easily see. Or, you can show the difference between beetles and butterflies in a unique, new way.
Geometry Classes - use your document camera to add a 3D twist to the complicated world of pyramids, cones and cylinders.
Geology Classes - teachers can show up-close and personal different types and textures of rocks.
Art Classes - Students can watch and see more clearly techniques on molding clay and making perfect brush strokes.

SmartBoard Demo

Smart Technologies: Educator Resources

Smart Technologies: Educator Resources
The touch-sensitive display connects to your computer and digital projector to show your computer image. You can then control computer applications directly from the display, write notes in digital ink and save your work to share later.
Best of all, the full-featured SMART Board interactive whiteboard is incredibly easy to use. If you can use a computer, you can use a SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Use Notebook software lesson activities in your classroom, or modify them to meet your needs

Find out what the latest research says about the role interactive whiteboards play in raising the level of student engagement in the classroom and how they support the differing learning styles of students. PDF

Blogs in Plain English

Welcome to the Blogoshere

Welcome to the Blogoshere: The Educational Use of Blogs by Jan Ray
When used as an instructional resource, an edublog helps teachers, parents, and students overcome home- work hurdles. Teachers can post tips, explanations, or samples to help reduce confusion. They also can post hyperlinks to Web sites that provide assignment-related homework helpers and resources, such as online dictionaries (www.dictionary.com), maps (www.maps.com), and even educational games for concept reinforcement (www.primarygames.com; www.funbrain.com).

Safekids.com: Kids' Rules for Online Safety

Kids' Rules for Online Safety
1. I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents’ permission.

2. I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.

3. I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.

4. I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.

5. I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the service provider.

6. I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

7. I will not give out my Internet password to anyone (even my best friends) other than my parents.

8. I will check with my parents before downloading or installing software or doing anything that could possibly hurt our computer or jeopardize my family’s privacy

9. I will be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law.

10. I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the Internet, computers and other technology.

Monday, August 4, 2008

ClassBlogmeister


ClassBlogmeister: A blogging tool for classrooms provided by David Warlick and the Landmark Foundation.