Ms. De Santis’ Blog

While spring break will be here  before Earth Day (April 22), you might want to consider this site as a source of lesson plan ideas. TeachersFirst has previewed sites and the best are listed here. Enjoy this photo from their site.

Our cat’s  Isabella’s ears are straight up tonight as she hears the thunder.  Too bad she doesn’t have access to USA Today Interactive Weather Graphics -then she be able to see interactive weather graphics.  From global warming to natural disasters, this site allows students to explore natural weather conditions.

Teachers explore a variety of web 2.0 sites at my Free Tools for Teachers technology seminar.  At this week’s class, Mary Desmond (SUES Media Specialist) created an xtranormal cartoon to announce the upcoming Battle of the Books. This free text to speech application has unlimited uses-what would your students do?P.S. - Missed the class or would like a quick review?  The presentation and handout are online on the presentation tab of my blog.

Can national technology standards and engaging learning inhabit the same lesson?  Adrienne Visone’s students say “Yes!” They participated in the JenuineTech St. Patrick’s Day project.  Her students at Wilson joined almost 9000 students (including 3 other classes in our district) to count and analyze the shapes in Lucky Charms cereal.  The project included the following national technology standards:

·         Creativity and Innovation

·         Communication and Collaboration

·         Research and Information Fluency

·         Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

As you will see in Adrienne’s photopeach, everyone had a grand time. Standards don’t have to be boring.

Counting our Lucky Charms on PhotoPeach