Eric Strommer’ Blog

As most teachers do when summer starts I am taking a class. This one is on-line and uses Moodle and the group feature of Facebook as its platform. One of the tools used is the web 2.0 site Bubbl.us.
Here is one mind map that I put together for an assignment on early Woodland culture. This is only the second time I used the site but I plan to use it with my students next school year.

After the DE Techbook became available for perusing by DEN STARs I began to use it in my class. And speaking of class the techbook is one class act. As per the offer by the DEN team I had one of my 1st grade students take control of a Flip-type video camera. She and a couple of others guided me in making the video in Movie Maker. They told me what they wanted and I put it together.
Don’t expect an award winning documentary. Just a neat little quickly-made video.

Six members of the Michigan LC and 3 guests gathered for a beautiful couple of hours of geocaching at Creasey Bicentennial Park in Grand Blanc. For a few of them this was the first time ever geocaching. Even though we had to navigate some flooded areas we were able to find 3 caches out of four (1 may have been washed away).

In case you missed all or part of this spring’s DEN Virtual Conference you have two ways to watch the sessions. The first is at the DEN’s webinar archive page. The second is at the Discovery Education YouTube page . Just give them a couple of days to upload the sessions.

Also, don’t forget about Spring Training DEN style. Deadline to enter in your stats is May 13th. Reach 50 points and you get this canvas bag embroidered with the DEN logo.

Go here for up-to-date information and the top DEN’ers.

Thirdly, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. It runs May 2-6. Check in each day for cool thank-you’s from the DEN.

I had the honor and pleasure to spend some time at his company Fablevision this past summer while attending the DEN’s LC Symposium. They were great to host us for a couple of hours there. Here is his talk at this year’s ASCD Conference.

In years past I was all a-tither about about getting the MACUL Conference book with all the sessions and their times.

I have had to sit and highlight sessions that I was interested in and then have to figure out times, locations, etc.

That was nice, but now we have the On-Line Conference Planner at http://planner.macul.org/selectconference.aspx

You can search by either session or exhibit, by the conference strand, by date, by presenter name, and by the name of the business.

You then get a list on sessions in chronological order. On the left just click on view/add and get a window with the details.

After reading the details you can then add it to your planner.

It will also let you know when you have a conflict with two sessions added for the same time block.

Under the “view planner” tab you can download your planner as a PDF and a VCS file.

Then you have either a hard-copy of your schedule or an electronic one for your portable device (which is what we all do right?).

Now off to get my planner set up. See you at the conference!

With most of the nation experiencing a huge winter storm many schools are canceled. What can you do when you get back to integrate the “stormagetton” ? Here are some online and downloadable tools to use with your students.

Desktop Weather Stations to download (all free)

Weather Exchange http://www.ambientweather.com/weex1.html (I use this one)

WeatherBug http://weather.weatherbug.com/ (site has video and other weather data, but lots of ads)

Weather Channel  http://www.weather.com/services/desktop.html

Web Sites:

National Weather Service:  http://www.weather.gov/

Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/education/education.asp

Weather Channel Kids http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/

Mount Washington Observatory http://www.mountwashington.org/ (great webcams of some of the worst weather)

Weather Wiz Kids http://www.weatherwizkids.com/

The Weather Dude http://www.wxdude.com/

Scholastic’s Weather Maker http://www.scholastic.com/kids/weather/

Our district and a number of districts in our county have purchased a large number of Promethean and Smart interactive white boards in the past couple of years. For many of the teachers who had one installed in their room they are learning on the fly how to use the basic features on them. It is also up to them to figure out how to effectively integrate the IWB (Interactive White Board) with their lessons.

I am one of those teachers to have a board in their room. Last year was a Smart Board and this year it is a Promethean ActivBoard. I have been working to help out the other teachers in my building and in the area to make the best of their boards.

One of the ways that I make use of the Interactive feature of the board is to have the students take control of the board. Have them get up to it and use it, touch it, manipulate what is projected onto it.

And the beauty of this is that you are not constrained to the software and online content from the company that made your IWB. To start with if you have access to the games, interactive labs, and science simulations at Discovery ED. you have interactive content for your board. Recently, I have been searching for interactive content on-line than can work with any IWB. Listed are sites that either have interactive activities at the site or links to other sites.

Interactive Resources

Interactive Websites at Internet4Classrooms

All Interactive Whiteboard Resources

Interactive Resources at Scholastic

Interactive Math Projects using Flash

www.topmarks.co.uk

BBC’s Bitesize