Virginia

Think Green is a new K-12 resource from Waste Management and powered by Discovery Education.

Complete with standards-based lesson plans, compelling videos, interactives, and Think Green® resources to engage students and extend the learning to the home, www.ThinkGreen.com/classroom is a powerful new suite of tools for educators seeking new materials to enliven environmental lessons.

Think green in your classroom just in time for Earth Day and visit www.DiscoveryEducation.com/thinkgreen to get started.  Plus, provide your feedback for a complimentary reusable tote bag (limited supplies - so provide feedback today).

Thanks to the Riptide Furse who sent me this exciting post from the Illinois DEN Blog. This is going to make life a lot easier.

Ok, I love my SMART board.  I love my Discovery Education Streaming Videos.  Putting them together makes for a powerful lesson. But, in order to embed streaming videos directly into Notebook files they need to be converted into Flash video.  (We all know that coversion tools can be time consuming and sometimes difficult.)  But thanks to a post on the SMART Exchange it is as easy as click and drag.

Start by downloading the free Riva Encoder .  Then the next time you’d like to embed a Streaming video into your Notebook lesson, simply drag it in.  The Encoder does the rest!

Thanks to Kellie English from Kankakee School District 111 for sharing this awesome discovery!

 

While reading the January issue of Science & Children, I came across a small blurb in the back of the magazine. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has a great learning center to help you keep track of all your professional development experiences for free. If you’re like me you have a big folder filled with receipts, certificates of attendance and PDP forms documenting your professional learning. NSTA’s professional learning tools are a great way to stay organized. The learning center is broken down into the following categories:

• My PD Plan and Portfolio
• My Library
• My Calendar
• My Notepad
• My Indexer
• My Transcript

A short information video can be found here. I am definitely going to check it out and see if will make me a little more organized.

School 2.0: Technology and the Future of School

Technology has reshaped our world both economically and socially. These changes affect today’s students by transforming the world’s expectations of them. Join Tim Magner, director of the Office of Educational Technology for the U.S. Department of Education, as he explores the developing trends, their implications for our educational system, and how we can collaboratively approach, through School 2.0, evolving our schools to meet the needs of our students in this ever-changing world.  This presentation is brought to you by a partnership between ISTE, SRI International, and Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU) and is supported by a contract through the U.S. Department of Education.

Tim Magner Thursday, January 15, 2009
2 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Mountain/4 p.m. Central/5 p.m. Eastern
(See information for more world time zones here.)
Webinar runs approximately 60 minutes

Click Here to Register. This is a savings of $125.00

Welcome to Share the Skies, the nation’s first statewide initiative that enables students and teachers to study astronomy in real time during the daytime without leaving the classroom. This innovative project was developed by the Virginia Department of Education, New Mexico Skies, Software Bisque, and Virginia Tech’s Institute for Connecting Science Research to the Classroom. It enables Virginia students to access and control research-grade telescopes to explore Australia’s night skies via the Internet. Students use CCD (charge-coupled device) imaging techniques to capture digital images of deep space for further study.

At the most fundamental level, this project is intended to inspire children and those who teach them. Specifically, the program

• Enables students to study astronomy in real time during the daytime
• Helps students develop essential skills in science, mathematics, computer science, and communications
• Allows students to learn science by doing science
• Offers experiences that encourage students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
• Leverages Virginia’s existing technical infrastructure to deliver high-quality learning experiences
• Provides teachers with effective tools to improve instruction

The Share the Skies Web site provides students and teachers with access to the Internet telescope, sky maps, an image gallery, and other resources. No additional hardware or software is required, meaning that classroom computers instantly can access the program and control the telescope.

Text Taken from the Share the Skies Site

Microsoft works collaboratively with educators across Higher Education and K-12 to provide software plus services aimed at enhancing the learning environment and streamlining the operations of institutions.

We’ve recently launched a new website that is your resource for live and recorded webcasts, podcasts, and other valuable information to gain insights into how Microsoft and Microsoft Partner solutions can help enable learning in the 21st century. There are topics for every audience from K-12 to Higher Education and from Teachers and Faculty to IT staff.

Available Series and Additional Resources

• Solutions for Teaching and Learning Webcast Series
• Solutions for Managing Education Institutions Webcast Series
• Solutions for Securing and Managing IT Infrastructure Webcast Series
• Microsoft Live@edu Webcast Series
• What’s New at Microsoft Community Clip Series
• Links to other Valuable Resources like Special Offers and Resource Pages
• Links to Education Blogs

Visit www.educationwebcasts.com to learn more!

Having just returned from NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) in San Antonio, I thought I would share books that I hope to read in the near future that were mentioned over and over again.

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/   http://isbn.nu/978-1594201530

 

Brain Rules by John Medina http://www.brainrules.net/

And even though it is a couple years old and I have already read it, I still heard references to Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everythying by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams http://www.wikinomics.com/book/ 

I hope to share more about NECC a little later.

 

I posted this on my personal blog but thought you all might be interested as well. Heather B. Blanton an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher from Wise County Public Schools, Virginia sent an email to the VSTE ITRT listserve asking the following question: “If you could pick only one website to share with teachers (preK-4) what would it be?” She was looking to compile the top 25 resources. In the end she ended up with 50 and shared them with us. Enjoy!

All Subjects:

• Starfall
  

• BrainPOP
  

• Brain POP Jr.
  

• BBC School
  

• Bite Sized Games
  

• Primary Games
  

• TopMarks
  

• Scholastic
  

• I Know That
  

• Sadlier Oxford Publisher

• Smarttech Education
  

• Kidport
  

• Gameaquarium
  

• PBSKids.org
  

• Learning Planet
  

• Apples 4 the Teacher
  

• Enchanted Learning
  

• Internet 4 Classrooms
  

• Room 108
  

• Kaboose Fun School
  

• The Kidz Page
  

• Teacher Vision
  

• Ed Helper
  

• ABC Teach
  

• Discoverystreaming (of course)
  

• Jefferson Co Teacher Tools
  

• Falquier Co. SOL Matrix
  

• Waukegan Resources
  

• Thinkfinity
  

Reading/Language Arts:

• READ WRITE THINK
  

• Seussville
  

• Game Goo
  

• Tumblebooks
  

• Storyline Online
  

• Dositey
  

Math:

• Rainforest Math
  

• Number Nut
  

• Harcourt Math
  

• Kids Know It

Science:

• Weather Wiz Kids
  

• Kinetic City
  

• Wonderville
  

• OLogy
  

Social Studies:

• Google Earth
  

• I Like 2 Learn
  

• Social Studies for Kids
  

• Virginiatrekkers
  

• Scott Foresman Social Studies
  

Preschool:

• Nick Jr.

• Chateau Meddybemps

 

The new Newseum has opened and they are offering a great deal for school field trips. FREE!!! This is a great opportunity if you qualify.

The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America’s Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The exterior’s unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfilling its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other.

The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museum-goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.

To book a school field trip, please contact our Call Center at 888/NEWSEUM (888/639-7386).

Public and private school students in grades 1–12 in The Washington Post metropolitan market receive free, general admission through March 31, 2009. To qualify, schools must make group reservations in advance. The schools must be located in one of the jurisdictions listed below.

College and university student groups located in the same areas listed below also receive free admission through March 31, 2009. To qualify, colleges must make group reservations in advance.

Areas included in the free group-admission policy:

Washington, D.C.

Maryland
Anne Arundel County
Calvert County
Charles County
Frederick County
Howard County
Montgomery County
Prince George’s County
St. Mary’s County

Virginia
Arlington County
Fairfax County
Fauquier County
Loudoun County
Prince William County
Stafford County
City of Alexandria
City of Fairfax
City of Falls Church
City of Manassas
City of Manassas Park

 

The LIVE GREEN Teacher Grant program, a Discovery Education program presented by General Motors, challenges middle school teachers to develop innovative ideas for furthering environmental and energy sustainability. Teachers will identify an issue or problem, create a plan to address it, and integrate the topic into classroom teaching.

Earn a $1,000 LIVE GREEN grant - 40 grants will be awarded to teachers for the most forward-thinking ideas. In addition, the 40 recipients will be treated to an exciting online professional development program designed to help them reach their school’s specific green initiatives, including a free digital camera to document and share the experience!

Visit http://livegreen.discoveryeducation.com.