National Library Week: Most beautiful libraries around the world »

National Library Week, sponsored by the American Library Association, kicked off yesterday, and this year’s theme is, “Communities matter @ your library®.” ABC News put together a short slideshow of some of the most beautiful libraries around the world.

Want more? Speed-reading training provider Iris Reading has a comprehensive list (from Seattle to Portugal to Australia and back again!) with some gorgeous pictures.

What’s your favorite? Of course, we’re partial to the Library of Congress here in D.C. …

How are you celebrating National Library Week? Are you visiting your local library?

Happy Presidents Day! »

Happy Presidents Day! If you’re like us and are still working today, maybe you can celebrate on your lunch break with this fun infographic from H&R Block. The tax services providers put together a quirky and interesting infographic comparing two of our most celebrated presidents.

(Click through to view full infographic)

iPad + Mobile Learning = A College Degree? »

You know we love a good infographic– Edudemic recently featured one  from OnlineDegrees.org that demonstrates how iPad + mobile learning = a college degree.

Of course, the infographic simplifies a very broad and complex debate in today’s education world (online education vs. the traditional brick-and-mortar school system), but it’s definitely useful as a starting point for discussion.

Join us for a Twitter Hour tonight from 8-9pm ET! »

eSchool News is very excited to be sponsoring a Twitter Hour tonight with TechSmith!

This evening’s special host is Graham Johnson, Math Department Head for Okanagan Mission Secondary in Kelowna, BC, Canada. He’ll be chatting with folks about the following questions:

• What is the flipped model (very general overview)?
• What issues arose that caused Graham to create an interactive video aimed at parents?
• Why is it important to get parental buy-in?
• What kinds of reactions has Graham had from parents?
• What other buy-in is important to get for the flipped model to be successful?

Use hashtag #esntsc to participate, and be sure to follow moderator Graham Johnson on Twitter (@Math_Johnson) and hosts @eSchoolNews and @TechSmithEDU for reminders.

Social Media Don’ts for Students »

Don’t post illegal activities…Don’t trash your teachers…Don’t bully. OK, so most of this seems like common sense, right? Wrong. Students will continue to make major mistakes via social media every day, and with the start of a new school year, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit this topic.

It’s important to remind students (and working adults!) of the serious implications of “bad posting.” As Mashable’s Stephanie Buck points out, the fact is, just one irresponsible post could potentially ruin your education and negatively impact your career.

Check out Mashable’s full list here and share it with your students!

You might also be interested in:

10 People Who Lost Jobs Over Social Media Mistakes

The case against homework continues… »

“Homework may be the greatest single extinguisher of children’s curiosity that we have yet invented.”

-Alfie Kohn (author of The Homework Myth)

True to form, Lisa Nielsen (author of the award-winning The Innovative Educator) is thinking outside the box again.

We’ve been hearing about the Flipped Classroom (the practice of doing homework in class and watching instruction at home) a lot lately, but what about easing up on homework altogether?

In a recent post, Lisa highlights the growing movement against homework among parents, educators and students –  the main argument being that kids are already spending about 6 hours a day to organized academics, or as Lisa calls it, “academic pursuits chosen by other people.” Add in athletics and/or other school-related activities and obligations in addition to a few hours of homework, and it’s easy to see that these kinds of demands can leave very limited time for kids to grow as individuals outside of academics. What about playing outside? Spending time with family and friends? Daydreaming?

Read Lisa’s full post and watch the video here.

What do you think? Are the expectations and demands of today’s students unrealistic or unreasonable? By standardizing these academic expectations across the nation, are we stunting children’s creativity and curiosity?

The Future of Ed-Tech (Infographic) »

This could very well be the most detailed infographic we’ve seen all year! In a recent post, Edudemic introduced us to a very intricate, color-coded visualization by Envisioning Tech on what to expect in education technology in the next 30 years or so. And these concepts are not broad generalizations— Envisioning Tech takes topics like digitized classrooms and tangible computing and segments them into practical ideas to produce a well-organized, cohesive diagram. (Click image to see in full)

A new technique that helps kids learn how to read »

Of course, we all know that sharing books with children is a crucial practice to promote their reading skills and development. But a recent post by MindShift suggests that subtle features of the way we act during story time can actually make a big difference in children’s literacy.

A recent study revealed that preschool children are focusing on print only 5-6 percent of the time when we read to them—instead, they’re looking at pictures or looking at us. Researchers are saying “print knowledge”—an awareness of the mechanics of the reading process—is really what advances children’s reading ability.

Ohio State professor Shayne Piasta and her coauthors report that when preschool teachers drew students’ attention to print while reading to them, the children’s skills in reading, spelling and comprehension improved. These positive results were long-lasting, too, still showing up a full two years later. (Read the full post here)

Related items

Influence of verbal and nonverbal references to print on preschoolers’ visual attention to print during storybook reading.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! »

All week long, we’re cerebrating teachers— here are just a few resources, giveaways and tips on how you can celebrate.

Edutopia has 31 tips and ideas for every day in May for Teacher Appreciation Month— find out how you can appreciate your teachers! Check out their gift guide for teachers, too.

StudyBlue is helping students say “thanks a latte” to teachers with the Cards For Teachers annual recognition program. From May 7 through May 31, students, former students and parents can send digital thank-you notes to teachers and school staff who have made a difference in their lives. The messages will be displayed on the Cards For Teachers virtual wall of thanks, and emailed to the deserving educator with a digital badge they can display with pride on Pinterest and other social media outlets. From those who are recognized, StudyBlue will randomly select 300 educators to receive a gift card for a free latte! Visit http://cardsforteachers.studyblue.com/.

Schloastic’s OOM blog asked Twitter followers to tweet a line about their favorite educator using #thankateacher, and created a word cloud from the responses they received.

More:

Win an Epson document camera (a $559 value!) from Edutopia! (Enter by May 13^th on Facebook)

Teachers Notebook is giving away $100 worth of items on Teachers Notebook every day from May 1- May 11! Only two days left on this one so hurry!

Teacher Appreciation Week: A Celebration of Caring

Got gamers in your class? »

It’s been awhile since we paid one of our favorite ed-tech blogs, FreeTech4Teachers, a visit. Richard Byrne’s post yesterday featured a cool (and free, of course) website that lets kids create their own video games.

Sploder lets you choose from four different Flash game templates: a physics puzzle game, an algorithm creator, a shooter game template, and a blank platform. Got gamers in your classroom? Grab their attention and spark their creativity with this free resource.

Want some ideas first? Play Everyone’s Games! And make sure to check out some tutorials on YouTube

Teaching with Infographics »

I was always a visual learner in school, creating graphs and little pictures to understand larger concepts or theories. That’s why I understand and appreciate the growing idea of infographics in education.

Edudemic recently touched on why infographics have a place in the classroom—

Think about it: Take a large idea, and break in down into tiny, easy-to-grasp tidbits of information. Put those pieces together in one, simple visual. By doing so, you create a steady flow of ideas of one larger concept. As Edudemic points out, while these visuals alone are in no way to take place of entire lessons and long-term learning, it’s important to understand their value in the short-term: Like charts and graphs, infographics can help students learn the basic fundamentals of a lesson. Take your lesson plan—are there any complex lessons you could break down into an easy-to-understand visual? Try it out!

While I’ve only used Visual.ly, here’s an extensive blog post with Over 100 Incredible Infographic Tools and Resources.

Unfamiliar with infographics? Check out Rick Mans infographic ON infographics!

World Water Day is approaching! »

World Water Day is next Wednesday, March 21^st— and there are plenty of ways to get your students involved. Check out the Smithsonian’s Shout environmental education program—

Shout is an online program that invites educators and students to play an active role in our global environment issues today. The program lets teachers connect with experts in the field, share ideas, and gives educators the tools and resources to get students interested and involved in these major global issues.

New to Shout are Smithsonian badges: Students earn Quest Badges by demonstrating knowledge of environmental topics and displaying 21^st century skills. They can also earn Community Badges by making contributions to the Shout badging community—then they can include the digital badges in their social networking profiles or resumes!

The program also features free online webinars led by Smithsonian experts. This year’s series, “Water Matters,” began Feb. 7–8 with live sessions by Smithsonian experts ranging from a marine biologist to a music archivist. Visit http://www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/schedule/ to check out the webinar archives, and don’t miss the remaining events:

Teacher Preview Session March 21^st, 3pm ET

Water Quantity: When there’s too much or too little March 26-27

To register for Shout, visit www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/program-2012/.

For more teacher resources, visit http://www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/.

Preschoolers and Programming »

MindShift posted yesterday about an exciting new development in ed-tech for early learners–

MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group and Tuft University’s DevTech Research Group are collaborating to create Scratch Jr., a programming software aimed at kids in preschool to second grade.

Scratch Jr. is the new version of the group’s original Scratch, a programming software for kids ages 8-13 that has proven to be very successful since its release in 2007.

The union was made possible through a grant from the National Foundation of Science.

“Since MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group released Scratch in 2007, kids ages 8 to 13 have built more than 2.2 million animations, games, music, videos and stories using the kid-friendly programming language.”

Mitch Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group and leader of the new project, began the ed-tech initiative when he was surprised at the lack of ed-tech out there today that encourages kids to not just use computers but to understand how programming works and more importantly, how they can express themselves in digital technology. “To Resnick, teaching kids to program was like teaching children of another generation how to write.”

Scratch Jr. is expected to launch this summer.

Readers, what do you think? Is preschool too young for digital learning?

Read MindShift’s full post here.

Teachers: What to Watch for in 2012 »

MindShift recently covered three major trends to look out for in the New Year. It’s a great post that nails one key trend that we think will surely transfer over to this year—Collaborative.

In the last year, the Web has completely transformed the way we’ve approached education. Mostly in progressive schools, social media has made a huge impact on the teacher/student relationship and, as the post states, they are “learning from each other in all sorts of ways”.

The coolest part about social media in the classroom is that it’s not only benefitted student-teacher communication in some ways, but it has also had a significant impact on student-student and teacher-teacher collaboration. Teachers can easily share experiences, best practices and more. Same goes for students.

Check out the other two key trends, according to MindShift—2. Tech-Powered and 3. Blended—here

Best Green Schools of 2011 »

University of Texas at Dallas

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools just released its “Best of Green Schools 2011” list recognizing leadership in creating sustainable learning environments.

From K-12 to higher education, the list is comprised of school administrators and government leaders in 10 categories who have demonstrated excellence in a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.

From the press release:

According to published reports, green schools save on average $100,000 per year on operating costs – enough to hire two new teachers, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 textbooks. On average, green schools use 33 percent less energy and 32 percent less water than conventionally constructed schools, and if all new U.S. school construction and renovation went green today, the total energy savings alone would be $20 billion over the next 10 years.

Check out some of the winners:

Best Moment for the Movement – U.S. Department of Education, Green Ribbon Schools: Green Ribbon Schools is the first comprehensive and coordinated federal initiative to focus on the intersection of environment, health and education.

Best Higher Ed Innovator – University of Texas at Dallas: The University’s new LEED Platinum Student Services Building, which was the recipient of this year’s Innovation in Green Building Award, was designed to improve departmental efficiency and interaction, includes terra-cotta shades on the building’s exterior to provide a unique energy efficient shading strategy and was built $1.1 million under budget.

Best Policy makers – District of Columbia City Council: In May 2010, the Washington, D.C. council unanimously passed the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, building upon the District’s existing LEED Silver requirement and encouraging schools to achieve LEED Gold certification. 2011 updates to the bill included participation in the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, making D.C. the first – before any state – to sign up for the voluntary federal program.

See the full list of winners here!

Learn more about the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), visit here

Learn more about the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council  here

Signing to The White Stripes: D-PAN music video »

D-PAN (the Deaf Professional Artists Network) has put out a new music video, The White Stripes’ “We’re Going To Be Friends.”

The video features 12 deaf students from across the state of Michigan signing the lyrics in American Sign Language.

The organization, based out of Oakland County, Michigan, is a nonprofit dedicated to developing arts, entertainment programs and professional development for the deaf and hearing-impaired in visual and media arts.

As its mission statement says, “At D-PAN, everything we do begins by asking one fundamental question – given our strengths as an organization – How can we make the greatest positive impact on people’s lives?”

Talk about inspirational. See the video here

For more D-PAN music videos, visit here

(Source: HuffPo Impact)

Chance to Win an iPad 2! »

Edudemic and PunchTab have teamed up on an iPad 2 giveaway! Enter your favorite teacher (or yourself) for the chance to win 1 of 3 iPad 2s!

How to Enter (from Edudemic.com):

Go here and use the PunchTab box to nominate a teacher or classroom you think should have an iPad 2. (You can nominate yourself!) Share with us how that teacher or classroom could use the iPad so others can learn too! Be sure to tell the nominated teacher and others about this contest so they can enter to win. The more people who enter in one classroom or school, the greater chance you have of winning. (Winners will be chosen at random).

Winners will be announced on Edudemic and by PunchTab on December 31, 2011.

You can even earn extra entries— find out how

The giveaway is promoting the new Edudemic Directory, a free and easy site that allows teachers to share, rate, and review their favorite educational resources. Check it out today!

You might also be interested in…

Maine district hosting national conference on iPads in education

What It’s Like To Actually Deploy iPads In Classrooms

100+ iPad Apps Perfect For High School

How Much Would An iPad Lab Cost Your School?

TeachAIDS »

As some of you may already know, Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers) is one of our favorite ed-tech bloggers. Today, we’d like to salute his post featuring TeachAIDS, a non-profit program backed by Stanford U. whose mission is to educate the world about HIV/AIDS.

Founded in 2005, TeachAIDS produces free, educational videos and software available in a wide range of languages (the non-profit organization’s resources are already used in more than 30 countries).

All the full-versions of their products are available to watch on their website here. Try some out today and see if they’d make a good fit for your classroom.

More resources

Learn more about TeachAIDS and its team

Watch Magic Johnson’s 1991 press conference announcing his retirement from the NBA due to having tested positive for HIV [Warning: YouTube video may include inappropriate and/or offensive comments, so minimize screen if watching in class, or try to find an alternative video-playing app]

Teaching children in the digital age »

Our own Meris Stansbury reports today on teaching children in the digital age. Answer her question of the week, and your comment/response might be featured in our weekly round-up.

Question of the Week: How do you get tech-reluctant teachers/staff/administrators to effectively use technology? Please send your response to Online Editor Meris Stansbury at mstansbury@eschoolnews.com. Please send your response by this Friday the 11th.

Last Day of authorspeak2011! »

If you haven’t been following authorspeak2011, you’re missing out! authorspeak is the first-ever gathering of 99 of the nation’s leading education experts, coming together to discuss and explore professional learning. Hosted by Solution Tree, the 3-day event is taking place now (November 1-3^rd) in Indianapolis. The conference has already produced tons and tons of great information and resources, so check it out!

And follow @SolutionTree and @authorspeak2011 to be entered in a drawing to win a free trip to next year’s authorspeak!

Hashtags to look-out for: #authorspeak #edtech #profdev

Who’s speaking? Here’s a full list of authorspeak authors.

RECAPS

Day 1 http://storify.com/solutiontree/-authorspeak-day-one

Day 2 http://storify.com/solutiontree/-authorspeak-day-two

And stay tuned– Tomorrow we will add Day 3 recap when it’s available!

An Oldie but a Goodie: The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools »

Back in July, MindShift posted an insightful piece that we think deserves to be revisited.

The post summarizes Adam S. Bellow’s presentation at this year’s 2011 ISTE conference. Bellow, author of The Tech Commandments and eduTecher, spoke to a roomful of educators about the potential of technology in the classroom and proposes some reasons why tech integration in today’s education system has been hindered.

One point that we think really resonates with pro-tech educators: 2) TECHNOLOGY IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. It’s not enough to send teachers to a guest speaker to hear about interactive whiteboard training for an hour. Teachers need to be constantly learning and experimenting with technology in their classrooms. This means schools need to devote money and time to these PD programs.

Read the full post here. And as always, MindShift readers have provided thoughtful comments on this one, so don’t forget to check those out, too, and add your own opinions and thoughts.

What would you add to The Seven Golden Rules?

Happy Halloween! 18 Educational Apps for Halloween »

Halloween is here! It’s a favorite holiday for the kiddies, so why not try to throw some learning in there while you’re at it?

Teacher Reboot Camp posted 18 free educational apps that are perfect for in the classroom and at home!

Some are just for fun, but most will have some sort of learning (think word games and counting) and/or game strategy.

Tech-savvy parents: These are great apps for you, too. Try them out with your kids!

Visit Shelly Terrell’s full post with all 18 Halloween educational apps here

LAST CHANCE to nominate for 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards! »

We’re looking to you, teachers!

Which tools really work for your classroom? Have you ever had amazing success with a particular ed-tech product or service? Recognize that resource by nominating it for our 2012 Ed-Tech Reader’s Choice Awards!

We’ve already received dozens of some pretty cool ed-tech tools and services. Deadline is this Friday, October 28^th – so hurry!

*Major rules and requirements*

Nominations can be hardware, software, or online services in any area of educational technology.

Nominations must come from school or district personnel only, and the person submitting the nomination should have a valid school-issued email address. No nominations by vendors, please.

Here’s the nomination form

Good luck!

Twitter Chat with Angela Maiers – Recap »

Last night, @eschoolnews had a Twitter chat with #education expert and social media guru Angela Maiers! We’ve had a lot of people asking for the hashtag (#AMedchat), a transcript of the chat, etc…so here it is!

Social is the New Search – Twitter Hour with @AngelaMaiers & @eSchoolNews

Angela answered some big questions from our followers, such as:

• What is social search?
• Why would search engines expend energy integrating social data into search?
• What does it mean for search? to people who search?

For more on the chat and Angela Maiers, visit her site

Games in the Classroom »

How do games fit in the world of education? That’s the question Tina Barseghian  (MindShift) explores in her most recent post (by Nathan Maton)—

A very thoughtful yet simple point is made here: interaction. Games can have a serious presence in education because they have the power to engage a student who is otherwise having difficulty engaging in traditional education.

And let’s face it, traditional education is well on its way out the door.

Said well here, by Nt Etuk, CEO of Dimension U, an educational games company:

“At the end of the day, a game is successful only if each individual gamer has an interaction with it that makes him or her want to come back for more. Even the massively multi-player games [such as World of Warcaft] are successful only because they have tapped into a million individual need to interact, or to compete, or to form groups.”

Check out the rest of this post here—it’s well worth the read.

New to Twitter? Get in the loop! »

This is the most thorough list of education hashtags we’ve stumbled across. It is a refined list by November Learning, original is by Cybrary Man, and has just about every subject, specialty area, education level, etc..you can think of! Here’s a sneak peek–

And don’t forget to save your searches on Twitter, so you can see a full stream of any hashtag you choose!

So join the conversation today!

For more hashtags by Cybrary Man, visit his site

Access the full Google doc here

Happy Tweeting!

25 Incredible Assistive Technologies »

In a recent blog post, The Innovative Educator pulled together a diverse list of assistive technology resources and tools to aid those with learning disabilities.

As the blogger points out, this list is “not meant to take the place of legitimate medical advice”—but for those interested in assistive tech, it’s a great place to start for an overview of a variety of tools and methods.

1. Talking calculators

Both the visually impaired and the learning disabled can greatly benefit from these simple devices, which relay mathematics via audio. For those with dyscalculia, such a gadget renders it much easier to check and double-check assignments.

2. Electronic worksheets

Students struggling with properly lining up words and equations using standard pencils and paper sometimes use electronic worksheets when completing assignments. Some even come with text-to-speech or speech synthesizing capabilities, depending on what assistance is necessary for academic success.

3. Word prediction software

iPhones and Androids haven’t won word prediction programs much mainstream favor, but for the learning disabled, it can prove an absolute godsend. Those grappling with reading and spelling, such as the dyslexic, or difficulties writing and typing use these fantastic technologies to help complete assignments to their satisfaction.

4. Text-to-Voice

Just like the talking calculators, text-to-voice devices and software make classwork much more tolerable for learning disabled students. They do an excellent job of assisting individuals struggling with checking their spelling and grammar in addition to improving reading and writing comprehension skills.

5. Free-form databases

When used along with word processing software, free-form databases organize notes for students grappling with disorganization. All they need to do is type out the necessary information and use a quick and easy search function to browse through everything.

Check out the full list here!

Adobe’s 2011 Educators’ Choice Awards »

Adobe (Adobe Education Exchange) is recognizing the most innovative teaching and learning materials out there (must be a Adobe Exchange member to enter). Fellow members will choose the winners by rating one another’s work. So, collect your best lesson plans, projects, fairs and curricula and show them all you’ve got!

Go to the site and sign in for inspiration and examples here.

Look at these prizes!

Check out the full list of prizes here!

101 Free Classroom Tech Tools from SimpleK12 »

SimpleK12 is offering “untech” educators a FREE 40-page guide to 101 tech tools. The digital eBook is totally free– All you have to do is enter your email.

What’s inside:

• The top 6 collaboration tools you need for publishing, sharing, communicating and connecting with other teachers and students around the world.
• How to use online storyboards, sketch tools, word clouds, and illustrators to make student projects come alive!
• The best educational games to enhance student’s retention in math, science, English, social studies and other curriculum areas.

Get a copy here!

Remembering 9/11 in the classroom »

With the 10^th anniversary approaching, teachers across the nation are exploring various ways to remember the September 11^th terrorist attacks and their lastly impact on our nation.

Pearson online learning exchange now has free resources and ideas to help you teach your classroom about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These rich multimedia resources—available for elementary (K-6) and secondary grades (6-12)—will allow you to share the history with your students in an appropriate and thoughtful manner.

For elementary

- Full lesson plans for helping students understand what terrorism is, as well as interactive timelines to use in class.

- Two interactive timelines to help students understand the sequence of events, and the array of shock, sadness and heroism felt throughout the nation.

For secondary

- Aimed for older students, this module is more extensive—it includes a 16-page downloadable student booklet, whiteboard-ready interactive timelines, audio files of student interviews and full Teacher Support lesson plans to help guide you through the process.

Calling all DMV locals: Backpacks 4 Kids »

Want to make a thoughtful contribution to your local community? Join NBC4 Washington and CVS Pharmacy’s Backpacks 4 Kids!

Donate new school supplies and/or backpacks to give local elementary school students in need a good start to a new school year.

NBC4′s Pat Lawson Muse will be at the Tenleytown CVS Pharmacy at 4555 Wisconsin Avenue NW from 6am until 6pm for live reports and donation collections throughout the day!

You can also purchase and donate a pre-stuffed backpack at one of these CVS Pharmacy stores:

District of Columbia
400 Massachusetts Avenue NW

6-7 Dupont Circle NW

4555 Wisconsin Avenue NW

1199 Vermont Avenue NW

6514 Georgia Avenue NW

Maryland
5870 Silver Hill Road, District Heights

8859 Branch Avenue, Clinton Plaza Shopping Center, Clinton

11906 Livingston Road, Fort Washington

11729 Beltsville Drive, Beltsville

7809 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda

3110 Olney Sandy Spring Road, Olney

12215 Darnestown Road, Gaithersburg

1580 Rockville Pike, Rockville

7955 Tuckerman Lane, Rockville

9520 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring

3715 University Boulevard West, Kensington

Virginia
8330 Old Keene Mill Road/Cardinal Forest, Springfield

1636 Belle View Boulevard, Alexandria

6436 Springfield Plaza, Springfield

2912 Chain Bridge Road, Oakton

1452 Chain Bridge Road, McLean

7205 Little River Turnpike, Annandale

415 Monroe Avenue, Alexandria

To make an online monetary donation, please visit here.

(This donation will be processed through the non-profit Community Foundation, which makes your donation fully tax-deductible).

Educational Twitter Chats in August »

Join us (@eSchool News) for a Twitter hour with eSN editor Jenna Zwang on Wednesday, August 10^th at 1 p.m. ET!

Interested in Higher-Ed, too?

Join @eCampusNews and editor Denny Carter on Wednesday, August 17^th at 1p.m. ET!

Check out this Google calendar (Eastern Time) for many more educational Twitter hours.

Want to join, but don’t know where to start?

WeAreTeachers posted last week a segment that outlines a step-by-step guide to help you.

Want to try Google Plus? Start here! »

In the past month, all we’ve heard about is Google Plus. Grace from SimpleK12 EdTech blog posted some resources today to help get you started.

Google+ For Educators is a mass compilation of tons of Google Plus tools out there.

Mashable’s Google+: The Complete Guide is also good for those looking to use Google Plus outside the classroom, too.

Check out the full list of resources here.

Need a crash course in cyber-bullying? »

HP’s Teacher Experience Exchange features an in-depth post on cyber-bullying, with information on everything from, “What is cyber-bullying?” to detailed tips on how to educate potential bullies and victims. Particularly, I like how real-life cyber-bullying scenarios are taken into account in this post.

Get started on your plan of action to stop bullying!

Kids are Heroes »

@Coopmike48 (Big Education Ape Blogspot) tweeted today: “If you think kids can’t change the world you haven’t visited kidsareheroes.org.” #kidsareheroes #DT @KidsAreHeroes

Kids Are Heroes^® is a non-profit that empowers, encourages and inspires children to become leaders through volunteerism and community involvement. We do this by showcasing and supporting children who are making a difference through their selfless acts of giving. (site description)

This site is great—it’s simple to navigate around (for both kids and adults), and its real-life stories are endearing and inspiring. Plus, it even has word games!

Meet Erica

At age 9, Erica started a charity making fleece blankets for hospitals. She now has her own logo and website, and has collected hundreds of dollars to keep her blanket-giving charity going.

Erica also makes homemade dog biscuits for her local animal shelter and shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

What can you do?

Parents: Encourage your child to Be a Hero, and help he/she share experiences with others! Learn more here.

Teachers: Once or twice a week, set aside 5-10 minutes to read an inspiring story. Or just simply explore the site with your students.

Thanks for turning us to this site, Mike!

Curious about Virtual Field Trips? »

Are you trying to develop online teaching strategies, but not sure where to start? Ask the experts!

Simple K12 is offering free access to Florida Virtual Panel Discussion: Teaching Online.

This is the last webinar in this 7-part series of “21st Century Teaching: Virtual Classrooms”

Sign up here

Presented by: FLVS Webinar Presenters

Date: Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Eastern Time, USA

Cost: FREE!

In honor of Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday… »

Today, the world celebrates “Nelson Mandela International Day,” as the  international icon of global peace and community turns 93 years old.

photo credit: theroot.com

Here’s our favorite Nelson Mandela quote:

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

What can you do to celebrate? Participate in the Mandela Day campaign: Give 67 minutes of your time to others. Support a charity of your choice. Pick up waste and clean up your local park. Volunteer. There are so many ways to help your community!

To learn more on Mandela:

Celebrating Nelson Mandela

What is Mandela Day?

20 best blogs in instructional technology »

Best Online Colleges blog recently posted 20 of their favorite instructional technology blogs and provided little blurbs on why you should try them!

Some are more resource-focused (Free Technology for Teachers) while others serve as social networks where educators can share real experiences and advice (Teach42).

And, our very own eSchool News made the cut!

Find the full list of top 20 here.

U.S. girls sweep Google Science Fair »

Last night was the grand finale of the inaugural Google Science Fair. Out of more than 7,500 entries from more than 10,000 young scientists, in more than 90 countries, 15 finalists had risen to the top.

How do you chose the winners among so many bright, young minds?

It was no easy task for the highly-esteemed panel of judges, which included Google leaders Vint Cerf and Peter Norvig, renowed geneticist and director of the Genographic Project from National Geographic and IBM Spencer Wells, and Nobel Prize winning Chemist Kary Mullis, just to name a few (see full panel of judges here).

So without further adieu, here are the top three winners by age category, as listed in the official Google blog:

• Lauren Hodge in the 13-14 age group. Lauren studied the effect of different marinades on the level of potentially harmful carcinogens in grilled chicken.
• Naomi Shah in the 15-16 age group. Naomi endeavored to prove that making changes to indoor environments that improve indoor air quality can reduce people’s reliance on asthma medications.
• Shree Bose in the 17-18 age group. Shree discovered a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment for patients when they have built up a resistance to certain chemotherapy drugs.

Pretty amazing stuff. It’s also encouraging to see such potential in STEM subject areas with all of the (mostly negative) media attention centering around our education system these days.

To learn more about the contest, visit the official Google blog post.

To watch last night’s ceremonies and speeches, you can visit the Google YouTube channel here.

Want to learn new tricks and tools for your classroom? Experiment this summer! »

Want to learn new tricks and tools for the classroom? Experiment this summer!

Richard Byrne, one of our favorite bloggers for ed-tech resources, has compiled an extensive list of web resources for teachers to try this summer season.

There are a lot of oldies in here, but with a wide range of subject areas, you are sure to find a few new resources for your classroom.

From professional development networks to online safety resources, this free doc has more than enough to keep you busy all summer.

Download Richard’s doc here (You can also find it on DocStoc or Issuu).

‘School’s out’ Initiatives »

‘School’s out’ Initiatives

School’s out for the summer, and now is the time to start thinking about new, effective ways you can bring about positive change in your classroom. Throughout the summer, we will be re-posting some cool programs and initiatives you might want to plan for your own classroom in the next school year.

We found this from Edutopia, and thought it was the perfect topic to start with: Bullying prevention.

Think group activities like creating pledges, watching film clips followed by discussions, or even incorporate extracurricular and/or athletic events. Whatever you chose, be sure to make these highly interactive in nature, as the more interactive kids are, the more effective your program is likely to be. What have you found to be successful?

Read the full post (by Maurice Elias) here.

Additional Resources:

Official U.S. Gov. Anti-Bullying website http://www.stopbullying.gov/

Anti-Bullying pledge example http://www.cyberbullying.ca/pdf/FC_Bullying_POSTER04.pdf

Youth Frontiers – Building positive school communities since 1987

Keep track of your students with your iPad! »

Attendance is a universal iOS (iPhone/Touch/iPad app) that lets you take and keep up with class attendance. You can import names via CSV files or from an Address Book group, or enter names by hand. It’s important to note that users cannot directly import data from websites that are password protected, but sites like Blackboard and other course management systems provide easy ways to import into Attendance.

The app is $5.99 and 2.0 MB in size. Learn more here.

Books Should Be Free. And other great resources for young readers »

ilearntechnology recently posted about a fantastic (and free) online resource—Books Should Be Free is an extensive collection of free audio books available from the public domain. Students can download both the audio and the accompanying text in iPod, iTunes, or MP3 format. Books are searchable by genre, author, keyword and title. From Stevenson’s Treasure Island to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, all the classics are present and free for download, directly to students’ iPods and MP3 players.

Of course, not all students have access to an iPod, Macbook, MP3 player, etc. But not all students have a widespread collection of books at home either– so any free and easy resource is worth a shot.

Check out these, too:

Story Time For Me

Story Bird

National Geographic Young Explorer

One 5th grader’s view on standardized testing »

Valerie Strauss (The Answer Sheet) featured a very insightful essay in last Friday’s post. Julia Skinner-Grant, a fifth grader at Chevy Chase Elementary in Montgomery County, wrote an essay giving her take on one of the most highly-debated topics in education reform today: Standardized testing.

Julia, a special education student in the highly gifted center, takes a persuasive stance that high-stakes testing leads to stress, not high test scores. Her argument is so insightful, it is nearly impossible to believe she is just 11. And Strauss is right— she is far more persuasive than a lot of adults on the subject.

Here’s a sneak peek–  Read the full essay here.

By Julia Skinner-Grant

A good education is the key that opens the door to success in life. When children learn early on and discover their passions then their world, our world, just keeps getting better. Yet, how will we get better if all we teach our students is what has already been discovered? How will our future get better if we educate kids about how to remember random facts? How will No Child Left Behind help America’s future?

In 2002 President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of this law was to narrow achievement gaps between students, since many lower income students were not performing well on standardized tests and didn’t have basic reading or writing skills. So No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) is a system where testing is emphasized throughout the public school system in the United States. Now the nation’s teachers are given so much focus on testing requirements that classrooms hardly manage time for intellectual discussions, where students actually learn how to become lawyers, doctors and scientists. Why schools focused on the test is because NCLB will fire teachers if students don’t attain a certain score on the test. Principals are judged by how the students do on tests that test their ability to memorize random facts. If their students do well their school and they get more money; if their students do poorly they get fired.

Read Julia’s full essay here.

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