May, 2008

Transforming teaching together...

Thank you for taking time to check out the new TechNotes newsletter. The purpose of this monthly publication is to help teachers, parents, and our school community stay informed of technology integration topics in the Deer Isle - Stonington Community Schools. Each issue will contain articles related to district technology resources, best practices, lesson plan ideas, and the Teacher Tool of the month. If you have a success story, lesson plan idea, or a teaching tool that you would like to share, contact me at mr.markarnold@gmail.com. Also, parents and community members are encouraged to share their thinking and ask questions. I appreciate your input or any feedback you have to offer.

Discovery Education

Video-on-demand - Proven to Enhance Learning

Discovery Education streaming is the most comprehensive digital video-on-demand and online teaching resource available today. Educators get access to a rich collection of more than 40,000 video segments and 4,000 full-length educational videos—all designed for easy integration into the curriculum and correlated to state standards. Teachers can align media content to with classroom learning; searching for content by topic keyword, subject area, grade, or curriculum standard, a list of videos that match your search criteria will be displayed. Discovery Education streaming is the only digital video-based learning resource scientifically proven to increase student achievement.

Discovery Education steaming accounts also provide teachers with a powerful set of tools to shape learning experiences and guide students toward meaningful learning outcomes.  The Teacher Center in DE streaming contains the following:

Mathematics Awareness Month!

April is Mathematics Awareness Month.  What a good reason to check out online resources that can inspire student's interest and understanding in this area.  Here is a great page that lists educator reviewed and recommended online math resources.

Worth their weight in gold!

The following site is an exceptional resource for all classroom teachers and students:

Lit2Go: is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:

• Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,
• Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer,
• View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen,
• Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

Each month TechNotes will include a few SuperSites.  SuperSites are websites that I feel are outstanding educational resources.  If you know of or come across a great learning resource, you can add it to the SuperSite Archive... it may even be spotlighted in the next TechNotes.

Elementary SuperSite:
Mrs. Waltke's Literacy Page: This is a nice literacy site that has tried to align literacy resources with Scott Foresman Reading Street activities.

EarthCams for Kids: Designed for children, we filled it with webcams that are kid friendly, fun, and educational. Take your kids to see tigers, search for ghosts, and journey to New York to visit the Statue of Liberty. Enjoy!

Room 108: Room 108 is a primary education site for kids. There are lots of free online games but all with an educational focus. There are over 400 pages of kids educational games, interactive writing, animated stories, songs, kids puzzles, art, math, science, social studies, distance learning and much more. A great resource for primary kids games and teacher teaching resources!

Middle School SuperSite:
Best4C: Best4c (Best for chart) is a Web-based, online diagram tool that allows you to create, edit and share charts anytime, anywhere.

Pencil: Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

High School SuperSite:
Crappy Graphs: Graphing is an important skill... not really for the reasons this site exemplifies, but it does provide a basic point for having students consider the use of graphs.  The site provides the ability for students to try making their own Crappy Graph.  The simple graph-maker could be used for meaningful purposes.

Aviary: Aviary is a suite of web-based applications (RIAs) for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for artists of all genres.

Family/Parent SuperSite:
Internet Public Library (ipl) Kidspace: The ipl is an exceptional place to find information and resources to support learning and exploration.  This link takes you to one of the organized areas of the ipl (Kidspace), but there are other spaces and places to visit in this vast and well organized online "library".






Edutopia:Edutopia.org contains a deep archive of continually updated best practices, from classroom tips to recommendations for districtwide change. Allied with a dedicated audience that actively contributes success stories from the field, our mission relies on input and participation from schools and communities.


APRIL EVENTS:
4/1 Teacher Tech, 3-4:00 PM, DISES
4/8 Teacher Tech, 3-4:00 PM, DISES
4/14 DISES MLTI Team 3-4:00 PM
4/15 DISHS MLTI Team 3-4:00 PM
4/16 CSD 13 Tech Committee 3-4:00 PM
4/29 Teacher Tech, 3-4:00 PM, DISES
4/29 Edline Parent Workshop 6-7:00 PM DISHS
4/30 Student-Parent Tech, 3-4:00 PM, DISES