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Issue 25, Volume
10
February
25, 2010
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Thought for the
Week
You
have brains in your head. You have feet in your
shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you
choose.
-- Dr. Seuss
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Read Across America Day –
March 2nd
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 NEA's
Read Across America is
an annual reading motivation and awareness program
that calls for every child in every community to
celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of
beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. Read Across
America has now become one of the largest
celebration of reading this country has ever seen
since its birth in 1998. Plan your Read
Across America event and win an award! Find out more
at
http://www.nea.org/readacross. Also, feel free
to access any one of the activities below to
celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday.
Seussville Story Maker
http://www.seussville.com/games/storymaker/story_maker.html
In this interactive game, students will explore
characters and scenes from Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears
a Who" to design their own versions of the story,
complete with text and music in a series of three
scenes.
Seuss Sound Flip Books
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LASoundsWDrSuess1.htm
Students will be focusing on beginning and ending
sounds with this language arts lesson plan, themed
to Dr. Seuss's book, "Hop on Pop."
Dr. Seuss Sound Words
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/seuss-sound-words-playing-104.html
Elementary classes will explore sound words in a
selection of Seuss stories, with a Sound Observation
Chart and Checklist included.
Seussville University
http://www.seussville.com/university/parents.html
Click on the characters of the Dr. Seuss stories in
this interactive resource to explore letter
recognition, letter sounds, rhymes, numerals, number
words, simple addition, and more.
Seuss-A-Gestions
http://www.nea.org/grants/20122.htm
There are some wonderful ideas listed here to help
you and your secondary students create a memorable
event out of Dr. Seuss's birthday, while exploring
English topics in novel ways.
The Political Dr. Seuss
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/edu_1.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/edu_2.pdf
How many of your students realized that Dr. Seuss,
along with being a beloved children's author, was
also a dedicated activist? This PBS exhibit explores
the political side of Theodor Geisel, with clips
from a film, a biography, and an exploration of
political cartoons. The other two links include two
lesson plans that also investigate these themes. |
Are Netbooks Right For
Education?
|
 "During a time of steep
budget cuts, many school leaders have turned to
netbooks as a less expensive way to get computers
into the hands of every student." This report,
found at the link below, will
provide food for thought and justifications for
netbooks verses computers as more and more schools
are turning to this inexpensive alternative. If you
are considering netbooks, you may want to visit this
site to aid you in making a more informed decision:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2009/10/08/are-netbooks-right-for-education/ |
Big Math and Fries
|
 Want a math lesson that your
kids will love as much as an order of French fries?
Resisting this lesson will be hard to do! In Big
Math and Fries, algebra teacher Michael Weingarden
challenges his students to see if they can eat fast
food and maintain the Zone Diet. In this lesson,
students perform a variety of calculations,
including percents and conversions. Pick up an order
of fun learning here. The URL:
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L849 |
Calcasieu's Promethean
User Group Blackboard Site --
Sign Up Today!
|
 Be sure to check out the
Calcasieu Promethean User Group Blackboard site that
has been set up to support the integration of
Promethean ActivBoards into the curriculum. The site
is designed for all K-12 teachers and
administrators.
Join today, and find some very
useful Promethean information!
This Blackboard site is setup so that users can
self-enroll. To self-enroll in the course, follow
these steps:
1. Go to the Calcasieu Parish Blackboard at
http://blackboard.cpsb.org.
2. Log into Blackboard with your user name and
password.
3. Click on the Courses tab.
4. Under Course Catalog, click on Browse
Class Catalog.
5. In the Search box, type the word
Promethean.
6. Scroll to find the course, Calcasieu
Promethean User Group. Click on the
Enroll button on the far right-hand side.
7. In the box next to Access code, type the word
active.
8. Click on OK.
You are now enrolled and will be able to move around
the site. This site, Calcasieu Promethean User
Group, will be added to your My Courses
tab under Classes in which you are enrolled
for the next time you log in to Blackboard. |
Education Through
Exploration With JASON
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 Backed by National
Geographic, this interactive
and immersive site connects students with great
explorers and great events to inspire and motivate
them to learn science. The award-winning
curricula embed cutting-edge research from NASA,
NOAA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National
Geographic Society and other leading organizations
and allow leading scientists to work side by side
with JASON students. Register for free to access all
content. The URL:
http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx |
Ribbon Hero For 2007/2010
Office Applications
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 Ribbon
Hero is a game for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 2007
and 2010, designed to help you boost your Office
skills and knowledge. Play games (aka "challenges"),
score points, and compete with your friends while
improving your productivity with Office. As a
concept test, this add-in is not currently
supported, but is an opportunity for you to try out
an idea that Microsoft Office Labs is working on and
to let them know what you think. Requirements: Vista
or Windows 7 (32/64 bit), Office 2007 or Office 2010
(32/64 bit) The URL:
http://officelabs.com/projects/ribbonhero/Pages/default.aspx |
Story Starters
|
 Using
the online story starter from Scholastic, students
can select their grade level, spin the lever and get
the main parts of their story. They can click one of
the levers if they want to select a different part.
Students can then select the format of their story:
notebook, letter, newspaper, and postcard. You can
also include a drawing. After completing the story,
you can print it, switch format, add a blank page,
or start a new story. It is primarily for K-6th grade. Check
it out at
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm. |
Personalized Learning in
Action Video Contest
|
 NetTrekker just announced
the launch of the Personalized Learning in Action
video contest. Two lucky winners will each receive a
$1500 scholarship to attend ISTE 2010 in Denver, CO
later this year. Between now and
April 16, with the
help of your students, create a video clip
illustrating how you use netTrekker (along with
other resources) to engage your students in a
personalized learning experience.
Examples of personalized learning in action might
include:
*Showing how netTrekker is used to research and
build lesson plans;
*Demonstrating how students are using netTrekker in
the classroom for project research Building and
sharing lesson plans that incorporate differentiated
instruction elements for students with special
needs; or
*Assigning projects to students that extend their
learning experience beyond the walls of the
classroom and into their home lives.
The two winners of the Personalized Learning in
Action contest will receive $1500 towards
registration at ISTE 2010, travel, accommodation and
meal expenses. Another 5 winners will receive a BrainPOP classroom subscription and another 20 will
receive a BrainPOP hat. So, are you ready? All it
takes is some creative thinking, a video camera and
a computer logged into netTrekker! Full details
about the video contest along with a link to submit
a clip can be found here:
http://www.nettrekker.com/pages/video-contest. |
More Web 2.0 Tools
|
 For
the past six issues of TechConnect, a multitude of
free Web 2.0 tools that teachers are using to expand
their professional knowledge and collaborate on
projects were highlighted. This week TechConnect
continues to introduce educators to Web 2.0 tools.
The following tools are all free and simple to use.
Wallwisher
http://wallwisher.com/
Wallwisher is a website that allows you to leave
virtual “post it” notes in one place on the web. As
well as text, you can also embed hyperlnks, pictures
and video. The Wallwisher online NOTICE BOARD maker
is ideal for making announcements, keeping notes,
and basically anything you can do with Post its and
more. Students can partake without signing in or
needing an email address.
ReadtheWords
http://www.readthewords.com/
This site features text to speech with a variety of
voices. This site allows a teacher to download
papers and exams into Read the Words. This site can
also read many documents such as websites,
publisher, and word. Students can use this website
to have any text read to them and it is very easy to
learn to use.
Zefty
http://zefty.com
This site teaches students about responsible
spending and saving is difficult. The great thing
about Zefty is, although it functions like a bank
account, there's no real money involved. Parents or
teachers can set up and account for each student and
specify how much allowance they get and how often. |
| Best
on the Net!! -- Visit this site for
hundreds of websites for teachers! We would love to
hear from you about the best educational sites you
have found on the web. Please submit, via email, the
sites you feel merit inclusion. Send to tech.connect@cpsb.org.
Please include the URL and a short sentence about the
site.
Featured
Sites: (These sites were submitted by teachers in
Calcasieu Parish)
The Soundry
http://library.thinkquest.org/19537/
Explore the world of sound with this online exhibit.
Learn how we perceive sound with a map of the human
ear and an Auditory Scene Analysis. An interactive
sound lab is also available.
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