Twitter for Educators

I've been asked a few times just this week about why teachers would want to use Twitter.  I was getting caught up on my blog reading this evening and saw this Prezi  shared on HeyJude's blog.  Great info and nice Prezi example.  Thank you to the creator, Keith Ferrell.  After it loads, keep clicking on the arrow.  Enjoy!

Twitter for Teachers on Prezi

Cool Use of Mindomo

I'm planning a new online course, and found this graphic organizer as I was working.  It was made by Jester Isaksson using Mindomo.  It's a neat way to organize and share web 2.0 tools!

Glogging Along

Here's another example showing a positive impact of educators in my district attending the MACUL Conference.   ONe of our elementary Media Specialists  (Katharine Keeble, Maple Elementary School) attended a Glogster session.  Glogster is an online tool that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs.  Since she returned from the conference, she has created three glogs and is going to do a before school workshop for teachers in her building tomorrow!  Katharine says "Glogs are EASY and FUN to make!  They could be used as a classroom activity center, used in the lab, or used with the whole class with your laptop and projector."

• Internet Safety will be used with 4th grade students.  The plan is for students to interact with this glog first.  Then they will create their own as an artifact to demonstrate student learning.   


• Going to the Zoo will be used with 1st grade students, who will soon be going to the Detroit zoo.  The children can interact with the glog before or after they travel to the zoo.  The glog includes two little animal videos (frog and elephant), 2 online animal puzzles (frog and elephant), a labeled diagram of a macaw and an online coloring book parrot page.   


• Setting up Teacher and Student Accounts:  This was made for teachers interested in learning glogster without spending a ton of time figuring it out!  Katharine has figured many things out so no one else needs to spend time doing so.

For those who like having written directions, mmehenderson has created a PDF.

Applying What Was Learned at the MACUL Conference

I received an email from an elementary teacher who attended a session about wikis while at the MACUL Conference last week. 

"Okay, so I've taken a huge jump.  Not only am I jumping in with both feet first, I'm doing it with my kids!   

I've created a wiki for my kids to do some writing.  I figured that if 2nd graders could do this (like I saw at MACUL), I could do this with 4th graders.  So, I wanted to share our class wiki with you. =)

I'm going to add in some pictures they've drawn to go with their myths, and then they'll add those to their myth page as well.  I'll be adding those as soon as they're done with the writing.  One thing at a time... besides, their before and after pictures are on the back of their Story Maps.

There might be something to this!  As a side note, I was able to give ALL of the kids detailed and personal feedback on their myths in about 75 minutes."

Check out the class wiki at http://mrsharmsworth.wikispaces.com/.  It's an excellent example of how technology can “rev up” student writing.  The wiki has individual student pages, a page for parents, a how-to page, and more will be coming soon.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

It was exciting to have several teachers from Walled Lake attend the MACUL Conference for the first time.  We have two teams who were awarded MI-Champions grants (congrats to the Dublin and Walled Lake Central High School teams!)  A few teachers came running to me all excited after attending Liz Kolb's (author of From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones for Education) session about using cell phones in the classroom.  This is coming at just the right time.  The Walled Lake Technology Council is currently working on updating technology policies to include cell phones, social and professional networking, web site guidelines, and more.  Our current policy bans cell phones in the classroom, but it won't be long before a new policy is in place that allows cell phones for educational purposes (if all goes as I think it will).  Although Iwas unable to attend the session, Liz posted her presentation on slideshare.  See below.  I look forward to hearing the specific plans that the teachers have for using cell phones in their classrooms and helping to make it happen!

Why Cell Phones

View more presentations from elizkeren.

Jump Start Conference for Michigan Educators

There is an educational technology conference coming up on April 26 at the Novi Sheraton.  Dr Brian McNulty will be doing the keynote, followed by some great breakout sessions.  See flyer here:  Jump_Start_flyer_2010

MACUL Conference Model Classroom

Are you attending the MACUL Conference in Michigan? March 11 & 12, 2010. This year's MACUL Model Classroom will showcase what is happening with technology in K-12 classroms. Sessions are geared towards teaching the Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS) and assessment. You'll find it in the vendor hall, so plan to stop by. I'll highlight some of the sessions in future blog posts. See flyer here.

Short presentations by educators and vendors will be given on the hour with time for hands-on exploration. Check out the equipment and the furniture.

There will be a showcase sale offered by Spectrum Furniture; so if you are in need of computer desks, chairs, laptop storage carts, or media managers, come take a look at what is offered. The furniture used in the Model Classroom will be sold at greatly reduced prices. First come, first served! See flyer here. 

This is a cross-post from the MACUL Conference Blog.