Technology in the Education Arena » General Curriculum

First Meeting of Technology Team

jzcolby — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:13:16 +0000

Today I held my first meeting with everyone who works in our district’s secondary schools in the Technology Labs. It went very well. We had some professional development — a little overview of Atomic Learning and went over www.picnik.com, a great site for teachers/students to use to edit photos and resize photos. We shared tips and techniques used in the labs. There were some who started this year, while some had 20 years. It was nice to see the collaborating among them and I was glad to be a part of it. I hope that they benefitted from the meeting. We will definitely continue these meetings. I think maybe I will start focusing the professional development I give on Web 2.0 tools — I think they would find it interesting (as I do). My goal is to start next year with a plan for our meetings, lots of professional development, and lots of collaborating.

We also started a “tip” sheet. Everyone provided a tip to share. There were some great tips collected and I hope we can continue with this — I learned a lot from the tips.

Encyclopedia of Life

jzcolby — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:04:07 +0000

The Internet just continues to be one of the greatest tools available. Check out the Encyclopedia of Life — a global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth.

From the Press Release:

“Over the next 10 years, the Encyclopedia of Life will create Internet pages for all 1.8 million species currently named. It will expedite the classification of the millions of species yet to be discovered and catalogued as well. The pages, housed at http://www.eol.org, will provide written information and, when available, photographs, video, sound, location maps, and other multimedia information on each species. Built on the scientific integrity of thousands of experts around the globe, the Encyclopedia will be a moderated wiki-style environment, freely available to all users everywhere”

Enrichment Clusters

jzcolby — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:33:37 +0000

Enrichment Clusters have started at my school — Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Charter Public School. They run for six weeks — one hour every Friday. After the six weeks, there is a celebration for the whole school where the students demonstrate the skills they learned and share their created projects — it could be a presentation, a play, a song, a dance, or a finished product. The clusters are opportunities for the students in Grades 1 through 4 to study something they enjoy in non-traditional subjects. The students participating in each cluster are mixed-age groups. The six-week mini courses are offered by teachers, parents, and members of the community.

I am assisting a Grade 2 teacher with a cluster entitled “Totally Technology.” The students will be creating their individual PowerPoint which will contain their writings, digital photos, and art projects completed by the students. Students will scan photographs, use the digital camera, use Kidspiration to create a graphic organizer about themselves, and make a podcast. The first week went great and we can’t wait to see their final products.

The concept of Enrichment Clusters and how to develop an authentic enrichment cluster can be found in an article written by Dr. Joseph Renzulli, Director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut. When I attended the ASP National Conference last week, I attended Dr. Renzulli’s presentation in which he talked about enrichment clusters.

To learn more about Enrichment Clusters:
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart01.html

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ToolsforSchools/enrich.html

Some photos from our Enrichment Clusters held last year.

Newseum Web Site

jzcolby — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:49:01 +0000

Sometimes you find gold in a website. Well today that happened. Great site on news — Newseum. Newseum is an interactive museum of news. Some of the features are thumbnails of the front page of almost 500 newspapers in 49 countries — just click on the thumbnail to bring up the newspaper; Pulitzer prize winning photographs with audio content for the photos; stories of the century with associated video clips; and so much more. Right now they have the editorial from the New York Sun in 1897 — Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.