Figure This! Math Callenge for Families

 Figure This!

This is an excellent math site that provides information and activities for families. These are real world activities and math challenges that parents can do at home with their kids. There is also a section to show parents how to help their children with their math homework. It provides an explanation of why we aren't teaching math the way it was taught when they were in school!

WolframAlpha

This is a great search engine for comparing 2 things. It will put the information side by side which makes it easy for students to compare. Here is an example I did on Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

County Level Trainings

District Wide trainings available in MyLearningPlan

The digital learning team has posted five upcoming trainings open to anyone.
 Each workshop has thirty slots and will begin at 3:45 and end at 5:45 pm in the
West Campus Computer Lab.  In order to earn credit each participant will need
to attend 3 sessions.

Oct 10 - Google Basics

Nov 7 - Edmodo

Jan 16 - Web 2.0 Tools

Feb 25 - iPad Apps for the Elementary Classroom

Mar 25 - Advanced Google

Visit MyLearningPlan to sign up!

Conferapp

Jennifer Barber told me about this AWESOME app that you can use to keep notes on your students during small group time. It allows you to upload your students, then type in notes on your iPad. It also has an option where you could share the notes if you needed to with another teacher. (For example: Tam if she works with your students.) Watch the short video to see how it works. I hate to be redundant but it is AWESOME!

e-Books

Blog Assignment

In one of my graduate school classes I was given the assignment to "post about best practices in use of blogs in K12." One of my favorite things to do is read education blogs. I like to see the new tools that people have found and I also like to read their opinions on what is going on in education. I went to Google and searched this assignment topic. One article that popped up was "The Honor Roll: 50 Must-Read Education IT Blogs," which I thought would be a good start. I decided I would look through these top blogs to see what made them stand out from the rest.



I clicked on the first blog which was titled 2 cents Worth. The author of this blog is David Warlick. I immediately was entranced by his blog and spent at least an hour reading through his past posts and the comments from other readers. It wasn't because his blog was flashy and had pretty colors, it is actually very plain. It was his choice of topics that had my attention. He wrote about things that teachers want to know about and that will help teachers become better at what they do. Which led me to understand one of the best practices in blogs...posting about topics that motivate teachers to be better. It's not always about posting a new tool that will excite the kids and make the teacher's job easier, but it's also about motivating teachers to want to do better! One of his posts was titled, "It's not about the technology." This post immediately got my attention, but what he was saying was, it's not about the technology that we choose to use, but more about what the kids get from it and what they ultimately learn.

A couple others on this list, The Cool Cat Teacher and 21st Century Principal also do the same thing. They make you think about what you are doing as an educator and what you can do to be better.


A blog of a different kind, and one many people already know about, is freetech4teachers.com.  This is my go-to blog if I am looking for any new digital learning tool for my students or for the teachers at my school. This blog is written by Richard Byrne.  He is always on the search for great digital tools and posts new ones each day. He only posts tools and websites that have substance and I know I can trust the things he posts. That is another best practice for blogs. If you are giving ideas for digital tools, be sure they work well and have substance. If not, people will not trust the things you post.

PBL: Explained