NET-S in a Wordle

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) publishes the National Education Technology Standards.  There are standards for students, teachers, administrators, and coaches.  Below is a Wordle I created using the major concepts and details of the standards for students.  Wordle is often overused but if you are looking for a different way to represent text, Wordle is a good choice.

ESPN and Common Core

Recently I stumbled across ESPN’s Sports Science Videos thanks to a post from Richard Byrne. These videos are a collection of videos explaining the science and math behind different sporting achievements. It looks like most of the videos are under 5 minutes each and cover such topics as Nascar, Olympic swimmers, decathletes, Michael Jordan, Andrew Luck, to the longest paper airplane flight.

142 results showed up when I went to the site, however, there were several that appeared more than once. Needless to say, there is plenty of awesome educational potential here!!!!

These resources could be extremely useful in all core subject areas. There are the obvious real-world connections to both Math and Science with these videos. Terms like angles, greater than, potential energy, and aerodynamics aren’t uncommon when viewing. You know the kind of terms that people who don’t like math and science will refer to as “magic.” However, these could also be used as a great way for students to make deeper connections with their independent reading books in ELA. For instance, there are several videos that could fit really well with different topics in The Hunger Games. Inspire some of your reluctant readers by having them watch a video on one of the topics that interests them. Just be ready to provide a list of reading suggestions that relate. These could also easily be used with your reluctant writers to inspire them to write to any of the three main types of writing of the Common Core standards: Argument, Informational/Explanatory, and Narrative. Social Studies students could debate such topics as laws for concussions and/or equality. Another idea would be having students make connections by comparing some of the modern day athletes like Jon Jones and Randy Couture to famous warriors of ancient times. Ok . . . that last one might be a stretch but you get my point. This is a great resource to include on your favorites bar.

Please feel free make any suggestions as to how you could use these videos in your classroom.

ELA - Common Core Performance Assessment and Weebly

**Credit - The performance assessment referred to in this post was adapted from the original with permission from Gretchen Looney of the Charleston County School District in South Carolina.

This past week, Erika Jordan (@teacha) instructional technology coach, Dr. Barbara Goggans, ELA curriculum coach, and I (@twmcmahon) created a Common Core Performance Assessment for students to complete.  The performance assessment asks students to decide if texting while driving should be banned in South Carolina or not.  There was a bill in the state legislature last term but was not passed.  We will see if it comes up again this term.

The performance assessment asks students to review articles and videos posted in the resource library and take notes about they see and read.  They are also asked to participate in a small group discussion after reviewing the resources.  The final step is to determine their stance on the on the issue, organize their evidence, plan, and write a letter to their state legislator.

I have enjoyed this experience in assistng in creating this performance assessment.  My largest contribution was Erika and I creating the Weebly for the assessment.  For those who have not heard of Weebly, it is a free website builder.  For a free teacher account, you can create 2 websites and have 40 student accounts.  40 student accounts is not a lot but if you group your students this can work.  If you want more student accounts you can purchase 10 at a time for $10.  For high school teachers and some 8th grade teachers, if your students are over 13, they can create their own Weebly's for their use.  This would be great for a student e-portfolio among other uses.

The interface to create a Weebly site is simple.  It has a drop and drag interface with several styles for your webpage.  We use Google's Blogger for this site and the interface for Weebly is much simpler.  There is even a blog feature you can use for a blog or discussion board.

Hope you get a chance to use to check out our Performance Assessment and Weebly.

Save Videos to YouTube

Google Search Tip

How many times have you wanted to search the Internet for a particular kind file…for example a Power Point on a particular subject?  Try this.  Use filetype:ppt in your search term.  This will bring up ONLY Power Point files.  For example:  To find Power Point files on the French Revolution, enter the subject in quotations immediately followed by filetype: and whatever type of file you want.  Enter the information as shown below and check out all of the ppt's already on the web!  

How To: Download & Insert Video into Flipcharts

Sorting Characteristics Interactive Using SMART Notebook

Below is a tutorial on creating an interactive T Chart to sort the characteristics of two subjects using SMART Noetbook.