Wednesday, December 5, 2007
January 2008 Newsletter
Ten Reasons why the is Internet is no Substitute for a Library This is a great article that read during Grad. school. Although it is old by today's standards, much of it is applicable to students today. I spend a portion of my day each day working to update our collection. I would really like for our collection to support your curricular needs. Please let me know if there is a resource that you would like for me to locate and purchase for our collection.
Mindomo is an online mind mapping tool. It is free, which makes it even better. It is much like the program Inspiration, that you are probably familiar with. I can see this being very useful for math classes who could create a flow chart for solving a particular type of math problem or other classes who need to follow a series of steps and make decisions. Charts can be shared, allowing others to edit them. The charts can also be posted on other web pages such as your class wiki. Mindomo generates code that you can easily copy to post your mind map. I embedded a public map at the bottom of this page for you to see. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and check it out. Use your mouse to move the map around. You can zoom in or out with the "+" or "-," or with the slider. Pretty cool. I also embedded the map here on the DMS Teacher Tech. wiki for you to look at.
Class Marker is a free online tool that allows you to administer quizzes and tests online. According to the website, the plan to add a feature that will allow you to embed a quiz into your web page (I assume that means your wiki too.) In the meantime, it still looks useful. Here how to use it (from the website): I am going to try this tool with my classes. I'll let you know how it goes. Fireworks photo from Chrislrmo's photoset: http://flickr.com/photos/chrisirmo/
Thursday, November 15, 2007
December 2007 Newsletter
Curriki, a play on the words 'curriculum' and 'wiki', is a nonprofit organization that is building the first and only Internet site for Open Source Curriculum (OSC), which will provide universal access to free curricula and instructional materials for grades K-12.
We are focusing initially on developing an online repository for K-12 curricula in theareas of mathematics, science, technology, reading and language arts, and languages. We want this repository to attract everyone from educators, students and parents, to programmers, instructional designers, authors and public officials throughout the world to contribute or freely access quality learning materials.
This is worth looking in to.
Commoncraft creates "In plain English" explanations. These are nice introductions to various technology tools. And, some of them have subtitles that are added using Dotsub, another cool tool. You can use Dotsub to add subtitles to your videos free of charge.
Question mark image from purpleslog's photostream.
Man working at computer imagefrom Say Cheeze!!!'s photostream.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
November 2007 Media Center News
Thursday, September 20, 2007
October 2007 Media Center News
September 2007 Media Center News
W |
elcome back! I hope that you had an enjoyable summer. I am looking forward to working with you this year. I have some new ideas and things I would like to try. Stop by and let me know what’s new.
Collaboration |
Please consider allowing me to assist you in assignments and projects. (research skills, locating web resources, technology lessons, etc.). I would love to plan and deliver a lesson or unit with you. . I will visit with each team this Fall to discuss this with you. Let me know how I can help.
New Materials |
Doreen and I are continuing the long process of updating our collection. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for additions to the collection which will help support our reading goals or your specific curriculum. I will continue to notify you when new materials arrive.
New Technology |
Many of you have gotten projectors mounted in your room.Let me Know if I can assist you in using them.
Guided |
As we begin another year with Guided Reading, I would like to remind you that because Doreen and I have GR groups, we will be unable to check out books to you during GR class time. Please plan ahead.
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- Continue to develop and update our collection of Materials
- Promote reading through various avenues
We have a new Online Catalog! Destiny is available online at http://mediacenters.ccsd1.k12.wy.us/
This program has some neat capabilities and resources including WebPath Express. WebPath Express is a tool that
· allows simplified searching of thousands of educator-reviewed web sites.
· Aligns web sites to curriculum with content differentiated by grade level.
· Promotes student achievement by guiding students to relevant resources.
· Gives students the confidence to conduct self-directed research and
· complete assignments in a safe environment,24/7.(from the brochure)
We can create bibliographies and book lists for you. Stop by and talk to us about this. Two years ago we created a list of novels that were suited to the 6th grade “Culture” reading assignment. We would be happy to help you too!
NetTrekker is a new resource available through WedGate this year. This is a neat search engine that you will want to have your students use. They must create an account before they can use it.
Online Databases |
· We have a number of excellent resources available online. The school district has again subscribed to United Streaming Video, a very useful source for videos.
· DMS has a subscription to CultureGramstm. You can read the description here: http://online.culturegrams.com/ This is an excellent resource for Social Studies teachers.
· The Wyoming State Library has subscribed to numerous databases that are available to