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Midsouth Tech Conference

Laura Smith — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:23:40 +0000

If you’re coming to the Midsouth Technology Conference, I will be a presenter at these sessions:

Dec 9: DIY Edtech-Edupunk-Why and How

(Assisting Aaron Fowles) This presentation will address the why and how of DIY educational technology, sometimes called edupunk. Rather than list a number of resources and how teachers can use them, we aim to identify the requirements of a modern education and the technologies that can help fulfill those requirements. Furthermore, we want to show teachers how many resources are available to them at no cost because we feel that many providers exploit teachers’ lack of knowledge in this area.

Dec 10: Creative Writing with Kerpoof

Learn the basics of the online creative application for kids and see how this powerful tool can be used to enhance creative writing. Get tips on how to best use the “Make a Story” and “Make a Movie” features, while also exploring management strategies for online student accounts.

Dec 10: Great Open Source and Free Resources for Your Classroom

Presenting 25+ open source software and web application resources for students and teachers that you can download or use completely free of charge. High quality, user friendly, time-saving programs that teachers and students will get a lot of use from. From classroom management to creative tools, from skill-building to file conversion–whether small or big, resources may be useful to teachers and students in grades K-12.

Deidra Wins Kid Reporter

Laura Smith — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:29:17 +0000

After working on her first assignment on the national morning news program, Deidra Shores, former Downtown Elementary School student and my own former language arts student, found out today that she has been voted the winner in the nationwide search for a cub reporter for NBC’s Today Show. Congratulations, Deidra!

NuShield Sale

Laura Smith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:16:01 +0000

FYI…If you’re in need of screen protectors, NuShield is having a promotion right now.

NuShield is also launching its annual Promotion Program that gives you an extra 10% discount on your order. You will receive 10% OFF your order by writing NHP09 into the Customer Discount box on the NuShield cart page when placing your order. Without inserting this, you will not receive the discount and NuShield will not be able to credit the discount to you retroactively. This promotion ends January 31, 2010.

Too bad we already ordered ours…(and they’re on back order, too…rotten luck, I tell you…)

Trash to Treasure

Laura Smith — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:50:45 +0000

This is a great example of teacher collaboration. Third grade teacher at Downtown Elementary, Debra Johnson, worked with our art teacher, Martha Berge, to create animal sculptures from recyclable materials. Of course, this was done in conjunction with environmental science education in the classroom. Students were learning about animals and their habitats, impact of humans on ecosystems, and what popular terms like “global warming” and “going green” actually mean.

I had nothing to do with the project, but I did interview the students and put the video together, and I think it’s pretty clear that students grasped many of the ecological concepts, created some fantastic art, and really enjoyed the project. I feel that it’s a great example of teacher collaboration becoming a source for a great learning experience.

Also, this was my first Teacher Tube upload.

TN Aligned with NAEP…Tools to Prepare

Laura Smith — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:32:48 +0000

Tennessee has now become part of the Diploma Project Network. This means our state standards have been readjusted to a higher level, and our TCAP achievement test in grades 3-8 has been aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Yes, if you have ever done a research project in education coursework, you might be familiar with NAEP statistics.

If you work for MCS and have not seen the MediaSite interview with John Barker that details these changes–the basic whys and hows–it’s probably a good idea to view it. If you’re on a Mac, you’ll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to view it, but there is a button to do this on the MediaSite viewer.

So, what does this mean? We will see a more rigorous and different test in the spring. Ah, breathe it in. Doesn’t change smell fresh, like laundry out of the dryer? Also, it sort of smells like EVERYONE PANIC! *cough* Actually, there’s all sorts of great online resources to help us all make this transition meaningful and productive. So, no need for panicking. Huzzah!

First of all, this is the main deal right here. NAEP Questions Tool v3.0 This is from the National Center for Educational Statistics, so you know they aren’t dinking around. Over 2,000 questions are available here for the public, to be used in a multitude of ways. Supplement classroom instruction or use the questions to learn the ways of the test yourself. Show them to your students and parents. The possibilities are great.

Want some more hands-on resources for the classroom? NCES has the Kid’s Zone. At its core, it is more of an informative site, but they have also included some useful tools.

Tools: Provides searches for schools, libraries, and colleges.

Create a Graph: An online graph-maker for kids (or teachers).

Dare to Compare: A nifty test that has a clean interface with good graphics. Also, it lets kids see how they compare to peers on a national level.

Grab Bag: This page links to a variety of activities including quizzes, math teasers, word searches, data, and multimedia.

Chances: This dice game shows students about probability and statistics by illustrating how increasing or decreasing the number of dice rolls affects an outcome.

As you can see, we have changes upon us, but we are not lacking in resources to help make the transition successful.