The following are two interesting articles from Science Daily:
Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills
Social Skills, Extracurricular Activities In High School Pay Off Later In Life
As educators we already know this, but it is always good to have research to help back it up!
In February I had the opportunity (I took the opportunity and it is there for the taking!) to complete the Quest Atlantis professional development. The following video produced by Suffern Middle School students utilizes several clips from QA, Second Life, etc. to drive home a very important point! Enjoy and do!
My year 7 son Charlie created the following short film for his assignment on the book The Outsiders:
The following are links to our HAL student’s blogs. They are off to a great start. I really enjoy working with these wonderful people. I am proud of their efforts. Click, read, enjoy, and after you give them a glance, please respond to our poll!!!
We are using Edublogs as our blogging engine, and it is quite easy to set up student accounts, administer them, and moderate at the teacher level. Edublogs utilizes WordPress and has many of its features available to students and educators.
http://hal6alexise.edublogs.org
http://hal6austinl.edublogs.org
http://hal6brandenh.edublogs.org
http://hal6garrettk.edublogs.org
http://hal6logano.edublogs.org
http://hal6myrissan.edublogs.org
http://hal6nathanm.edublogs.org
http://hal6sarahf.edublogs.org
http://hal7alexise.edublogs.org
http://hal7andrewp.edublogs.org
http://hal7blaket.edublogs.org
http://hal7bryannas.edublogs.org
http://hal7catelynl.edublogs.org
http://hal7charlieh.edublogs.org
http://hal7connerc.edublogs.org
http://hal7graysonf.edublogs.org
http://hal7greggn.edublogs.org
http://hal7hayleys.edublogs.org
http://hal7kaylar.edublogs.org
http://hal7kristenw.edublogs.org
http://hal7laurac.edublogs.org
http://hal7maddief.edublogs.org
http://hal7manuelm.edublogs.org
http://hal7mckennam.edublogs.org
http://hal7megans.edublogs.org
http://hal7sloanew.edublogs.org
http://hal7timothyd.edublogs.org
http://hal7vincentg.edublogs.org
http://hal8cameronb.edublogs.org
http://hal8elysek.edublogs.org
http://hal8jessicab.edublogs.org
http://hal8kyliew.edublogs.org
http://hal8loganne.edublogs.org
http://hal8marcusm.edublogs.org
http://hal8michaelo.edublogs.org
http://hal8sarahe.edublogs.org
I have the opportunity to work with the HAL (High Ability Learner) middle school students this year. The following is our quick foray into using Photo Story as a technology tool for the Biz World program. In the future, students will utilize technology to help build their companies and to create products such as ads and commercials.
7th Grade Photo Story Projects: About Me!!!
6th & 8th Grade Photo Story Projects: About Me!!!
See Eric Marcos student’s generated math tutorials at Mathtrain.TV (The link seems to be down for now; so, try this feed link to view the tutorials: Mathtrain.com with Mr. Marcos!!!
My son Charlie and his good friend Wyatt!!!
Carnegie Mellon University offers a FREE programming language along with teaching tools called Alice:
“Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.”
“Alice is a teaching tool designed as a revolutionary approach to teaching and learning introductory programming concepts. The Alice team has developed instructional materials to support students and teachers in using this new approach. Resources include textbooks, lessons, sample syllabuses, test banks, and more. Other authors have generously joined our efforts, creating additional textbooks.”
There are separate programs geared toward college, high school, and middle school students and can be downloaded for your use today! Another FREE good programming opportunity for younger students can be found via MIT‘s Scratch. With these offerings combined a school district can offer programming opportunities K-12 at minimal cost!!!
I had four wonderful middle schoolers create a digital story in my presence the past few days. If the video below is blocked: click here to download and view!
Enjoy!!!
Also, the awesome first graders finished their slideshows!!! See the previous post for the updates!!!
Kidspiration is a wonderful program that boosts kids creativity! Here are some resources that can help you get started once you have the program (You can download a free trial from the Kidspiration site)!
Atomic Learning Tutorials
Mac
Windows
Adams Middle School Christmas Concert (6th Grade Band)
I have been involved in a “cornucopia” of events, tasks, meetings, trainings, and decisions over the past few days. Monday consisted of virtual mentor training with administrators in the district and CPS clicker system training for staff at one of our middle schools. I have been piecing together technology “equipment” orders in between solving multimedia issues, and we trained for deploying parent portal access to our web-based student management system to be done next week during the middle and elementary schools’ parent teacher conferences. I visited a second grade classroom and observed a lesson that was facilitated with clickers. I “fixed” a SMART Board today, and had many wonderful, thoughtful, and vital discussions about the future of education and technology’s role in the process. There are so many things that happen during each week and it is exciting to be a part of it all. Tomorrow I have the pleasure of travelling with two fourth grade classes on a field trip as their podcaster. I plan to use Gcast, iTalk devices with iPods, and of course we will piece together video clips for a future final product. Maybe a “cornucopia” isn’t the proper term to use for all of this, but hey, ’tis the season, and I am thankful for all of these opportunities. Peace!
H I T - Hokanson's Instructional Technology 