21st Century School Teacher

Like to talk?  Want to learn a new language?  Try Babbel where you can learn languages online.  If you teach a foreign language, this could be a great resource for you...

I found this on Tracy Rosen's blog--wow!  Love it, so I had to share... 

I happened upon a new application tonight--Tikatok. 

"Tikatok™ is where kids channel their imagination into stories – and publish those stories into books to share  with friends and family." 

This site provides a writer's workshop-like format so that kids can publish online...  I typically use Lulu.com  for publishing students' work, but this application guides younger students in writing and publishing their stories in a kid-like fashion.  I did not spend a significant amount of time on the site--but it looks as though probably K-4  would be the obvious audience.  If your students do not have access to a scanner, Tikatok advises you to send the pictures to them and they will do it for you...  Tikatok appears to have excellent customer service--so if you like a person on the other end helping you as you complete each project, give it a try...  The cost looks to be a bit more expensive than Lulu.com, but worth checking it out if you want a unique publishing experience for younger grades...

Want to send an electronic card but don't know how to get 33 signatures on it--well... try Free Group Greeting Cards.  I saw this site and thought that there was potential here--does your class want to send a group card?  Is someone  on your staff that deserves a happy b-day surprise?  I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like fun! 

Newsweek's Global Literacy Quiz is out--see how you score (just for fun...)

Self-proclaimed Web 2.0 Guru has designed this wiki-web site to assist teachers and other professionals with the tools and strategies to effectively and meaningfully implement these tools into their current practices.

dabbleBoard--still in beta--is a really cool whiteboard program.  It's highly intuitive, easy to use, with some cool features! 

Want a fun and engaging way to run a group dialogue in your classroom?  Try Meebo... You can create a free chat room and embed it on your homepage or your blog... Students can access it and discuss away...

Student achievement gap exaggerated, prof claims by Scott Elliott Staff Writer--Dayton Ohio Sunday, August 31, 2008
 
Randy Hoover, a Youngstown State professor, has completed research showing that Ohio has a large poverty gap in test performance—that is regardless of race or ethnicity.  His study shows the correlation of variables like median income with test performance was “off the charts.”

"This is an extremely high correlation for social science research," he said. "I've never seen anything this high."

In fact, Hoover’s study showed that three variables were most likely to predict test performance: the percentage of single parent wage earners, the percentage of poor children, and the median family income in the district.  Should this be surprising?

Rightly so, “Hoover argues the study shows Ohio draws invalid conclusions about the quality of school districts by using tests that largely measure how poverty impacts each district.” Hmmm…shocking… (not)

“In fact, when Hoover, an education professor and former classroom teacher, looked at school district performance after controlling for "lived experience" factors, he found a different range of school district test performance — far more high poverty districts scored well and more wealthy district scored badly.”  Seems like those “poor performing” districts taking the heat for low scores should get a little more credit…

And finally… "The stakeholders reading the Ohio school report cards have no way of knowing if the schools and districts are actually advancing academic achievement."

I am ecstatic that correlations between poverty and test scores can be substantiated where no other dominant correlations exist--hello…we have a poverty gap in America between low income students and the wealthy…  Can we continue to ignore the influence of poverty on academia  while simultaneously penalizing districts for “lack of improvement” when it can be clearly demonstrated that test scores are more likely than not to be attached to the size of parent(s) pocketbook?

 

"At an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (www.many-eyes.com), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama." 

By ANNE EISENBERG--New York Times
Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data

Heard of Animoto?  It's a really cool site that produces presentations with movement--I've been playing around with the site this summer, and I have had a lot of fun making videos... On the home page of our site, you can scroll down and see a couple that I've completed.  I make my slides in PowerPoint, save them as jpegs, and then upload them.  I've used Kevin MacLeod's music, primarily, because his music is royalty free.  If you haven't tried it, you can for free--that's right FREE--Animoto for Educators is Free!  Check it out :)   (your students can also access from home to create their own videos, too)  I remixed a back to school presentation using Movie Maker slides for an example below...  Kids will love this tool!