Brian’s TRT Blog

Need some quick resources/ideas for Christmas lesson plans?

The Lesson Plans Page

The Teacher’s Corner

Teachnology

Kent ICT (England)

Printables (December holidays) from A to Z Teacher Stuff

Hanukkah

and…

Education World

Short note: If students had to summarize in one sentence their schooling experience today, they’d probably say, “Pass the SOL test.” How can schools change beyond just preparing students to pass the test? This is an interesting video from TeacherTube about 21st century learning–food for thought: Learn to Change (I haven’t figured out yet how to get the video to pop up in the screen, as you can tell!)

Once in awhile interesting sites come up that I like to share that have nothing to do with integrating technology in the classroom, and this is one of those: http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/

If you are interested in finding out where the biggest concentrations of your family’s surname are in the world, type your name in the search box and see the results!

I love to travel. I love adventure. From clinging to the side of an old boat while zipping down a typhoon swollen river in China, to planting rice in a leech infested field, to climbing mountains, to adventures galore, there is so much more I want to do. Dream #1 is to have my own private tour of the White House and the upstairs (I even have friends who have dined in the private quarters of the White House). If you want to travel with me, why not do the next best thing and go via the Web? You can see the decorations, download the tour brouchure, and much more at their website.

This came in your email recently from Karen Streeter:
Greetings:

We are excited and hope to see you soon!

Modern technology at times can be painful. It’s great when it works, but when it goes, life can seem to stop.

The other night, while trying to plug a light into the socket behind my desk in my home office, the circuit breaker switched off and the place went dark. Following usual procedure, I went to the electrical panel, switched it back on, and returned to the room. No light. Back to the box. Click. Back to the room. No light. Furrowed eyebrows. Thinking that another trip to the box would miraculously fix the circuit, I went back. Click. Back to the room. No light. This event of technology going on strike was just another event in our household. The previous week, while I was trying to study for grad school in my favorite chair in the living room, my wife let out a shriek in the kitchen. As I came around the corner, I heard a loud splashing sound, only to see that the pipe to the dishwasher had broken and a big stream of water was attacking her and venturing on towards the refrigerator. Water was flowing everywhere. This event was the result of seeing evidence of a mouse under the sink, and so my wife was wondering what was behind the dishwasher.

So, if you came to visit me, you’d see a garden hose hooked up to a pipe in the utility room so that we can use the washer, three huge (the big orange kind) extension cords snaking down the hallway to back of the house so that we can have electricity, and a missing storm window in this room due to a BIG hawk flying into it this spring and shattering it into a gadzillion pieces. You should have seen the squirrel quivering and shaking that the hawk was trying to capture! This strikes us as very funny–at least our problems are hilarious! We are content–not because we now have a dead mouse–but because we are thankful for what we do have. If these were our only problems, we’d be blessed beyond measure!

As I write, my older daughter is trekking across Virginia and is headed home (the same daughter from last year who ended up in northern Virginia and not EASTERN Virginia–her driver forgot to turn onto I-64). My younger daughter is already home from college and we will all be together. We are in a house. The refrigerator is full. The four of us ENJOY each other. We’re employed. I work with great staff members. All of us are healthy (gracious–how many health scares have we experienced!). I like my job as a technology specialist…going to work is fun. How many enjoy their jobs? Our cars work. Our bodies work. After 26 years of marriage to my original wife, how many guys can say their heart still flutters when they see their bride? How many guys have daughters that understand their weird humor?

The house is ill, but I’m not. The house is full of happy noises, my favorite music is on, and tomorrow my “little brother” from Brazil will join our family for dinner. I get the honor of getting to work on my Masters degree; how many around the world get to do that? The house might be ill, but the furnace didn’t get affected by the broken circuit breaker, so we’ll be warm tonight. On Friday, we’ll sit around the box of Christmas tree ornaments and relive memories of years past as they come flooding out of the box and surround us (it’s tradition to take them out one at a time, each person taking a turn). Christmas music will be playing. Hot apple cider will be on the stove. So what if things are breaking? I’d rather have broken things and a fixed and happy family.

The technology is tanking. Too bad. Thanksgiving is about family, and this is where I’m putting my focus. Now, could somebody please bring me an extension cord so that I can see?

“Can the technology often derided as the favored tool of lowbrow cyber rogues actually be used to improve student writing? Educators are beginning to demonstrate it can.”

T.H.E. Journal’s November issue explores the association with high test scores and writing in the article, “The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too).” (Rama Ramaswami) As Ramaswami notes in the article, how can students in the world of social networking, acronym shortcuts (LOL, etc.) and the lack of punctuation (”BRB”), possibly excel in writing? The article explores the Caldwell-West Calewell Public Schools in New Jersey and discusses how students in one class use blogging in the construction of a research paper. “There was interaction among the students and there was writing all day long, before school, during school, and after school. That was a bonus.” In a nutshell, the teacher found that students who blog also write more and write better (link to the article above).

Mrs. Bradshaw (J.T.) is beginning a blogging project with her students. Yesterday we reviewed the technical skills needed in Microsoft Word (cutting/pasting/highlighting/don’t write in all caps, etc.), and today Ms. Okoye, Mrs. Bradshaw, and I prepared the students for the process by reviewing what a blog is and finished up by “paper blogging.” The students were excited (no discipline problems or students off task!) and are ready to begin blogging! Stay tuned for the beginning of this great project!

See the Caldwell report here: Final Report

Need some ideas for your Promethean Board? Two new books by Scholastic, “YOU CAN Use an interactive White Board” (ages 4-7 and the other is for 7-11) have been added to the library that enhance and broaden your horizons with your interactive board. Filled with ideas and 50 practical suggestions for what to do, it will help the new folks as well as the experienced! See Mr. Fisher or Mrs. Saffold!

If you have a data projector in your room or an MCPS cart, you can do many more things beyond using it as a glorified movie projector. True integration of technology goes beyond just showing United Streaming videos or using nothing but PowerPoints with your lessons. My younger daughter said, when she was was in high school, that students would moan when the teacher would power up the data projector, for they knew it was POWERPOINT TIME! Nothing would be done except for a mere reading of every slide–it was nothing more than transferring the textbook to the screen.

Silvia, on her blog Langwitches, has posted on her blog about drawing from each others experiences on how to better use your data projector. Want to know 50 ways to use your data projector? Here are some ideas from her site (the rest are listed here). Thanks, Silvia!

Demonstrate math manipulatives
Show visuals for science experiments
Modeling of the physical process of writing - hand movements
Art: Virtual Museum Tours
Audio visual resources from internet
Whole class participate in practice test
Going over tests
Isolate new vocabulary
Show and Tell
Current Events

This is a day of gold mines for primary sources. I was reading David Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth and was “pumped” when I read his post that Life Magazine’s photos are now being posted on Google. Instead of reinventing the wheel, why not read his post at 2 Cents Worth? Click here for the link to the Google site. Enjoy!