Ideas to Inspire

Weboword is a website dedicated to teaching vocabulary visually.

If students are visual learners this is a great site for learning vocabulary. Not only does the site give a daily word, it also gives a visual, a sentence, a definition and information on the root of the word.

Why I like this: the more exposure students have to vocabulary, the more chances they have to learn new words. Also, by giving a visual picture, students have more ways to learn a word.

PBS online has a new website (new to me) up called Poetry Everywhere

There are 34 animated films made by students working with docUWM, a documentary media center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University’s creative writing program, in association with the Poetry Foundation.

As a perk, they also have teacher resources for the poems/poets.

• Coleman Barks
• Lucille Clifton
• Billy Collins
• Emily Dickinson
• Mark Doty
• Robert Frost
• Robert Hass
• Edward Hirsch
• Jane Hirshfield
• Marie Howe
• Yusef Komunyakaa
• Ted Kooser
• Stanley Kunitz
• Philip Levine
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• Sharon Olds
• Linda Pastan
• Adrienne Rich
• Charles Simic
• Gerald Stern
• Mark Strand
• Walt Whitman
• W.B. Yeats
• Kevin Young

Are you as a teacher comfortable with tech? Do you think that your prowess with e-mail makes you a techie? Do you text, twitter, IM? Are you on Facebook, MySpace? Do you collaborate with Google Docs, organize your information on Evernote, delicious, Photobucket or flickr? Do you blog? Use a smartboard? Upload your class presentations from your flip camera to YouTube, or TeacherTube? Create short videos with iMovie or animoto? What does your avatar look like? Do you use audacity or garage band to record performances?

If you at least know what these tools are, then you are well on your way to understanding the digital natives that are sitting in your classroom.

Who are they? According to John Palfrey, author of Born Digital, digital natives:

1. were born after 1980
2.  have access to technology and are networked
3. have the skills to use these technologies.

Three myths about digital natives

• Digital natives are a generation – digital natives can cross generations.
• Digital natives are more likely to be in danger -
  • young people need guidance from their parents and teachers to navigate the digital landscape and learn to protect their personal information
  • digital or not, it’s sometimes hard for young people to make rational decisions, so they need adult mentors
  • help young people engage in life online in constructive ways, grounding them in common sense
  • provide opportunities for them to go online in a safe, secured environment first

• Digital natives are less intelligent and less informed – (the “dumbest generation” premis) – The truth is that they learn/interact differently. The challenge for educators is to help them make sense of these new contexts and think synthetically and critically, rather than letting them lose their way.

Feeling the almost Spring Break blues? Discovery education has a free site (http://school.discoveryeducation.com) with loads of resources that can be used for anchor activities, supplemental information, contests, etc.

Goodies include a puzzlemaker, a lesson plan library on almost every subject (except Hawaiian) for grades 6-8, worksheets to go, contests, grants and other resources for new and experienced educators.

Check it out this spring break.

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‘Here they are!! Part 2‘ )

Are you feeling isolated by the walls of your classroom? The time before Spring Break is often a lonely time for teachers, especially new teachers. The end of the year is looming, and as a reflective practitioner, it’s really crunch time. The doubts set in. Have I accomplished enough so far? Will I make a difference in these last weeks? Will the students exit my classroom better because I’ve taught them?

This quick slide is a short presentation on you as a 21st century teacher, and it shows that you are not alone. There are many people to support you if you just reach out. Enjoy.

The 21st Century EducatorView more presentations from Kim Cofino. (tags: educator k-12)