Tech Tuesday #101

Happy Tech Tuesday everyone! Here is post #101. It's filled with some goodies I hope you enjoy. See if there is anything you can use in your classroom.

The Tower Pulse

The Tower Pulse is brand new with some exciting new content. We have the video of the surprise teacher dance at homecoming. Thanks to Lisa Kurtz for taking the time to teach us the dance moves. We did our best and the kids loved it.

We have some interesting articles on what teachers are doing in the their classrooms and a fun video of Michigan vs. Michigan State predictions. Stop by The Tower Pulse and see what the kids are doing.

Project PLN Issue #2

The October Issue of Project PLN is out and worth a read. Project PLN is an online collection of posts by teachers from all over the world that I have collected with the help of a friend. Please take a moment and read this month's issue. The focus is on great ways to start off a class or a new unit. There are some very exciting ideas being shared by some great teachers.




projectpln10 - Project PLN Issue 2



The November Issue is going to be all about Administrators. Are you and Administrator? Do you have some advice to other Admins or teachers? If you are interested in sharing those ideas, please send an email to ProjectPLN10@gmail.com and you could be published in the November issue! I hope to see some submissions from Grosse Pointe Public Schools.

Interactive Water Cycle Game

Here is a very cool site shared by InTec InSights: Technology Integration Ideas for your Classroom. This is a game designed for the Smartboard that allows student to interact with the Water Cycle. Students can move the water around and see liquid evaporate and move into the sky. This is a fun way to see the science happen and allow students to interact with the concepts. A new and exciting way to present a simple concept for students. Check this one out.

Glogster!

Glogster has been on my "to blog about" list for a while now, then I found this post that explains the uses of Glogster better than I could. Before I send you to the site, let me explain a little about what Glogster is to see if it is for you and your students. Glogs are graphic blogs. They are places where people can present ideas through a visual medium. Think of them as digital poster boards. People can add  many different types of media (Video, Songs, etc.) to their glog and share it with anyone they want. Glogs can be embedded into blogs like this,

Click on the link to see the interactive Glog. This one takes students to different glogs about the different literary terms. Each literary term has its own glog with pictures, definition and an audio example. It is a fun and interactive way for students to present information. Here are four examples a coule of students created for a presentation on The Great Gatsby.


http://mollymo.glogster.com/the-eyes-of-dr-tj/


http://mollymo.glogster.com/glog-1890/


http://mollymo.glogster.com/glog/


http://mollymo.glogster.com/daisy-buchanan/

If you are curious on how to integrate Glogs into your content area, check out this site that provides some great examples. Thanks to InTec InSights: Technology Integration Ideas for your Classroom for putting together a nice post.


Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Here is a great piece that has taken Bloom's Taxonomy and configured it to apply to our new digital world. The graph showing the Higher Order Thinking Skills is amazing! If you are thinking about integrating more technology into your classroom and are looking for the best ways to do so, this wiki will show you how to get it done. Thanks to Andrew Churches for putting this great wiki together and sharing it with the rest of us.

The Learning Progression in the Interactive Whiteboard Classroom

I wanted to share this last bit of information with you before we end our weekly Tech Tuesday. A very good friend of mine, Julie Lachance, is an amazing educator. How amazing? She was selected by ISTE as the Outstanding Young Educator of the Year 2010 and was named North Carolina Instructional Technology Educator of the Year for 2009. She is also a heck of a bowler. Anyway she put together a very helpful chart on how teachers use IWBs in the class room. Take a look and see where you are on the chart and what the next step is.

Thanks to everyone for reading the blog and sharing your thoughts and ideas with me. I've got some really cool things going on next week that I can't wait to share with you. Keep your eyes peeled for some exciting stuff.

As always, give it a try!

-NP