Stretch to Music

Brain research shows that the brain needs a balanced of focused attention and nonfocused down time. One strategy that we used today was to get up and move to music. It's fun and refreshing. Learning occurs in chunks. Jennifer shared that for adults the appropripate length of time for a chunk is 20 minutes. For children it's their age minus 2 or 3. At fourth grade that would be about 7 minutes max! She had a great song for this. I think it's called "Brainbreak". I'm going to search itunes for that.

We were able to go to different sessions that other Cadre members presented on a cool web tool that they were working with. I went to the following so far!

Terra Clues
  Is a site that has scavenger hunts that are integrated with google maps. Interactive and fun! You can also create your own scavenger hunt!


Cool Tools for Schools
 Awesome list for web 2.0 tools. It has it in a format that is easy to navigate and has it broken down into skills and applications. Check it out!

Simply Box

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2008/10/simply-box-helps-you-organize-web.html

This looks like a great web-site for young and old alike. It' s a visual version of delicious. let me know what you think.

More brain strenghtening

Today's activity involved throwing a balloon to another person in your group while calling their name. As you know, throwing a balloon is not an easy activity. The follow-up was to tap the balloon to another person while calling thier name and telling them what they had to tap it with (hand, nose etc.). A good way to work both sides of the brain, get the body moving and provide some laughter.

I Need My Teachers To Learn...video

Check out this video....

Venn Diagram activity

We were given three websites to pick a Venn Diagram tool to create a comparison of Student Learning vs. Adult learning. We did used Class Tools to create our Venn Diagram. Here is ours below! Other tools included ReadWriteThink and GraphJam.

Venn Diagram comparing Learning

Social Networking in the Classroom Using a Ning

I am in a group that is exploring how to use a social networking tool (Ning) in the classroom. We spent most of our time together exploring how to use/manage the Ning. Then we shared ideas with each other about how we are using a Ning for professional development and/or in the classroom with our students. Several members of our group are concerned with the safety of a social network being used in a school setting...myself included. However, I think that so many of my students (junior high age) are already using a social network that it may be a good idea to incorporate one into the classroom setting so that I can teach appropriate use of this tool that is so widely used today. There is even concern with age and using a social network, is it o.k. to use a social network with student younger than 13? Any thoughts? Here is a link that someone in our group discovered to a Ning that talks about the guidelines of using a Ning with students ....http://education.ning.com/profiles/blogs/guidelines-for-using-ning-in-a

New site for me

Hello in working on an assignment for Cadre I was introduced to a new site called bighughlab.com. I haven't explored all it can do but I will be using it to make a picture Mosaic.
Have a good day.
CarolAnn

Interactive Globe

The globe in the Washington Education Center is awesome.
I created a short video of the demonstration using
my flipcam. I apologize for the sound, but you can see
what it looks like. It's huge and can display all kinds of
information.

Brain Strengthening Activity

The last activity we did today dealt with making connections between the right and left brain. According to research this activity is best done right before or after a challenging activity. Have 5 or more people stand in a circle. One person starts acting something out (ex. riding a bike), the person on the left says, "What are you doing?" The person acting out riding a bike has to say something different like.."Biting my toenails." Then the person who asked has to do what that person said. The next person on the left says, "What are you doing? The person biting toenails, then says something different like, "Milking a cow.".... Not only is it a 'thinking' activity, but it produced many laughs.

Screen Jelly

Learned about a new screencasting tools! Screen Jelly! You can use it to post to your Twitter, or even email...check it out! Also another one called Screen Toaster!

Working with our personal learning networks!

I am part of a mixed group of learners. We are all learning something a little different. Three of us chose Twitter.  We are finding ways to use Twitter in education, and to also integrate the other web 2.0 tools from our other group members chosen web 2.0 tools. Some of the other group members are researching flickr, youtube, art sonia, and diigo. We have found Twitter applications for most of these. Here is a link to our Twitter wiki with all of our information so far! It is being changed and updated by our group members, so keep checking in for the updates!

Twitter Wiki

ArtPad

Hello we just learned a new tool called ArtPad. We had to draw a picture that represented our learning style. My style was "Professor". We used ArtPad to illustrate our style.
More to come.
CarolAnn

ART PAD

Hello from Cadre,
We are having a great time learning in a new technology building on the U of M campus. We just explored a really fun tool. Go to artpad.art.com and try it out. You can draw pictures and play. If you want to create a link to your picture, if you click on save and send and then on click here. It will give you an url. Be sure to save it.
Linda

Wordle

One of the first things we did was write down our thoughts about technology. Then after doing some ice-breaker activities, we found a different table and summarized key words. The instructor typed all the key words into Wordle (the more times a word is put into Wordle, the larger the word becomes). Then as a group we shared ideas on how Wordle is used in class:
Have students write I believe....
Brainstorm characteristics of a novel
Type in vocabulary words..then on SmartBoard have students circle words while giving a definition or sentence
Another had students copy and paste a paragraph into Wordle to see what words are used to much...great Word Choice activity.
www.wordle.net

Learning styles

There is discussion of learning styles and our school has recently been trained in Quantum Learning. Through this all of our students grades 3-12 took a survey and learned their styles. I did some searching and found the following website that has some great sites based on learning styles...check it out!

 Websites for learning styles

Phyllis J Washington Education Center

The new education center is quite nice. It includes several open "lounge" areas with flat screens, rolling furniture and technology compatability. Anyone can plug in computers, flipcams, etc. and present on a big screen. One advantage of the set up is it provides a flexible classroom - teachers/students can rearrange the space to suit their needs. A second advantage is that passersbys can see what's going on, possibly become curious and want to join in. The show piece of the new facility is a projection globe (one of 15 in the country?). It can project such things as cloud movement, tsunamis and color-coded world language maps. It even has sensors built into the viewing benches that will make them vibrate to simulate motion. The globe is open to teachers and their classes by reservation.

using a wii remote to simulate a smartboard

I'm going to learn how to simulate a Smartboard using a Wii remote, a projector and a special infrared pen. Brook's husband Dean is going to help me build it tonight! Anyone interested can join us. Maybe we can video or screencast it for everyone! Brooks thought there should already be some videos on the web. I'll see what I can find and let you know.