Goolge Docs Lesson Plans

I've created some lesson plans using Google Docs to get students to think more critically and collaborate.

Civil War and Google Docs 2

Civil War and Google Docs 1

I used www.scribd.com, a resourced that I heard from Sharon Peters. I'm really excited to find a place to upload lessons and that can be interactive. Visitors can view my lesson plans and add comments and questions. On a side note my student teacher said she had to pay for a service through CUD that allowed her to put in her lesson plans and papers for grading and feedback! After I showed her this service she was a little upset that she was spending money on something that was harder to use. I love Web 2.0, especially when its FREE!!!!

I used the SIOP lesson plan template, which helped me reflect on my lessons from the lens of an ELA Teacher--which I should have been doing. However, the last few weeks I have been so consumed by getting my students to think critically that I've over looked the language barrier. I need to take a step back and make sure they have received good comprehensible input before I get them to think and do things with the information.

I've been thinking alot about essential questions lately, I'd like to think some more about how to use the Essential Questions to create language targets and to allow students to apply and use their background knowledge -- even if they have no understanding of American History.

{this post is cross posted with the Global Learner website}

Thoughts on Science and Technology Academy

This is a tag cloud of a chat between Joe Miller, Bud The Teacher, Regina Stewart and myself. We are discussing what a Science and Technology academy would look like.

google and thinking strategies

Returned from a day off to chaos...don't really know what I was expecting.
I've been working this week on having students do "double entry diaries" on Google Docs. Tomorrow, they will share them and do them collaboratively under the guidance of Kristen, my student teacher. However, I still have ten students who don't remember their google password! Maybe I'll just have them make a new one!

I've been getting some great feed back from people on what they want to see in a Science and Technology Academy. I still need more feedback though!

If I were in charge of the world...

...education would look SO much different. But, what if they let us edu techo peeps plan the instruction at a school...
I believe that great learning is collaborative, problem solving, communicative.....all the things that "Web 2.0" provides.....

With these tools....what pedagogy and infrastructure would there need to be? Regina Stewart and I put together a VoiceThread look for your help!

Please take a look at our prompts and tell us, if you were in charge of the world...what would a 21st century education program look like.....please browse comment and doodle

Blogging for reflection

Okay...so its been a month since my last post. February is a crazy month. I don't know if its crazy like this for everyone or just educators? I think I want to begin micro-blogging -- doing small entries more often.
The reflective practice of blogging is very meditative and relaxing. I Need to really do it more--to keep myself even and constantly learning and adapting.
After reading Who Moved My Cheese for a seminar for grad school I connected the book to blogging:

I like how our hero who finally decided to move and find new cheese recorded his journey on the walls. Reflection and documenting the journey is the biggest key to growth. I have found the past year while reflecting on my blog, I have found the biggest growth through my educational pursuits. Reflecting has cemented the progress that I have made and has made the things that I have learned real and has moved me into the next level of my profession. As a teacher, there is always something to work on and change in my classroom. Keeping track of the things that I am changing and how that change progresses is the greatest gift I have given myself. The ability to reflect on what works, what doesn’t work and why gives me the opportunity to grow into my profession.