4teachers.org

This is a site for all all k-12 teachers.

4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering FREE online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students. (This description was taken from the 4 teachers website. )

The link to this site is:

http://www.4teachers.org/

A Delicious Way to Save Bookmarks

Do you have some really important bookmarks that you really truly would not want to lose?

The website del.icio.us is just what the "doctor ordered." By using this web tool you will be able to securely save plus access your bookmarks from anywhere at any time. You do not have to worry about losing your bookmarks if your computer crashes or the server somehow malfunctions. Additionally you will be able to share sites that are bookmarked on del.icio.us with students and colleagues.

The link below will take you to the del.icio.us website. You will need to subscribe, but the use of del.icio.us is free. After you have subscribed you will want to go to help to configure buttons that will be in your favorite web browser tool bar to enable you to quickly post new bookmarks or access those you already have.

http://del.icio.us/

If you need help setting this up on your school computer, contact me and I will help.

Marsha

Assessments for Rigor and Relevance

The best classroom assessments are also instructional tools. Rubrics are only one form of assessment, but the best rubrics can be used as teaching tools that support student learning and critical thinking. Rubrics are easy to use and explain at the same time making teacher expectations very clear. Students can use them as they work on their projects to gage how they are doing. Rubrics enhance the student's ability to succeed.

Rubrics are usually used for projects, essays or long assignments. They give students valuable feedback and details of how the final project will be evaluated. All rubrics have two features: 1. a list of criteria, and 2. graduations of quality from poor to high .

The links below will not only help you with rubrics, but will also add to your assessment toolbox.
http://www.aea13.org/PROGRAMS_SERVICES/CurriculumAssessment/AssessmentResources/rubrics.htm

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

http://goal.learningpt.org/spsg/GetProd.asp

Communication and Collaboration

When a student mentions blogs, wikis and podcasts do you have any idea what they mean? If you know, you are very tech savvy and no doubt realize the potential value of these communication/collaboration tools to learning. For those of you who find these foreign terms, lets look at each as a resource for adding Rigor and Relevance to your curriculum.

A blog is short for weblog. It is web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer(American Heritage Dictionary). Basically it contains information that the author wants to share. It can invite comment but ordinarily is more static.

Teachers can employ blogs to post assignments and other information that they would like their students to have accessible from anywhere. Blogspot.com https://www.blogger.com/start is a free blogging site. In three steps you can create and post your blog. (Okay, when blogging is a foreign term, creating without some instruction is a lot intimidating. Atomic Learning, found in Iowa AEA Online Resources, provides instruction on everything you ever wanted to know about creating a blog. See the Missouri Valley school web page www.movalleyschools.org. On the front page click on the Iowa Online Resource button. If you do not have the user name and password, email mwiese@movalley.k12.ia and I will send it to you.)

Blog sites that might be of interest to you:

• http://www.infosearcher.typepad.com/infosearcher/resources/blogs.html
• http://camrex.blogspot.com/
• http://hchsnewsblog.wordpress.com/
• http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
• http://teachingquality.typepad.com/teaching_matters_most/2007/03/working_conditi.html
• http://everyonelearns.blogspot.com/2006/07/successful-schools-from-research-to.html

A wiki is a collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it. Originally wiki was an abbreviation of WikiWikiWeb, software developed by American computer programmer Howard G. Cunningham (born 1949) : Hawaiian wikiwiki, quick + web. (American Heritage Dictionary) Like a blog a wiki can be personal but a wiki is more open to collaboration and very changeable by all collaborators but keeps an archive of changes. This can be a means for students to create a collaborative story or projector after instruction teachers can post questions and get student reactions or reflections on their learning, etc.

On http://www.wikispaces.com/ you can create your own wiki. Again, if you aren't quite ready to create a wiki without more instruction go to the Iowa AEA Online Resources http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/index.html click on Atomic Learning, and use the search term wiki. Within the information about Moodle you will find instruction on wikis.

Wiki sites that might be of interest to you:

• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2005/12/wiki-wiki-teaching-art-of-using-wiki.html
• http://itgs.wikispaces.com/

iPod, MP3 player...these devices about which I am sure you have heard. They are part of podcasting. However, you do not need these apparatuses to podcast they just make podcasting more portable. A podcast can be just audio like a radio broadcast, or can be enhanced with photos and links, or can even be a video. You can subscribe (for free) to podcasts and listen to them on your computer or an mp3 player or iPod.(Judy Griffith, AEA 13) Using software such as Audacity (free, pc platform) or garageband (free, mac platform) you and/or your students can create podcasts that can be uploaded and shared on the web. Imagine recording your class for students to access anywhere at anytime. Administration can create a broadcast of board meetings. The ideas are endless.

Podcasting is again a skill that has a video tutorial available on Atomic Learning through Iowa AEA Online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/index.html.

Sites that might be of value for podcasting:

• http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
• http://sidneyschools.connections.net/ (Sidney won a grant to integrate podcasting into their school. Take a look at the applications being used locally.)

21st Century Skills, NETS, and Rigor and Relevance Documents

Have you noticed? Students have changed. They speak and they learn digitally. They are digital natives. Except for our very young instructors, we teachers are digital immigrants. We cannot expect our students to speak or learn as we did and do. We need to learn how to tailor our instruction to fit their needs if we expect them to be engaged learners.

Infusing technology into student learning helps create curriculum embodying rigor and relevance. The learning standards to develop such a curriculum are manifested in these three nationally accepted documents of learning standards: Framework for 21st Learning http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/RTM2006.pdf(from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills),

ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Studentshttp://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/NETS_Refresh_Forum/NETS_forr_Students_Standards_2007.pdf (ISTE)

Rigor/Relevance Framework http://www.leadered.com/rigor.html(International Center for Leadership in Education).

Use the 21st Century Learning Skills and the NETS Standards to bring the Rigor and Relevance standards into your curriculum. Your students will benefit.