http://www.toolsforeducators.com/boardgames/food2.php

I made this board game.  If I could do this anyone can...I thought I could make a bunch of them and divide the class into groups and they could play the games.

Bake again.  Hard to believe we are almost at the end.  I can't believe how much I have learnt and feel a little more confident integrating technology into my future classroom.

I have chosen:
www.autocrit.com/wizrdformpage.php#
toolsforeducators.com

I choose the first because I think it can be beneficial both for the instructor and the students.  When teaching creative writing it is always nice to have a tool that can look over our work.
The second tool is the one I like most.  We used it several weeks past to make a cross work puzzle.  I really like the ability to create games that suit the specific subjects being taught.  Fun is a major component in teaching and gaining the attention of students. 

Both tools are easy, don't demand a lot of time or knowledge which makes them practical and useful.

http://tackk.com/

I made a mistake.  I used tackk and not the other sit for my project.  It is easy and simple as is the other sit noted.

http://www.glogster.com

I choose this cite for my presentation. The class would be divided into groups. I thought I would make several posters with descriptions of landmarks in Barcelona and gives them to the groups. Each group would then choose one landmark and prepare a presentation to be presented to the class.

Week #10


And we are back again. 
I liked Avrahams' blog, especially because of his etymology of the vocabulary.  I couldn't stop reading.  I also like the mix of humor, education and technology.
http://avraham-uo-aei.blogspot.co.il/2011/10/flabbergasted-flab-er-gast-id-adj.html


I also found this sit very interesting. It offered almost any search option. Narrowing down terms, very precise and efficient.

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Week #7

Innovative Educator by Lisa Neilsen

 Is boredom the real epidemic in our school?

 
Lisa attended a conference of about 1000 people.  When asked what came to mind when thinking of high school, they answered in unison boredom.
She claims to have been bored herself thought her school years.  She showed little interest and was labeled retarded.  Luckily her parents knew different in the tests she proved to be the opposite.  It turned out she was bored.  The school system doesn't offer non passive students a stimulating enough environment.
Lisa gives the example of Aaron Iba who, as the school claimed, would have difficulty achieving academic progress.  The school reached this conclusion when he was nine.  Several years later he invented EtherPad which he later sold to google.  Maybe his school was wrong and he was just bored.  Luckily his parents continued on and supported him.
Lisa develops the notion of boredom in the schools and raises issue of ADD diagnosis and over medication or medication in general. She of course is against .
Her conclusion is that we need to rethink our children's learning environments.  We should make our school more exploratory, exciting and challenging.  Be more in tuned to our students needs and less busy labelling them.
I strongly agree.

Think like a teacher by Candace Hackett Shively

Candace talks about the media and humor furthering and stimulating students to learn.  She raises the idea of using humor to grab their attention.
Once educators and parents worried about the effects of TV and now they worry about the Internet.  The Internet has brought multitasking to a whole new level.  She thinks that teachers have became multitaskers themselves therefore resulting in poorly attentive adults.  Will these adults be able to teach students, maintain their attention and concentration, if they themselves are jumping from one thing to another?  


Purely Paperless 
Kate has gone on Sabbatical therefor I have decided to mention a blog cited on Janice Mizrahi's blog; Homeroom.
This blog cautions against the trappings of the Internet.  It deals with the exposure and permanency of the information posted.  I think it is important to remind students that the exposure of the Internet is vast and almost uncontrollable.  Although exciting it is also scary and dangerous.

 
 

Week # 6: Internet education tools

Week #6:

I have very little Internet/web abilities and therefore found almost all the sites fascinating.
I really liked the immediate feedback available when using the computer as an educational tool.  The computer promotes self learning which can be motivational as well as self exploratory for students at any level and age.

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/speechclass/a/debate.htm 
http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/index.html

http://www.spellingcity.com/

http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html

http://www.kidsspell.com/

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmsv/smg/

 http://thinktank.4teachers.org/
http://storybird.com/
online interactive printing 
 Ten Additional Ideas on How to Use Technology to Teach Writingpress.  

The first site regarding debates was a wonderful low tech idea. My educational agenda being; to further students abilities to form thoughts in English fulfills itself fully in this method.
I like the idea of team work within strict debate rules and then the chance to proceed with an open class discussion involving all students.
I feel this method will provide the students with; persuasion skills, debating skills, research skills, public speaking and most importantly confidence when expressing themselves in English.
The next tool I chose was Skyp. I think it is a great way to create inter-school debates as well as international relationships between students in different countries. Maybe even tolerance, but I may be taking this a little too far....
I thought the sites that taught spelling were a wonderful way to encourage self learning in the classroom as well as at home. They motivate the student to plow forward by competing against themselves without feeling the pressure of their peers. I will choose not to disclose what level I reached. Ha Ha Ha
I am not sure about the "thinktank" site. I feel it might be too high a level for students of ESL. I don't remember being at that level in grade 12?!
I thought the story maker was "WOW" but do not know how it promotes writing, the process or the ability of the student. 

Week #4 (second post)
I wanted to add that from all the tools provided in this unit I liked the painting tutorials on Youtube and the picture incerting instruction units the best.  First because they were informative and second because seeing the instructions on Youtube made the whole concept much easier to understand.
I think that when I start teaching the idea of visualizing my lession (as much as possible) with video tools would be a great idea.  The visualization of the instruction and picture explanations make understanding much simpler.

Keeping in touch with my education blogs: Week #4

Candace Hachette Shivley:
First, I must say that her name was spelt wrong in the charte as well as her blog sit;
blog.teachersfirst.com 
This week she wrote an obituary for a web tool and I have no idea to which tool she is alluding to?!
Candace says that Edsurge noted it in their blog but again I don't know what she is talking about.
Purelypaperless:
Did not update her blog....
Innovative educator:
Lisa is dealing with the connecting of home schoolers with texting.  Lisa has chosen two options; twitter and Remind 101.
She lists the pros and cons of each:
Twitter: helps teachers and parents get to know each other.  " Twitter fast follow" allows recieving twitter without setting up an acount.  The drawback is that this is a form of public engagment and not all parents or schools are open to this formate.
Remind 101: more personal.  It is a one-way  notification system verses the two-way twitter system.

I forgot to call this last entry "Week 3".  My short term memory does not seem to exist.

keeping intouch with my teaching technology sites Social Media

Innovative Educator (23.2.2014)
This entry raised the topic of social media.  Lisa believes that social media, specifically Facebook is not a threat.  Given  the right tools, Facebook can be used as a positive tool in teaching.

Purely Paperless:
Kate mentions new classroom tools she will expand on in the coming weeks; CatterPix, Animaoto, Google Research Tools, and Kidblog.

Think like a Teacher:
Candace uses the "Cat in the Hat" and Dr. Seuss's birthday as a metaphor to relay a situation a college encountered.  As wrote in Purely Paperless, Candice tells of a teacher who was given a grant to introduce Learning of Science via a free and safe social Internet network.  The school declined the offer.  Candace feels the school administration has chosen to remain behind closed doors...

I have chosen three technology blogs based on interest and being able to understand their content.  I found the ideas very complicated, exciting but are Israeli schools set up for advanced technology? I am not sure......

The Innovative Educator, Lisa Neilsen: theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com
Lisa promotes passion based learning and embracing technology of the 21st century.  She is all for integrating technologies in the class room, for example; cell phones.
Her latest post: "twitter for administrators, teachers and students"

"When and how should kids learn to type" (Feb. 8th 2011).
Children are exposed to technology from a very young age.  Teaching kids to touch type is a valuable skill, saves time and the process of learning to type can be fun.  Believers claim that typing develops a faster thinking process, called, cognitive aromaticity.  Typing allows us to express our ideas in "writing" at "the speed of thought".  Keyboards allow the "expression of ideas, not the rendering of letters".  Typing can be taught from the age of seven, but creating familiarity with the keyboard can be done at any age.  
PowerPoint: presentations save time for students as well as teachers.  A tool which clarifies the taught subject visually.
Internet assessment: ables paperless exams, suitable for multiple choice as results can be reached almost immediately.
Online courses: these coursed have opened education to different sectors of the population that otherwise would find it hard to access.  For example; full time parents or working parents.  Your text books, courses, assignments and exams are at your fingertips.  No need to travel or buy textbooks.  The pace of the course load are usually up to the student within a given time frame.

While studying in Canada I noticed that most students arrived at University knowing how to type.  In Israel most people do not know how to type.  I agree with Lisa and think typing is a wonderful and productive way to start the child's formal educational experience.  I actually think this could be implement without too much trouble.

Think Like a Teacher, Candace Hackett Shirely: blog.teacherfirst.com/thinkteach
Candace raises the question of how teachers can evaluate themselves.  Teaching is not a competition. Teachers "seek a balance of risk and experience every day" (21.02.2014 09:00).

• Technology Integration Matrix: this is a tool which can provide self evaluation of administrative technology in the classroom.  In order to grow there are instructional coaches but self evaluation is also important.  Candace sites several tools for self evaluation.
• Candace gives examples of new technological learning innovations, specifically regarding math. Most of her examples are sites which help students explore in order to reach the answer.  The students must try to first decipher the question, in the form of a riddle and then can reach the answer.

I found these teaching ideas very interesting, although I don't really understand the technological aspect.  I hope one day I will and will be able to implement them.  I think these thinking, visual riddles expand the childs problem solving abilities, develope group work technice, listening to others and spacial abilities.

I am soo jelous of people who can understand this enough to acutally  implement the technology in their classrooms.

Purely Paperless, Kate Peila: puelypaperless.blogspot.com

Kate uses a product called Stop Motion Animation with MyCreate App.  This teacher taught her pupils Life Cycles of insects.  Kate taught this with the use of animation.  She presented the children with a quick overview outlining expectations and specific vocabulary to be used in the project.  The children then outlined the main sequences of their video, backgrounds and props to be used.  They used "Stop Motion Animation".

This project taught the children about the Life Cycle process using team work, creativity both via art work and thought while staying withing the stated guide lines. 

This mode of teaching is right up my alley.  How exciting!

Do Israeli schools have this technology? I don't think my children's school does.  

I am far from becoming paperless but strive to.

                                        

Hi
Mr. Roos has asked me to add a few words about myself.
I live on Kibbutz Kalia, near the Dead Sea. I have three young children.
I am not a teacher, but upgrading my BA to a teaching degree.
I was born in Winnipeg Canada, and at the age of seven my parents moved my sister and I to Israel.  The Yom Kipper war broke out a month and a half after our arrival and all plans changed...We then moved to a kibbutz where I grew up.  I share this because I have been repeatedly asked to teach English.  I believe that some people are more giving and warm then others but to teach (especially a second language) you must learn.  Therefore, I have decided to change professions and  learn how to become a teacher of English as a second language. Hopefully I will then become a creative teacher who will fill the students with at least a little excitement and correct English.

Hi my name is Reena.
I am a new student at Hertzog and have been out of school for 20+ years.  I have never written a blog before and have not read many, so this is foreign territory for me.  I hope to not only succeed in this course but also enjoy it and who knows maybe become a great blogger.  I guess I'm getting carried away a little....so just enjoy and succeed.
Have a good day...
Reena