Turn the page…and—
Create
Innovate
Discover
Explore
Inquire
Achieve
Collaborate

Turn the page…
to new worlds
to the future
to where no one has gone before!
to new beginnings
to discover the wonder

Are you turning the page?

Good teaching begins and ends with the learner. Turning the page means we are giving our students opportunities to wrestle with real problems by turning and twisting their minds around challenging ideas and applying content in meaningful ways. We are preparing our students for the 21st Century as we provide opportunities for students to collaborate, think creatively, and solve problems. It is time to teach well with technology, not just differently. Are we turning the page by connecting students with a world of ideas? Do we as teacher/learners engage in opportunities-alone or with our peers-that call for creativity and innovation or are we still on page 1?

Join us at UTC 12 as we turn the page together.

http://www.tagxedo.com/art/273d187901ad4395

We had our first official meeting for UTC 11 (really about our 4th meeting) last week and we’d like to see if you can help us with a few things. 

1.  UTC 10 survey results commented about having more skype, blogs, podcasts, tweets, about the conference…….. maybe have a few overflow rooms for popular sessions……… can  you wrap your brain around this and give feedback about the best way to do this?  Will you ask your professional learning community how we can best meet the needs of the teachers that attend?  That would be huge.

2. What topics do you think we need for next year?  Our theme is “What’s Your Vision?” spinning off the point that Hall made last summer about the lack of a shared vision……Will you tweet about this, post on facebook or ask your plc?

 
3. We have 4 big solutions to make this year’s conference better: 
a.  no long lines when you enter the building……. just grab a registration form, card and return the form to us with our card number on the form.
b. extra parking down the road at the athletic fields, I’m checking on buses to transport from there
c. shorter time to get your credit from the conference (new program was written for that) GCSD teachers will have a shorter wait getting points uploaded to the portal.
d. hopefully, less crowded rooms if we have more presenters and overflow rooms (we need YOU to present)
e. food tables spread out and colored coded tickets for different food choices.

Using the professional learning community mind-set, could you share ideas about ways to make the conference better?  Add your comments to this blog. I look forward to hearing from you and if you’d like to volunteer, let us know.

What is your vision for UTC 11?

There is a large body of educational research on the value of peer tutoring.  See The Access Center’s research on peer tutoring for math and other research on best practices here.  Why don’t teachers us the approach more often?  There are many answers to that question but I think that both sides would agree that one of the challenges is getting the right pairing of students for effective peer tutoring on a consistent basis.  One teacher in California looked beyond his classroom walls and to the Internet to address this issue.

Mathtrain.tv is the work of Eric Marcos and the students of Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, California.  The students use screen capture software to create tutorials about what they are learning.  The videos are then reviewed, and if needed, edited by a math teacher.  Since the videos are social by design, their is an incentive for the student instructor to do their best since they are creating for and receiving comments from an audience of fellow middle schoolers worldwide.

Your students can create their own tutorials and submit them to Mathtrain.  Need screencasting software?  Jing from Techsmith, CamStudio (open source software), and the screen recording tools native to both Promethean and SMART software are all no cost options.

Mr. Marcos is to be applauded for this venture.  He has created a means for getting his students to reflect on their learning in a way that a math journal never can.  He is also making a contribution to the greater educational community in the process that we all benefit from. 

Jules Verne would have liked Robert Ballard.  Verne wrote about the mysteries of the seas while Ballard actually explored them.  Dr. Ballard is best described as an underwater archaeologist; the man who led explorations that uncovered sunken vessels including the Titanic, the Bismarck, and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109.  Robert Ballard has had a long and successful career fueled by curiosity and an interest in using technology to transform how we explore the world around us.  We need more of today’s students to become tomorrow’s  Robert Ballards.  Creating interest in science and technology careers is the purpose of STEM, the Obama administration’s “Educate to Innovate” initiative.  Two tools that bring the depths of the ocean and the expanse of the universe a little closer are Nautilus Live and Worldwide Telescope.

Thanks to the Internet, access to the real-time exploration efforts of scientists like Robert Ballard is now a possibility.  Ballard’s new website, Nautilus Live, provides 24 hour live video and audio streaming from twenty different cameras on board multiple ships and exploration craft.  Engineers will be exploring the Black and Aegean Seas as well as the Pacific in the pursuit of discovering ancient wrecks and learning more about aquatic life.

Microsoft has teamed with NASA to bring the cosmos to life with their Worldwide Telescope project.  The beauty of the Worldwide Telescope is that the vast amount of data and images has been blended together to create a rich visual experience for the user.  Information that has been traditionally limited to scientists working in observatories is now available for free.  The Worldwide Telescope can be download at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx and includes various tours and tools for engaging astronomers of all ages.

Do you find either of these useful and how has it made learning science, math or technology more relevant?