August 25, 2009
It’s back to school time and, these days, that means time for teachers to start compiling new classroom ideas from the internet. Whether looking at blogs, chatting on Twitter or browsing educational sites, most teachers have moved into the “techno-age” and are embracing the internet as a forum for sharing and gaining knowledge, tips and idea. In fact, I received a tweet over the weekend from a teacher looking for a little advice on sharing the classic Egg in a Bottle trick during her Back to School Night.
In the spirit of inspiring more teachers to incorporate technology in the classroom, I took this teacher’s Twitter inquiry to my weekly 9News segment and gave the instructions on how to get the egg in the bottle. Watch the video and read the experiment for more info… and if you have any questions be sure to send me a tweet.
July 6, 2009
As part of the Science at Sea experience, I talked about the many benefit of teachers who blog as part of their classroom experience. At one end of the spectrum you have teachers who are using their school sponsored blogs as a way to effectively communicate with parents or to share classroom assignments with students. On the other end you have very teachers who have found ways to use their blog as a catalyst to get their students (and parents) engaged in the learning process outside of classroom time.
Lisa Heaton uses her blog (www.lisaheaton.com) during her integrated unit on rocketry and literature as her 5th grade GT students read Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham. Lisa found that her students write almost twice as much when they are blogging versus using conventional writing practices. By their very nature, blogs are an interactive forum that encourage students to become engaged in the thoughts and ideas presented by other students in their class. Instead of students merely “pushing” ideas to a teacher to grade, blog posts become a great way for students to agree, disagree
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