2010 U.S. Census in the Curriculum

To help us get ready for the March 2010 national census, Scholastic provides online materials that will help students better understand what the United States Census is all about. Resources are available for teachers, administrators, and families and include Census in Schools Week Planning Kits for K-8 and 9-12, Family Take Home Pages (available in 27 languages), diversity posters and lessons, and ELL and ESL materials. There are census maps (tiled, large format, and individual student maps); puzzles and challenges for the kids; census fact sheets; mini-lessons and lessons; and hands-on activities, Materials are downloadable in PDF format. Additional materials are available at the U.S. Census Bureau site, which offers excellent resources (state facts, games, quizzes, etc.) for teachers, kids, and teens.

 

Kohl’s Kids Who Care

If you know of a student who has made a positive impact in your community through volunteer service, nominate that student for the Kohl’s Kids Who Care Scholarship Program. Students much be between the ages of 6 and 18 and may not have already graduated from high school. Entries are due by March 15, 2010 from nominators who are 21 years of age or older. This year Kohl’s will recognize 2100 students with prizes ranging from $50 Kohls Gift Cards to scholarships of $1000 or $10,000 scholarships. Official rules are available online.

Penguin Cash Games

At just over $20 for a CD, Penguin Cold Cash provides games for enriching the study of money with ages 5-11. There are four levels for each game, so you (or your students) can select the ones that best fit needs and challenges. For the younger students, you might pick an easy level for identification of coins, while older students or students who need enrichment might tackle making change. Throughout the games students direct penguins through maneuvers involving knowledge of money, mathematics, and eye-hand coordination. The penguins, with the help of your students, take on a treadmill, belly board, play hockey, catch fish, and go tubing. The fast-action animation is excellent, and the games are inviting as the little penguins race across the computer screen and sometimes plop headfirst into a glacier or snowdrift. Besides the penguin challenges, the program includes a section in which students try to identify State quarters. The software works on both Mac and Windows computers. School licensing and group pricing are available.

About.com’s Homework and Study Tips

About.com in its Homework/Study Tips section offers tips by subject area, brain games, homework study skills, study techniques, help with writing research papers and book reports, science fair suggestions, guidelines for notetaking, speech tips, computer skills, test survival ideas, and even a Sloppy Writer’s Guide. Students can sign up for a Homework/Study Tips Weekly Newsletter, a Homework/Study Tips Blog, and for e-courses. They’ll also find information about contests, scholarships, and competitions on the About.com site.

3D-Ready Projectors—Future-Proofing

According to the T.H.E. Journal, some schools are getting ready for 3D learning in their classrooms. They are “future-proofing” with projectors that today are projecting in 2D, but are capable of doing 3D when materials come available.  Use of 3D in subjects such as geometry, biology, geography and art would help students with understanding of content. Think of a digital science experiment or a dissection using a 3D projector. Or how about a lesson on the solar system? As of the present, while about 15 companies are producing the projectors, 3D course content for projection is not available for school. It’s coming, though, as companies like Discovery, Promethean, Reality, RM Educational Software, and Safari Montage are engaged in preparing content for use of 3D in schools.  So … get ready with those 3D specks, folks. Want to know more? Read “The Renaissance of 3D: How the New 3D Technologies work” by Bill Livolsi.

Looking for Ways for Your Students to Collaborate?

Ozge Karaoglu on the Tech & Learning site offers a list of “100 Web Tools for Collaboration”. Part I features the first 20 of the 100 and includes links to Dabbleboard and 10 reasons for use of this whiteboard; CoSketch, the whiteboard that needs no installation and works with all browsers; Stixy for creating online bulletin board interaction; Ning and Grou.ps to help you establish your own social network; ImaginationCubed, a “cool” multiuser drawing tool according to Karaoglu; and other tools such as GroupTweet; Wallwisher; PageFlakes; Whiteboard; Wiggio; WeToku; WebNote; MeBeam; SpringNote; DoingText; Creately; WikiDot; Phuser; and PalBee. With these tools, you can create chat rooms, start online notebooks, work with others to create professional designs, share content, track discussions, set up online video meetings, record interviews, send email, track changes—you name it. Wow. Nice list. Look for more by checking Karaoglu’s blog.

Music Tech for Teachers

Brad Johnston, who teaches music tech at Yokohama International School in Japan has created a blog which highlights music and technology. If you scroll through the entries on his site, you’ll find free downloadable music posters, information on music conferencing hardware and iPod applications, and all sorts of technology resources for music teachers and others interested in music and technologies. There are links to sites featuring 21^st Century education, music software, GarageBand Tutorials, Geek tools, tech tips, news, ear training, teacher resources. . .  Just about everything you need to know about music and technology.

250 Free Online University Courses & More

Go to the Open Culture site to find 250 free online courses from universities, audio books, ebooks, and more.  Courses include such titles as Introduction to Archaeology from UC Berkeley, Art History from Columbia, Financial Markets from Yale, Photography as Inquiry (Video) from MIT, and Astrobiology and Space Exploration from Stanford. Audio and Podcasts feature foreign language lessons, music, technology, travel, science, audio books, free courses, ideas and culture, and Podcast tutorials.  There are free movies, YouTube Collections, and university videos along with eBooks for PCs, iPhones, Kindles, etc. 

Visual Learning — A Plus for Students

An article in eSchool News cites new data about the effectiveness of visual learning.  MIND Research Institute’s ST Math software, a supplemental program for Grades K-5, demonstrated at FETC in Orlando, was said to lead to significant gains in student test scores. Some of the gains for students were described as “dramatic”. The study involved over 15,000 students in 64 schools in Orange County, California, and found that those using the visual math program increased more than 12 percentage points in testing, while the state average increase was at 4.5 percent.  In ST Math, students see math problems as visual puzzles, engage in software “games”, work at their own pace, and receive instant feedback. Computer technology has enabled schools to take advantage of visual learning tools such as ST Math and Inspiration Software, which help students better understand what they are learning. Inspiration’s visual learning products are used today in more than 25 million schools throughout the world, which in itself indicates that teachers agree that visual learning is an excellent tool for students.

Frontline: Growing Up Online

The Frontline report, Growing Up Online, features information and discussions on the questions, “Just how radically is the Internet transforming the experience of childhood?” It tackles questions related to students and their beliefs about privacy, private worlds of teens online, teens sharing personal information, teachers and tech, and traditional teaching methods.  The section, Keeping Kids Safe, focuses upon what parents need to know about their children and the Internet, fear of predators, cyberbullying, and state and federal efforts to keep kids safe. You can watch the full program online, view the follow-up report, and read what people who saw the program had to say about it. If you want, you can add your comments about the Internet’s impact on your students. Don’t forget to check out the readings and links, teacher’s guide, and information on what we’ve learned abut kids and the Internet and how our digital generation is doing.