Electric Summer

The Electric Company (TEC) Summer Learning Program aims to lessen children’s “brain drain” during the summer. To do this, the Company offers activities that feature literacy, numeracy, and the vocabulary of math. Children enjoy the story that ties the programs together as they work with lessons that feature television episodes, online gaming, and print materials. Included are 36 hours of learning content, YouTube links to 10-minute narratives, 12-levels of the Adventures of a Prankster Planet, 12 group activities, 24 skill-building sheets, and orientation training for parents and teachers. WestEd research on the program showed that students completing the lessons made significant gains in both reading and mathematics skills and that 90% of teachers using it felt that it increased motivation and confidence of their students.

Using SmartPhones in the Classroom?

Harry Grover Tuttle, who teaches at Onondaga Community College, in the Tech & Learning Advisor Blog suggests “5 Ways to Expand Smartphone Learning".  Some of his ideas are: don’t use drill and kill, don’t stick with text, don’t make everything an individual activity, don’t use Smartphones just to find information, and don’t use Smartphones just to learn something. Instead, when learning foreign language vocabulary, “use a QR code to show a restaurant in Lima, Peru”, and then have students study the menu and talk with each other about the restaurant. Use videos and photos along with text when having students work with Smartphones and let them work together as they learn.  Have them use the information they find to create, compare, and contrast. — And why not put their Smartphones to use to keep track of their grades and progress with Google Doc spreadsheet or a Google Doc checklist?

Wows for Wowzers® Game-Based Math for Grade 3-5

What is Wowzers? It’s math that’s fun, engaging, and fast-paced, and it captured the CODiE Award for Best K-12 Solution and Best Classroom Management System.  That’s because the product provides a cloud-based platform for learning where students take on “story-driven games and activities” while learning at their own pace. The program can replace textbooks, assessments, manipulatives, and gradebooks. While students are engaged in “digital experiences with their personal avatar”, with one-click teachers can get a “real-time snapshot” of what all students are doing.  Wowzers offers 33 weeks on content and is priced at approximate $25 a student or $7000 per school.  You can click on the Wowzer demo, watch a Wowzer video, or sign up for a free trial.

Largest Integrated Library of Digital Books

A dozen more publishers have been added to Capstone Digital’s myOn reader bringing the total number of books students can now access in digital format with “multimedia supports (embedded dictionary, highlighting, and audio)” to over 2500. The program motivates students to read, provides a variety of recommended books for each student, offers Lexile exams and growth in reading trajectories, and creates reports for students and teachers. Capstone works hard to transform excellent books into multimedia reading experiences by publishing over 1000 books a year. If you’d like a complete list of all books available on myON reader, complete the online form.

The Hunger Games—What Are Students Saying

Common Sense Media rates the Hunger Games film “Pause 13+”, which means parents need to decide if their young teens can handle the violence in it.  As for the books, they are rated about the same by most. Some say the series is good for Grades 9 and up, but not for younger students. Young people often disagree, since many students younger than 13 are reading Hunger Games. It’s a favorite among just about all ages, like the Harry Potter series.

If you’d like to see what kids around the world say about Hunger Games, go to the ePals forums.  You’ll see words like cool, awesome, and amazing.  As one ePal user said, “The Hunger Games has a lot of controversy, but hey, that makes it good too!”  One user mentioned that the library waiting list for it was hundreds long. Obviously, most students like the books and are going to read them even if they are about teens killing each other. Reviewers of the books and the movie recommend that parents and teachers discuss the issues involved in the books—like what is the government like, what are the living conditions, why do they have to kill, do they really want to kill, why are those who do not live in the capitol fearful, why is District 13 run like it is, and what are the qualities of the main characters?

What Could You Do With a 3D Printer?

Until now 3D printers were so expensive that they were out of reach for school budgets.  But like most new technologies, these fascinating printers no longer cost exuberant prices.  You can get them from about $300+ and up, depending on what type you want and how well it works. Middle Schoolers in Edina, Minnesota use a Dimension 3D printer called uPrint to bring their own designs to life. Students in Grades 9-12 at Bishop Reding in Ontario created robots with golf clubs, which they took at to a golf course to try.  Some schools are experimenting with 3D RepRap printers that can replicate themselves. Those who are putting them to work in the classrooms say the printers create enthusiasm for engineering and math skills, along with creativity.  Besides, they’ve proven a special plus for school publicity.

If you are interested in one of these printers, you’ll want to look at a comparison chart that contains price, strengths, weaknesses, materials needed, size, and other categories. The uPrint 3d printers start at $290 a month, the RepRap printer starts at about $300+.  You’ll note in the chart that many of the lower-cost 3D printers are slower and lack the quality of output of the more costly printers.

Don’t Forget NASA’s Education Programs

NASA provides educational programs for schools in order to strengthen NASA and the Nation’s future workforce, attract and retain students in the STEM disciplines, and engage Americans in NASA’s mission. The NASA education area includes categories such as Education Leadership, NASA Centers & Facilities, NASA Mission Directives, Performance Assessment, Education contacts, programs for educators, programs for students, and NASA Kids’ Club. In the educator section, there are sections for Grades K-4, 5-8, 9-12, and higher education. Teaching materials can also be located along with the education TV schedule. There are free Webinars, workshops, Webcasts, research tools, and much more. Student areas feature games and activities, homework topics, STEM careers, videos including SpaceSchoolMusical songs, and opportunities such as competitions and challenges.

Are You Where You Want to Be with Tech?

It’s the end of the 2011-2012 school year. Did you accomplish what you wanted to do with technology integration into your lessons? If you are like me, you planned to do much more than you actually accomplished. Maybe it would be best if you set a goal to master one promising idea, app, or tech device this summer. With the speed at which the digital world is turning,  I’m sure you are bombarded with parents, students, peers, the media, and even your own children telling you what you should be doing.  There’s just no way you can use everything that everyone recommends. Do you really need four different note-taking apps on your iPad? I don’t think so.  If you are a social studies teacher, do you need to learn how to do animations so that you can teach students to insert animations into their projects ? It’s not your job to teach animation or video production or...  Do you need to keep up with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and all those communications systems? If you did, you’d soon become a digital peripheral.

Listen to what others recommend and decide what would best help your students master the content you teach. Maybe you’d like to learn how to set up and make connections for video chat sessions, how to create video clips, how to make your interactive whiteboard more student-centered, or...  Take on a summer challenge to think about where you are with tech use in your classroom and then decide what goal you want to accomplish before the 2012-2013 year begins.

Can Reading Fiction Students Understand Each Other?

Psychologist Raymond Mar of York University in Canada completed a study that concluded that reading about social interaction and engaging in social interaction helped individuals better understand the feelings of others (Annie Murphy Paul, New York Times Sunday Review, 3/17/12).  In additional studies, Dr. Mar, together with Dr. Keith Oakley, professor emeritus, University of Toronto, and others, found that those who “frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them, and see the world from their perspective.”

It’s known that many students prefer to use their digital devices for reading.  With this in mind, promoting the use of devices such as iPads and Kindles for reading fiction may encourage those who won’t pick up a traditional book to get back on the path to reading. Not only will this practice in reading help them in their school work and standardized test-taking skills, it will, as the Canadian studies conclude, help them gain a better understanding of others and their feelings. Perhaps, a step forward in our drive to stop student bullying might be to require additional required reading of fiction and to spend more time turning students on to the joys of reading novels during their leisure time.

Understanding Developmental Delays

Nothing is more difficult than having to talk with parents about a child who is not succeeding in school. A book that might help you and your students’ parents know what to do is available from Brookes Publishing Company. The Common Sense Guide to Your Child’s Special Needs, by Louis Pelligrino, M.D., is written for parents, but should be useful for teachers as well. The book covers signs of a disability and steps to take. Information is offered on speech and language development; motor skills; learning and cognitive development; vision, hearing and sensory processing, and other issues. You can request an examination copy of the book.

For those working with children with special needs and/or students having difficulty in school, Brookes Publishing has a library of titles that may provide information on the type of problem a student is facing. Some categories available are autism, behavior, child development, medical disability, early childhood education, inclusion, intellectual disabilities, ADHD, screening and assessment, reading and literacy, math and science, and more.