December 2011 Blog Posts (23)

I have recently become more involved in an interesting pilot project that is building off of my summer research. Funded by the Gates Foundation I am embarking on uncovering the nuances of moving towards a Blended integration of technology into a Project Based learning environment. I hope to discover innovative ways to work with teachers and students and I hope that you all will follow and provide feedback throughout the process

Triangular prism is a three dimensional geometric shape. There are many examples of triangular prisms in our daily lives, such as a tent or a wedge.

It got its name because of its two triangular faces (act as bases of the prism). The rest of the three faces are rectangular in shape.

To find…

This has been a great break. It was wonderful being able to chat with family and friends, many of whom I haven't seen in ages. Now I have to buckle down and prepare some lesson plans get ready for the upcoming semester. I could sit down create new and (hopefully) impactful lessons all on my own or I could start socializing and let my online community help me out.

Socializing professionally is not like chatting with folks over the holidays. The goal here is to decrease work wile at the…

The latest trend in education may be to shift teaching and learning from the classroom to the internet. We are seeing more and more states tuning to this as an answer to their education woes. Colleges have been transitioning in that direction for years. Online course have exploded over the years. I served on a committee for the New York State United Teachers examining those online possibilities for the secondary level back in the turn of the century, about the year 2000.

My personal…

22nd December 2011

This week having broken up from school for the Christmas break, I asked my Twitter Learning Community what it was that they felt most contributed to raising standards in their schools.

The following summarises their contributions for which I'm very grateful personally as we try to raise standards along with every school in the country.

@KingEdVIsport use Year 12 literacy leaders to work with younger students using the sport education…

EdTech Digest

Last night was the Edublog Awards Presentation, also known as the “Eddie” Awards. This event happens once a year at this time honoring those who excel in the area of Educational Social Media. Categories include educators, students, groups, and vendors. It originally started out recognizing Blogs and Bloggers, but has now expanded to all forms of Social Media as Social Media itself has expanded. This is an example that schools should emulate; the ability to be flexible and change to meet the…

First graders are the BEST!  :)  :)  Merci pour tout!

Les élèves de 6 ans à Holy Innocents' Episcopal School ont célébré la Noël à Paris.  Munis de leur passeports et carte d'embarquement, ils ont attéri à l'aéroport Charles de Gaulle, et ont tout de suite visité la Tour Eiffel où ils ont fait la connaissance de Babar, un étrange et sympathique petit éléphant.  Papa Noël et son lutin leur ont fait goûter de la bûche de…

Spellathon has been a successful, paper based annual fundraising event for learning disability charity Mencap for the last 18 years. In 2011 , by applying online, laptops, mobiles, tablets and smart whiteboard technologies with state -of-the-art 3D animation, Spellathon has reached a global audience.

Spellathon is the biggest sponsored global spelling competition ever. All Schools, Colleges and University Unions will receive 25% of the income fundraised…

This past Friday was parent-teacher conference day. Since my first grade reading class is a class specifically designed to address the instructional needs of children who are below grade-level benchmarks, I was going to need help in convincing parents that their children were indeed making progress. The phrase "below grade level benchmarks," often translates in the mind of a parent that their child has a learning disability or is in dire need of a tutor or is struggling to the point of…

The 2011 Edublogs Awards Shortlist

I am often intrigued by the controversy surrounding the contraction, “ain’t” which, to the best of my knowledge, has been created by the American education system. Contractions are an informal form of the English Language and should not be used when formal language is required. We generally speak informally, but when it comes to writing, we employ the formal language. That being said, the acceptable contraction for “am not” is “ain’t”, therefore it can only be correctly used with the pronoun…

It was fourteen years ago when Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both computer science graduate students at Stanford University, reached a decision after brainstorming for a new name for the internet search engine that they had designed.  The original BackRub engine which had outgrown the server capacity at Stanford was replaced with an original term that is now one of the most recognized brand names in the world; Google.  Despite the wide variety of search engine choices that are available today,…