Student Assisted

This past week my science students have been conducting small experiments in class (i.e. Who can hop on one foot longer, Boys or Girls?) while continuing to learn about the Scientific Method. Several of the experiments required the use of a stopwatch, in which we only managed to find a few. A student came up with an innovative solution...she searched for an online stopwatch, http://www.online-stopwatch.com/.
I believe that YouTube is currently being blocked on our school network without a way to override the system. An alternative; http://www.teachertube.com/. As I am sure you have probably gathered from the link...it's just like YouTube but built solely for the purpose of education.

Rubric Maker

To all of you wonderful teachers who use rubrics (or would like to),

I found a FREE rubric maker online that makes grading so much easier! The website is http://rubistar.4teachers.org. It has many topics that you may cover in class along with rubrics you can use. Happy grading :)

What's New?

Check out TweenTribune, www.tweentribune.com, it is a free news site created by and for tweens. This site contains wonderfully written articles that are interesting to ready for both us and our students.
It's Your Call, www.webwisekids.org, is an online interactive educational game that allows children to practice responsible cell phone use and personal safety.
The games section at www.eastoftheweb.com is perfect for improving fluency and building a stronger vocabulary.

Rhee's 200-Page 'Framework' Spells Out Teaching Guidelines

A highly skilled teacher should never have more than five instances of "inappropriate or off-task behavior" by students within a half-hour of class time. At least three times in that span, an instructor should respond to students' correct answers by "probing for higher-level understanding" of the idea being discussed. And no more than three minutes of teaching time should be lost to poor organization or planning. (www.washingtonpost.com)

Good Stuff!

www.multilingualbooks.com now offers a clickable world map (click on Foreign Radio Online) to make finding an international radio station easier. This would be a great connection for students studying different areas of the world, or a wonderful resource for language teachers.
NSF International has developed a website ( www.scrubclub ) that teaches children how to properly wash their hands...flu season is just around the corner.
www.teachersfirst.com is offering free access to 10,000 online learning websites. Resources can be searched for by grade level, subject, keyword, etc. The search engine for this site only provides educational resources.
I receive the magazine Learning & Leading with Technology if anyone is interested in borrowing a copy or two. I currently have the August and September/October editions.

Two New Sites...

Flash Card Exchange, http://www.flashcardexchange.com/, allows users to create flash cards and then produce a hard copy, study the flash cards online, or share with students/teachers via the web.
VerbaLearn, http://www.verbalearn.com/, is a comprehensive vocabulary building site that uses audio, video, flashcards, and games. It is a great place for teachers to help students improve English vocabulary at home or school.

Thank You Fifth Grade Teachers!

On behalf of the sixth grade teachers I wanted to thank the Eastside fifth grade teachers for greatly preparing Edinburgh students for their first year of middle school, along with instilling respect and maturity. I should actually be thanking all staff members at Eastside, because success in school starts on the first day of kindergarten. So, thank you very much! We (sixth grade teachers) have been blessed the last two years with a terrific group of students. I hope to have some student work on here soon for you to see how well they are doing.

6th Grade Laptops

The 6th Grade Laptops are up and running...due to the hard work and dedication of our awesome technology staff (Bob and Jodie). The laptops arrived later than expected and we have experienced a few bumps along the way but Bob pulled a couple of all-nighters and made things happen. I hope to be completely paperless beginning next Monday (8/24). My science students have already gathered data, inserted their findings into Excel and then created a graph. The same students also took a poll via www.polleverywhere.com and will now create a poll of their own for their classmates to take, followed by writing a report to support a newly designed graph. My reading students created a Venn diagram comparing similes and metaphors through a flash application at www.readwritethink.org/materials/venn and then converted it to a pdf to share with their classmates. Today my language students will create a word bubble at www.wordle.net so that their classmates and I can learn more about them. This is just the beginning...it's going to be an exciting year. I hope to hear (or read) about all the great things going on through out the corporation.

Thinkfinity

http://www.thinkfinity.org/ provides free lesson plans and educational resources.

Scholastic Instructor

Many of you, I'm sure, are aware of the Scholastic website but there may be a few things that you are not aware of. My two favorite options are Free Stuff and Quick Ideas. Click on the following link ( http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/index.htm ) and scroll down for the above choices. Free Stuff includes contests, grants, and resources. Quick Ideas is categorized by grade and has a different theme (Math, English, Vocabulary, etc.) each month.

A New Way To Present

If you use PowerPoint or SMART software to create classroom presentations then you should try www.prezi.com. You can sign up for a free account, which allows for 100MB of free space. You can also download your prezi presentations to use offline, keeping your online storage space at a minimum. I would recommend that you spend some time viewing the prezi tutorials before getting started. My students have really enjoyed the prezi presentations that I have created!

Free PowerPoint Presentations!

www.pppst.com offers numerous free PowerPoint Presentations (PPTs) on every imaginable subject. Start out by clicking on the provided link, disregard the cheesy layout, scroll down, and then click on a subject of your choice. A new window will appear where you will have to choose a subtopic. After choosing a subtopic you will be given a list of available PPTs and web links for children. You can click on a PPT link and then open it or save it for later use. I normally save the PPT and then make changes so that it fits my needs.