USD 331 Kingman-Norwich

Numerous educational blogs exist that can help you in the classroom.  Google Reader can help you to organize your blogs.

Google Reader - follow the instructions or view the video

1. Create a Google Reader account
   • Go to http://reader.google.com/
   • If you have already created a Google Docs account with your district email, login to Google Reader with the same account and go to step 2.
   • Click Create an account button and enter in the required information to create your account.
2. Find educational blogs that you would like to add to your Reader account
3. Once you find an educational blog that you wold like to follow:
   • Copy the link of the site
   • Go to Google Reader
   • Click Add a subscription
   • Paste the link
   • Click Add
4. Check Google Reader periodically as it will go and find any updates to the blogs you are watching and post them in your Reader account.

Google Reader Instruction Video

Finding Educational Blogs
To find educational blogs, you can search the web or you can visit MrsSmoke’s blog post, “Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating” listing and categorizing many different blogs.

MrsSmoke is a Technology Integrationist in Andover, KS.  Her blog is Making Teachers Nerdy.

USD #331 Kingman/Norwich and the City of Kingman, in cooperation with Cox Communications, are proud to be able to serve its citizens with its own community information channel.  If you’re a Cox cable television customer in Kingman, tune into channel 7.

The new information channel is the one stop place to get much of the important information you are looking for concerning school or city events, schedules, and other information.  The broadcast will be 24 hours a day with a continuous loop of Kingman city information and USD #331 information.

Leon Albert, Assistant Superintendent
USD #331 Kingman/Norwich

When people think of computer programming they may think of someone sitting at a computer writing page after page of code.  Creating games, stories, and applications today can be done in a 3D environment that is simple and intuitive for both teachers and students.

Alice is an educational 3D computer programming application developed by Carnegie Mellon University.  This software can be downloaded at Alice.org free of charge.

In the classroom Alice can be used to tell a story or to create an interactive game.  Alice has built in tutorials to providing step-by-step instructions to help students learn how to use the program.

Teachers can now utilize a wiki space with their students in the classroom.  Classroom wiki has been officially launched and is ready for you to incorporate into your classroom.  The wiki is secure and can be accessed by login only.  If you are interested in creating a classroom wiki, contact the Tech Department and we will help you get setup.

If you’re looking for some new ideas or interested in some of the discussions taking place around the world of English instruction, take a look at the blog developed by the Writing Teacher at http://www.thewritingteacher.org/

Some good stuff. Just to get things started, I thought I’d include this from one of the blogs: The first and most effective practice is to explicitly and systematically teach kids strategies for planning, drafting, editing, revising, and regulating the writing process. Every study in which such instruction was tested validated this practice. This involves making writing processes concrete and visible by showing students how to do them, and then helping students apply these processes until they can do them independently and correctly. For example, the 6 + 1 Writing Traits Model makes students aware of the characteristics of writing that are important: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. These are all important parts in producing a good product. Students can be taught specific strategies for any of these elements. For ideas, this can involve teaching them a strategy such as brainstorming, while a helpful strategy for organization is to create a web that shows how writing ideas are related to each other. Traditional grammar instruction, including teaching parts of speech, sentence diagramming, and making students pick out the right tense of the verb; these practices do not improve grammar skills, syntax, or the ability to write. This may work with a few specific students, but it is ineffective with children in general. One reason why this instruction is not generally effective is that instruction rarely involves the students using what they are learning within the context of their writing. A good substitute for such instruction is the sentence-combining exercise I described above. both excerpts from Research-Based Best Practices for Teaching Writing: A Discussion with Steve Graham on How to Effectively Teach Writing DateWednesday, October 1, 2008 at 12:00PM

VoiceThread is an online program that allows users to narrate and annotate images, documents, and videos.  Teachers and students can record comments to each VoiceThread.  This program could be a classroom substitute for PowerPoint and MovieMaker.  VoiceThread is available free to users and educators can access additional features for a fee.

Hotmath.com is a valuable Math resource provided through the Kan-Ed Learning Station.  I had an oppportunity to preview this tool at ESSDACK recently.  Assistance with odd numbered textbook problems can be found for Pre-Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 1 & 2, Trigonometry, Precalculus, College Algebra, and Calculus. Hotmath.com includes questions from the following textbooks; Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, McDougal Littell, Houghton Miffllin, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Holt, as well as others. Students can obtain step by step, worked out solutions with math homework.

Hotmath.com also includes video lessons for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, and Geometry covering important concepts in each of these subjects.  This could be a great addition to your math curriculum.  Also included are Practice Math Tests for Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Algebra 2 that can help you and your students determine their knowledge of the subject. Lastly, to help make math fun, games are provided to give your students a learning alternative.

To access all of Hotmath.com’s resources, you must logon to the Kan-Ed Learning Station click on netTrekker d.i. Inside netTrekker d.i., you will see a link on the upper-left side to Hotmath.com.

Building Active Engagement into Every Lesson

In July, six of us attended Brain Based Learning in Orlando, FL.  Brain-Based Learning means building active engagement into every lesson.  The 5 Principles of being a Brain Friendly Teacher are; Safety, Nourishment, Social, Emotional, Informational.

The brain seeks novelty, predictability, feedback, and meaning. The body needs a relaxed alertness. Monotony and Boredom vs. Anxiety and Chaos. A happy medium of Routine vs. Variety. Great teaching relies on your capacity to elicit emotional states such as these: caring, vesting, safety, curiosity, celebration and hope.

Safety:
It is important to create a safe environment by first building a classroom community where all students can feel safe. No learning can take place if students do not feel secure in their environment. Second team building helps foster relationships that are conducive to learning.

Nourishment:
The brain cannot learn if it is not properly nourished. It needs adequate amounts of water and foods that maximize learning. As you eat so shall you think!

Social:
Students need social engagement to stimulate the brain. “Sit down and be quiet is fighting how the brain learns.” The students need opportunities to stand, move, share, converse, sing, laugh and work collaboratively to give oxygen and glucose to the brain.

Emotional:
Music has a direct physical, emotional, and psychological effect on both the students and the teacher. Properly employed, it can create a heightened social learning context, motivate students to engage themselves more rapidly, and provide a sense of safety that might not otherwise be possible.

Informational:
Brain friendly teaching provides more energy for new learning, helps clarify and refine thinking, stores information in long-term memory, provides clear working memory, and engages multiple intelligences and multiple memory systems.

ESSDACK has introduced Self-Directed Staff Development allowing teachers to obtain staff development at your own pace.  Instructors include Glenn Wiebe, Kevin Honeycutt, and Tammy Worcester on topics that include Google Earth, Wikis, organizing online resources, Google Sketchup, and others.

PaySchools is up and running smoothly. Parents and students have traditionally paid school and lunch fees through the school office by cash or check. Now these same fees can be paid online through the PaySchools interface by electronic check or credit card. To access your PaySchools account, click on the PaySchools link on the left-side of the district webpage or within the Campus Portal. To login to PaySchools, use your Campus Portal login. If you do not know your Campus Portal login, contact your school office to obtain it.