Trials of a Tekkie Teacher

Most Popular Posts of the Year - #12, 11 Social Studies Resources

3 Gifts to Make Your Holiday a Jolly-Day

I definitely needed to read this. Goal for the week - not to let the extra three weeks in the walking cast bum me out. When I maintain a positive attitude, it makes such a difference in my day and the day of my students!

coolcatteacher:

from Serenity in Design Blog

Nippy air. Football playoffs are here. One Act play competes today. The Fall Festival is Saturday (and so is the SAT.) Looking ahead to…

Here are some fabulous blog posts from two of the presenters at the conference last Saturday.

And here are Wes Fryer’s two recaps of the day:

Part I

Part II

I highly recommend you check them out. There are LOADS of great resources on there!

Great lecture(animation by RSA) by Sir Ken Robinson about changing the education paradigm - it’s a must watch if you’re in the education field!

gjmueller:

The Networked Teacher

photo via flickr:CC|courosa

I’ve been exploring the wonders of Web 2.0 this year, and I wanted to know what tool/website is your absolute favorite to use with your students? Why? How do you use it? Thanks for sharing!

firstclassroom:

Hm, I wonder how much trouble I am going to get in for missing a meeting for the district new teacher mentor program. I knew it was coming up. You know how it goes trying to keep your head above water in your first year - I never quite got around to checking on the date until tonight. It was last Monday.

Do you get assigned a mentor as a first year teacher? I know that as a mentor, I make sure to remind my first year teacher of any upcoming due dates, meetings, etcetera - whether they’re for the district or within the school. If you haven’t been assigned a mentor, or you have a mentor who you just don’t see very often, then see if anyone else at school would be your ‘unofficial’ mentor. I was in a portable and was the only academic teacher at my school not on a team that first year, so I felt isolated and alone all year. You have to be persistent, and let your needs as a first year teacher be known. We need new teachers to be encouraged and stick with  it! Good luck!

Spent most of today at the Discovery Education Virtual Conference. It was fabulous, and I went to the one here in Lexington hosted at the new elementary school in our district, which was beautiful. Amy did an awesome job of setting it all up! I have all sorts of great new things to post about, but that will have to wait until after the end of my LSU football game(geaux tigers!), and after I finish the gigantic pile of tests and projects that are waiting for me on my kitchen table. I hate the end of a reporting period - even when I keep up with paperwork and grading, it’s the last week’s worth of stuff that just seems to overwhelm me! I need to remember to assign my River Valleys project earlier next year, so I don’t have to grade them all in a weekend!

World History: Prezi and Bloom's

Ken Halla posted a fabulous Prezi that addresses the dilemma that many teachers face - how do you make multiple choice questions more rigorous, and use the higher levels from Bloom’s? We had a long discussion about this very topic at my last collaborative planning meeting with all of the 6th grade Social Studies teachers in the district. Can’t wait to share with them and see where the conversation leads next!