Change in Participation

A month of school has already passed! My how the time has flown. I have enjoyed getting back into classrooms training and collaborating with teachers! Please let me know if you or your staff is in need of training.

The Global Learner Blog will be having new additions this year! Fifteen very motivated teachers joined me at the annual TIE conference in Copper Mountain during July. Each attendee is working on a project implementing technology resources and ideas from the conference. We'll post updates as they progress. Some projects include: iPad implementations, student film creations, Google Lit. Trips, student portfolios, and much, much more!

If you are working on a project (with or without technology), we would love to know about it. Please encourage teachers throughout the Adams 14 Family to read our blog, get ideas, and share they are doing with the world!

Cool Wearable 6th Sense Technology from MIT

Okay, this just shows how much of a geek I am but I totally want one of these. I think changes in the way we interact with technology is fascinating. My instructor at Walden University shared this video link with me at the Teaching, Entertainment, and Design website (TED). In the video Dr. Patty Maes and her student, Pranav Mistry, talk about a clever invention they have designed that changes the way people interact with technology. It is definitely worth a gander. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

It's a wearable device with a projector that works with your cell phone to allow some pretty interesting interactions with your environment.

Beverly Ingle on 21st century learning

Beverly Ingle, president of the Colorado Education Association has a video news conference out on YouTube talking about meeting the 21st century's challenges in our schools. In this video, she talks about the importance of preparing today's students for the challenges in the global marketplace. She mentions the importance of highly qualified teachers and mentions that quality teaching is the most important influence on student learning. Part of that quality teaching involves integrating technology in our classrooms and preparing our students to compete in the global economy. The skills that she mentions in preparing our students involve: analysis, critical thinking, evaluation, creative problem solving, and multiple communication skills. When questioned by a reporter on the challenges of teaching these skills to students she followed that all students have the ability to learn and added, more importantly in my opinion, that all teachers can also learn. I would add to that by saying that all teachers MUST learn to incorporate technology and critical thinking skills in their classrooms. I applaud Beverly Ingle in making this a priority. You can view her video here.

Crossposted on Mr. Fisher's Global Learner Blog

Digital Equity for Spanish speaking students

Equity and diversity in education are important themes in education today. Paul Gorski, in defining multicultural education mentions that, “Every student must have an equal opportunity to achieve to her or his full potential” (EdChange Multicultural Pavilion). Linguistic minority students do not have the same internet resources available as English speaking students and may struggle with the technology to locate them. One of my goals with regard to multicultural education is to help close the digital equity gap. EdReform.net lists the five dimensions of digital equity as: Technology resources, quality content, culturally responsive content, effective use of resources and content creation (http://digitalequity.edreform.net/, 2003).

With that in mind, I've added a page to my website for Spanish language elementary web resources (https://sites.google.com/a/adams14schools.org/mrfisher/resources). The resources presented on my webpage are intended for students, parents, and teachers of students who speak Spanish. Teachers are constantly searching for quality web resources for their Spanish speaking students and parents frequently ask me for web resources they can access at home to further their children’s learning. The purpose is to consolidate on one page some of the best Spanish language web resources for primary age students. I'd like to solicit your feedback on additional web resources available in Spanish that I could add to this.

References:
Gorski, P. C. (2003). : The Challenge of Defining “Multicultural Education”. EdChange Multicultural Pavilion. Retrieved October 11, 2008 from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/initial.html

Crossposted at http://mrfishergloballearner.blogspot.com/

Using the Smart Board for Phonics Instruction

As a teacher at a Colorado Reading First school with very explicit and systematic literacy instruction I often find it hard to integrate technology during my Core Literacy time. One of the nice features about the Smart Board is the ability to manipulate text and graphics. For many lessons I hand write the words to emphasize letter formation and because the speed at which I write is a good speed for first graders decoding on the fly. For this particular lesson I pre-typed the parts of the words. I wanted to emphasize common end blends. I used the Smart Board to quickly move ending “L” blends to the initial consonant. (GLET 1g: Uses word and letter recognition skills. Produces sounds to common letter combinations. ) Here I've embedded the screen cast from my blog for that lesson.

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Getting started with blogging and wiki's

On Monday, August 13, at 10:30am I'm going to begin a chatcast using Skype with a first grade teacher from Canada. Kathy Cassidy is going to answer some getting started questions about blogs, wiki's and technology in the classroom. Kathy teaches first grade Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Comment if your interested and I'll make sure your invited!

Kathy's Blog
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337&l=1143592742


Kathy's Website
http://news.mjsd1.ca/~kcassidy/cassidyhome.html

Global Competitiveness Discussed at National Governor's Initiative Meeting

Today at a National Governor's Association meeting in Cupertino, California governors, their representatives, and experts in the field of technology discussed how education can adapt to prepare students for the workplace of the future. Discussants at the event, sponsored by Symantec, concluded that an increased emphasis on innovation, math, science, and technology in America's public schools was the only way to stay competitive in the future. Janet Napolitano, the current chair of the National Governors Association, Napolitano established the "Innovation America" initiative. Innovation America's goal is to come up with a list of strategies to enhance innovation and global competition by each state.

Napolitano suggested it was time for a change stating that the content of courses and method for teaching has not changed since she was in school. Do you believe that math and science are the focus that can maintain America's competitive edge in the global economy? Do you believe it is time for shift in teaching strategy? What do you think should be the focus of K-12 education? What strategies do you believe should be introduced into teaching to the K-12 student?