User Groups

Forum Post: Re: Basic Calendars

Tabitha Savage — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:11:00 GMT

This is a wonderful way to start the day!

I also like to start with a calendar and review. I've used a variety of them over the years. However, I've recently found one on promethean planet that I LOVE! I didn't create this resource, but I have downloaded it and used it with my children. I hope someone else will find it as useful as I did!

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Download.aspx?ContentId=92998

Forum Post: Re: RTF for IWBs ...

Bill Judd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:05:00 GMT

Oops, I meant "bad irresponsible" behavior. (That is the kind of thing I do in a class to keep the students attention focused on the board.)

Forum Post: Introduce Yourself

Danny Nicholson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:27:00 GMT

Welcome to the Technology in Science user group.

I'm a former science teacher - working in Secondary schools in the UK. I am now a freelance science/ict consultant.

I am a PGCE science lecturer, involved in several teacher training courses at both primary and secondary level. I've written science textbooks and science/ict teachers guides for Heinemann.

I am also a whiteboard trainer and blog about useful resources at www.whiteboardblog.co.uk

I hope to share some of the things I discover, and to learn new stuff from other members of this group.

If you've joined, please take a moment to reply to this thread and tell me a little bit about yourself.

Blog Post: Welcome to the Technology in Science User Group

Danny Nicholson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:21:00 GMT

The purpose of this group is to enhance the teaching and learning of Science through the use of digital technologies such as IWBs, datalogging, visualisers, Learner Response devices, interactive websites, science videos, science software and more.

I'm a former Secondary Science teacher - I'm now a freelance consultant for both Science and ICT. I'm always interested in the ways that technology can support teaching and learning in Science. I hope through this group we can share ideas and good practise.

Blog Post: Safer Internet Day 2012

Steven Anderson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:58:00 GMT

Teaching students how to use online resources effectively and appropriately should be an everyday occurrence. All members of the education community (students, teachers, administrators, parents, community) are responsible. So understanding what that responsibility means is a first step.

Today is Safer Internet Day 2012. Organized in Europe, it has become a world-wide event to raise awareness and promote education for effective use of Internet resources.

You can click here to see a video to learn more.

The theme for this year's event is Connecting Generations. The goal is to not just focus on kids but focus on getting everyone connected in positive ways. Whether we are 4, 14 or 84, everyone can get connected and learn how to leave a positive digital footprint.

You can visit the Safer Internet Day 2012 site for lots of lessons, talking points and resources not for just staying safe online but for using the Internet more effectively. And the great thing? Even if it is after Feb 7, the lessons are timeless. You can use them anytime. It doesn't have to be a special occasion.

You can check out my recent post on Making The Right Digital Decisions and find even more Internet and Online safety teaching resources for kids of all ages.

What do you do to teach kids to use online resources effectively or to teach digital safety? What are your favorite resources? Leave some comments below.

Forum Post: Re: gapminder.org

Douglas Butler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:08:00 GMT

Craig Barton is a young enthusiastic teacher in England who has made a series of great videos about Gapminder:

www.mrbartonmaths.com/gapminder.htm

His website "Mr Barton Maths" is well worth a browse too:

www.mrbartonmaths.com/index.htm

Douglas

Forum Post: Re: Welcome to the One to One Maths Classroom Forum

Rex Boggs — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:39:00 GMT

For some reason, I can't access www.edweek.org when I click on the above link - I get a 'Server Not Found" message. Any ideas?

Blog Post: Microsoft Partners in Learning Forum (US Round)

Adina Popa — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:14:00 GMT

Are you an innovative educator, working on unique STEM projects? Is your school implementing Microsoft technology in an innovative way? If you answered yes, you should consider applying for the prestigious Partners in Learning Forum organized by Microsoft. If you are selected, you (and several other educators from around the nation) will be flown to Redmond, WA where you will share your project, network with outstanding educators, and hopefully qualify for the Global Forum. (The Global Forum will be held in November 2012, in sunny Athens, Greece).

If you are selected by Microsoft to participate in any for their forums, Microsoft will pay for your airfare and accommodations.

This is the link to the Microsoft page, listing the details of the application process:

Forum Post: Re: What is the look and feel of an interactive classroom?

Steve Sandy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:24:00 GMT

I agree that students are actively engaged in an interactive classroom. While there are many whole class activities that are fantastic, at the Elementary level I think using the board as a teacher lead center is very powerful. I recently created a simple container flipchart activity for my 2nd grade team. It has an image of a plus sign as a container and an image of a negative sign as a container. Then there are a bunch of key words that are used in word problems that would tell students to use addition or subtraction. They drag the word to the correct symbol. I think doing this activity in a teacher lead small group would be ideal.

File: Assigning Students to Devices

Theresa Gabor — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:23:00 GMT

Step by step directions for assigning students to devices, with screenshots.

Forum Post: Re: Your Favourite iPad/iPhone Apps

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:59:00 GMT

Here's a few lists to get you started

www.funeducationalapps.com/.../back-to-school-40-best-science-ipad-apps-for-students.html

appsineducation.blogspot.com/.../10-essential-science-apps.html

Have you tried any of these?

Forum Post: Online Science Games

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:20:00 GMT

Here's a useful link from Thinkfinity with some interesting online science games you might want to try

http://www.thinkfinity.org/science-interactives

Forum Post: Science Hardware

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:18:00 GMT

There are lots of different pieces of hardware that can be used to support teaching and learning in the science classroom. These can include:

Digital Microscopes

Visualisers / Document Cameras

Video Cameras / Digital Cameras

Dataloggers

and more.

Share your thoughts about the best ways to use these in the classroom.

Forum Post: About this area

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:10:00 GMT

Interactive whiteboards are increasingly common in the Science classroom. Please share your ideas, favourite resources and hints and tips for using them.

Forum Post: How to Join This Group

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:01:00 GMT

We would love to have you join this user group, and participate in the discussions and share resources.

There are three ways to do so:

(1) If you are already a member of the Promethean Planet, click on the [Request Membership] tab on the right side of the group title bar.

(2) If you are not yet a member of Promethean Planet, click on the [Register] tab in the upper right corner of the web page. Registering is quick and free. Once you have registered, then you can request to join the group.

(3) Send an email to me at danny@think-bank.com and I will send you an invitation to join via email.

thanks!

Danny

Group: Technology in Science

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:15:00 GMT

A group for the discussion of the many different ways that technology can support teaching and learning in school Science.

Blog Post: STEM Resources for iPads

Adina Popa — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:05:00 GMT

Are you using iPads in your classroom? If yes, the links and apps below may enhance your STEM lesson.

iBooks is now offering multimedia-rich textbooks, very engaging for our 21st Century learners. For startes, download E.O. Wilson's "Life in Earth."

--------------

NASA live TV:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/nasatv_live_iphone.html

---------------

Science apps:

http://sciblogs.co.nz/griffins-gadgets/2010/07/19/best-science-apps-for-the-ipad/

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainpop-featured-movie/id364894352?mt=8

http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/p/science-ipad-apps.html

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/tablets/10-ipad-apps-for-teaching-kids-about-science1.htm

http://www.apple.com/education/apps/ipodtouch-iphone.html (scroll down to the science section)

http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/wiki/ad829/

--------------

Math apps:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainpop-featured-movie/id364894352?mt=8

http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/p/maths-ipad-apps.html

http://www.apple.com/education/apps/ipodtouch-iphone.html (scroll down to the science section)

http://www.imore.com/2011/05/18/top-5-math-apps/

http://www.padgadget.com/2011/04/15/mcgraw-hill-education-offers-free-ipad-math-apps/

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/63422.aspx

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainpop-featured-movie/id364894352?mt=8

--------------

Please feel free to share additional apps that may be relevant, in the comments section below.

Blog Post: It's All About The Hashtag

Steven Anderson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:18:00 GMT

Last last year I wrote a 3 part series on Twitter. In it I talk about how I completely changed the way I do professional development on Twitter. In a nutshell, I no longer start with signing up and tweeting the first day. I always show how to use Twitter without ever signing up. I believe it's important to establish the value in using it rather than using it and attempting to find the value.

What a lot of people don't realize that Twitter is a very powerful search engine. Just like Google, if you know how to use the search effectively you can find pretty much anything. And one of those effective ways is leveraging the power of hashtags.

What is a hashtag you ask?

From The Twitter Fan Wiki: Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol.

Basically, its a tag in your post so that you or someone else can find it later or track it as it is happening. For example, lets say you are watching the Super Bowl. You want to hear what other folks are saying about the game. You can do a search (on search.twitter.com) for the hashtag #SuperBowl and see what others talking about. Many TV shows, events, companies, and more are creating hashtags to monitor conversations and just generally engage with other followers.

Right, but how does this help you find stuff for your classroom?

Well, there are loads of great educational hashtags that have been created that you can search out and see what folks are posting. Are you a Social Studies teacher or need history resources? Check out #sschat. Maybe English is your thing. So there is #engchat. Perhaps you are looking for just general education resources. Then you should do a search for #edchat.

There are so many more educational hashtags out there. Lucky for all of us we have CybraryMan. Jerry (his real name) has collected several pages of hashtags for all of us to enjoy.

You may notice that many of the EDU hashtags include the word "chat" in them. There are some great chats on Twitter around various issues in education. (I wrote about this a while back.) Jerry also has a great page of how to take part in the EDU Chats and the times of various chats as well.

Oh and I get asked a lot how to create a hashtag. Simple my friends, simple. You just create it! There isn't a special form or permission you need in order to make a hashtag you just make one. My advice is, however, do a search on Twitter for the hashtag you want to use, just to make sure other stuff isn't posted to it already. (That can save a lot of time and embarrassment later.) Once you have it in mind, start using it. This can be great for schools/districts or classrooms to create tags to allow other members of the community to see whats being said to follow along with events, games, etc.

The point of all this is that while you may be a connected educator or you use Twitter regularly, there may be some educators around you who just don't see the point. Or they say they don't want to use Twitter. Well, the hashtag provides a way for anyone, no matter who, to reap the rewards of the information that flows across the Twitterverse and have it delivered to you when ever you need it.

What are some of your favorite hashtags to follow? Leave some comments below.

Forum Post: Favorite Hashtags Or Ways To Find Promethean Resources

Steven Anderson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:13:00 GMT

How are some ways you find Promthean resources other than coming to Planet? Do you have a favorite hashtag you follow? Maybe a Twitter user that provides great content? Share that info here.

Forum Post: Welcome! Tell Us A Little About Yourself

Steven Anderson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:10:00 GMT

Thanks for stopping by and joining our group. Lets introduce ourselves and tell how others can connect to us through Twitter or other social networks.