Notes from HS Faculty Meeting 10 - 23

Below, please find a copy of the presentation from today's HS faculty meeting.  In the presentation are:

•  links to teacher created Voicethreads
•  instructions on how to log into Voicethread (for students and teachers)
•  information on how to create groups in Voicethread
•  Links to resources referenced, including PollEverywhere, Problem Attic and Wallwisher

Follow up notes from Blake Faculty Meeting

Thanks for letting us drop some 'tech knowledge' on you at the Faculty meeting this morning.  Please see important follow up information below:

Today's Presentation

Here is the presentation from this morning.  There are active hyperlinks on slide 6 (links to teacher and student created tech presentations that we viewed) and on slide 8 (webtools used by your colleagues in their classes).  All this info is now just 1 click away!

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Other Websites featured at today's meeting

Socrative - Excellent tool to quickly assess students in the class

Tagxedo - Like Wordle, but with many more options to create images for your word clouds

Problem-Attic - Excellent test question bank (Math, English, Science, Social Studies) for making worksheets for your students.  See blog post below for more details.

 

Google Image Search

Sorry we didn't have a chance to show you the Google Image trick, but please try it on your own.  Send me an email if you can figure out the answer to the questions below:

• Who is this?

• When was this person born?
• How old was he when he died?
  
  
  If you need help, here is what to do:
  

  1. Open up a new tab and go to http://images.google.com/
  2. Come back here and drag the image (or copy/paste) into the Google Image site

Must Use Website - Free Test Question Bank

Wouldn't it be great if you could search through an existing bank of multiple choice and open response questions to create your own personalized worksheets?  Well, now you can through this amazing website I just discovered.  It's called Problem-Attic and of course its free.

Problem-Attic gives you access to 30 years of Regents Exams for Math, Science, Social Studies and English.  Within those subjects you can drill down into specific topics (i.e. Jim Crow laws, Electron dot diagram, Square roots and Imaginary numbers).  Simply add any questions you want into your document, order them how you want and the formatting and numbering will all magically happen.  It's really that easy.  All you need to do is create a username and password to get started.

Applications for teaching:

• Create customized worksheets for students to use as an introduction to a lesson or for an exit ticket
• If a student needs more practice with a specific topic, you can create a customized worksheet just for them.
• Use this in conjunction with PollEverywhere or Socrative as a method to dipstick how the students are doing during class
• Use for additional SAT prep questions for students

The Rise of the Tech-Powered Teacher

Sal Khan from Khan Academy wrote an excellent article in Education Week about the importance of technology in education and the role teachers play in its implementation.  My favorite quote from the article:

"Technology will never replace teachers; in fact, it will make teachers even more important. Technology will give teachers valuable real-time data to diagnose students' weak points and design appropriate interventions. It will enable teachers to more quickly gauge students' comprehension of new topics so they can adjust their lesson plans on the spot. Virtual tools may have the potential to provide educational materials to children who have access to nothing else—say, in a remote village in India—but they will never be a substitute for rich experiences with fellow students and amazing teachers."

Please check out this article when you get a few minutes and feel free to post any comments about it by clicking on the pencil icon below. (Note, you may be asked to create a Guest account on the Education Week site; you simply need to enter your email and a password)