Tech Happenings @ LvHS

U.S. history teachers, I’m sure you see LOTS of goodies but here is a good package. http://www.shmoop.com/civil-war/ In here you’ll find (orange menu along top) http://www.shmoop.com/civil-war/people.html http://www.shmoop.com/news/2011/04/11/facial-hair-civil-war/ http://www.shmoop.com/civil-war/photos.html Photo section may be particularly useful during discussions or to launch an assignment. If you haven’t seen SHMOOP, it’s a hip and engaging site developed and maintained by students from Ph.D. and Masters programs at Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley (and other top universities). The vast majority of the writers have taught at the high school or college levels. Shmoop has teacher resources too, I’ve heard some teachers like them and keep things fresh.

A few of you have asked me about organizing communication with classes in other cities/countries. I’m including all of you so that you all know how to find for a class to partner with… and hopefully a few of you will try adding a global connection to your curriculum this coming year. http://www.epals.com has many, many opportunities for you to connect with teachers looking for partner classes. Here is a sample of what I found by simply searching with keywords from the main page. Try searching on something that interests YOU and see what you find! This could be really interesting for your students and skype from classroom to classroom could occur if you wanted to add that element. Gathering opinion or input from other parts of the U.S. or the world could contribute to a research project, solution design, etc. Collaborating on a self-designed project would be fun, you can post a proposal and see who “bites.” You can “sign in” or “join” ePals with your louismail email address, but not re...

Our TEACHER group page, that you access via MY GROUPS on My Louisville, is a good “home base” for professional development. I’m working on that page for those of you who would like to enrich your teaching or planning without having to attend meetings or go to classes. It is very difficult to gather you during the summer, but I’m here until June 30 for any 1-on-1 planning or training you request. On that page you’ll find several things: · Professional Learning Networks: introduction, videos, articles · Collaboration and Creativity: links, message boards (discussions) · Freshmen/Sophomore teachers: links, message boards (discussions), articles, etc. · Interesting articles for teachers · Conferences and classes to attend · Cross-curricular planning and discussion · More to come! Open to suggestions! Please take a look and visit every month or so to maintain faculty dialogue and access interesting and new things! Here’s a sample of an article you’ll find on this grou...