Focus for next year....

Blogger...

This could be used for all types of writing, collaboration and research projects.


For example, modify the rotation schedule to allow 5 minutes for blogging about what's been learned.

Use the blog to create on-line class community... introduce yourself, share likes and dislikes, book discussion groups.

look into the on-line educator community to find best practices and ideas.

Grants...

my classroom needs resources!

audio listening station
individual cd players
increasing the library and quiz library
projection and screen

Family history assignment

Video on Italian-American Immigration

On my father's side, I am a second generation Californian. He was born in L.A. in 1914, the first of 7 children. His parents had come from Italy via Ellis Island and the Colorado coal mines of John D. Rockefeller (or so the story is told). My grandmother, then Maria G. , arrived in 1909. I have never been told the story firsthand but this is what I have pieced together from the family lore so there are significant gaps in the story.

The family took up residence in a two story Victorian era house a few miles from downtown Los Angeles in a placed they referred to as Happy Valley. As the story goes, dad was born in the room above the living room. Dad took me to the old neighborhood when I was an adult. It was an off the beaten path little valley in a hilly section overlooking downtown L.A. The alleys were still unpaved and the streets without curbs. The family had a garden plot next door and dad loved to regale us with tales of wine making during prohibition.

Dad and Mom bought their first house on 101st street in south central L.A. At the time, the great post-war northern migration of African-Americans had not yet occurred and so it was a white working class enclave. By 1950, the demographics of the area had changed dramatically and my parents chose to relocate to another all-white enclave. This time it was suburban, middle class Glendale. They bought the home for $13,000 which very nearly broke the family budget for many years to follow. I was born in Glendale in 1956 at Glendale Sanitarium (now a huge medical complex called Glendale Adventist Hospital).

We lived in a neighborhood just down the hill from Brand Park which had been willed to the city by Leslie C. Brand, an early developer. He turned his orange groves into the suburban dream. His home and grave site are still in the park.

Google IT Session Notes from 6/19

Writing assignment including video production.

One way of differentiating... recognize those who know and give them explicit permission to go ahead and ignore instruction while those who need to learn should listen.

Cool idea about editing/revising. Have an editing day. Have each student read another's essay for a particular aspect: grammar, spelling, style, etc. Create a cover sheet which has a rubric section for each aspect. Each reviewer completes and signs off the aspect they reviewed.

Embedding Media

apophenia www.zephonia.org

Session Notes Google IT Day 2

Examples:

• Put a blog post up and that's your homework assignment. Students can respond in the blog. It gets time and date stamped.
• Calculus class blog. All students are contributors to the blog. A different student is assigned as class scribe for each day of the month. Scribe posts class notes, diagrams, etc. for the whole class.
• Peer review within google docs. if you have collaborator access then you can see the number of times it's been accessed (was it really revised...)
• Professional portfolio
• Students can have interactive electronic journals. Teacher subscribes so she is notified as soon a student updates his/her journal.

My ideas:

• Could I put the wrl up on the blog? What about access issues? Students who do not have internet access at home?
• What about book discussion groups?

Google Reader:

• tool to keep track of RSS feeds
  
• del.icio.us - web based storehouse for bookmarks and other things