Baked Bread

Recently during one of my many Internet searches to improve various aspects of instruction, I ran across a fellow teacher using the same vocabulary development programs as myself. His name is Mr. Lettiere and he is a high school teacher in Illinois.

Brett Lettiere and his students have invested countless hours preparing interactive vocabulary lessons using Hot Potatoes and PowerPoint. The collection is quite substantial, as it encompasses hundreds of words and Latin/Greek stems. The primary software he uses is from Half Baked and has been the buzz around the social networks.

Hot Potatoes is a freeware suite that includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence,crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web.

In short, Lettiere has provided Argo high school with an invaluable technological tool to enhance and reinforce their education. Kudos to him and his students!

Thousands of educators across the country are discovering innovative ways to teach our children through the use of technology. What are you doing in your classroom? In our networked world, the possibilities are endless!

Have you committed "Readicide"?

Do you have difficulty getting students to read? Do you feel your teaching the book instead of the students? If so, you might be an accomplice to "Readicide".

Join Kelly Gallagher on a Blog Tour of his new book with the renowned educator Bill Ferriter. You can download a free sneak peak of the ground breaking text to be released in February and participate in a Voice Thread discussion with the author Jan. 18th -22nd.

What a cool 21st century way to promote a book! Join in and share your thoughts and revelations.

Students Need a Say

Blogging equates influence is the topic of Bill Ferriter's post on why teachers should blog. As a springboard from Do I really need to Blog? at Wizards Teaching Blog, Bill hits a homeroom with his statement that...

"Decisions made without us are unintentionally underinformed!"

Daily I am frustrated at the fact that policy and practices are put into place without any input from the soldiers on the front line. Just yesterday I asked, "Do they not see the hand in front of their faces? Why can't administrators see what is so obvious to teachers?"

Blogging does provide a platform for our voices and a medium for change, but we are not the only ones who need to be heard. The same catalyst should be available for students. How often do we as educators make decisions about their future without feedback from them? Would students not benefit from the same opportunity?

Providing our students with the training and access needed to blog is a powerful tool in the Quality Schools initiative inspired by Williams Glasper. The concept of allowing students an opportunity to provide teachers with feedback and to assess instruction is a hard pill to swallow, but a necessary one. Movements such as Students 2.0, with writers similar to Morgante Pell, is a start on the right track. (Great to have you back Arthus!)
As stated by Kurtsn, with blogging,

"Your ideas are challenged, and refined. Possibly changed."

So... here is your chance students to challenge my thinking. Share your thoughts, your concerns, your aspirations, but be gentle, you know teachers are born with a big ego!

This is a cross blog with my student site at Carveraig.

Why Blog?

A year ago my idea of blogging entailed individuals mostly posting rants and rages about issues in the world or worse... mellow dramatic reflections of a boring, unfulfilled life. I could not image taking time out of my busy day of rearing six children and attempting to educate a group of active middle school students to read blogs, much less post one. My attitude toward blogging was the result of simple ignorance. How often do we make judgments about things that we know not of?

Today I know that blogging equates learning through connections. In this networked world, you can learn and run along side others who are searching for the same knowledge. Collaboration and sharing is the nucleus for growth, not the competitive world that we have created as we try to "up" the other. Our current economic crisis is surely a testament to the fact. Scott Leslie, author of edtechposts puts it into perspective....

"Now I contrast that with the learning networks which I inhabit, and in which every single day I share my learning and have knowledge and learning shared back with me. I know it works. I literally don't think I could do my job any longer without it- the pace of change is too rapid, the number of developments I need to follow and master too great, and without my network I would drown. But I am not drowning, indeed I feel regularly that I am enjoying surfing these waves and glance over to see other surfers right there beside me, silly grins on all of our faces. So it feels to me like it's working, like we ARE sharing, and thriving because of it."

Today I expand my knowlege at every new dawn. Today my life has value above three loads of laundry a day and getting middle school students to walk in a straight line. Today I learn. Today I blog.

This is a cross blog with my student site at Carveraig

BoxofTricks: Nominated for best teacher blog!

Great News! BoxofTricks has been nominated Best Teacher Blog! Cast your vote now at Edublog for the top resource for Technology in Education on the Web!

You cannot imagine how chuffed I am to have been nominated for this year’s Edublog Awards in the category of Best Teacher Blog. My most sincere thanks go out to Nik Peachey, who has nominated me via his technology news blog Quick Shout.

Congrats! You provide an incredible service to teachers!