Google Science Fair

On 11 January, 2011, Google is launching its inaugural Google Science Fair, partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group. The goal is to create a new STEM competition that is more open, accessible and global than ever before. Google is reaching out to educators prior to launch to extend an invitation to schools and teachers to get involved early in its global competition.

To sign up for fun and free resource kits for your classroom or school (with bookmarks, stickers, posters and more!) and a reminder notification when GSF registration opens, go to the Google Science Fair at: http://www.google.com/sciencefair

Finding K-12 Grants

Grant Wrangler is a free grants listing service. This site makes it easier for teachers, librarians, and parents to find funding, including grants and awards for arts, history, mathematics, science, technology, and more. From the Voice of Democrary Scholarship Program for social studies to grants for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to ones for your school library, you can find examples at Grant Wrangler. They even list grants for teachers.

Subscribe to their newsletter to find the most up-to-date listing of grants for K-12.

Understand grant programs available to you and how you can meet the requirements for each program.

Librarian roles

Library media specialists have a twofold teaching role:

• They are teachers of students, facilitating the development of information-literacy skills necessary for success in all content areas, and they are in-service trainers of teachers, keeping abreast of the latest information resources and technology.


• Library media specialists also must embrace technology to be effective. They must ensure that school networks extend the availability of information resources beyond the walls of the library media center, throughout the building, and, in the best cases, into students' homes

The school year has started. Let's begin training both our students and teachers to be better users of technology.

Multiple Intelligences and Web 2.0

Espoused by Howard Gardner, the eight (8) multiple intelligences can be enhanced in your classroom using Web 2.0 tools. For example, let's say that some of your students seem to learn best through "interpersonal" intelligence, that is learning best through interaction with others-- activities to promote collaboration, discussion and social engagement

Here are some ideas. Your students can write their own blogs, create their own social networks and wikis, share SMART Board files, and collaborate in real time using Google Docs. Video conferencing (like Skype) and video tools (Animoto) are also ideal for learners who like to act interact face-to-face.

One of your goals as a teacher is to encourage exploration and inquiry, promote global citizenship, and deepen knowledge and understanding. Web 2.0 tools provide the technology, and your classroom activities are only limited by your own imagination!

A new school year

School is getting close to starting if it hasn't already. School supplies, school clothes for the kids and for the teachers, it's time to think about this year's lessons, students and all the myriad of details that goes into a school day.

If you haven't already incorporated new technologies into your lessons, now is the time to start. Review my Website at http://sites.google.com/site/bevseducationalwebsite/ and take a look at my book Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom at the Neal-Schuman Website http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706531.

Check the blog and Website often for new ideas for using technology in science, social studies, language arts and with second language students.

Good luck in the new school year!

Google Drawing Tools

Have you wanted to add your drawings to a story you are writing? Google drawing editor makes it easy. A handy guide provides information to get you started. Use this tool in your writing classes to have students illustrate stories they write. You can Insert drawings into Google documents, spreadsheets, or presentations using the web clipboard, then edit them inline. You can also get drawing templates from the template gallery, especially when you want to express your ideas using diagrams.

Getting Started with Video

Despite that many Web sites require paid subscriptions, these sites may also have numerous free information to help teachers and librarians set up their own projects. To get started with a video classroom project, Atomic Learning contains a series of very short videos explaining how to set up basic camera shots and visual composition rules. In addition, a free Video Storytelling Guide reviews important concepts to think about when beginning the project like creating a storyboard. You can download the storyboard for free and learn how to add new shots to the storyboard and new links, to name some.

Learn about using video in your classroom so you can start a new project when the new 2010 school year begins!

American Library Association

The American Library Association conference is taking place in Washington, D.C. If you are there (6/23-30), stop by the Neal-Schuman booth 2401 or online at www.neal-schuman.com for a 20% discount! Use coupon code ALA10A. They have copies of my book "Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom."

Reviews of the book appear on the Neal-Schuman Web site. I'm thrilled that folks are using it and like it.

Training sessions on Web 2.0

CMLEA, California Media and Library Educational Association, has created a number of training tools to teach you more about Web 2.0 tools. Of course, my book Using Web 2.0 in the K-12 Classroom provides many suggestions and ideas for lessons. You can then go to one of the sites below and actually create your own blogs or wikis or use tools described in my book. The combination of the suggestions in the book on how to use these tools in the curriculum and the actual practice of using them is a "Win-Win" combination.

If you are a teacher or librarian--try one of these now!
Classroom Learning 2.0
School Library Learning 2.0

Classroom Learning 2.0

T.H.E. Journal most often focuses on teachers in their monthly articles. However, May is different. Take a look at the article entitled Classroom Learning 2.0 to see how librarians or TLs (Teaching Librarians) are handling the responsibilities of teaching about Web 2.0. The author interviewed a number of teachers and librarians, including me(!) to get our take on what was currently happening in the library and how the library and classroom related and promoted Web 2.0 tools together.

Read this article to learn more.

Math Video Lessons

Do you teach math? Need new methods for getting concepts across to your students? Then check out the resource site--TeacherZone--containing thousands of math video lessons for grade 3-10. Most videos are 3-5 minutes long and can be used in your classes, embedded as homework help, and shared with parents and students.

A list of concepts covered from addition to geometry to measurement and much more displays on the Home page. You can view three sample videos to see what you think before signing up on the site. Try them out and let me know what you think!

Using Wordle in Classroom Lessons

April 12-18 is National Library Week. Show your appreciation to your library media specialist by creating a Wordle word cloud. Review the post I created earlier where I mentioned Wordle as a neat tool for the classroom. Here are some ideas for using Wordle in lesson activities from Jonathan Wylie.

Create a Wordle Gift: Input your favorite adjectives for your librarian, generate the word cloud, and add it to a greeting card, poster, calendar, or whatever else you choose. This can be a class gift with each student adding one or more words to a poster.

Other ideas for using Wordle include: historical document analysis, student profiles, compare and contrast activities, unit review and preview posters and more. Try some of these ideas in your lessons to give visualization to some of the concepts you are teaching.

Enter the Video Science Challenge

An interesting and motivating way to challenge students at the 5th to 8th grade level to become more involved in science is the 2010 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, sponsored by Discovery Education and 3M Corporation. The video only has to be one to two minutes on a topic emphasizing “safety and security.” Each entry must be individual and explain the science behind the danger and the science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics behind a possible solution.

Some sample topics include food safety, spread of germs, protection from the sun to name a few. Sample videos and lesson plans are also available on the site. Visit the 2010 Video Topics to learn all about the requirements, entry regulations and date of submission. If you have students interested in science here’s a way to stimulate that interest. More on this topic and how to create videos on my Web site.

New Additions to Web Site

New additional have been added to my Web site Bev's Educational Website that accompanies my book Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom.

--Enter the Video Science Challenge contains information about an individual science project for middle school students as well as Web sites that offer free resources to get started using video in the classroom. The project is similar to Science Fair projects with video as the main tool.

--New wiki projects for the social studies.

Improve your English: An ESL tip

If your native language is not English, the easiest way to improve your speaking and listening skills is to practice every day. Perhaps you don’t have a partner to speak to every day. At Elllo you can listen to videos recorded by speakers from all over the world on topics of interest, for example, what is my favorite pizza or is your country multicultural? In addition, a written transcript can help you improve your reading skills and learn vocabulary you may not know. A quiz tests your knowledge of grammar requiring you to put in the correct form of a word. Other videos emphasize vocabulary—do you know what the “crust” of a pizza is?

You can find more tips and suggested projects to use with ESL students in my books Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom (Chapter 7) and Internet Workshops: 10 Ready-to-do Workshops for K-12 Educators (Workshop 8).

New posts each week

Watch for new posts each week highlighting new curriculum ideas using technology, new technologies, lesson ideas and more. To participate send me your comments, ways you are using technology with your students, successes and innovate ideas.

Share with your colleagues!

Using Wikis – New Projects

Essential questions activities usually lend themselves well to multidisciplinary investigations, requiring that students apply the skills and perspectives of math and language arts while wrestling with content from social studies or science. Two new projects emphasize the use of Wikis, collaboration, and inter-disciplinary learning.

Take advantage of some exciting new Wiki projects put together by Vicki Davis at Westwood Schools. Ms. Davis, teacher and author of the Cool Cat Teacher blog , has a wiki-centric classroom as shown in a previous example on the Flat Classroom in Chapter 4, page 65 of my book Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom.

Click Current Events to review two new projects, ideal for social studies, history, mathematics and English/language arts: 1) Arab-Israeli Conflict Simulation: Political Reality in the Classroom, a joint project with the University of Michigan and 2) Stock Market Simulation.

All the material is available so you, too, can create your own Wiki project. Send me your comments! I'd love to hear from you.

• Website: http://aic.conflix.org/ - A joint project with the University of Michigan. Six teams will participate on the project this year.
• Stock Market Game: http://www.vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx

Security for Google Apps for Educators

Security is included free for K-12 schools and districts who add the service Google Apps by July 2010. Security allows administrators to easily set-up and manage group email policies and create robust content filters. http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=159594

My book "Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom" has a chapter on using Google Tools in the classroom--this is a new feature you will want to check out. After all, security is an important factor when using the Internet with K-12 students.