Think and Dream in English: 01/05/09

New Teachers - Why You Need a Long Term Plan For Teaching

New Teachers - Why You Need a Long Term Plan For Teaching:

"New teachers have a serious decision to make after the first year of teaching - should they stay or quit their teaching jobs? Of course nobody can answer that except for yourself. While you might never know if you made the right decision to leave after your first year, a second year of teaching in fact, gives you the bigger picture that you can't get from your first year of teaching."

Classroom Management Exercises For New Teachers

Classroom Management Exercises For New Teachers:

"Concern about the ability to develop an effective classroom management plan is a major concern for both pre-service and practicing teachers. Developing your own program actually begins with yourself. Actually, you are your own best resource resource in addition to other teacher training resources. All teachers have different personality types that can interfere or help with classroom management skills and it is important early on, to identify what will help and interfere with your own classroom management program.

Jot down your concerns about managing a classroom. This will free up some of the tension that may have been stressing you out.

What kinds of personality characteristics, beliefs and values will help you become a good classroom manager? Are you a good listener? Do you believe in nurturing the individual in the classroom and getting to know the students? Do you keep good organizational skills and records? Are you the conscientious type who tends to follow through with consequences and rules?"

Google Wave

A New Teacher Tip to Help You Become the Teacher of Your Dreams

A New Teacher Tip to Help You Become the Teacher of Your Dreams:

"Why are so many teachers unable to really enjoy the profession of teaching?

My take is that they often get too absorbed with testing and classroom management issues.

I understand how difficult it is to manage a classroom. I also understand how important it is to know that YOU are in control as a new teacher.

But when I ask teachers, 'what's the one thing that is still challenging you, they almost always say: 'discipline problems.'

Gee. Now I understand why teachers are constantly stressed and unhappy because they feel they are fighting a war.

I don't know about you but I like to teach and build a connection with the students. And when you build on effective instruction, you minimize discipline problems so much so that you can eliminate them forever.

So here's my tip for enjoying the teacher's life."

New Teacher Tips For How to Write a Lesson Plan That Engages Your Students

New Teacher Tips For How to Write a Lesson Plan That Engages Your Students:

"A good lesson typically has three main parts.

The Pre or the Beginning of the Lesson.

The teacher should aim to teach something new or tie in new information with previously taught material, which can be anything from a quote, to a question or a discussion. The purpose is to set the stage for the main part of the lesson. Typically, anywhere between five to ten minutes is enough.

The Main Part of the lesson is the task or goal you expect the students to achieve. It can be a new skill or a review of a previously taught skill. This is where students spend most of the time processing and digesting the material.

The Post or Ending of the Lesson. This should be the last ten minutes of the lesson, also known as a wrap up or a review."

Ms. Waters Goes to Washington: Food Politics : gourmet.com

Ms. Waters Goes to Washington: Food Politics : gourmet.com:

"We all know her philosophy: Food should be local, seasonal, and organic; in homes and in schools, people should come together at the table; the act of eating is an everyday expression of our most deeply held values. But for the past decade, the legendary Chez Panisse founder has been promoting her agenda in ways that go well beyond her celebrated restaurant and educational initiatives. Inserting herself into the political process—fund-raising for Barack Obama; introducing Michelle Obama at campaign rallies; petitioning for a White House garden and a new chef—here is the story of the political education of Alice Waters."

Five Easy Ways to Avoid Discipline Problems

Five Easy Ways to Avoid Discipline Problems:

"Lack of student cooperation can mean many things - sometimes it's a classroom management issue and sometimes they are tired from running ten track laps. It's hard for a new teacher to constantly read the cues. But there are a few general areas that can help you prevent issues before they interfere with the classroom and the learning environment."

New Teachers Need Ongoing Procedures For Helping Students to Learn More Effectively

New Teachers Need Ongoing Procedures For Helping Students to Learn More Effectively:

"New teachers need to hustle when they are creating a routine to suit the needs and abilities of their students. Aside from the initial pre-assessment and other get to know you activities,teachers need to use their inner and outer resources focus on some teacher training resources and tips that quickly need to be used when maintaining a routine."

Based Learning - About

Apple - Challenge Based Learning - About:

"Traditional teaching and learning strategies are becoming increasingly ineffective with a generation of secondary students that have instant access to information, are accustomed to managing their own acquisition of knowledge, and embrace the roles of content producer and publisher.

Today’s high school curriculum presents students with assignments that lack a real-world context and activities that lead to uninspired projects and end in a letter grade. Many students either learn to do just enough to get by or they lose interest and drop out. In this interconnected world, with ubiquitous access to powerful technology and access to a worldwide community, new models of teaching and learning are possible.

Students embrace media that presents participants with a challenge and requires them to draw on prior learning, acquire new knowledge, and tap their creativity to fashion solutions. The entertainment networks have capitalized on this formula with shows like The Amazing Race, Top Chef, Trading Spaces, and Project Runway in which participants creatively draw on their knowledge and resources to create appropriate solutions to challenges. To address the need to create new ways of engaging students to achieve, Apple worked with educators across the country to develop the concept of Challenge Based Learning."

A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter « Once a Teacher….

A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter « Once a Teacher….:

"Twitter is apart of my life almost every day because:
- It’s a great source of news.
- There are rich conversations among educators and edtech people.
- People post entertaining, interesting, and very useful links.
- I enjoy the easy interaction with others from around the world.

Most people start off in a rocky relationship with Twitter. It doesn’t seem to be as easy or as useful as everyone has said, it takes awhile before you find your niche, and there is an overwhelming amount of information to deal with. But, just hang on – it’ll be worth it!!! This is a guide to help teachers, or anyone for that matter, have a smoother and more enjoyable experience. It is, by no means, the most comprehensive list of tips but hopefully it’ll be helpful."

Link to a specific part of a YouTube video

Link to a specific part of a YouTube video:

"If you want to link to a specific part of a video on YouTube, you can. For example,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjDw3azfZWI#t=31m08s

Notice the “#t=31m08s” on the end of the url? That link will take you 31 minutes and 8 seconds into that video. Linking to a particular minute and second can be really helpful — for example, that link takes you straight to where someone asks Eric Schmidt a question about Twitter. From there, you can listen to his answer, where he says (among other things):

“We’re in favor of all of these new communications mechanisms. …. I think the innovation is great …. Twitter’s success is wonderful, and I think it shows you that there are many, many new ways to communicate, especially if you’re willing to do so publicly.”

Deep-linking to a specific part of a YouTube video is really easy, so I wanted give a short example to tell how to link to a certain minute and second of a video."

Mermaid Diaries: Natalia Zelmanov's Second Life Adventures: * Getting Started in Second Life Guide *

Great guide for newbies:

Mermaid Diaries: Natalia Zelmanov's Second Life Adventures: * Getting Started in Second Life Guide *:

"This Guide assumes you are a new Second Life resident, fresh from Orientation Island. The goal is to give you the essential information and skills you need to explore the rest of SL on your own."

teaching and learning with technology

teaching and learning with technology:

"Education fit for the 21st C
• Rising standards
• Engaged students
• Enthusiastic teachers
• Wider skills, key competencies, essential ‘learnings’ for life"

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary and thesaurus

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary and thesaurus:

"Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

* It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus!
* Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
* The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
* No membership required."

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better | The Best Article Every day

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better | The Best Article Every day:

"If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven’t been keeping up with the latest technology The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them. From downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications, learning on the go has never been easier. To find out about the many different ways you can transform your iPod into a learning device, check out our list below.

Study Guides"

"Teachers have one of the most stressful jobs, despite their long vacations. Besides being responsible for large groups of hormonal or destructive students all day, teachers also have to abide by strict government and school district guidelines, attend after-hours workshops and meetings, call parents, submit lesson plans early on, worry about school security and put up with loads of homework thanks to grading, grant writing and certification renewal classes. To help teachers cope with all of this stress, we’ve compiled a list of over 100 different ways you can relax and get centered, whether you’re in the middle of a lecture or already home and trying to forget about your hectic day."

YouTube EDU

YouTube EDU:

"YouTube launched a new site for videos and channels from two and four year colleges and universities. The new site, YouTube EDU, is publicly visible, although participation is currenly limited to invited institutions.

This is a great chance to explore different colleges before applying, but it's an even better chance to just learn something from free lectures and guest speakers. YouTube says there are over 200 free, full courses available right now. Why not plan lunch hour learning?"

SLanguages 2009

The Conference for Language Education in Virtual Worlds:

SLanguages 2009 Conference - 8&9 May 2009

View more presentations from slanguages.

Online classes just got funkier - Local - Kentucky.com

Online classes just got funkier - Local - Kentucky.com:

"The professor extends his arms, lifts off the ground and flies across campus before gently landing his sandaled feet in the center of the classroom to start his lesson.

A half-dozen of his students in this section of Psychology 110 already are seated. With bright flashes, two more teleport in just as the professor, John Story of Bluegrass Community and Technical College, starts his lecture about Sigmund Freud.

If this sounds like a school of the future, well, it might just be, Story said."