April 2012
Lake Orion Community Schools
LOCS Technology and Media Newsletter March is Reading Month Fun There were many wonderful things happening throughout Lake Orion Community Schools in March to celebrate March is Reading Month. Activities were designed by media specialists, teachers, staff, and parents to find ways to get students excited about reading! Schools hosted all kinds of contests and events. Some highlights include: At Stadium Drive students were involved in the technology iRead theme “Plug into Reading.” By participating in certain events, students earned the opportunity to hang out in the newly constructed Internet Café. Carpenter centered their activities on the theme “Be a Super Reader!” Students and Staff had a great time dressing up as their favorite superhero or real-life hero as one of their events. Several schools conducted get “caught reading” contests, continued on page 3
Technology PD 4 Teachers by Teachers Our own Lake Orion Teaching staff have great ideas for utilizing technology in the classroom! Recently both Waldon and Oakview Middle schools have provided opportunities for teachers to share with one another the technology they are using in their classrooms by leveraging staff meeting times to focus on technology PD. They covered topics such as how to use Glogster, Prezi, Polling w/out clickers, Google Earth, and Screencast-O-Matic just to name a few. Check out the video that Oakview teachers created for their staff to view in preparation for their technology focused staff meeting: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?feature=player_embedded&v=inWME7A1qNk Want to get into the Technology PD 4 Teachers by Teachers bandwagon? Become an LO Techno Dragon! Are you willing and interested to share your instructional technology skills and knowledge by training your fellow teachers throughout the district? Click this link to provide information about those topics you would be willing to train others on for consideration. Staff selected to be part of the LO Techno Dragons cadre will have the opportunity to receive benefits such as being first receivers of new technology, piloting new technology, access to attending technology pd outside of the district, and other resources.
The Teacher’s Guide to Polling In the Classroom
Superintendent, Mrs. Ginopolis, reads to Orion Oaks Lower El students.
Thanks to the massive influx of technology into education, there are dozens of new ways students can virtually voice their opinion. From hardware (clickers) to software (Survey Monkey), there’s no shortage of free and cheap ways to get more students talking, thinking, and participating. A robust new guide has just been published by Mohamed Amin on Scribd and it’s chock full of information all about surveys and polling in the classroom.
iOS Fun
(iPads, iPhones, iTouches) Painting with Time
Featured iPad App – Popplet Lite (also a free
web version)
Go Beyond Traditional Linear Presentations — Popplet is a one-stop shop featuring a combination of mind-mapping, online bulletin board and presentation tools. Double-click anywhere on your Popplet board to add a content bubble (called a popple). A popple can hold all sorts of media, including text, images, videos and even Google maps. Create mind maps by dragging connections between popples and arranging content on the board. Finally, use Popplet as a unique presentation tool. Choose the order of the content using the presentation menu; then the app will zoom in on each popple while you are presenting. Click here to access online version
Your students can explore how the world is changing by controlling the flow of time with their fingers in Painting with Time, a free iPad app from Red Hill Studios. Painting with Time provides a range of time brushes and special time slicers that let students manipulate photographic sequences in strange and new ways. They can make leaves appear on trees and then paint on the colors of fall. They can reveal the colors of San Francisco over a day or mix and merge different time views of a beach to create intriguing time composites. Brought to you by the creators of the Exploring Time documentary series (www.exploringtime.org), and the Playing with Time traveling museum exhibition, this app is the first in a series of time-painting apps that lets students explore how the world around them changes over time. Click Here to Visit Website Click Here to Access Free App
Determine the Educational Value of Apps With so many apps available, how do you determine which ones are good? This site presents free, downloadable suggestions for evaluating educational apps. You’ll find a rubric that emphasizes the extent to which the content or settings can be customized and the degree to which the app encourages the use of higher-order thinking skills. You’ll also find a checklist that addresses both instructional and technical aspects of an app, as well as a yes/no checklist that serves as a critical evaluation of an iPad/iPod app and has a place to write a summary of the app, and a yes/no mobile app review checklist that addresses curriculum compliance, operational and pedagogy categories. Click Here to Access Free Rubric and Free Checklists
15 Favorite iPad Apps As Selected By Teachers from Emerging Ed Tech
39 Sites for Using iPads in the Classroom Visit “A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet” created by Julie Galler to see the incredible list of iPad App websites she has compiled. http:// mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/ 2011/10/38-sites-on-usingipads-inclassroom.html#.T3sdwmFmLcz
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Out of 125 responses from teachers indicating their top 3 apps, these are the apps that were listed most often. Over the last few weeks, we ran a survey asking teachers to tell us about two or three of their favorite iPad apps that they use in an education-related context. Today we share the apps that were listed most often, and include some feedback from teachers regarding why they like them so much. As it turns out, free apps really outweighed paid apps in our survey responses. Here I list eleven free apps that rose to the top of the list when ranked by numbers of votes, followed by four paid apps that performed as well as the lower ranking free apps. Evernote and Dropbox easily rose to the no. 1 & 2 spots in the ranked list, with about 1 out of 3 respondents recommending at least one of these two popular applications. http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/03/15-favorite-ipad-appsas-selected-by-teachers Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • March 2012
iOS Fun
(iPads, iPhones, iTouches)
Storylines StoryLines for Schools, a free app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, is a game of “telephone” with pictures. The game sparks students’ creativity as they learn new, grade-appropriate vocabulary and language concepts. Here’s how it works: Player 1 makes a sentence (using suggested vocabulary words or not). The device is passed to player 2, who reads the sentence and draws a picture of what he or she imagines. The device then goes to player 3, who can only see the picture drawn by player 2; he or she then writes a sentence looking at that image. Player 1 then draws the picture for that sentence, and it goes on and on (depending on how many turns are set) until everyone gets a big laugh at the end. Click Here to Access Free App
The 40 Best iPad Apps for Young Learners from Classroom Talk
The best way to get your parents to buy you expensive gadgets has always been to really sell the educational value. “But Mom, if you buy me a Nintendo, think about how much my spelling will improve playing Wheel of Fortune.” Of course, these days it’s all about the iPad. For every Angry Birds there’s an educational game out there to improve your child’s mind. Here are 40 of the best apps for your young Einstein. http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2012/01/16/the-40-best-ipad-appsfor-young-learners/
March is Reading Month at Waldon MS
March is Reading Month Fun continued
where students who were “caught reading” earned tickets for the opportunity to win all sorts of prizes including tickets to AMC theaters! Webber Elementary sponsored a “Read an Ocean Full of Books” theme, with lots of activities involving ocean maps, sea creatures, and 3-D art. Orion Oaks got their principal Mr. Nuss in the reading month spirit! Students there reached their reading goal, so Mr. Nuss agreed to dye his hair green! Schools also hosted many guest readers throughout the month who visited classrooms to share their favorite books; guest readers included our superintendent, school board members, central office staff, district staff, and community members. Schools throughout the district saw an increase in the number of students visiting the media centers and checking out books. Many more students were seen choosing to spend their lunch period reading books in the media centers!! Thank you to everyone who helped to make March is Reading Month a celebration of reading!
Paul Zelenak, Manager of the Village of Lake Orion read to Stadium Drive’s third graders on March 5. Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • March 2012
Students at Orion Oaks met their first reading goal so Mr. Nuss dyed his hair green. 3
Featured Websites Teach Students About Cybersafety Developed as part of the Australian government’s cybersecurity initiative, Budd:e is a free website aimed at creating a safer, more secure online environment for all children. It takes students throughout the process of identifying risky sites, viruses and malware, and most of all teaches them about what information is deemed public and what should remain private. It also covers cyberbullying in great detail and helps students differentiate between reputable sources of information and content that is unreliable. The Budd:e Cyber security Education package consists of two activitybased learning modules, one for elementary school students, and one for secondary school students. Both modules contain engaging, media-rich activities and resources, developed in consultation with teachers and subject matter experts. Comprehensive Teacher Resources include background and contextual information, a video demonstration of the modules and lesson plans with learning outcomes for each activity.
Click Here to Visit Website Click Here to Access Free Teacher Resources
Support Online Safety Own Your Space is a free, 16chapter ebook designed to educate ‘tweens and teens about protecting themselves and their stuff online. Each chapter of the ebook goes into great detail explaining the technical threats that students’ computers face online as well as the personal threats to data that students can face online. Download the entire book or individual chapters from the Microsoft website.
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See Mathematics in Action The Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) will open in New York City later this year. The museum’s exhibits and programs will aim to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity and reveal the wonders of mathematics. As part of its commitment to provide engaging, interactive mathematical experiences, MoMath has created a number of paper-based geometric activities that can be downloaded freely from the museum’s website. Students can create a tetrahedral chain that flexes in surprising ways. They can dive through four different MoMath logos. And they can fold their way to four matching patterns. Click Here to Visit Website Plus: MoMath has partnered with Make Magazine to produce Math Mondays, a weekly column on Make: Online, featuring fun, experiential, puzzling items that explore different aspects of mathematics. Click Here to Access Free Math Activities
Help Students Make Informed Career Decisions On the Career Thoughts website, students will find career profiles that outline what a person in a particular career field actually does, the education requirements for that field, salary ranges and employment prospects. Students who are ready to start applying for jobs will find plenty of résumé-writing, jobhunting and interviewing tips on Career Thoughts too. Click Here to Visit Website
Tap into Children’s Sense of Curiosity Wonderopolis is a place where wonder and learning are nurtured through the power of discovery, creativity and imagination. You don’t have to travel far; Wonderopolis is a special place found in a curious question or an everyday adventure. Just let wonderment be the guide. Every day in this special place, children learn about a curious “wonder.” Each new “wonder” includes a video and article, along with a Try it out! activity and a Wonder words to know and use section that highlights vocabulary words children should try to use throughout the day. Students can also rate the Wonder of the Day and post and share responses and options about the article and “wonder.” Click Here to Visit Website
Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • March 2012
Resources for Newsletter In addition to websites referenced throughout the newsletter, information was also curated and quoted from the following resources: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Emerging Ed Tech – www.emergingedtech.com iTunes App Store – http://itunes.apple.com Simple K12 – www.simplek12.com The Big Deal Book of Technology Newsletter – www.bigdealbook.com/newsletter