Clif's Notes

A Teacher’s Influence (Quote from Haim Ginott)

I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.

–Haim Ginott

• Free Concept/Semantic Mapping Software
• Suggested Reading for 12/17/2008
• Free Inspiration Webcast
• NECC This Afternoon

Requesting Your Assistance: Making the Curriculum POP!

One of the professional development workshops I’m facilitating this week is titled Making the Curriculum Pop. We’ll be focusing on the use of digital media and alternative text selections to engage students’ interest in “pop” culture. I would appreciate any ideas for connecting music, TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. with the curriculum, as well as links to images, audio, video, resources, etc. that you can share. I’ll certainly credit you for your suggestions, too.

• Connecting the Classroom and Outside World (Feedback Requested)
• Connecting the Classroom and Outside World
• Developing Better Presentations
• Kids Get Creative with AudioBoo

The International Student Media Festival

The International Student Media Festival celebrates outstanding classroom media projects. Students and teachers from kindergarten through college are honored in a three-day event that includes workshops, screenings of winning entries, and an awards ceremony. It has now grown to be one of the oldest and largest events of its kind. ISMF has been sponsored since 1974 by the Association for Educational Communications & Technology (AECT).

There is also an awards ceremony during the festival where students are recognized for their achievements. Outstanding projects will receive an Excellence in Media Production award. From these, we cull out Judges’ Favorites and the highly-acclaimed Best of Festival designation. (Content and Image Source: ISMF.net)

Learn more about the ISMF and submit your entries.

• Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (TAISTI)
• Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (NCTIES)
• More Favorite Children’s Books
• Elementary Teachers, I Need Your Advice

Suggested Reading for 04/27/2010

A Radical Notion by Chris Lehmann

The Allure of “Magic Bullets” in School Reform by Larry Cuban

60 Educational Game Sites That You’ve Probably Never Seen by Keith Ferrell

A Brief History of Photo Fakery from The New York Times

How the iPhone Could Reboot Education from Wired
NOTE: Diigo users can engage in the conversation occurring “on top” of this article.

• Suggested Reading for 06/05/2008
• Suggested Reading for 03/09/2010
• Suggested Reading for 12/17/2008
• Suggested Reading for 03/04/2009

End of Ed. Tech. Course Student Reflection

This is a really promising start for this future teacher. Kudos to AllyBii and her teacher(s).

• Teaching, Learning, Technology and the Future
• REPOST: Beyond Access Inclusion Conference
• If You Give a Teacher a Mouse
• Pay Attention

Today Is World Math Day

Today is World Math Day. Unite with students and schools from around the world to set a new world record! This year’s challenge – to correctly answer more than 182,445,169 questions in 48 hours. Please participate and be part of the new world record.

• Today Is World Math Day
• World Math Day 2009
• What Is Effective Technology Integration?
• Did You Change the World Today?

Integrating Computer Games

Creating game-based learning environments or experiences using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games is becoming an increasingly tenable, valuable, and popular instructional method. COTS games are computer or video games created for entertainment purposes. A few popular examples are SimCity, Age of Empires, ZooTycoon, and Railroad Tycoon.

My good friend Dennis Charsky invited me to co-author Integrating Commercial off-the-Shelf Video Games into School Curriculum. Ten suggestions to help educators effectively integrate COTS games are shared in this research article. Below is an overview along with a few notes from this publication.

• Games and Simulations in Education: A Resource List for Newbies
• Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0
• Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0
• Requesting Your Assistance: Making the Curriculum POP!

Brain Rules for Teachers and Presenters

Hat tip to Miguel for bringing this to my attention.

• TN DOE Partners with iTunes U
• Meme – Passion Quilt
• Teachers’ Online Identities
• Pay Attention

Planning District-Wide Technology Professional Development

Brenda McCombs, Drew Polly, Clif Mims and ALBHS Science Department
2009 Midsouth Technology Conference

We’ll be sharing information about the Impacting Kannapolis Program today at the MidSouth Technology Conference (MSTC). This program is in its 2nd year of funding through the IMPACT Technology Grant sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. My involvement with this program consists of providing several weeks of professional development in instructional design and technology integration each summer.

This presentation will describe the approaches to designing and implementing district-wide professional development in a high-need, Title I school district. The workshop will share approaches to supporting teacher learning and teacher leaders, and also highlight technologies and projects that have been used in schools.

NOTE: Visit the collaborative wiki page for this presentation at Learning Telecollaboratively for additional information and resources. Photos from this presentation are available at Lifestreaming from My iPhone (my Posterous).

View more presentations from Clif Mims.

Conference Tag: #mstc09

• It’s Good to Be Back
• It’s Good to Be Back, Again!
• Multiple Representations of Understanding with Technology
• Professional Development Partnership with MASE

Connecting the Classroom and Outside World (Feedback Requested)

Educators, what are some strategies for connecting the classroom with the outside world?

NOTE: I’d like to share responses in an upcoming workshop/presentation and on my blog and wiki. You can submit your ideas using the form below, share your text/audio/video reply in the Comments section of this post or respond via Twitter, Plurk or on your blog using the tag #thruwalls. You can also view the compiled database of suggested strategies on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.

Share this post using http://tr.im/104.

Conversation tag: #thruwalls

• Connecting the Classroom and Outside World
• Students and PLNs (Feedback Requested)
• Educators and PLNs (Feedback Requested)
• Reply to Miguel Guhlin