Tag: Christmas

Developing Young Authors with Storybird #aaim14

StorybirdI’m enjoying being in Ft. Smith, Arkansas for the 2014 Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference. Below are my slides from the workshop that I facilitated yesterday. All the workshop materials and resources (including a video tutorial, additional examples, notes, etc.) are available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively. The slides also include a link to a special download containing information for using Storybird in preparation for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment.

Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories, presentations, reports, or tutorials you and your students make to share, read, and print. Storybird is a fun, collaborative website that can be integrated in all content areas and at all grade levels. It can be an effective resource for teaching parts of a story, the writing process, promoting creativity, and more. STEM and social studies teachers can use Storybird for engaging alternatives to traditional lessons, reports and presentations. Storybird also seamlessly keeps a portfolio of each student’s work.

Participants will be guided in setting up accounts and helped as they begin using Storybird.com’s tools and services. Participants will learn how to use the teacher-specific tools.

THE CHALLENGE to All Educators 2011

I admire and appreciate everyone that has participated in The Challenge the past 4 years (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). I look forward to doing more good together this holiday season, too.

—————

(Repost from 11/08/2009)

I’ve written posts encouraging educators to get students actively involved in service education. I’ve shared the rationale for implementing service activities in the classroom and suggested some resources to help us get started.

Your feedback and encouragement back in 2007 prompted me to take this a step further. Rather than simply encouraging teachers (in general) to do this I’m now challenging you (specifically you) to start a service activity in your classroom. 🙂

The holiday season is upon us, so I think it’s a great time to talk about service and initiate a project with your students.

Here’s THE CHALLENGE.

  1. Kick-off a service activity in your classroom.
  2. Make us aware of your project.
    • I’ve dedicated a new section of the blog to this activity and added a permanent link titled The Challenge to the main menu. This allows us to to share information, photos, videos, and provide links to personal/ class blogs, wikis, websites, etc. where we can learn about each other’s projects and share resources and ideas. You can post your information by:
      • Leaving it in the comments in The Challenge area.
      • Emailing me a link to your project blog, wiki, site, etc. that I’ll add to The Challenge area.
  3. Keep working on your project and enjoy all the wonderful things that will surely come from it.
  4. Share. Share. Share.
    • Let’s use The Challenge area, Twitter, Plurk, Skype, etc. to provide updates by which we (including our students) can all follow each other’s progress.
    • Please tag all related materials and resources with thechallenge

Let’s make the world a better place. I CHALLENGE YOU!!! 🙂

Resources

Here are some great resources to help you get started.

Event Tag: thechallenge

THE CHALLENGE to All Educators 2010

I admire and appreciate everyone that has participated in The Challenge the past 3 years (2007, 2008, 2009). I look forward to doing more good together this holiday season, too.

—————

(Repost from 11/08/2009)

I’ve written posts encouraging educators to get students actively involved in service education. I’ve shared the rationale for implementing service activities in the classroom and suggested some resources to help us get started.

Your feedback and encouragement back in 2007 prompted me to take this a step further. Rather than simply encouraging teachers (in general) to do this I’m now challenging you (specifically you) to start a service activity in your classroom. 🙂

The holiday season is upon us, so I think it’s a great time to talk about service and initiate a project with your students.

Here’s THE CHALLENGE.

  1. Kick-off a service activity in your classroom.
  2. Make us aware of your project.
    • I’ve dedicated a new section of the blog to this activity and added a permanent link titled The Challenge to the main menu. This allows us to to share information, photos, videos, and provide links to personal/ class blogs, wikis, websites, etc. where we can learn about each other’s projects and share resources and ideas. You can post your information by:
      • Leaving it in the comments in The Challenge area.
      • Emailing me a link to your project blog, wiki, site, etc. that I’ll add to The Challenge area.
  3. Keep working on your project and enjoy all the wonderful things that will surely come from it.
  4. Share. Share. Share.
    • Let’s use The Challenge area, Twitter, Plurk, Skype, etc. to provide updates by which we (including our students) can all follow each other’s progress.
    • Please tag all related materials and resources with thechallenge

Let’s make the world a better place. I CHALLENGE YOU!!! 🙂

Resources

Here are some great resources to help you get started.

Event Tag: thechallenge

THE CHALLENGE to All Educators 2009

I admire and appreciate everyone that has participated in The Challenge the past 2 years (2007, 2008). I look forward to doing more good together this holiday season, too.

—————

I’ve written posts encouraging educators to get students actively involved in service education. I’ve shared the rationale for implementing service activities in the classroom and suggested some resources to help us get started.

Your feedback and encouragement back in 2007 prompted me to take this a step further. Rather than simply encouraging teachers (in general) to do this I’m now challenging you (specifically you) to start a service activity in your classroom. 🙂

The holiday season is upon us, so I think it’s a great time to talk about service and initiate a project with your students.

Here’s THE CHALLENGE.

  1. Kick-off a service activity in your classroom.
  2. Make us aware of your project.
    • I’ve dedicated a new section of the blog to this activity and added a permanent link titled The Challenge to the main menu. This allows us to to share information, photos, videos, and provide links to personal/ class blogs, wikis, websites, etc. where we can learn about each other’s projects and share resources and ideas. You can post your information by:
      • Leaving it in the comments in The Challenge area.
      • Emailing me a link to your project blog, wiki, site, etc. that I’ll add to The Challenge area.
  3. Keep working on your project and enjoy all the wonderful things that will surely come from it.
  4. Share. Share. Share.
    • Let’s use The Challenge area, Twitter, Plurk, Skype, etc. to provide updates by which we (including our students) can all follow each other’s progress.
    • Please tag all related materials and resources with thechallenge

Let’s make the world a better place. I CHALLENGE YOU!!! 🙂

Resources

Here are some great resources to help you get started.

Event Tag: thechallenge

Writing Letters to Santa: A Lesson Plan

English: Santa Claus with a little girl Espera...
Image via Wikipedia

Teachers can take advantage of the holiday season to help learners practice writing personal letters since many children are excitedly waiting on Santa’s arrival. Here are a few suggested resources to help you with this lesson.

It would also be a good idea to teach the students about writing thank you letters once school resumes after the holidays.

Please also consider being a part of The Challenge.

Related Articles

THE CHALLENGE to All Educators 2008

(Repost from 11/20/2007)

I recently wrote a post encouraging educators to get students actively involved in service education. In it I provided my rationale for implementing service activities in the classroom and suggested some resources to help you get started.

Your feedback has caused me to decide to take this a step further. Now, rather than simply encouraging teachers (in general) to do this I’m now challenging you (specifically you) to start a service activity in your classroom. The holiday season is upon us, so I think it’s a perfect time to talk about service and initiate a project with your students.

Here’s THE CHALLENGE.

  1. Kick-off a service activity in your classroom.
  2. Make us, the readers of this blog (there are hundreds of visitors on a daily basis), aware of your project before you begin. I’ve dedicated a new section of the blog to this activity and added a permanent link titled The Challenge to the main menu. This allows us to to share information, provide links to personal/ class blogs, wikis, websites, etc. where we can learn about each other’s projects and share resources and ideas. You can post your information by a) leaving it in the comments in The Challenge area, b) emailing me a link to your project blog, wiki, site, etc. that I’ll add to The Challenge area, or c) emailing me your information, files, links, etc. that I’ll post in The Challenge area.
  3. Keep working on your project and enjoy all the wonderful things that will surely come from it.
  4. Share. Share. Share. Let’s provide updates by which we (including our students) can all follow each other’s progress. Again, you can do this by clicking on The Challenge link in the menu, or by emailing me links, information, files, photos, etc. that I can post on Clif’s Notes for you.

Let’s make the world a better place. I CHALLENGE YOU!!! 🙂

Resources

Here are some great resources to help you get started.

THE CHALLENGE to All Educators 2007

I recently wrote a post encouraging educators to get students actively involved in service education. In it I provided my rationale for implementing service activities in the classroom and suggested some resources to help you get started.

Your feedback has caused me to decide to take this a step further. Now, rather than simply encouraging teachers (in general) to do this I’m now challenging you (specifically you) to start a service activity in your classroom. The holiday season is upon us, so I think it’s a perfect time to talk about service and initiate a project with your students.

Here’s THE CHALLENGE.

  1. Kick-off a service activity in your classroom.
  2. Make us, the readers of this blog (there are hundreds of visitors on a daily basis), aware of your project before you begin. I’ve dedicated a new section of the blog to this activity and added a permanent link titled The Challenge to the main menu. This allows us to to share information, provide links to personal/ class blogs, wikis, websites, etc. where we can learn about each other’s projects and share resources and ideas. You can post your information by a) leaving it in the comments in The Challenge area, b) emailing me a link to your project blog, wiki, site, etc. that I’ll add to The Challenge area, or c) emailing me your information, files, links, etc. that I’ll post in The Challenge area.
  3. Keep working on your project and enjoy all the wonderful things that will surely come from it.
  4. Share. Share. Share. Let’s provide updates by which we (including our students) can all follow each other’s progress. Again, you can do this by clicking on The Challenge link in the menu, or by emailing me links, information, files, photos, etc. that I can post on Clif’s Notes for you.

Let’s make the world a better place. I CHALLENGE YOU!!! 🙂

Resources

Here are some great resources to help you get started.

Service Education

Of all the educational curricular areas and ideas service education and moral education are my favorites. Of course I became a teacher to help students become literate and knowledgeable and to assist them in becoming excellent mathematicians, scientists, etc. I think that is all very important. However, my primary motivation for becoming a teacher was and is that I want to encourage students to be “good people.” I think it is important to teach students the value in being kind, respectful, caring, and giving. I’m a big believer that actions speak louder than words. Students often learn more by watching what we do rather than from listening to what we say. I also believe that learning is enhanced when the learner is actively engaged. Service projects provide excellent opportunities to combine all of these elements into experiences that can have great, great benefit. Who knows, you might even end up encouraging your students to start their own projects just like these kids have done: Common Cents and PurBlu.

Here are a few trustworthy resources to help you begin using service projects in your classroom.

  1. Kiva
  2. Modest Needs
  3. Touch A Life
  4. Hurrican Katrina Recovery in Pascagoula, MS
  5. Ryan’s Hope
  6. Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
  7. Children for Tomorrow
  8. Cancer Related Charities – The Breast Cancer Site, American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, Live Strong, Susan G. Komen
  9. Access even more resources by clicking on the Service tag on my blog and bookmarks.

Would you please share your service project ideas, experiences, and resources with the rest of us?