Notes from Millie D

• SourceForge.net: InstaDMG

  This program helps users to create a Mac OS X deployment image using Apple Installer packages.

  tags: instadmg, dmg, installer, osx

• WebTools4u2use » Webtools4U2Use

  Here is the wiki that supports the 100 tools in the classroom work for teachers.

  tags: web2.0, webtools4u2use, technology

• Tweet Clouds

  What does your twitter tag cloud look like? Come to this site and find out.

  tags: twitter, tweet, tweetcloud, tagging, tools, visualization

• Thinkuknow - 5-7

  A site to help primary grade students use the Internet in a safe way.

  tags: thinkuknow, internet, internet_safety, internetsafety

• High Techpectations: Google in Education Presentation: NLU Symposium Version

  Lucy Gray has put together her Google in Education presentation for the world to view.

  tags: Google

• 21st Century Information Fluency Project

  A moodle course on 21st Century Information Fluency. Their website is chalk full fo informaiton and I’m sure the moodle is just as helpful.

  tags: fluency, information_literacy

• A Map of the World 2.0 Canon

  A visualization of books relating to a 2.0 world. I’ve read some but I found a copy of other that might make my summer reading list.

  Thanks Wikipedia for bringing it to my attention.

  tags: 2.0

• Exercise | Brain Rules |

  Along the same lines as Blink and Getting Things Done comes Brain Rules. Brain Rules are the 12 Principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school.

  tags: exercise, brain

• Aviary - Creation on the fly / tools

  These are tools that are based right in the browser or as downloadable AIR applications. The tools are geared for the creative side 3D art, Graphics, even Word Processing. Thanks Trey Bachner for the headsup.

  tags: tools, Software, aviary, Graphics, image, tool, applications, webdesign

• PUBLIC HIGHLIGHTS… | Diigo Message System - Annotated

  tags: no_tag

• The Master of Emulsion: Flip Video Vlog: A Tale of Two Formats

  One would think that a camcorder that is HD and costs $$$$$ would be produce significantly higher quality video compared to a $150 flip camera and an iPod nano for audio. They would be wrong. The video that accompanies the entry does a side by side comparision. There isn’t that much of a difference for most people. Thanks @KarenJan for the heads up.

  tags: flip, video, vlog

• FrameByFrame

  This site was based on a recommendation from LIfehacker. I like it because it is free and it works with your iSight.

  tags: animation, framebyframe, mac, stopmotion

• moourl.com

  This tool is like tinyurl but it allows you to customize the address so the url has a personal touch. Thanks to SEEDLINGS for the site.

  tags: url, moourl, tools

• Catching problems early, schools try to avoid special ed - Boston.com

  tags: RTI

• Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog Archive » SmartBoards vs. Promethean…the research starts and maybe ends here

  Dean’s post is less about which one is better but he talks about the power of network. Educators need to stop working in a closed-in world.

  tags: professional learning, plc

• Summer Professional Development Ideas » Moving at the Speed of Creativity

  Wes reflects on his experience providing a pd session to teachers in a rural setting in OK. There is a link to a one page handout which highlights the possible ideas for professional development over the summer.

  tags: professional development, professionaldevelopment, professional_development

• An Ode to Study Groups

  Here is a poem that people who have professional devleopment responsibilities will enjoy.

  tags: professional development, professional_development

• Start Your Search Engines Part 2 - 5/1/2008 - School Library Journal

  Do you need help finding pictures for educational purposes? This article is for you.

  tags: photos, online, searchengines, search_engines

• Around the Corner - MGuhlin.net : Wear the Yoke

  Miguel applies the principles from Fierce Conversations looking at technology and curriculum.

  tags: fierce, conversations, technology, curriculum

• Are you a Conversational Cartographer?

  Miguel shares his reflections about a book he read (Susan Scott’s Fierce Conversations). He talks about the seven principles of Fierce Conversations.

  tags: conversations, conflict

An Ode to Study Groups

URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605184

 By Folwell Dunbar

From the early Neolithic or late Pliocene
To just yesterday afternoon around half past four
The professional development most often seen
Had participants screaming and running for the door!

The principal would attend a workshop in July,
Buy the hottest new book or some videocassette.
He would come back to school with a twinkle in his eye
And write an S.I.P. teachers could never regret!

A Ph.D. with a huge ego and résumé
Would visit the school two or three times during the year.
And show every last teacher an enlightened way
To make A.Y.P. without even an ounce of fear.

He would stand at the podium and preach to the choir
Bout’ NCLB and shared accountability.
"We must raise the bar and then jump higher and higher!
Teach from bell to bell with sense and sensitivity!"

The teachers would leave the cafetorium in glee
With reams of information packed with jargon to spare.
Lugging binders and handouts (at a nominal fee),
They would return to class both in rapture and aware…

Of research-based "best practices" that were tried and true
And lesson strategies that could not possibly fail!
The administration was sharp, knew just what to do:
They had "stood and delivered" the PD Holy Grail!

But as we all know, school change is a tricky business;
It’s hard as a tack and never happens overnight.
Workshops don’t work, all victims would certainly confess.
It requires blood, sweat, and tears and a terrific fight!

Faculty buy-in and active participation
Are key ingredients for real, successful reform.
To bring about such a meaningful transformation
We have to make the two an essential PD norm.

Embed them throughout the entire training process
To ensure that teachers get both what they want and need.
Create a new culture dedicated to progress
Where everyone has an opportunity to lead.

To accomplish this, there is only one thing to do:
Sound the alarm and rally the much-beleaguered troops;
Get rid of workshops and empower the in-school crew.
Change the paradigm; adopt faculty study groups!

Six to eight people working together side by side
Go explore topics and issues relevant to each.
They travel miles and miles deep and hardly an inch wide,
Until they discover a better, new way to teach.

From crunching numbers to trying a new high-tech tool,
From reading a great book to designing a lesson,
They do any number of things to improve the school.
It is always worthwhile and occasionally fun.

Study groups will increase student achievement and more.
They will earn the school district and state impunity.
But much more important than any assessment score,
You’ll be a professional learning community!

My school is starting the process of creating Professional Learning Communities and this poem made me think about the journey.

• Jumsoft | Keynote Jam Samples

  You can download free images that can be used in Keynote or Powerpoint.

  tags: keynote, images, presentations

• What I Want to Talk About - Practical Theory

  I guess Chris wanted to vent. He makes some valid points that we should consider.

  tags: practical, theory, school, reform

• Crickweb | Welcome to Crickweb

  I’ve known about Crickweb for a while but I just realized I haven’t bookmarked it.

  tags: interactive, crickweb, IWB, smartboard, resources, literacy, education, SMART

• Dipity

  tags: timeline, wholeschool, web2.0, timelines, tools, dipity, collaboration, social