Teacher Talk

FREE Teacher Toolbar

FREE TOOLBAR

---

Download this FREE Teacher Toolbar and keep the latest teaching and learning information at your fingertips. Updated automatically when you go to the Internet.

Click here to get the Teacher Toolbar today.

Got a suggestion for tools, web sites and other resources to be added?
Let the Toolbar Team know at toolbar@professionallearningboard.com.

Nuts for this Preschool Site

Pre-school age children are going nuts for this recently discovered site. The Little Animals Activity has a little bit of everything for nearly everyone's little one. Despite the cheezy graphics that make me believe even I can draw the simplicity of this site provides good, clean, learning fun.

Phonics & Rhyme
Preschoolers learn and practice letter sounds and rhymes with Digby Mole and these word games.

Music & Rhyme
A listening and watching activity garners attention and the rhyming story is just sweet with owl's that say "woof" and earthworms with claws.

Stories
The Storybear section features online books that include an option to toggle sound off/on. A nice feature is audio and written directions that tell users where to click.

Puzzles
I'm not sure if it's a lack of understanding due to age (the riddles and jokes just didn't work for me or my children) or perhaps language (British vs American English). Regardless, I'm not impressed with Puzzlesnuff and his stuff.

Math
The number games led by Count Hoot the Owl introduce addition and subtraction. While I'm not an early childhood expert by any means, as a parent I'm really impresed with the different levels eg. items to count as well as numerals to recognize.

Printable Activities
Mazes, recipes, dot-to-dots and crafts are all part of Micky Maker's activities.

Giggles for Learning

We love how these words summarize parenting (our dads love it too!) and believe there's a comparative teacher summation out there. So, here's the challenge:

1. Create a video that generates similar head-nodding agreement and maybe even a few laughs.
2. Post it at www.TeacherTube.com (like YouTube but expressly for education).
3. Submit a link to your entry here.

It's not scientific and there's no rubric but we'll give you a free course (up to $25 value) if you make us giggle. C'mon and tell your friends too!

Teacher's Top-Ten

A teacher's top-ten list of why Kimbo Educational products deserve serious consideration in teaching and learning strategies.

Nursery Rhymes are one of the best tools for helping children build phonological awareness (an ear for sound). Movement awakens and activates thinking. Between birth and three years of age, a child's brain is twice as active as an adult's. Toddlers are particularly receptive to developing both vocabulary and an ear for sound. Music decreases anxiety and reduces stress. Movement is a sensory experience that anchors thought. Exercise keeps us alert and enhances our memory. Nursery Rhymes teach the rhythm and patterns of language. Dancing enhances pattern recognition. Music and movement build a foundation for literacy. Vocabulary size and sound discrimination ability (rhyming words, alliteration, etc.) are the two best predictors of reading success.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

Somethings make so much sense that I can't believe they're new. Such is the case with WebSlides by www.diigo.com <-- my favorite bookmarking and annotating and archiving and organizing and locating and so much more tool for quite a while now!

A musing...

I've been giving serious consideration to how we can make systemic changes in American education, specifically teaching and learning.

As a pioneer (entrepreneur) in K12 education, I often find myself alone and on the road less traveled. Please lend your expertise, opinions and experiences as I welcome voices from outside of my head. Thanks!

SCRATCH This!

Okay, I must admit that I'm itching to play with SCRATCH, to create interactive animations, stories and games!

Local students at St. Paul Public School's Expo for Excellence Magnet School have been betatesting new software from MIT Media Lab, a programming language that lets kids create their own games, interactive arts and animations.

Kid's can program a dance, create a chase game and animate their name.

Plus, it's FREE and translates into many languages

If you think this is intriguing, there's more. . .

Find SCRATCH at MIT Media Lab web link at http://scratch.mit.edu.
Or DOWNLOAD SCRATCH now as a free download!

The Perfect Gift

20 Reasons Books are the Best Gifts!
by Ruth Smith, Director UBAH

 

20. Books don’t need to be assembled.
19. Books don’t need batteries.
18. Books never come in the wrong color or size.
17. Books don’t need to be serviced by a dealer.
16. Books won't need replacement parts.
15. Books are easier to gift wrap than footballs.
14. Books don’t bite, scratch, or kick.
13. Books don’t need watering or fertilizing.
12. Books don’t irritate your allergies.
11. Books don’t go out of style.
10. Books look good with any decor.
9.  Books don’t get aphids or attract ants.
8.  Books aren't noisy and won't annoy family, friends, and neighbors.
7.  Books don’t shrink, stretch, or fade.
6.  Books don’t need extension cords.
5.  Bookswon’t scratch the coffee table.
4.  Books don’t cause cavities or get stale.
3.  Books take you places without even leaving home.
2.  Books are gifts which can be opened again and again.
1.  Books, no matter how much you use them, are never empty.

Order before December 15th and receive before Christmas!

Inviting Teachers...

Blog for Teacher Talk

Inviting teacher-authors and teacher-learners to contribute to the Teacher Talk blog. This is YOUR blog and open to the whole Professional Learning Board community. Please take a look around.

New to blogging?

That's okay. Write about anything related to education, teaching and learning.

Who'll read what I write?

Maybe no one. Maybe everyone. Your postings will be accessible across the World-Wide-Web, so don't write anything that you wouldn't want shared. Also, it's important to adhere to general data privacy and confidentiality regarding student names, etc.

Why?

While we can't offer to pay you, we can provide this opportunity to engage in the technology that is forcing changes in education we are only beginning to see. This is a forum and opportunity  for teacher-learners and leaders to experience the blogosphere and blogging in a somewhat moderated environment. Discover new ground, participate in self-publishing, develop skills, reach new audiences and share ideas, insights, stories, suggestions, helpful hints and successful practices.

Interested?

If you'd like to be given blogging privileges, Send Murray an Email. Please include your name and why you would like to contribute to Teacher Talk.

Tags: blog, teachers, ed blog, teach

Thanks for Tooting

Featured as 1 of fifty and chosen to represent Raptivity's Clientbase

Thank you for tooting our horn!

Professional Learning Board has been chosen to represent Raptivity's clientbase and will be featured as one of only 50 demonstrations during this week's eLearning Developer's Conference & Expo 2006.

See us at DevLearn 2006

Register at Professional Learning Board for a FREE 14 day trial of Raptivity.

Tags: elearn, teach, resource, online, e-learning, K12

NUMB3R's Up

Okay, I am definitely letting my obsession with this show show. Truth is, I've never seen it. I am passionate about the idea, believing in the integration of mathematics, as well as other areas of academia and learning, with palatable activities. So, call it a New Year Resolution or weeding through the INBOX, I've decided to unsubscribe from this weekly blast. This Week's New Lesson Plans NUMB3RS Activity: Galton Board In this activity, students will study Galton boards. A Galton board is a vertical or inclined board with a series of staggered pins arranged in a triangle. As a ball is dropped from the top of the board, it will strike a pin and will fall either to the left or to the right. This continues until the ball lands in a numbered bin at the bottom of the board. Students will see that if enough balls are dropped, a normal curve is approximated. Students will also see how adding obstacles to the board affects the probability of a ball landing in a certain bin. NUMB3RS Activity: Spiraling Out In this activity, students will use polar graphing to study the graphs of different types of spirals. In the extensions section, students will learn about figures called whirls and how they relate to spirals. NUMB3RS Activity: Tic-Tac-Toe In this activity, students will explore variations on the game of tic-tac-toe. Students will examine sets of moves that guarantee a win, regardless of what moves the opponent makes. NUMB3RS Activity: Trawling for an Intersection In this activity, students will study a problem called the Trawler Problem. This problem involves a fast boat chasing a slow boat until it disappears into a fog bank, at which point the slow boat continues in a straight line in an unknown direction. Students will use parametric equations to model and solve this problem. Visit cbs.com/numb3rs and click on the “We All Use Math Every Day” poster to see all available activities for current and past episodes. Can I tape NUMB3RS to use in the classroom? Please use the following guidelines from CBS/Paramount regarding taping episodes for use in the classroom: The Episodes will be taped solely for the purpose of playing the “math scenes” in the classroom as part of the Program. No fee may be charged for viewing the Episodes, and no other use of the Episodes shall be made. Classroom use of the Episodes shall not be derogatory to or defamatory of CBS Paramount, NUMB3RS, or any persons connected. Certain individual Episodes of the NUMB3RS may be unavailable for use in the Program, in which case you will be notified. Following a notice, you cannot tape, record or make any use of the Episode. You assume full responsibility for advance viewing and screening of each Episode included in the Program to confirm you determination that it is appropriate for you to use in connection with “We All Use Math Every Day.” All tapes of the recorded Episodes shall be kept at all times in the custody of the participating teachers and shall not be duplicated, reproduced, loaned or transferred to any other person or entity. The permission to tape the Episodes ends at the end of the 2006-2007 school year, at which time the participating teachers and schools shall be responsible for either destroying or erasing the tapes of all recorded Episodes. In the event of your failure to comply with the foregoing terms and conditions, the consent of CBS Paramount to your taping and use of the Episodes shall immediately terminate. The Inside Scoop with Andrew Black: Part Two Andrew Black, associate producer for NUMB3RS, took a moment to sit down and discuss Season Three and his love of the show. What do you love most about your job? I love that I have an opportunity to interact with such talented minds, both on the math side and on the script-writing side. Also, working with David Krumholtz, who fearlessly tackles anything we throw at him, is so much fun. We're lucky to have such a talented guy - besides always nailing the math dialogue, he can even write complicated math equations at the same time! Who is your favorite character on the show? That's a tough question. I love following Charlie's journey through an episode. His first math insight usually only supplies half the answer, which means he has to struggle with where he went wrong in his first math assumption. Usually the next step is provided by an insight from Charlie's close friends Amita (Navi Rawat) or Larry (Peter MacNicol). Watching how the three interact as they figure out a tricky crime puzzle is (for me) what makes the show so much fun!

Learning Beyond the Classroom w/ NUMB3RS

If you are not familiar with NUMB3RS, please consider learning more as this resource is phenomenal! "Spree Part 1" Friday, September 22, 10PM ET/PT on CBS While Don and his team are faced with trying to capture a 30-year-old teacher (Dickens) and her 17-year-old boyfriend/student (Gallagher), who are on a violent cross-country crime spree, one of their own gets caught in the crossfire. This is part one of a two-part, third-season premiere of NUMB3RS.

This Week's New Lesson Plans NUMB3RS Activity: The Missing City In this activity, students will examine a map of a crime spree, similar to one Charlie makes in the episode. Students will be asked to compute the mileage between the pairs of cities along the route and make a conjecture about the location of a “missing city” that Charlie thinks the criminals visited, but did not commit a crime. NUMB3RS Activity: Traveling in Good Circles In this activity, students will find the shortest great circle distance between two cities. Students will investigate and use a formula that uses the latitude and longitude of each city to find this distance. NUMB3RS Activity: The Chase In this activity, students will be introduced to pursuit curves, in the context of Agent Edgerton chasing a pair of criminals. Students will examine how Agent Edgerton's path changes as he pursues the couple. NUMB3RS Activity: The Four Bug Problem: Step on No Pets This activity also examines pursuit curves, in the context of a classic problem called the Four Bug Problem. This includes a class activity in which four students will take a walk along a pursuit curve in a simulation of this problem. To see all available activities for current and past episodes, visit cbs.com/numb3rs.

Season One Activities In the Works Due to popular demand, TI and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have announced plans to create activities for Season One of the hit television series. The lessons will focus primarily on Algebra and Geometry fundamentals. Stay tuned for more details!

Website Refreshed The “We All Use Math Every Day” web site is back this year with a brand new look and feel. You can find the site by going to cbs.com/numb3rs. Inside the site, you'll find activities from Season Two and Three for use in the high school classroom. We'll also be testing out a few program ideas, including having some activities in Spanish. And, our parent site will be expanded as the year goes on. In particular, keep an eye on the “Insiders” section where you'll find information about the “We All Use Math Every Day” program and the people behind it. Please feel free to direct other educators to the site to download the free activities as well as sign up to receive a Teacher's Getting Started Kit which includes program information, sample classroom activities, a classroom poster and bumper sticker. In addition, educators can sign up to receive this weekly “We All Use Math Every Day” e-newsletter packed with classroom activities and exclusive insider information about the educational program.

The Inside Scoop with Andrew Black Andrew Black, math researcher for NUMB3RS, took a moment to sit down and discuss Season Three and what's in store for Charlie's math-oriented crime solving skills: We are all eagerly awaiting the return of NUMB3RS, are there any new math elements we should expect to see this season? “Charlie again applies some nifty math logic to hunting down a variety of bad guys. The two-part season premiere has Charlie helping the FBI track down two criminals on a multi-state crime spree. Charlie applies Pursuit Curves to predict the criminals' most likely path of escape – and their ultimate destination. In other episodes, the FBI enlists Charlie's help after a series of seemingly random highway attacks (resulting in several murders) grip LA. Charlie disentangles the concept of "random" in order to find a true underlying pattern, leading to the takedown of the killer. And later, Charlie helps the FBI track down a stolen work of art from an LA museum. We get into the subtle intricacies shared between math and art.” What advice would you give educators who are looking to incorporate something new in their math classrooms? “The show is just a springboard to get students to think about math in a different, real-world way. We hope Charlie's use of math will show students that math really is used everyday, that math is all around us, and that it's often used without us even being aware of it. Hopefully Charlie's applications will engage both teachers and students, expanding math beyond the textbook.”

Tags: math, teach, students, learn, school, CTE

GRANT: Middle School Math

MathMovesU is a new education initiative that aims to excite American middle school students to study math and improve their perceptions of math.

Why MathMovesU?
A recent national survey, sponsored by Raytheon, verified what you as teachers already know -- that only a third of students report liking math a great deal, and many report having a difficult time understanding the math they are taught (43%) or think it is boring (34%).

However, the majority of these students want to improve their math skills and recognize math's importance. The vast majority of middle school students report that they would be more interested in math if they learned about celebrities (79%) or were shown how people in music, sports and video games use math in their jobs (81%).

So MathMovesU enlists celebrities like skateboard legend Tony Hawk and soccer star Mia Hamm to get kids' attention and show them how math plays a surprisingly important role in their careers.

Program Details

Through MathMovesU, you can:

• Apply for a Math Hero Award, which makes $2500 grants to individuals and $2500 grants to the school or math-related non-profit program of the individual’s choosing.
• Send in your ideas about making math fun and win a surprise celebrity visit for your school.
• Encourage middle school students to win exciting prizes every week by answering celebrity-related math challenges online.
• Spread the word about the $1000 scholarships offered to middle and high school students, with a matching $1000 grant to the students’ school.

Exciting Upcoming Events
In April, MathMovesU will host the nation-wide “Hippest Homework Happening” event online at the MathMovesU Web site. MathMovesU celebrities will be on hand to demonstrate how math figures into their careers and the MathMovesU team is going to make math homework a cool thing to do!

We applaud educators like you who work with kids everyday, and hope we can help you engage students in a new way. Additional teacher resources and information is available on the MathMovesU Web site.

The Only Choice

The following is an excerpt from the Elicitus Content Publisher April 2006 newsletter.

Professional Learning Board™ regards Elicitus as the ONLY choice

Professional Learning Board™ (http://professionallearningboard.com)  is the leader in online professional development “of, by, and for teachers”. It specializes in design and development of educational programs and courses resulting in increased knowledge and performance for students and teachers. It leverages Elicitus suite of content authoring products for creating training content. The company also promotes Elicitus as a preferred authoring tool to its partners and customers.

“Over the years, we’ve tested and used several eLearning content development tools. Elicitus is the only tool that meets Our Promise on which K12 teachers and college institutions depend. As a company founded on serving teachers and modeling best practices, Elicitus is the only product Professional Learning Board sells", commented Ellen Paxton, MEd, National Board Certified Teacher and founder of Professional Learning Board™.

Selling Out Parent Involvement

During the recent ASCD Conference at least one sold-out workshop focused on parent involvement. The Lessons Learned: Actively Engaging African American and Hispanic Parents" workshop led by Bre Peeler Sanders.

Sanders quickly found that the first critical question she had to resolve was "What exactly constitutes successful parental involvement?"

According to the blog entry,

"This led her to explain how educators define parent involvement."

Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to attend the conference and only have the above statement on which to rely. The posting shared how both African American and Hispanic parents responded to defining parent involvement. What was not apparant is the following question: How do we as educators define parent involvement?

Virtual Crime. Real Money.

www.startheregoplaces.com www.catchmegame.com

The case is virtual. The $2,500 reward is real. Can you solve the Case of the California Con? You’ll have to trust your gut (and no one else) to investigate and indict the guilty employee of a surf rocker’s night spot. Compete for the highest score to win: • Grand Prize: $2,500 • 1st Prize: Sony 42" 3LCD Rear Projection Television • Ten (10) 2nd Prizes: 60G Video Apple iPod® The contest only runs for 3 weeks — and with these prizes, it’s a crime not to enter. Play now — it’s free.

It's in the NUM3ERS

www.education.ti.com This Week′s Lesson Plans for NUMB3RS episode "All's Fair," airing March 31: