Featured: 7-31-2013 Core Knowledge

The Core Knowledge Foundation publishes and distributes a variety of books and materials, including the Core Knowledge Sequence, a detailed outline of recommended content to be taught in language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, music, and the visual arts from preschool to grade eight.

The idea that knowledge builds on knowledge lies behind Core Knowledge, if you know more, then you are able to learn more. It is the position of Core Knowledge that the important goals of education, such as greater reading comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, and higher test scores, are directly related to our knowledge base.

Core Knowledge outlines the content that every child should learn in language arts and literature, history and geography, mathematics, science, music, and the visual arts. The Core Knowledge curriculum is an effort to identify the foundational knowledge needed to reach learning goals and to teach it in a comprehensible, age-appropriate sequence.

 View a video about Core Knowledge

The Core Knowledge Foundation also offers Core Knowledge Language Arts, a program for preK-3 that systematically develops the language skills and content knowledge children need to build reading and writing skills.

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Featured: 7-30-2013 Energy Project Resources

The Energy Project Resources website is a place for teachers to find information about and resources for teaching energy concepts in the classroom.

The Energy Project is committed to helping science teachers support productive learner engagement with energy concepts.

Energy Project Resources has developed several representational strategies to make sense of the principle “energy is never created or destroyed.” In everyday scenarios learners can dynamically track the transfers and transformations of energy:

• In Energy Theater learners use their own bodies to represents units of energy, moving to different regions to indicate energy transfers and using hand gestures to indicate energy transformations.
• In Energy Cubes learners use their small cubes to represent units of energy, moving them around on whiteboards to show energy transfers and flipping them to indicate energy transformations.

Students can describe and negotiate dynamic energy processes with their peers through the use of both of these representations. Learners are encouraged to explore the consequences of energy conservation, verify matter and energy, consider mechanisms for energy transfer, and draw sophisticated energy tracking diagrams.

Many energy processes that are engaging for learners often involve a series of energy acts. These energy acts are separated by snapshots, specific moments in time at which there is a shift in what the energy is doing. Distinguishing and identifying energy acts can be very helpful to students in articulating a more complete and coherent energy story.

The Energy Project is supported by Seattle Pacific University, Facet Innovations, and the National Science Foundation.

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Featured: 7-29-2013 QuestBase

QuestBase is a free, cross-platform application that provides the tools you need to create and manage your assessments, tests, quizzes, and exams, both on-line and printed.

 

QuestBase helps teachers create self-grading quizzes, assign them to students, assess their performance, and analyze results.

 

Teachers and tutors can grade students quickly and monitor learners' performance. Collect information and get results in less time.

 

Some of the main features of QuestBase:

• Manage on-line and printed exams, quizzes, and surveys.
• Import questions and mix several question types into assessments.
• Publish tests on-line.
• Grade answers automatically, manually, or just save them.
• Quick results with statistics and charts.
• Print questions, even in random order.
• Deliver secure exams.

 

QuestBase does not require you to install any software or configure anything. Create assessments using any device with an Internet connection and access them from anywhere. They can be printed on paper automatically, even in multiple versions, and with a modern, professional, attractive layout.

 

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The Rearview Mirror 7-27-2013

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

IEEE TryComputing is a free online computing education website offering resources to inform and engage pre-college students, their teachers, school counselors, and parents about computing and associated careers.

Tuesday

With Paperkit you can easily generate the exact type of graph/grid paper that you need, on the spot for free.

Wednesday

What's The Bid Idea?, another site from Tom Wartenberg, introduces middle school students to philosophy using film.

Thursday

Teaching Children Philosophy is a website intended to help adults conduct philosophical discussions with and among elementary school children.

Featured: 7-25-2013 IEEE TryComputing

IEEE TryComputing is a free online computing education website offering resources to inform and engage pre-college students, their teachers, school counselors, and parents about computing and associated careers.

Visitors to IEEE TryComputing can:

• Learn how to prepare for undergraduate computing studies and search for accredited computing degree programs.
• Meet computing professionals and learn about what they do and how they got there. 
• Download complete lesson plans to help educators teach essential computing skills to their students.

IEEE TryComputing builds upon the work of TryEngineering an online resource about engineering and engineering careers, developed to help young people better understand engineering.

IEEE TryComputing is brought to you by the IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Educational Activities Board with funding from the IEEE New Initiatives Committee.

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Featured: 7-24-2013 Paperkit

With Paperkit you can easily generate the exact type of graph/grid paper that you need, on the spot for free.

The Paperkit toolbar allows you to fully customize the settings for your specific needs. You have control over:

• Spacing between grid lines.
• Margin size.
• Stroke color and width.
• Paper size.

There are five paper formats available: letter, legal, tabloid, A4, and A3. You can choose either inches or millimeters. A live preview will help you visualize your design.

Once you have completed the design of your paper, the paper will open in a new browser window and you can print the graph paper immediately or save it as a PDF.

Paperkit has the tools to make custom grid paper, dotted paper, and lined paper that you can print and use right away or save for later.

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Featured: 7-23-2013 What's The Bid Idea?

What's The Bid Idea?, another site from Tom Wartenberg, introduces middle school students to philosophy using film.

The object of What's The Bid Idea? is to get students to learn how to have a civil philosophical discussion.

Such philosophical discussions among students are kindled by showing them film clips and asking them questions that are available on the website. You can add your own questions and/or use the optional follow-up activities.

The issues presented include bullying, lying, friendship, peer pressure, and environmental ethics.

 Watch a video showing how to use What's The Bid Idea?

What's The Bid Idea? provides all the materials you will need to conduct philosophical discussions with your middle school age students.

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Featured: 7-22-2013 Teaching Children Philosophy

 

Teaching Children Philosophy is a website intended to help adults conduct philosophical discussions with and among elementary school children.

At Teaching Children Philosophy you’ll find:

• Book modules for a range of children’s books that include short introductions to the philosophical issues raised by each book and discussion-starter questions to ask children.
• More resources about having a philosophical discussion with young children, including links to pages for educators, parents, and kids, an interview with Tom Wartenberg, and news about his recent books.

The Sample Courses page can help you set up your own eight week philosophy course using the book modules. Three sample syllabi are presented: a general introduction to philosophy, one focused on ethics, and one that includes books that address issues about knowledge and reality.

Teaching Children Philosophy contains all the materials that you need to lead philosophy discussions with your students.

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The Rearview Mirror 7-20-2013

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

Copyrightkids, brought to you by the Copyright Society of the USA, is an educational tool to help teachers and students identify copyright issues and learn how and why copyright law applies to everyone.

Tuesday

The American Novel offers a comprehensive exploration of 200 years of the American novel, with detailed information on more than 50 American novels and authors, as well as the literary movements they inspired.

Wednesday

Spark101 delivers dynamic, real-world STEM content to classrooms bridging the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications.

Thursday

Coderdojo is a global collaboration providing free and open learning centered around free, non-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people.

Male Teachers: A Vanishing Breed?

According to this infographic from Busy Teacher, the lack of male teachers has become a global epidemic.

The graphic includes statistics supporting this proposition, suggested reasons for it, and potential solutions.

Click the image for a larger view.

Featured: 7-18-2013 CoderDojo

Coderdojo is a global collaboration providing free and open learning centered around free, non-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people.

CoderDojos are set up, run by, and taught at by volunteers. Young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more.

CoderDojos organize tours of technology companies, guest speakers who talk about their careers and what they do, and other events.

There are hundreds of CoderDojos around the world. Click here to see a list of where CoderDojos are currently located.

As well as learning to code, members meet like minded people and share what they’ve been working on. CoderDojo makes development and learning to code a fun, sociable experience.

 Watch a Silicon Republic report on CoderDojo

CoderDojo is a non-profit organization founded by James Whelton and Bill Liao in early 2011.

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Featured: 7-17-2013 Spark 101

Spark101 delivers dynamic, real-world STEM content to classrooms bridging the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications.

The mission of Spark101 is "to connect everyday problems that companies face to classroom teaching and learning. And to inspire students to pursue STEM careers."

Teachers can use the resources of Spark101 to help students see that careers in STEM-related fields can be fun and rewarding, and to motivate students to solve real-world problems through application of their learning and creative thinking.

Educators also have the opportunity to interact through Spark101 with industry leaders to discover new ways of creating meaningful educational experiences.

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Featured: 7-16-2013 The American Novel

The American Novel offers a comprehensive exploration of 200 years of the American novel, with detailed information on more than 50 American novels and authors, as well as the literary movements they inspired.

The Literary Timeline lets you scroll through 200 years of the American novel.

Six Novel Ideas uses six themes such as Melting Pot and Violence to explore the American novel throughout its history.

Test your literary know-how in the Elements of the Novel section of the site. The Lit Quiz will test your knowledge of the major works and authors of the American novel. In the flash quiz show, To Tell the Truth, decipher literary symbols or guess story characters. Use the Context and Hypertext feature to learn more about the historical, social, personal, and literary influences of important American authors.

The American Novel is a companion website to the PBS American Masters TV series Novel Reflections On The American Dream. The series explores the characters, plots, and themes of seven novels written since 1900, that deal with wealth, poverty, and the nature of success and failure in America. Passages from each book are dramatized through still photography that is inventively animated coupled with original and archival footage.

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Featured: 7-15-2013 Copyright Kids

Copyrightkids, brought to you by the Copyright Society of the USA, is an educational tool to help teachers and students identify copyright issues and learn how and why copyright law applies to everyone.

Students may use Copyrightkids on their own or in connection with classroom activities. Students can learn about the fundamentals of copyright law in the Copyright Basics section. Teachers may distribute the Copyright Basics in class.

Students can then join the Lincoln Middle School Multimedia Yearbook Club members as they navigate through copyright law with the help of their guide, "Copyright Cat." By working through the various copyright issues with the members of the Yearbook Club, students can find out how copyright might apply to them and why it is important to learn about it.

The intent of Copyrightkids is to provide:

• An educational tool to define, explain, and apply copyright issues to middle school students.
• An educational resource on copyright issues for teachers and parents of 5th - 8th graders.
• Information about protecting your own creations by registering them with the US Copyright Office.

A user-friendly toolbar will enable users to jump to any section of Copyrightkids, allowing quick access to more information on a particular subject. Jump to any exercise from the topic headings that appear in the individual pages. Helpful links have also been provided on each page to help users understand particular terms and concepts. In addition, there are pages that outline sample permission letters, copyright-related materials, and FAQ's.

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The Rearview Mirror 7-13-2013

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

Monday

Making it easier to find digital teaching and learning resources from the federal government as well as public and private organizations is the purpose of the Federal Registry for Educational Excellence (FREE).

Tuesday

WeVideo is a web application that allows you to edit videos online and collaborate on the editing process with others.

Wednesday

The intent of GoClass is to enable teachers to engage students in a 21st century learning environment built on their own teaching experience by enriching rather than replacing existing methodologies.

Thursday

WISE (Wireless Interactive Scanning Examinations) is an iOS application that grades and stores multiple-choice quizzes, tests, and exams, on your device.

Featured: 7-11-2013 WISE

WISE (Wireless Interactive Scanning Examinations) is an iOS application that grades and stores multiple-choice quizzes, tests, and exams, on your device.

WISE puts a mass of information and processing technology into your hand. Originally, WISE was the idea of two colorado public high school teachers, it has been created and tested by teachers for teachers.

Teachers can print bubble sheets directly from the app straight to a supported printer and be ready to go. Use a pencil or blue/black ink. As long as the bubbles are filled in the WISE app can recognize it.

WISE is fast and accurate. Scan quizzes, tests, and exams of up to 100 questions with 99% accuracy in seconds. Results are automatically organized by course, class, and student.

Other key features of WISE:

• Immediate Feedback: Teachers can instantly grade assessments and provide feedback to students.
• Mobile: Grade at any time from any location. Keys and scores are securely stored on your mobile device to be accessed from anywhere.
• Data Analysis: Data is immediately analyzed through score reporting.

 View the WISE App Video

WISE is free to download and use for up to 100 scans. After that, it is available on a monthly subscription basis at $1.99 (USD) or $19.99 for a year of service.

WISE is compatible with iPhone 3GS or newer, iPod touch (3rd generation or newer), and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

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Featured: 7-10-2013 GoClass

The intent of GoClass is to enable teachers to engage students in a 21st century learning environment built on their own teaching experience by enriching rather than replacing existing methodologies.

GoClass is a cloud-based teaching application for tablet devices that seeks to help teachers connect with students in new ways. Lesson plans can be customized and fine-tuned "on the fly," students can be engaged in novel, original ways and their understanding can be continuously evaluated in real-time.

GoClass allows an instructor to build, edit, and manage class sessions. Resources such as text, notes, media, questions, and research tools can be used to build organized lesson plans. Annotate images or draw diagrams, share materials, and ask questions during class. Capture data for formative assessments.

GoClass gives students the opportunity to follow a class at their own pace. Students can study materials shared by the teacher, and use the app to answer in-class questions, and review the complete lesson along with logs of responses after class.

View GoClass Interactive Lessons

 

You can access the GoClass web app through a browser using any computer or tablet device. The web app allows a teacher to register as a new user and manage all class work, automatically syncing with the GoClass tablet app. Students can also register on the web app and review class work after a session is completed.

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Featured: 7-9-2013 WeVideo

WeVideo is a web application that allows you to edit videos online and collaborate on the editing process with others.

Edit anytime, anywhere, on any device with WeVideo's powerful cloud-based video creation tools.

Teachers can set up class video projects with WeVideo for Education, making relevant media available to each class. The educator can also group students, view and comment on their work, and monitor the progress of each video project.

WeVideo has three interface levels. It can be used both by novices that have never before edited a video, as well as more experienced editors and even experts. You can switch between modes at will, as you like.

Unique Themes give your video a specific look and tone with a single click. Your video can be designed with professional visual effects, transitions, typography, and sound tracks.

 Watch WeVideo - Video Editing in the Cloud

Capture videos and photos and upload them into your WeVideo account using apps for your Android or iOS device. Mobile users who already use WeVideo can quickly transfer footage into online video editing projects.

For $100 (USD) per semester, up to 50 students can use WeVideo. Volume license pricing is available for multi-class, school, or district subscriptions at lower costs per student.

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