Learning in America: Educational Revolution
Monday, April 30, 2012
Learning in America: Educational Revolution
Educational Revolution
Many forces have been frantically at work to "fix" education while still maintaining tenets that were established in the Industrial Revolution. Billions of U.S. tax dollars have been spent over decades to create change and "improve education". As people in charge still argue what that may mean, the public has become very hostile and negative towards many of our educational professionals. Teachers and Administrators struggle to keep any sense of balance as forces tug them back and forth seemingly every other year in different directions. It may seem quite bleak at times. (more...)
Learning in America: Educational Revolution
Learning in America: Educational Revolution
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
100 Blogs Every New Teacher Should Read
Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
100 Blogs Every New Teacher Should Read
Resources
These blogs have everything you need for your ultimate teacher’s toolbox.
- PBS Teaching Resource Center: This site for K-12 teachers is an environment where new teachers can feel safe asking questions, using free tools and printing lesson and activity plans for class assignments.
- Teachers Count: TeachersCount is a national non-profit dedicated to raising the status of the teaching profession and providing free resources to teachers.
- Teachers First: The Web resource by teachers, for teachers. The site includes lesson planning help, weekly puzzles, and news you can use.
- The Dream Teacher: This blog looks at poverty and socioeconomic status within public schools and how teachers can improve the lives of their students.
- Chalk Dust 101: A teacher helps his colleages to look at the world with discerning, educated, but non-judgemental eyes.
- If Bees are Few: Technological advice, teaching aides, and lesson ideas from one blogger to the rest of America’s educators.
- Classroom Management: Ever wondered how to keep your classroom from becoming a zoo? Find out by following this blog!
- Teachhub Education Blog: You’ll be impressed by the well-researched and valuable information this blog provides.
- Science teacher: The blog title seems simple enough, but this veteran teacher has much to say, many questions to ask, and just as many answers to provide.
- Study Skills Mentor: The best lesson you could teach your class, and the greatest gift you could give them, is to teach them how to learn. Look at different ways to teach them how to study, how to ask questions, and how to read text for content.
Teacher Bloggers
These men and women live all over the world, teach all types of subject matter, and offer varied but excellent advice on becoming a better educator.
- 2 Cents: Blog by art teacher David Warlick.
- A Passion for Teaching: This blog chronicles the journey of a Social Science teacher at Ukiah High School in Ukiah, California.
- Betty’s Blog: Teacher Betty from Texas blogs about her students, her love for educating and the wisdom she’s gained over the course of her career.
- JT Spencer’s Blog: This young teacher changes the name of his blog as often as he changes his teaching techniques. Learn both from him and with him.
- Sneaker Teacher: Daily wisdom and insight from a professional educator.
- Ms. Teacher: This is a blog about the educational experience of a middle school teacher, and her advice on maintaining a work-life balance.
- Cool Cat Teacher: This teacher isn’t only good at what she does, she’s passionate about it too.
- Kathy Cassidy’s Classroom Blog: Cassidy shares her best practices and keeps you updated with her students’ progress.
- It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages: This great tell-it-like-it-is blog shows you the shadow side of teaching as well as the rewards.
- Learning is Messy: Brian Crosby has nearly 30 years of teaching experience under his belt, and he knows it isn’t always easy. But he’ll show you how he got through the tough times and give you plenty of motivation to do the same.
Technology
Love it or hate it, innovations in technology are released every single day. Learn not only how to adapt, but how to take advantage of these changes by reading the blogs below.
- 21st Century Learning: This teacher and blogger writes about how technology can and will impact teaching.
- One Crazy Teacher to Another: Here you’ll find posts that chronicle this teacher’s discover of new technology that makes his life easier.
- Teacher 2.0: This blog is designed to help teachers better learn to adapt online tools and new gadgets to the classroom environment.
- Lisa’s Online Teaching Blog: Read posts that cover topics like interactive programs, learning styles and technology in this blog.
- TeacherTech Blog: Get the occasional tech tip in this blog, created to help teachers learn to better utilize technology.
- Encountering E-Learning Education: Teaching student Em discusses her experiences learning about new teaching technologies and gives her thoughts in this blog.
- Learning Technology Teacher Development: English teachers can get some helpful advice in ways they can use new technology from Second Life lessons to online dictation programs in this blog.
- Edumacation: Get some insight on how you can use technology in your teaching with some helpful advice from this first year English teacher.
- Remote Access: This blog can help you get a better understanding of how to implement technology like blogging in your classroom.
- Classhacks: Get small tips related to educational technology and ways you can implement it into your classroom through the posts and resources in this blog.
- Utilizing Blogs In the Classroom: Learn new ways to make blogs an effective learning tool with a little advice from posts and articles here.
- TechieTeacher: Teachers interested in using the latest technology in their classrooms can get some great ideas from this blog.
Subject Specific
From science to social studies, these teachers are the best of the best in their respective fields of education.
- Math Notes: This blog follows the day to day life of a high school math teacher as she instructs students in subjects like statistics and algebra.
- Teaching College Math: Even if you don’t teach college level math you can benefit from the questions and information found in this blog.
- Music Teacher’s Blog: Music teachers looking for new and innovative ways to teach music to their students can find links to resources, advice and more in this blog.
- The Social Studies Teacher Blog: This blog can provide social studies teachers with sample lessons and ideas in subjects like economics and American history.
- The Teacher’s View: Blogger and teacher Paul gives his thoughts on literature and culture in this reading and English focused blog.
- It’s a Hardknock Teacher’s Life: This African-American teacher shares her experiences teaching Spanish to middle and high school students in the Northeast.
- Teaching Philosophy: Teachers or philosophers interested in working in the classroom will get some interesting ideas of lessons and materials to cover.
- Teacher Julie: Julie blogs about her experiences teaching special education in the Philippines as well as many other issues related to education.
- The Carrot Revolution: Art teachers can get some ideas of how to use new technology to create innovative and creative lessons for their courses.
- PE for Children: Physical education teachers can read up on the latest news in the field through the posts from this news centered blog.
- Shakespeare Teacher: Get some help learning to teach the bard and find some Shakespeare related entertainment from this teacher written blog.
- Unwrapping the Gifted: Gifted students need special attention too, and you can get ideas for lessons and ways to better teach students in this Teacher Magazine blog.
- The Science Bench: Check out these great ideas on teaching science and technology related subjects to your students.
Tips and Tools
As a new teacher, you likely find yourself asking new questions every day. Go to one (or all) of these blogs for expert answers.
- How to Be a Better Teacher: Suite 101 bloggers tell you their secrets for being successful educators.
- Teacher’s Book Bag: Find sample lesson plans and print outs in this blog.
- Teacher Features: Here you’ll find lots of tips on making bookmaking a part of your students’ curriculum.
- Teaching Tips Machine: Get some general tips and suggestions for getting more students to complete homework, manage classrooms better and be more effective.
- Successful Teaching: New teachers can get some ideas for successful classroom projects and strategies through this blog.
Special Education Emphasis
The blogs below were designed just for teachers in the realm of special education.
- Teachers at Risk: This Teacher of Distinction shares her insights, experience with 20 years of teaching, and practical advice.
- Successful Teaching: With 30 years of experience and board certification as an Exceptional Needs Specialist, this teacher knows what she’s talking about when she shares tips and strategies that are helpful for both special ed and regular ed classes.
- School Psychologist Blog Files: While this blog is specifically written to parents of students in Special Ed, new teachers can get a feel for challenges the students and their families may face.
- Ok, so What Next?: Leaving the world of business and now teaching special education at a school for students with behavioral issues, this blogger shares her experiences as a teacher and a mother.
- Special Education Blog: Find plenty of great advice for teaching special ed children on this blog from About.com.
- On Special Education: Keep track of all the news pertaining to special education with this blog.
- Bilingual Special Ed: Written by a professor of Special Education, this blog covers research, news, policy, and more surrounding special education and bilingual education.
- Special Education and Learning Differences: Learning life skills, strategies for teaching special ed students, and motivating learners are just a sampling of the topics on this blog.
- Barto’s World: This LD teacher shares her perspective on teaching students with learning disabilities and also shares tidbits from the news on the subject.
- Special Ed Law: Keep up with important special education legislation and how it affects your classroom.
While these blogs may not focus solely on special education, they do contain an emphasis on the subject.
Other Educators
Librarians, professors, consultants, and others share their insight on these blogs.
- Once a Teacher: This former teacher still works in education, but is now dedicated to bringing innovation to education. Her blog reflects her mission to help teachers and students.
- Let’s Play Math!: Written by a homeschooling mom, this blog features fun ways to incorporate math into any curriculum.
- So You Want To Teach?: The posts here include solid advice for teachers.
- Joanne Jacobs: The author of a book about a charter school focusing on preparing Hispanic students for college, Joanne blogs about education in the news.
- The Lesson Machine: Inexpensive resources for teachers are featured on this blog broken down into categories of literature, media, and supplies/resources.
- Open Education: Follow the changes and innovations occurring in education with the posts on this blog.
- HeyJude: Judy O’Connell blogs about technology, education, and libraries in her blog.
- Brian McCall’s Economics of Education Blog: See what this professor has to say about the impact of the state of economics on education.
- Teach42: Formerly a kindergarten teacher and currently working at Discovery Education, Steve Dembo writes about education, with an emphasis on technology.
- NeverEndingSearch: This blog from School Library Journal is focused primarily on school library topics, but there is much information to offer on teaching and learning in general.
News and Politics
These blogs will keep you in the know about news and politics surrounding education.
- Buckhorn Road: Focusing on education, politics, and current events, the posts here cover it all.
- NYC Educator: Politics and policy both feature highly here as does information and opinion about education news.
- Intercepts: This blog from the Education Intelligence Agency covers public education and teachers’ unions.
- Eduwonk: Covering news and analyzing what is happening to the world of education, the posts here offer a look at education today.
- Politics K-12: From Education Week, this blog focuses on state and federal politics of education.
- Teacher Beat: Another Education Week blog, this one provides the latest on politics and policy important to teachers.
- Democrats for Education Reform: This political action committee works with the Democratic party to reform education, and its blog discusses important issues surrounding education and reform.
- GothamSchools: This blog is written by two education reporters with outstanding credentials and focuses on what is and is not working in the New York schools.
- EducationNews.org: Whether national or international, commentary, or breaking news, if it has to do with education, it will probably appear in this blog.
- TeachMoore: Renee Moore writes about politics and news in the education community on her blog.
Microblogs
These Twitter microblogs are full of information, resources, news, games, lesson planning assistance, and more.
- Homeschoolers: Free help for homeschool teachers.
- Standards Toolbox: The Standards Toolbox is a free suite of K-12 online teacher tools, including a lesson planner, grade book, class web page, and more.
- Futurelabedu: Develops innovative resources and practices that support new approaches to learning for the 21st century.
- JustAskEdu: Parents, teachers, and others invested in education come ask for advice, ideas, and support.
- education_com: Offers information to support classroom education that caters to both educators and parents.
- DEN: Discovery Education connects teachers to their greatest resource: other teachers!
- techlearning: Great for computer science educators.
- New Teacher Survival: Get daily tips about how to survive at your new teaching job.
- Teachermagazine: A leading source for k-12 teacher leaders covering instruction, school environment, classroom technology, curriculum, and more.
- Scholastic Teach: Resources for every teacher to reach each and every child.
- Teaching Ideas: Provides free ideas, resources, links and news to teachers around the world.
- A Gift for Teaching: These Tweets come from a non-profit that gives away free school supplies and experiences to teachers and students in high-need schools through various programs.
- TSL Events: Exhibitions for education professionals in the early years, primary, secondary and special needs sectors.
- Teacher Corner: Provides free worksheets, lesson plans, bulletin boards and other free educational activities to teachers, parents and homeschoolers worldwide.
- Teacher Created: Teacher created resources, free lessons, and more for Pre-K to 8th grade teachers.
- For Teachers Only: Follow these Tweets to receive teaching tips, jokes, new product alerts, promotions, and much more!
- Tips for Teachers: Joel Heffner was a New York City teacher and teacher trainer. He now writes and conducts workshops. Follow him.
- KDS for Teachers: Innovative e-learning for teachers.
- Outwit Me: On this site, you’ll find brainy Twitter games.
- Plinky: With Plinky, get a daily prompt question or challenge to answer.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
7-little-words App
7 Little Words an App Store smash from Aroostook County
Posted June 17, 2011, at 1:01 p.m.
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Matt Wickenheiser | BDN
Christopher York, owner of Blue Ox Technologies Ltd. in Caribou, has another hit on his hands with the 7 LIttle Words app for iPhones, iPads and iPods. Buy Photo
CARIBOU, Maine — Christopher York’s experience in making computer games goes back a ways — all the way to the 1980s, when consoles weighed a ton and the TRS-80 was king.
A few decades later, he has returned to making computer games — and while the market is much larger, the devices he’s designing for are much, much smaller.
About three years ago, when apps for hand-helds started taking off, York, owner of Blue Ox Technologies Ltd., dusted off his old game design skills and made a go at the iPhone market with a basic memory game with a Maine twist, called “Moosentration.” That game was moderately successful, with about 100,000 downloads and a licensing agreement with L.L. Bean.
Next came Moxie, and a higher level of success. The game is a word game where points are scored by changing letters to form new words. Moxie was downloaded about a half million times.
But his most recent game, 7 Little Words, has really taken off. The game, a mix between a crossword and a word jumble, hit Apple’s App Store at the beginning of May. It jumped in the charts and has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. Last Tuesday, on what’s the slowest weekday for app downloads on average, the game was downloaded 26,000 times for iPhones and iPads.
“It’s hit a sweet spot where it’s a puzzle that is not too difficult; it’s challenging enough to make a person feel smart when they solve it, but it’s not so hard they feel it’s impossible to do,” said York.
York’s success marks both the importance of broadband penetration into Maine’s interior and the ability of Mainers to carve out an entrepreneurial niche for themselves in a variety of fields, notes University of Maine economist James McConnon.
“Here’s a typical, innovative Maine person that develops an interest in something, a passion in something, and then through hard work and keeping his eyes open sees an opportunity to develop a business out of it,” said McConnon. “Maine is full of people like that, and stories like that — from folks who are involved in developing food products based on family recipes and developing a growing business out of that to software developers who utilize their knowledge and experience to create products and services that have a market.”
York, 43, bought his first computer, a TRS-80, when he was in the sixth grade, with money he saved from delivering the Bangor Daily News and Aroostook Republican in his hometown of Caribou. He taught himself how to program. In those days, computer magazines published code for programs for readers to duplicate and try. York had a few published, including a game that was sort of a combination Pong and Breakout that two players could play against each other.
Computers were a hobby until 1997, when he founded Blue Ox. He focused on building systems and programming for companies, including work at what was then Fraser Paper in Madawaska. He worked as a subcontractor for other companies doing computer work for firms such as Unum, MBNA, Xerox and others. Self-taught, he never went to college for computer engineering. He did progress through Microsoft’s certification programs until he was certified as a trainer. He traveled for several years, teaching Microsoft’s curriculum to other programmers.
He had long since gotten away from game development because the products had progressed to such a sophisticated, graphics-intense point.
“The biggest barrier to games for the last 20 years was that it became very, very difficult for one person to make a game that would be competitive,” said York. “But when mobile devices came out, particularly the iPhone, I saw one person could make a game again — like back in the days of the TRS- 80.”
When Apple launched its iPhone developer program, York got into it. A month or two after the App Store was up and running, Moosentration was available on it. The game, and others York has produced, has appeal to the growing category of casual gamers. This includes people of all ages and both genders who are looking to play games in brief spurts — the five minutes while waiting in line at the grocery or at the doctor’s office.
“They’re not your hardcore teenagers sitting in front of their Xbox,” said York.
According to the latest projections from Gartner Inc., worldwide app store downloads across all mobile platforms are forecast to reach 17.7 billion downloads this year, a 117 percent increase from an estimated 8.2 billion downloads in 2010. The tech-analyst firm forecast that by the end of 2014, more than 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first one in July 2008.
Gartner reported that worldwide mobile application store revenue is projected to surpass $15.1 billion this year, both from the purchase of applications and from advertising revenues. That’s a 190 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $5.2 billion.
The Moxie game came as a partnership with his mother, who was going through chemotherapy at the time. York was spending a lot of time with her, and they were looking for things to do to keep her mind occupied and off her health problems. He suggested creating a game together, and they set to work using index cards to prototype the game play. Growing up, his family didn’t have a TV for several years, and they spent many evenings playing cards or board games. This was a natural extension of that experience.
Moxie hit the virtual shelves in early 2009, and his mother got to see it as a modestly popular success before dying. She was always proud of their work, he said.
“I’d bring her to the hospital and she’d tell the doctors to get their iPhones and play the games,” said York.
Moxie has a free version and expanded paid versions that run from 99-cents to $2.99. Moxie, said York, has paid the bills for the past few years.
About six months ago, he got the idea for 7 Little Words. He began to work at it a bit at a time, again, using index cards and testing out concepts on friends and family. He eventually came up with a model he liked and it went live in May. He cross-promoted it through Moxie, alerting players of that game about the new offering.
After it was out for a few weeks, Apple picked it as an app to feature, so it was highlighted in the App Store. That happened first in Australia and New Zealand, and the game took off — it was the number one downloaded app there for a whole week. When Apple highlighted 7 Little Words in the U.S., it hit number three for a few days before heading back down the charts.
The app seems popular; there are thousands of review written by users, mostly positive. A fourth-grade class in Chicago has incorporated the game into their lesson plans. Besides the right level of challenge, said York, another attraction may be the smiley face icon players get when each puzzle is solved.
“It’s very minimalist, but I think it just gives people a good vibe,” he said.
For this app, York has gone to the razor-blade business model. The initial game is free and comes with 50 puzzles. Each additional pack of 50 puzzles, however, costs 99 cents. So even if downloads of the game decline, revenue can continue to grow as users seek new modules for the game.
York has hired some subcontractors to develop puzzle packs — mostly puzzle writers who have previously focused on crosswords. He’s also developing French and Spanish versions of the game.
York declined to discuss specific revenues from the game, but said 7 Little words “has given me some breathing room to work without so many month-to-month worries.”
“More so than any money I can get from it, the fact that people like what I built is the important thing,” said York. “The biggest thing I like about it is I can create something and it touches so many people — it makes me feel like I have an impact in people’s lives.”
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/17/business/7-little-words-an-app-store-smash-from-aroostook-county/
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
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