1. Forming a Technology Study Group: This week at Wellesley High School I am proposing the formation of a technology study group. I want to build a professional community of learners (PLC) interested in exploring the integration of different technologies in the classroom. This group will meet during the school day and the hours attended can be used towards recertification! The content of the group and meeting times will be shaped by the people who are interested in joining. A professional learning community can be defined as a group ofeducators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many. 2006. Learning By Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree)As far as I know, my school is not currently practicing this form of professional development. I have been trained as a Critical Friends Group coach (CFG), but not specifically as a PLC facilitator. I am hoping to apply my CFG training to this experience and figure the rest out as we go (if I get any takers).
If you are currently participating in a PLC and have any suggestions, I welcome them here. I'm also looking for a text to guide our group. If you know of a book that might work for us, please let me know.
If this comes together, I'm sure you will be hearing about in future blog entries.
2. Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks: Want to know how to track a package, find out what time it is in Hong Kong, and track the status of a flight right from the Google search page? Check out this blog post (read the comments for even more Google search tips).
Image Citation: Stearns, Janice. "Edubloggercon on Flickr." Flickr. 23 June 2007. 8 Jan 2008
8 comments:
Good link to search tips!
Just wanted to point to another pretty sophisticated use of syntax from the old Google Answers site:
https://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=565252
Tricky Google Search Syntax Needed
Should be of interest to folks here.
David
Liz,
I am a curriculum administrator at a middle school in Exeter, NH. We are beginning the process of developing a PLC. I would love to open a dialogue with you through the process so we can learn and grow together. Email me or tweet me (baldy7).
Congrats on your efforts.
Hi.
Here are three books that might work. The first is a great choice since its Marzano. You'll probably want his Classroom Instruction that Works too.
http://www.everythingaboutlearning.com/index.php?cid=182&p=product&id=44594
http://www.everythingaboutlearning.com/index.php?cid=182&p=product&id=25983
http://www.everythingaboutlearning.com/index.php?cid=182&p=product&id=35017
You can get 20% off by using "LEARN" as a promo code on www.EverythingAboutLearning.com.
If you need more than one you should call their sales reps. They have better prices over the phone.
Mike
Hey Liz-
We started a "Web2.0 Study Group" with 7 other middle school teachers here at USM. It is a pretty loosely organized bunch, but our focus is to learn more about the "participatory" web and what it means for our classrooms. We're meeting synchronously and asynchronously throughout the experience. Our goal is to present to the larger middle school/all school faculty at our site.
Our first meeting was conducted via skype back in November...we have a ning community that we're using for asynchronous work as well. Some of this has fizzled a bit and I need to set up our next synchronous meeting.
Here are links to few resources regarding our web2.0 study group.
The Wiki that we're using as a guide
My Blog Post Summary on our first meeting via skype
Cheers!
Matt Montagne
Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions for this study group. I'm making it up as I go along, so I really appreciate all the help I can get. So far 6 people have expressed interest. Hopefully we can find a common time to meet. I'm sure I'll be blogging about this experience in the future.
-Liz
We are thinking of developing a course at Lincoln Sudbury called Dynamic Web Technologies which would be a step beyond our Web Publishing Course. Is there a course like that at Wellesley H.S.?
Nancy
Nancc@l-s We don't have a course like that at WHS. What is your role at Lincoln Sudbury? I would love to visit some other high schools in the area and see what others are doing with ed tech at their high school, especially since this is my first year in a high school environment.
Liz, The Teach Web 2.0 Consortium is a PLC that Anna Baralt and I started at our school. Feel free to contribute or pass along to your group. This has really empowered teachers to experiment with web apps and social networking tools. http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/
Wendy
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