Blogging and Social Networking - Getting Started

This week I will be working with a group of teachers to introduce an overview of Web 2.0 and Social Networking tools for the classroom and for personal learning.  For more details and dates, click on the Social Media tab above.

Here are some tutorials to Blogger to help you set up your blog and get started blogging. You will post two topics to your blog each week and incorporate some of the Web 2.0 tools into the Google Site and/or blog. Each person will create a blog and post two topics per week.  We will comment on each other blogs.  Adddtionally, we will follow bloggers in our content area and use Twitter (a microblogging tool) to connect with other teachers and content areas. 

Below is an image with a collection of Web 2.0 tools organized into an interactive pyramid of the Bloom's taxonomy levels of Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.   I am familiar with some of the tools covered in the pyramid.  I found it to be a good visual reminder of both the Bloom's levels and Web 2.0 tools.   We have been exploring several Web 2.0 tools as part of this class.

In the 1990s, one of Bloom’s students, Lorin Anderson, revised the original taxonomy. In the amended version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, the names of the major cognitive process categories were changed to indicate action because thinking implies active engagements. Instead of listing knowledge as a part of the taxonomy, the category is divided into different types of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. This newer taxonomy also moves the evaluation stage down a level and the highest element becomes “creating.”

Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used across grade levels and content areas. By using Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom, teachers can assess students on multiple learning outcomes that are aligned to local, state, and national standards and objectives. Within each level of the taxonomy, there are various tasks that move students through the thought process. This interactive activity demonstrates how all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy can be achieved with one image.

In order for teachers to develop lesson plans that integrate Bloom’s Taxonomy, they write their lessons in the language that focuses on each level. The United States Geological Survey provides a list of verbs for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy for teachers to use when developing lesson plans. (Although the list is designed for environmental science teachers, the examples will work for any discipline.)  I thought the review of the pyramid along with the Web 2.0 tools covered in class would be helpful in planning your activities.

Enjoy exploring!

Santorini Greece

We spent the last two day in Athens. The weather has been cool and rainy.  We visited the Plaka then toured climbed the hill to visit the Acropolis. The rain held out until the afternoon.  The kids are having a great time.

This morning we took a five hour ferry to Santorini.  The island is beautiful and the hotel has a great view.  We are off to dinner this evening and plan to spend the day touring the island tomorrow and off to Mykonos on Wenesday.

To see more about the school trip go to http://nrhsgreece.blogspot.com/

 

Greece April 2011

Our school trip to Greece sponsored by Teach by Travel departs this Friday. 

Here is a link to our travel blog




We will be visting Athens, Santorini and Myknos.
Athens: Hotel Stanley
Santorini: Hotel Majestic
Mykonos: Myconian K Hotel travel info

Poetry and Video

Class, April 5th - Showcase Glogster Posters
- Google Site (link posters to Google Sites)
- Poetry Project for April
- Prezi Overview
- Other Video editing, converting and posting options

Reminder of upcoming class
Social Networking and Web 2.0 in the Classroom
April 26th, May 3rd, 10th, and 17^th
3PM - 6PM Maynard High School - MHS

Poetry, ipad and Oprah (April in National Poetry Month)

Each year sophomores in our high school prepare multimedia and movies on their favorite poems. I downloaded the Oprah app for the ipad and the April app is filled with tools to help you express yourself with words, like the "Poetry in Motion" page, where you can create your own poems. Plus, see video clips from guest editor Maria Shriver's interview with poet Mary Oliver. The app also features 16 entries from Oprah's personal journals—11 of them are exclusive to the iPad! I think I will share the app with students next week as they select their favorite poems.

Poetry and the ipad (April National Poetry Month)

More from O

• 20 books of poetry everyone should own
• Poems that will help you through a hard time
• Optimism 101: How to improve your outlook and your health
• Browse all featured stories

I enjoyed the multimedia interaction while reading and watching Maria Schriver interview Mary Oliver, an American poet who had won National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. Influenced by both Whitman and Thoreau, she is known for her clear and poignant observances of the natural world. Her creativity is stirred by nature, and Oliver, an avid walker, often pursues inspiration on foot. Her poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home in nearby Provincetown. Oliver has also been compared to Emily Dickinson, with whom she shares an affinity for solitude and interior monologues. Her poetry combines dark introspection with joyous release. Although she has been criticized for writing poetry that assumes a dangerously close relationship of women with nature, she finds the self is only strengthened through an immersion with nature. 


I hope the class enjoys this edition of Oprah's Poetry on the ipad.  It has also inspired me to think about some alternative assignments next week. There are 71 sample poems to watch on the site and you can submit your own poem.