Learning.com Marketplace Update

So I am a bit behind on sharing some great updates to the Learning.com Marketplace. I am hoping that you stumbled on these digital resources without me. There are always new and exciting resources (free and for fee) that appear in the Marketplace to assist you in integrating technology into core curriculum subjects. Next time you log in to Learning.com, take a look at what is new by visiting the Marketplace.
 

 



 

Started in 2009, DOGO Media reaches thousands of students and teachers around the world to engage them with current events, books and more. DOGO offers DOGO News and DOGO Books, both for K-12 students. These are free products. DOGO News allows teachers and students to link to easy-to-read articles geared towards kids on current events, science, sports, and more! With DOGO Book, students can check out book reviews written by kids for thousands of kids books.

 

 

 

Although this one is a for fee resource, StudyDog is one that you don't want to miss.

StudyDog Learning provides scientifically-based interactive reading programs specially designed for emergent and early readers in PK–1st Grade. The Adventures in Reading series is used to supplement core curriculum and assist in reading interventions in over 3,000 schools nationwide. Lessons in each program were developed from the ground up to meet early learning standards and the guidelines of the National Reading Panel.



 

Vocabulary Spelling City has free spelling, vocabulary and writing games. This is a great way to practice word study and prepare for weekly spelling quizzes and even the spelling bee. These activities are geared K-12th grade.

ZisBoomBah.com is an interactive healthy adventure game where kids are the hero. ZBB makes healthy living a reality by weaving real life activities into the fun interactive elements of gaming. By placing kids in the center & making them the hero – they help take the pain out of getting kids to eat healthy by making eating healthy the kids idea! For teachers, ZisBoomBah offers lesson plans, printables and games that integrate nutrition, health and fitness education into math, reading and writing lessons for K-5. Created by teacher for teachers, the lesson plans follow the National Common Core Standards and Heath Standards. In addition, parents motivated to make a change will find everything they need at ZisBoomBah from a supportive community to expert advice that addresses a family’s specific needs. This is a free product.

Curriculum Matrix connects teachers with thousands of curriculum resources aligned to their state standards. It provides access to grade-specific, standards-aligned resources with an emphasis on Common Core resources. For Grades K-12. These for fee resources can be purchased for as low as $12.95 per user per year.

Dedicated to assisting teachers and helping all students achieve their full potentials, Walch Education is a leading publisher of middle school, high school and adult educational materials. Curricula is targeted, user-friendly, flexible, and cost-effective; ensuring the items are easy to implement for greater success in your classroom. This for fee resource starts as low as $5 per teacher.

 

The Marketplace is full of fantastic digital resources for integrating technology into your classroom, so don't miss out. Log in to your Learning.com account and see what you have been missing.

Web Tools for Teaching and Learning.

Sometimes it is nice to revisit creations from the past. Today I was looking at some of the Glogs that I have created using Glogster EDU and I found one that I thought was worth sharing...again and in a new place. Hope you find the information included as useful as it has been to me in the past. Integrating technology into the classroom can be easy and fun with these resources.

Learning.com Marketplace Update October 2012

The Marketplace has some exciting things going on right now. Be sure to visit www.learning.com and log in to your account. Visit the marketplace to find these great resources for engaging students in your classroom.


Halloween is upon us...

There is a Halloween themed promotion featuring Scary Good Writing, Math Drills Halloween worksheets, Zulama’s Horror Fiction Writing course, and My Vocabulary’s Halloween themed activities.

Our friends at My Vocabulary have added their first fee-based product: Halloween vocabulary lessons for just $.25 per user. Teachers can add spooky word puzzles and activities to their classroom routine and develop more articulate students while celebrating this popular day.

I love a good deal...

 

 

Exploriments is now on limited time special for $24 ($120 regular price). This is a great resource for encouraging learners to actively participate in the learning process, instead of being passive recipients. Exploriments are simulation-based interactive learning units for enhancing conceptual understanding in Science and Math in an experiential manner. Useful for students and teachers alike, Exploriments provide a highly interactive, exploratory, and engaging experience.

Is it Election Day?

Not yet, but it is close. If you need some resources related to Election 2012, don't forget to visit the Marketplace to find digitally engaging Election related content. There are free and for fee resources available.

Rock n Roll Hall of Fame FREE Live Streaming Event

 

Event: LIVE STREAM “Reelin’ and Rockin”: Chuck Berry and the Birth of Rock and Roll

Date: Monday, October 22, 2012

Time: 12:00-1:00 pm EST

Cost: FREE

Want to Participate? This special event will be streamed LIVE on the Rock Hall’s website atwww.rockhall.com/education

Suggested Grade Level: 7-12

Full Description:

On Monday, October 22, the Education Department of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will celebrate 2012 American Music Master, Chuck Berry,by connecting to students around the world via the award-winning distance learning programOn the Road.

Rock Hall Educators will demonstrate how Chuck Berry drew from blues, country, and jazz to create the guitar style that came to define rock and roll. Students will also examine how Berry created a new lyric vocabulary in his songs that spoke directly to young people and to the integrated rock and roll audiences of the 1950s.

Students will have the opportunity to email questions to Rock Hall Educators during the live stream.

If you have specific questions about the content of this class, please contact the education staff at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum ateducation@rockhall.org. To find out more about 2012 American Music Masters events, visithttp://rockhall.com/events/american-music-masters/.

New to the Learning.com Marketplace

 

Exciting things are always happening in the Learning.com Marketplace. This week is no exception. If you haven't visited the Marketplace since returning from the Summer, now is the time. Not only is there a special deal going on with 20 digital resources under $20, but look at some of the latest providers that have been added.

 

Cubert’s Cube

Created with input from teachers, Cubert's Cube is an online writing environment designed to make your life easier and to inspire your students to want to write. Our technology is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Children in grades 2-5 are excited to see their writing take shape as they refine their skills, add creative touches with illustrations, collaborate with peers and publish their work in an online classroom library. You are able to tailor the skills you'd like to highlight and view each student's work in one easily accessible place. No more piles of papers to lug home. No more groans when it's time to write. You know how eager they are to use the computers, and with Cubert's Cube, writing is fun!

Cubert's Cube is designed to align with the Common Core Standards in writing and meets most technology standards as well. It's your secret weapon to help students take their writing to a whole new level.

Learn 360

We have indexed Learn 360’s content on our platform.  Learn 360 licensed users can now access Learn 360 content via Learning.com!  You won’t find them in the Marketplace drop-down menu yet, but in a few weeks, we’ll have listed Learn 360 so that educators can easily see that they can access Learn 360 via Learning.com.  For instance, if a school or district has a license to use Learn 360, they will be able to access Learn 360 via Learning.com—very much like our relationship with Discovery Education.

 Learn360 is an interactive, media-on-demand digital delivery service for the K-12 education market. With 24/7 access from any internet-enabled device, teachers, students and parents can stream and download high quality full-length videos, video clips, images, audio files, research articles, teacher resources and more. Content is provided by top educational publishers, including A&E, History, Biography, National Geographic, Reading Rainbow, Weston Woods and Britannica Concise Encyclopedia…over 60 in all! Videos are correlated to Common Core Standards, State Standards and 21^st Century Learning Initiatives.

Professor Garfield

In collaboration with Ball State University, Professor Garfield offers free delivery of innovative and motivational digital learning content with a primary emphasis on children’s literacy.  We’ve added three free products to the Marketplace.  They are: Reading Ring, Orson’s Farm, G-Cubed.  Each of these games can be used in grades K-12.  Professor Garfield will soon be adding more content—both free content and fee-based content.

Animoto - Refer-a-Pro Summer Special

Animoto - Refer-a-Pro Summer Special: Create Hollywood quality videos from your photos and video clips with Animoto to share with your friends and family. Animoto is one of my favorite resources for creating videos. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. It is easy to use and provides music for you with the credits at the end. Saves you time and energy. Plus the end result looks great.

New Curriculum Now Available in Learning.com Marketplace

It is exciting to find resources that you love to use in your classroom partnered together to be delivered in one location. As I follow the new curriculum items added regularly to the marketplace in Learning.com, I am more in awe of the way integration is taking hold in what we are able to deliver to our students through technology, the places we can take them and the way they can explore their interests to take charge of their own learning.

The digital learning environment that is the Learning.com platform provides a location for teachers to locate digital curriculum, create their own curriculum and assess student learning all in one place. Teachers do not have time to teach all curriculum content in separation, so having resources all in one place seems such a relief. The integration of digital resources into the tried and true classroom environment has made teaching and learning far more exciting than it was.

Learning.com has recently added a few of my favorite digital resources to the marketplace. I recommend that you check them out......

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): These K-12 free science resources cover the following topics: Climate, Freshwater, Marine Life, Ocean and Coasts, Weather and Atmosphere, and Special Topics.  NOAA’s reach goes from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean floor as they work to keep citizens informed of the changing environment around them.

Glogster: Glogs are interactive digital posters that allow teachers and students to add various types of content into one location (text, video, audio, images, weblinks and more). Glogster EDU has been one of my favorite resources since they first came into being. Creating glogs is easy and fun. Use it to give an assignment, gather resources for teaching a unit or anything else your creativity can devise. After creating a glog, you can copy the embed code and paste it into a journal or activity on the Learning.com platform to assign out to your students. The integration options are endless. The Glogster EDU Teacher Premium product can easily be used in Grades 2-12.  Teachers can buy a 12 month teacher subscription for up to 200 students for a discounted price in the marketplace.

Verizon Thinkfinity : Thinkfinity by the Verizon Foundation offers comprehensive teaching and learning resources created by some of the most respected organizations in each academic subject and literacy. The easy-to-navigate K-12 resources are grade-specific and aligned to the Texas TEKS.  Thinkfinity is not visible in unlicensed search in order to prevent users outside of the aligned states from accessing these items.  Learning.com has access to the complete Thinkfinity library.  Item types include PreK-12 activities, lesson plans, videos, collections, Audio, Interactives, Primary Sources, and Worksheets.  Subjects include Art, Economics, Educational Technology, Foreign Language, Geography, Health, History, Literacy, Mathematics, Professional Development, Reading & Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.

Log in to your Learning.com account and explore these new resources in the Marketplace to discover another new way to integrate technology into your classroom.

Digital Storytelling with Matt Monjan

Digital Storytelling is an amazing way to share information and be creative. Check out the information shared by Matt Monjan from the DEN.

Open publication - Free publishing - More den

Nature Works Everywhere

Nature Works Everywhere | Presented by The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Works Everywhere site challenges us to think about what impacts nature has on our world with "Nature: It’s more than just a faraway beach or mountain. It’s a fantastic factory that makes the building blocks of all our lives – food, drinking water, the stuff we own and the air we breathe. It makes amazing memories, and even protects us from floods and storms!" Visit the Nature Works Everywhere site to find videos, lesson plans and a meet the scientists section to assist with teaching and learning about nature.

Summer Enrichment Fun

Summer is rapidly approaching and I remember the days where I worried if my students would forget what they had learned as the lazy days of Summer rolled by. I would work hard all year to compile an activity list to share with my students. Before the more prevalent access to technology existed, my students went home with a paper calendar of "things to do" over the summer to keep them thinking. Sending these ideas home now can be so much more engaging. I think of the websites used in and out of classrooms, the way that digital curriculum can be assigned out to students through their Learning.com accounts, the Discovery resources that can be used, the many ways to challenge students to explore their interests away from school and I am excited that teachers have so many resources to use to engage students over the summer. I read the latest Discovery Educator Network weekly e-newsletter and was happy to see that Martha and hence Lance have begun the process to engage students over the summer. The enrichment packet included below is geared towards 5th and 6th grade students. Use it, share it and be inspired by it. Create your own digital enrichment packet to share with your students to meet the needs of your grade level. Once it is created, remember to add it to a "journal" item in Learning.com and assign it out to your class. Help your students stay engaged over the Summer and enrich their learning experiences to prepare them for the upcoming school year.

DE Summer Enrichment Packet

View more documents from lrougeux

Alan November

This morning during the TxDLA2012 Conference in Dallas, Alan November was the keynote and did a follow up session. As always, he shared some great ideas and made you think. He had an "aha moment" that he shared about a research experience with a recent student. His conclusion and question to the audience made us wonder..."Are you teaching literacy?" He was referring to digital literacy and the way our students conduct searches online for information. What grabbed my attention was the thought that we expect students to conduct internet searches for information, but in most cases we don't stop and give them the knowledge and tools to do it correctly and analyze their sources properly. We teach them about "Internet Safety" using a variety of resources then we move on and expect that they know it. Do we take the next step and have them truly conduct different types of research at different levels? Do we make sure they know how to uncover the author/creator of the websites they choose? Do we help them to understand how to "read a weblink" when they see it in a search engine list? Are we watching to see if students that do the exact same search end up with the exact same results in the list or is bubble searching at play even in our schools? If you aren't familiar with "bubble searches," do a little research into how our searches become personalized without our intent.

Alan made a comment that relates to our students being illiterate in what they don't know related to technology. That really hit home with me because this resonates in all areas of the curriculum and not just with students. People asked him questions during the session that I thought seemed like common knowledge, but whose common knowledge is it? If I took one thing away from this session (I took a lot more than 1 thing for the record), it is a refreshed view of what students and teachers don't know. Remembering that we are all at different levels in what we know and don't know for that matter, is such an important key to teaching and learning.

Thanks Alan for reminding me about what I know and don't know along with what I have forgotten.

TxDLA 2012

The TxDLA Conference is right around the corner. Beginning on April 15 and running through April 18 it will be held at the Dallas Convention Center and will be filled with sessions related to distance education. This is one of my favorite conferences to attend each year. There are always great resources shared that relate to all areas of distance learning (virtual schools, blended learning, readiness, classroom suggestions and more). If you haven't registered yet, visit http://conference.txdla.org/attend/register/ to learn more and get registered.

   If you attend the conference and are interested in blended learning, find my session on Monday.

Spring is Here - Discovery Leads the Way

Just wanted to mention a few of the exciting things happening in the DEN this Spring. Be sure to register for these great education events.

For the Educators:

We're mixing things up a bit this spring and trying something different.  For our spring virtual conference, we're partnering with Classroom 2.0 to present the 2012 Social Learning Summit Saturday, April 21 2012. Got something to share? The call for presentations is open through April 7.     Learn more about the day, in-person events, and how to submit a session proposal here.     For the Students:

(teachers host these web based events in your classroom)

Take Stock in Your Future: Your All-Access Pass to Financial Literacy
Celebrate Financial Literacy Week with a virtual field trip to Wall Street! Join New York Stock Exchange Euronext and Discovery Education on April 11 at 12pm ET as we broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, with a behind-the-scenes tour of the world's largest marketplace. Register now for this exclusive event.

Earth Day: What the Ice and Penguins Tell Us About Our Changing Planet
Join producers and scientists from Discovery Channel's groundbreaking series, Frozen Planet, on April 12 at 1pm ET to hear about their experiences filming the series in the polar regions and the work they are doing each and every day to study the evolving landscape and ecosystems there. Register today for this exciting LIVE event.

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Hot Topics Webinar Series

The Discovery Educator Network is proud to host a webinar series for educators interested in learning more about hot topics in education. Join us for a 1-hour webinar each month, as we explore and uncover many ways Discovery Education resources can help you seamlessly integrate your new found knowledge.

All sessions will be at 7pm ET

April 24 - Literacy Connections Using Digital Media presented by Brad Fountain

May 15 - The Missing Link(s): Using Technology to Transform Assessment presented by Dean Shareski

Learn more about these sessions here.

More upcoming webinars as well as archives of previous webinars are available at  http://www.discoveryeducation.com/Webinars/.

Web Slides

Have you seen the WebSlides option in Diigo? It is a great way to share multiple web sites at once in a presentation. View an example WebSlide at http://slides.diigo.com/list/maggie_diigo/elearning. Basically this is a way to turn bookmarks and feeds into interactive slideshows. You can add a voice over or music to the background of your WebSlide.

The site description gives these as a few ways to use WebSlides...

• Provide a quick briefing, a simple tutorial or guided tour on any subject.
• Re-mix and re-package your blog posts to encourage browsing and embedding.
• Create a guided tour for any website.
• Bundle important course resources for students.

Could you imagine taking your students on a virtual fieldtrip based on a specific criteria? For example, a WebSlide that includes sites related to the desert. You could create a WebSlide that included sites for all types of deserts in various locations. The uses are endless.

Super Readers Interactive

This interactive is geared for PK-1st grade students. I added this as a weblink in Learning.com, so be sure to search for it and assign it out to your students. The site gives this description of the interactive "Play this Super WHY! game, Super Readers Challenge, to practice the alphabet, rhyming, reading, and spelling based on letters and sounds. Students are able to complete four different challenges, and with each, potentially earn a super letter towards the creation of a word. Each of the activities allows the student to work on a different aspect of reading and spelling." Your students will want to become Super Readers as they interact with this resource.

Detective's Notebook Game

Do your students need practice or re-enforcement for their skills in making predictions and inferencing? I explored a neat interactive that does just that. The site description is "This WPSU interactive The Detective’s Notebook Game is designed to get students to think about what they are reading and to answer questions that require inferencing. In the game the student has access to an amateur detective's notebook in which several clues or events have been observed. From these clues, some inference or prediction can be made. The game is part of Blue Ribbon Readers, a collection of games designed to help elementary school students learn to read." Visit the Detective's Notebook Game to utilize this interactive in your English/Language Arts classroom. This is geared towards K-5 students. This makes a great activity to do on an interactive whiteboard as whole group or for individual practice.

Future of Online Learning

My Mac became unhappy yesterday and I decided to do a much needed back up. How does that relate to the title for today's post? I watched some videos that I had created in the past and one in particular made me think...again. The video below was created in September 2010 after I had completed my Web Instructor Certification (Texas) course and was in the process of working on my master's degree. I took a class that focused on various types of digital learning platforms and the difference between them all. I remember that what I gathered from both experiences was that no matter what the digital learning environment (platform) was, it was still about what was best for the students utilizing the platform (whether child, young adult or adult learner). As a virtual instructor, the planning of your class must include an evaluation of your audience/students and how you can best deliver the assignments, information and resources to meet their needs. In that evaluation, comes the need to find a user friendly platform to create these items in. I encourage you to watch the video below about my vision of the future of online learning and evaluate your own views to find the most appropriate learning platform. My preference from past experience with several online learning platforms is Learning.com, hence the recent changes in my life/career path.

http://youtu.be/nlRolKDKP_g (opens in YouTube)

Math for FUN!

Any educator knows that reinforcing the skills students need to be successful in math is important at all levels. But, how do we make this reinforcement fun? Luckily we have manipulatives and interactive math games to assist us in the process.

When I taught math to my 1st grade students you were sure to find M&Ms, Skittles, plastic bugs, blocks and more in my classroom as I tried to find engaging ways for them to learn basic skills. Once the basic skills were there and we began working on story problems, I would see the "fun" begin to fade and the views of "work" set in. I wondered how I could bring the "fun" back into the picture. I was fortunate to have access to 2 computers (1 teacher and 1 student) in my classroom at the time which gave me my avenue to make the story problems fun.

Each student was given a mission...write a story problem based on something that interests you. That caused a few grumbles. In the eyes of my students, math did not include writing. We moved past the grumbles into the world of creativity when they realized that once they finished writing their problems they were going to create them on the computer. Using Microsoft Word and clipart my students created their story problems on the computer. Each story problem page included the clipart images that would be used to solve the problem. When we were finished with creating our problems, the students would print and test each other on their math skills. The kids loved this part. I would usually take it one step further and "publish" their story problems into a book that was laminated and shared with other classes. The classes that used the book would use vis a vis pens to solve the problems.

This was a great way to integrate math and technology into the world of my students. What are some of the ways that you integrate technology?

A few fun interactive math games:
http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/gamesroom/bugs/bugrace3.html - elementary level addition
http://www.primarygames.com/squigly/start.htm - lower elementary level number order
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/games/levelthree/KC_Blast_Off.html - elementary level addition
http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/jetski/jetski.html - elementary level addition
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/cross_the_river/cross_the_river.swf - elementary fractions
http://media.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/island_chase/island_chase.swf - elementary subtraction

Bugs...Oh My!

 

Have you met Harry the grasshopper? Oh, well maybe Harry is a walking stick. Either way, Harry is a bug. I am not real strong in bug knowledge (obviously), but know that many kids love them and are curious about them. I stumbled upon a neat resource to assist educators in teaching about bugs or to help a student do research based on their own curiosity. Visit Harry's Big Adventure to find out about making "the world of insects come to life for your students." The educator center provides curriculum and lesson plan resources, as well as a place to request a visit from a bug expert. The site also includes a Bugopedia and games for students to learn more about bugs on their own.

For the record, I did a little learning of my own on this site and learned that Harry is a Chinese Praying Mantis. Check out the Meet Harry and His Friends section to learn more.

Science and Current Events Connection

The Why Files is a neat site for exploring the science behind what is being reported in the news. On this site you can find these connections, a link to teacher/classroom activities, archived articles and more. The classroom activities are broken down by grade level and national science standards. What an easy way to find what you need.

These guys have a mission...it is not just for fun and they have been around since 1996.

The mission of The Why Files "is to explore the science, math and technology behind the news of the day, and to present those topics in a clear, accessible and accurate manner." The site mentions that they are based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and that they hope their work helps to explain the relationship between science and daily life.

Check out The Why Files.

Have You Heard the News?

Learning.com Announced New Features      

New features will include:

• A new EasyTech Prescriptive Keyboarding report.
• A new Reporting Group column on state implementations of 21st Century Skills Assessment and WayFind.
• A new student user interface available for schools that opt-in.
• The ability to View items from any item list.
• A built-in spelling checker for teachers and students.
• Student ID will be required when adding a new student account.

Click here to explore more about the new features.

To prepare for the new features, the Learning.com system will be unavailable on February 2, 2012 from 5 PM to approximately 10 PM pacific time.

If you have any comments or concerns, please contact support@learning.com.

Learning.com has some content under the Marketplace button that you might be interested in. Remember that the Texas Instructional Materials Exchange (TIME) is available as the Marketplace when you log in to Learning.com.

1. MIT Blossoms content—these are free videos in the areas of math, science, engineering, physics, biology, chemistry.  These videos are geared toward High School with some MS content.
2. Smithsonian content—K-12, all subjects—visual arts, science, arts, history.  There are 1900 items.
3. Waterford—there are some free (for a limited time through June) early literacy content items.

If you have any questions or need a demo of the Marketplace, please let me know. This content will become available under the Curriculum button in your Learning.com account after it is activated and can then be assigned to your students.

Motivational Posters...Create Your Own

I thought I'd share one of my "oldie but goodie" web tools....The Motivational Poster generator on Big Huge Labs. Motivational Posters can inspire your students to think. I don't mean because they see one that you created and they ponder about what it says. I mean make them think and create their own. Have a student take a picture using the digital camera and import it into the Motivational Poster generator on Big Huge Labs. Then have them create an inspirational quote to accompany the picture. If you don't have access to using digital cameras with your students, use Creative Commons to find copyright friendly images. This inspirational poster was created using a picture that I took at the Highlands Institute near San Francisco, CA during the summer of 2009.

Photo Effects...This is Great!

Photography is a passion for me and I love to revisit "old" pictures that I have taken and find ways to make them "new." Mess My Photo allows me to do just that. From the site...

MessMyPhoto is an Art Editor. Select any of your favorite photos from your computer or Facebook and apply artistic effects. We've got a lot of them. MessMyPhoto is easy and fun to play with. MessMyPhoto is FREE. NO Registration required. NO Downloads required. At the core of MessMyPhoto, are Artelligent Non Photorealistic Image Processing routines which convert you memories into artistic master pieces. MessMyPhoto Art Editor is easy to use and provides basic photo editing features like Rotate, Zoom, Invert Colors, Undo Effects. All of these above exclusive Art Effects.

 I took this picture at the Houston Zoo. 

 Same picture with "nationalize" feature.

There are many artistic features that may be applied to change your photo. Once created you can save it or share it. Check it out. Really a neat web tool and it's free!

Water Planet Challenge

Are you a teacher who cares about our water planet and wants to inspire and encourage your students to do the same? The Water Planet Challenge will give you the information and materials you need to help your middle and high school students TAKE ACTION to protect and restore our planet's natural resources while teaching to key standards.


Learn step by step how to take action and get involved by visiting Water Planet Challenge. The site includes teacher resources and suggestions for the classroom.

Enriching Mathematics

As a former Enrichment/GT Specialist and a mom of 2 kids that really like math, I am always looking for ways to challenge students and spark their curiosity towards math. Today I stumbled across one such resource. Nrich Mathematics is a site that is republished every month and includes free mathematics enrichment resources for students of all ages, including discussion forums and a mathematics thesaurus. The NRICH Project started in 1996 and is based in both the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education and the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. Their website lists their mission as "The project aims to establish a permanent national centre for curriculum enrichment to provide mathematical learning support for very able children of all ages. The learning and enjoyment of mathematics are promoted through an Internet Newsletter and the participation of university students as peer teachers providing an electronic answering service. The centre offers support and advice to teachers, and resources for mathematics clubs."

Each month they post a newsletter on their site that contains mathematical challenges and information. For example, this month (January 2012) the focus is on math and sports. The theme relates to the Olympics and a collection of resources which show that math can be found in many different aspects of sporting events. What a great way to connect students to math...using sports. As students learn about math in sports, they are challenged to solve problems and asked to submit their answers. The site publishes student work on a regular basis to help make the connection that math is fun. Check out their site and share it with your students.

Need a New Tool for Learning?

We are off to a great start in 2012. Schools are back in session after the winter break and students are excited to learn. Maybe not always excited to learn, but shouldn't they be? As educators, we know that grabbing the attention of our students can be a challenge at times. Technology helps us with this challenge. If you are in need of some fresh new ideas for tools to use for teaching and learning, you should check out this Slideshare on the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011 created by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Are you a DEN STAR?

A Glogster EDU One Minute Message

As the new year begins, I am thinking over some of my favorite web tools that inspired me to create...

It seemed like a good time to revisit this glog I created to share the power of Glogster EDU.

My one minute message about Glogster is included in the Glog I created above. Images used in the message came from either www.flickr.com or were images that I created (digital camera, via PowerPoint or via www.bighugelabs.com/motivator). The images of Glogster came directly from edu.glogster.com.

This post was originally shared in Jan. 2010.

DEN Sci Con Event

Join the DEN SCIcon event on January 28, 2012 at 9 am (EST).

DEN SCIcon is an online conference (with a twist) focused on providing participants with some of the most effective strategies for transforming their science classes through the meaningful and effective integration of digital media content.

Watch the Discovery Blog site for local events or register to join in virtually. Visit http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/den-events/ and look for the DEN SCIcon event for more details.

You don't want to miss this great day of learning!