another new thang

This week I used the Inspiration program to do a concept map of motion concepts with my 9th grade class. It just so happens I have a student teacher whose university supervisor wrote a dissertation about the importance of the connecting phrases you use in the inspiration program to connect the concepts. So I used the program on the LCD projector and we created the map as a class and the students generated the connecting phrases to go in the map. It seemed to work pretty well. Here is what we came up with (oops it won't upload the image because it isn't a supported type). Well, you will just have to go and try to use inspiration yourself.

Electronic bibliographies

rThis week my students were turning in the bibliographies to show that they are working on their research projects. On Monday I did a lesson reviewing where and how to use the electronic bibliography programs. Students really paid attention and in a quick review of what they have turned in it is clear that many, if not most of the students made use of an electronic bibliography program. Some students told me of other electronic bibliography resources they used which were not ones I presented in class. It really feels like the students are getting more comfortable with this process. And, the bibliography, which seemed like a daunting task to many of the students, was made much more manageable. I am really enjoying having the project take place over a long time period.

A wiki thang

I really liked the wikis. I am planning on proposing to our administrators that we set up some wikis like we saw at Central. They seem so easy to set up and use, I can hardly wait. I just wish I taught 4 days a week and had 1 day to work on all of the different electronic media to use in class.

Thang 15

I have worked with my librarian media specialist, but I don't believe it was a true collaboration. I am currently colaborating with my lms in planning on moving our school forward so that more of our staff can be trained and involved in using these resources effectively in their classrooms.
I have done collaborative work in the past with members of the art department using art grants to fund collaborative projects. These were truly collaborative with the two of us planning the project from the beginning and working together with the students.
Time constraints and schedules are always the impediments to collaboration.