Best of What Tim Found 09/26/2012

• Not all class time is created equal...

  tags: classroommanagement bell2bellinstruction post2blog

• High School (Grades 9-12) Activities, Lesson Plans, Educational Worksheets & Handouts - Share My Lesson

  tags: lessonplans lessonplanning highschool commoncore post2blog

• The Four Pillars of Technology Use in the Classroom » Philly Teacher

  tags: post2blog technologyintegration pillarsoftechuse

• 2012 Elections: 3 Ways to Engage Students through Edmodo | Edmodo – Safe Social Networking for Schools

  tags: edmodo elections socialstudies projectideas post2blog

• Free Great Digital Content for Teacher's Professional Development

  tags: pln pln* intelteachprogram post2blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Best of What Tim Found 09/25/2012

• Fostering Creative Thought Through Tweets

  tags: twitter projectideas post2blog

• - 108 Ways to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom...Word Clouds in Education Series: Part 2 - Michael Gorman

  tags: wordclouds projectideas post2blog

• Youtube: New Interactive Quiz Feature

  "Now, we can set up multiple questions that will be displayed on the top of our video while others are watching it. You can even see the interactions of the users by looking at your analytics page."

  tags: youtube quizes interactivequizes video post2blog

• Top 10 Ways to Wake-up Students in Class – SimpleK12

  tags: post2blog relevance relationships instructionalstrategies* instructionalstrategies

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Best of What Tim Found 09/21/2012

• Free Technology for Teachers: Interactive Whiteboards 101

  tags: iwb iwb* post2blog

• Twitter HOTS & Establishing a Twitter Routine in the Classroom | Langwitches Blog

  tags: twitter twitterintheclassroom post2blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Managing the (PLN) Stream of Information

Those of you at BHS that have recently gotten “connected” and are growing your PLN have probably found that at times, it’s impossible to manage the constant stream of information that comes your way when you’re plugged in with Twitter, Google Reader, etc.

I wanted to share a few thoughts/tricks with you this week.

One, I don’t look at the professional growth that comes from my interaction with my PLN as another thing that I must check off of my to-do list.

When I’m ready to learn and I have time, I interact with my PLN.  I read a couple of blog posts; check the “Twitterverse” for professional material, etc.  If I find something that I think may help educators, I share it through one of my blogs, on Diigo, and/or on Twitter.

At this point of the year, the time that I spend on this is usually 5-10 minutes in the early morning before I get ready for work and/or 10 minutes in the evening after the kids have gone to bed.

There is no way that I can check out every link or post in that amount of time.

To solve that dilemma, I use two very specific techniques.  One, in Twitter, I utilize the “lists” feature.

Twitter lists allow you to group “top-notch” or content specific tweeters together.  Then, when you check your stream, you can quickly catch-up on the things that matter without scrolling through everything you follow.

I have lists for Educational Leadership, Ed Tech, family, news and weather, etc.

Classroom Tip:  As a teacher, you could create a list for your class and students could simply follow the list rather than having to individually follow each account.  The lists could change for each unit of study.

The second strategy I use is similar and for Google Reader.  I have a folder with the top RSS feeds that I follow.  If I don’t have time to check everything, I just check that folder then mark everything else as read.

I hope these strategies can make you more productive and help you “manage the stream.”

Best of What Tim Found 09/20/2012

• Download the Digital Citizenship Starter Kit from Edmodo & Common Sense Media | Edmodo – Safe Social Networking for Schools

  tags: digitalcitizenship* digitalcitizenship post2blog

• Skitch 2.0 - Available For All iOS Devices and More

  tags: ipad apps skitch evernote post2blog

• Free Technology for Teachers: Money Metropolis, Financial Football, and More Money Skills Games

  "The Practical Money Skills games require students to have some prior knowledge of financial basics. These games could be good review activities after a lesson that you teach about budgeting, saving, borrowing, and spending."

  tags: personalfinance money moneyskills budget games economics post2blog

• The Assassin Strikes and Other Hoaxes for Teaching Social Studies | Edutopia

  tags: socialstudies* socialstudies post2blog

• How Teachers Can Use Google Docs as A Writing Tool

  tags: googledocs writing post2blog

• 50 Popular iPad Apps For Struggling Readers & Writers | TeachThought

  tags: ipad apps reading writing post2blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Best of What Tim Found 09/19/2012

• Don't Forget Professional Development for Students | Edutopia

  "we assume that students know all about this stuff because they are young and hip to the whole technology thing. That's one of the worst assumptions a teacher can make about a student. Assuming student skills can be a fast track to student failure."

  tags: post2blog technologyleadership technologyintegration studenttechnologyuse

• 6 Great Educational Web Tools for Teachers

  tags: post2blog toptools

• For 'Connected Educator Month,' Tips From 33 Educators We Admire - NYTimes.com#more-113673

  tags: projectideas post2blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Best of What Tim Found 09/18/2012

• For Most, It’s Still a Giant Encyclopedia | Ideas and Thoughts

  tags: internet whytechnology adminblog post2blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.