NSTA ‘08: Celebrating Science Education
This week the Yahoo! For Teachers Team will join science teachers from around the country at the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Annual Conference in Boston to learn what’s new and exciting in the world of science education.
We’re looking forward to reconnecting with teachers we met last year at the 2007 NSTA Annual Conference in St. Louis and can’t wait to meet up with more amazing educators this year.
We’ve set up a special NSTA 2008 Group on Flickr and invite all educators attending NSTA 2008 to share their pictures and conference memories with their colleagues.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
In Their Own Words: Calling All Middle Schools
Our little school is “walking” I-80 from DuBois, Pennsylvania all the way to San Francisco, California and we’d love to visit with you along the way.
To make this wellness project more than just laps in gym, we are asking you to introduce your middle school and tell us something about your area. You can see (and hear) the VoiceThread proposal by Mrs. Sperling by clicking here.
The proposal is just that. If we get some interest we’ll have our students make a voice thread that will act as the network for the meet and greet.
If you’re interested, or know another middle school that may be, just drop us an email. dsperling@dasd.k12.pa.us or me, at kpruitt@dasd.k12.pa.us.
Good VoiceThreads make good neighbors I always say!
Ken Pruitt
Tech Integrator, DuBois, PA
Note: If you’d like to share your project with other educators, or know a teacher we should showcase on the Yahoo! For Teachers blog, just send an email to yteachersblog (at) yahoo (dot) com and let us know. We’re looking forward to hearing and sharing your projects with educators around the world.
Call For Presentations: Innovative Learning Conference
The Innovative Learning Conference (ILC) 2008 is a new event produced in partnership by CUE and FETC for the K-12 education community. ILC is devoted to advancing student achievement through an interactive event that will include hands-on workshops, concurrent sessions, meetings and exhibitions.
ILC is designed for teachers, principals, district administrators, curriculum designers, media specialists, technology directors and other educators.
Applications to Present at Breakout Sessions are being accepted through April 1, 2008. You can learn more and complete your online application by clicking here.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
New NSDL Resource: Beyond Penguins & Polar Bears
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is a new online professional development resource for elementary teachers which focuses on preparing teachers to teach polar science concepts by integrating inquiry-based science with literacy teaching.
Research has shown that this integrated approach can increase students’ science knowledge,academic language, reading comprehension,
and written and oral discourse abilities.
This program is funded by the National Science Foundation Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL). Kimberly Lightle, Principal Investigator for the NSDL Middle School Portal, is the lead specialist on the project.
Derek Baird
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Related Links
In Their Words: Many Voices For Darfur
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel
In a way, we decided to take sides when we launched Many Voices for Darfur, a global collaboration project. Wendy Drexler and I asked our students an unsettling question: What is our responsibility to help end the genocide in Darfur? The answer we came up we with: spreading awareness.
So for 48 hours, starting at midnight EST on March 6th, many student voices will be collected in the name of those suffering in Darfur. We are asking k-12 students around the world to visit our Many Voices for Darfur blog and leave thoughtful, well-written comments. It is our hope that hundreds or even thousands of students will come together to help raise awareness about the first genocide of the 21st century.
Want to get involved? It’s incredibly easy to participate. Students simply visit the Many Voices for Darfur blog during the 48 hours and leave comments addressing one of the prompts listed on the homepage. For more detailed instructions, visit our Many Voices for Darfur Wiki. To learn more about Darfur, check out our Resources Wiki Page.
Mr. Moses, a teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, made a short YouTube video describing the project for his students. He makes a request for multi-media projects that students could share and link to starting on March 6th.
Read what what others are writing about our project. For more information please contact me.
Mr. Mayo
8th Grade Language Arts Teacher
Rockville, MD
Related Resources
- Mr. Mayo Blog
- Flickr > tag > darfur
- Wikipedia > Darfur
- Yahoo! Teacher Document > Twitter Many Voices Project
Note: If you’d like to contribute your story or know a teacher we should showcase on the Yahoo! For Teachers blog, just send an email to yteachersblog (at) yahoo (dot) com and let us know. We’re looking forward to hearing and sharing your stories with educators around the world.
Introduction to del.icio.us
Related Links
In Their Words
One of the best things about working on the Yahoo! For Teachers initiative has been the opportunity to travel around the country to meet teachers and hear their stories. Here are just a few of the amazing teachers we’ve met:
- Last year at the 2007 NSTA Conference in St. Louis we met a science teacher from Kansas who, for three years, sold popcorn at the school basketball games to raise enough money to buy a SMART Board for his classroom.
- At NECC in Atlanta, we met Ms. Vickie from South Carolina. Many of the children in her classroom have parents serving in the military who are stationed overseas. When Ms. Vickie and her classroom heard that children in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t have enough school supplies, they began a campaign to collect pencils for the soldiers to distribute to schools.
- At our Yahoo! Teachers Workshop in NYC we met Mr. Circe, an innovative and cutting edge teacher, who is finding creative ways to integrate and use technology in his classroom practice. He is also sharing his knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies, mentoring both new and veteran teachers in his school community.
These are just a few of the outstanding educators we’ve met who have shared their stories with us. And we, in turn, have shared these (and more) experiences with our colleagues here at Yahoo!.
We thought it was time to provide an opportunity and forum for educators to share their stories, best practices, social activism and innovative uses of technology with their community. So starting this week, we are pleased to begin a “guest post” feature on our blog called “In Their Words.”
If you’d like to contribute your story or know a teacher we should showcase on the Yahoo! For Teachers blog, just send an email to yteachersblog (at) yahoo (dot) com and let us know. We’re looking forward to hearing and sharing your stories.
Derek Baird
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Totally Wired: Get the Conversation Going
Anastasia Goodstein is an award-winning blogger and expert on how American tweens and use technology. She is also the creative genius behind the Ypulse blog and Ypulse Mashup conferences. In July 2007, Yahoo! For Teachers was honored to be invited to the first ever YPulse Mashup conference where we also co-presented the Totally Wired Teacher Award.
In her book, Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online, Anastasia explores and demystifies what Gen Y is doing on the web with social media and mobile technology. She also delves into the issues around cyberbullying, MySpace (and other social networks), as well as how all this technology is impacting schools and educators.
In addition to being incredibly knowledgeable in how teens are using technology, she is also keenly aware of how technology is being (or not) integrated in the classroom to support these burgeoning digital learning styles.
In Fall 2007, Anastasia embarked on a national Totally Wired Book Tour where she had the opportunity to educate both parents and teachers about the online lives of Gen Y. When Anastasia returned home from her book tour, she decided to write a discussion guide so that parents, teachers and students would have a starting point for their own conversations.
Anastasia has graciously agreed to allow us to post a copy of her Totally Wired Discussion Guide over in our Yahoo! For Teachers Group (look in the Files section). If you haven’t already, grab a copy of Totally Wired, download the discussion guide and get the conversation going with your peers, students or own kids.
Instead of fearing MySpace and other online communities, learn why they are important to teens and the steps you can take to keep kids safe in these virtual worlds.
Thanks again to Anastasia for sharing her Totally Wired Discussion Guide with the Yahoo! For Teachers community.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Related Resources
Celebrating Educational Blogging
Celebrating Educational Blogging is a fantastic project created by edublogger Steve Hargadon. It’s a mash-up using Blogger and VoiceThread.
Go check it out and get involved—add your audio, video or text story to the community VoiceThread and share with colleagues around the world how you incorporate blogging into your classroom!
Related Links
- Support Blogging
- Yahoo! Teachers Group > BloggingEDU
- Students 2.0 Blog
- Wes Fryer > BloggingEDU
- Yahoo! For Teachers > Twitter
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Yahoo! For Teachers @ Classroom 2.0 Live SF
On February 1, the Yahoo! For Teachers team will be joining our colleagues from the del.icio.us team at the Classroom 2.0 Live meet up in San Francisco. For those of you who are unable to attend, here’s a copy of the del.icio.us 101 handout.
Classroom 2.0 Live SF is being organized by Steve Hargadon and will feature workshop sessions on using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.
We’ll also have some spiffy Yahoo! For Teachers schwag too, so be sure to step up and introduce yourself! We’re really looking forward to attending this event and meeting all of you.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
