Great TED Talk: Teaching Students to Understand Bias

This past weekend, I caught up on some TED talks. TED stands for "technology, entertainment, and design." It is a fabulous repository of interesting talks that present interesting ideas and thoughts. The most recent talk (embedded bel0w) I watched discussed how medical companies use trial results in their publications. It is an interesting perspective on bias. I think it could be a great vehicle for introducing media and information literacy to students. Enjoy!

Puzzle Me Words: Great Game for Early Literacy

Puzzle Me Words is a game designed for K and 1 students to practice early literacy and phonemic awareness skills. Students drag letters into a sequence to make the word featured on the screen. There are two levels, beginner and advanced. With the beginner level, students have less choices and with the advanced level students have the entire alphabet from which to choose. Enjoy!

Draw A Stickman: Just for Fun

Want to have some fun with your students today? Try Draw a Stickman. It takes about 5 minutes, and I guarantee it will put a smile on your students' faces. The activity is very SMART board friendly. I used it at my last staff meeting to talk about overcoming INSURMOUNTABLE problems. Enjoy!

First Crack at a Lit Trip: Owl Moon

In an effort to make use of all the new knowledge I gained at the Google Geo Institute, I created my very first Lit Trip! It's tailored to Owl Moon, Jane Yolen's Caldecott-winning book. While it only contains a few placemarks, paths, and photos, I think it's a great start. Please feel free to download the Lit Trip here. Comments and suggestions to improve it are welcome!

PS- If you've never used a Lit Trip before, you just download Google Earth and then you open the KMZ file. Then you double click on each item in the folder to walk through the Lit Trip. Enjoy!

EdCamp NYC Smackdown List

Edcamp NYC was truly magical for me this year. Each session was incredibly engaging, and I left with about 10,000 new projects to try. I'm going to pick 1 or 2 to tackle first, but I am constantly overwhelmed by the high level of expertise in the educational community. Teachers, you truly are experts. You rock.

One of my favorite moments of this year's Edcamp NYC was at the end of a session I led with Kevin Jarrett and Kim Sivick. With about 10 minutes left to go, we spontaneously broke into a SMACKDOWN. Spontaneous SMACKDOWN?!?!? Yea, it was awesome. (One person in the room perked up and said, "Wait. What's happening right now?" We all laughed together and explained it. Then she shared a tool HERSELF.)

I've attached a list of the apps HERE that were shared by almost everyone in the room during those final minutes. Enjoy.

Open publication - Free publishing - More edcamp

How to Run Your Own Edcamp

EdCamp NYC was fantastic this year. I learned SO MUCH. I really benefited from the valuable conversation and honest dialogue. The venue had a great vibe, and the absence of sponsors was, well, NICE. Thanks to everyone who worked on the event.

I ran a session with Kevin Jarret and Kim Sivick about "How to Run Your Own Edcamp." It was the end of the day, but the room was full. The discussion was honest and open. I was very impressed with the growing number of teacher leaders joining this movement. Check out a 3 minute video of the highlights of our session. Enjoy!