Scratch

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Desktop Publishing, Educational Resources, Reading/Language Arts, Technology | Posted on July 30, 2009

scratch

Scratch

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.   can be used to write interactive stories, by creating characters (sprites) that can change costumes while they move on a stage with a variety of backgrounds. Scratch allows students to easily record or import sounds to help tell their story. Some students are using some of the advanced features of Scratch to turn their story into a computer game.

Scratch is available free of charge: go to Download.

Find Free Sounds

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Desktop Publishing, Educational Resources, Odds and Ends, Technology | Posted on July 30, 2009

earbuds

Findsounds.Com Web site

FindSounds.com, a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples. Take a look at the types of sounds you can find.

Professional Development — Aug. 3-7

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Important Reminders, Professional Development | Posted on July 30, 2009

Click on the agendas below to view or print. 

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Friday, August 7, 2009

As an addendum to Friday, August 7

Art Teachers will meet from 8:00-12:00 location TBA

Assistant Principals will meet from 9:00-12:00 at the Central Office Boardroom

Bookbuilder Web Site

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Reading/Language Arts, Technology | Posted on July 30, 2009

book

Bookbuilder Web Site

Welcome to the CAST Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Book Builder! Use this site to create, read, and share engaging digital books that build reading skills for students. Your universally designed books will engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.

Collection of Learning Games/Activities for Elementary Students

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Math Resources, Reading/Language Arts, Science Resources, Social Studies Resources, Technology | Posted on July 30, 2009

time

Collection of Learning Activities site has many categories of games/activities by subject area for students.  The math section is particularly well-rounded. Thanks to Copacabana School District for this site.

Technology Planning Resources

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Odds and Ends, Professional Development, Technology | Posted on July 30, 2009

Computer

Technology Planning Resources  is a link to a variety of technology planning resources from the district level all the way down to classroom planning.

10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Professional Development, Reading/Language Arts, Technology | Posted on July 29, 2009

10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports

50 Tools for Digital Storytelling

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Professional Development, Reading/Language Arts, Technology | Posted on July 29, 2009

50 Tools for Digital Storytelling

Tech & Learning Article: Student and Teacher Blogs that Succeed

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Blogs, Professional Development, Technology | Posted on July 29, 2009

Student and Teacher Blogs that Succeed is a very good piece written on the Tech & Learning Blog.  If this is an endeavor you plan to start this year, this article has excellent suggestions. 

Websites to help with Podcasting

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Technology | Posted on July 29, 2009

blubrry

Drop.io

Audacity

Tutorial for Using Audacity in Podcasting

Audacity Manual

 

These website are utilities to help you as you do podcasting with your students.  Thanks to the Free Technology for Teachers for the tips. 

 

Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Reading/Language Arts, Spelling, Technology | Posted on July 29, 2009

Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos is a new web site that has a short 1-2 minute video telling the meaning of hundreds of vocabulary words.  You can even sign up to receive a word video each day by email.  In looking at the word list, most words may be difficult for elementary, but I can see teachers in third and fourth grade using this site to challenge their students.  It is particularly suited for middle and high school students. 

10 Ways to Boost eCommunication from eSchool News

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Back to School, Blogs, Classroom Management, Educational Resources, Odds and Ends, Professional Development, Technology | Posted on July 28, 2009

Ten tips for boosting eCommunication

Tue, Jul 28, 2009   Send  Print  Reprints  RSS

Ten tips for boosting eCommunication

 

Primary Topic Channel:  Multimedia

 

Ten tips for boosting your eCQ.

One of the great things about working in education is the opportunity to start anew every fall. No matter how tough the previous school year was, we get to go back to school with new school supplies, new students, and new hopes.

After a school year marked by massive budget cuts and teacher layoffs, it’s kind of nice to think about something relatively simple and stress-free, like better school communications. So, with hope springing eternally, here are 10 tips for boosting your eCQ (eCommunications Quotient) during the new school year.

1. Start tweeting. Social media is changing the communications landscape in new and sometimes challenging ways. Now’s the time to start experimenting (responsibly, of course) with Twitter, TeacherTube, and other approved–and not-so-approved–social media sites. Eventually, school districts are going to unleash this new medium and find a way to make it educational. Get ahead of the game by learning how to use these sites now. Many leading universities have Facebook pages, and the president of the United States routinely deploys social media to get his message out. It’s time we got on board.

2. Tell stories. Find ways to tell more stories about the people who make your school or district so compelling. School and district web sites are so packed with information and education jargon that the narrative about what is really going on inside classrooms often gets lost. Educators tend to write at a graduate-school level, yet parents and the public often read comfortably at an eighth grade level. A series of photos with captions highlighting a typical student’s day communicates more than text-heavy and often incomprehensible curriculum guides.

3. Add more people. As Rich Bagin, the executive director for the National School Public Relations Association, likes to point out: “When facts and emotion collide, emotions win.” Stories are emotional; facts are not. Find a way to bring more human dimensions and emotion to your electronic communications by posting digitized video interview clips and testimonials, and adding photos. Photos or video of real kids and teachers are more compelling than stock photographs that are used so often on the web that every school web site starts looking the same.

4. Keep it fresh. I hereby empower all school and district web masters to take down any outdated material posted or created by others without asking permission first. Stale, outdated content defeats one of the web’s primary premises: 24-7 access to timely news and information. Let’s not start another school year with outdated phone numbers, deadlines, staff listings, addresses, welcome pages, and policies. Keep it current, or take it off!

5. Survey your audiences. For less than $50 a year, you can use web-enabled software like SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang to create online surveys to gauge whether your messages are connecting as intended with parents, teachers, students, community members, and other key publics. Research will help you focus your communication efforts more strategically and get better results. It’s not enough to count hits. Find out where people are going on your web site and why, and bring the most frequented sections to the forefront.

6. Use new tools in new ways. It’s always tempting to use new tools in old ways. Don’t. Web sites are meant to serve as interactive communication channels, not as static repositories of outdated information. Build in feedback loops such as surveys, eMails, monitored chat rooms, live web chats and webinars, online quizzes, and other tools that engage site visitors.

7. Start blogging, podcasting, and video streaming. If you’re still asking “Should I bother?” or “What good will it do?,” just remember that people once said the same thing about whether school districts should invest in web sites. What was new and novel just a few years ago is standard now. Get started, or get left behind.

8. Free control of web sites from IT. Now, I say this with all love and respect for my colleagues in information technology. But the fact is that the web is a communications, marketing, and public relations tool. Control over strategy, content, navigation, and branding should rest with communications, not IT. What IT brings is the know-how to make the communications ideas happen. Great eCommunication requires great collaboration and cooperation among a wide variety of school and district departments. Get everyone around the table, and start mapping out sites that serve external customers first rather than internal egos and power struggles.
 
9. Improve site navigation. The good news is that school-related web sites have become much more robust in terms of content and services in recent years. The bad news is that too many are far too difficult to navigate. The most common mistake is to fail to distinguish between various levels of content. When everything on the page receives the same graphic treatment, it makes it harder for site visitors to find what they need. At the very least, incorporate a site search engine tool and spend more time plugging metatags into your HTML, so searchers don’t have to know the exact wording to find key content.

10. Learn from the kids. Kids are natives when it comes to technology. Find out what they’re using and why, and then figure out a way to incorporate it into your classrooms and school communications. The next generation of parents is more tech-savvy than ever before. Growing up with instant messaging, they’re going to expect higher levels of responsiveness from school personnel.

Fun Things to do in Nature

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Health/Fitness, Odds and Ends, Reading/Language Arts, Science Resources | Posted on July 28, 2009

Fun Things to do in Nature aims to inspire tweens (aged 8-12) and their parents to re-connect with nature, experiencing it first-hand. The campaign brings to life the joy and excitement kids have when they discover the wonders of nature, helping create interest in their environment and a lifelong relationship with it. Activities include leaf rubbings, identifying animal tracks, and using a compass.

Math Game to Solidify Fact Recognition

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Math Resources | Posted on July 28, 2009

Card Game of \”War\” to Solidify Math Skills is described on the “Let’s Play Math” Blog. 

In a Million Words or Less

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Back to School, Educational Resources, Odds and Ends, Professional Development | Posted on July 28, 2009

In a Million Words or Less — Parent Activity to Begin a New Year

Check out this article in Education World for a wonderful beginning of school activity.  Teachers ask parents to write a 1,000,000 word or LESS essay describing their child.  It give the parents a loud, clear voice and allows the teacher personal insight into a child’s life.  You could make this completely optional and stress that writing ability is not the point — the point is learning the most we can about every child in our building. 

09-10 Grade Level Schedules

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on July 28, 2009

09-10 Eaton Grade Level/Teacher Schedule

Click the link above to view or print the schedule by grade level and special areas.  Since this Excel workbook has several pages, you will have to click the tabs at the bottom of the page to maneuver.  Use the left/right arrows to see additional workbook pages of special area teachers. (updated 7/29)

System Goals for 2009-2010

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on July 28, 2009

Loudon County Schools have three goals for the 09-10 school year:

1.  Decrease the growth differences among the high, middle, and low achievement subgroups by making positive gains in all groups.

2.  Improve the school system’s graduation rate.

3.  Increase the percentage of students who are proficient or advanced in math, reading, and language arts in grades K-12 for students within the economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, students with disabilities, and English language learner subgroups as measured by state testing. 

Eaton Elementary Goals for the 09-10 school year:

  1. In addition to meeting minimum NCLB proficiency goals for AYP, the percentage of female and economically disadvantaged students in grades 3-4 scoring ADVANCED on spring 2009 TCAP will increase by 5% in all subjects.

 

  1. Fourth grade norm gains in MATH will be positive and exceed state gains in all five quintiles, with particular emphasis placed on increasing math gains for our highest achieving students as evidenced by 2009 TCAP

 

  1. To continue meeting and exceeding all NCLB proficiency goals in third grade, by the end of 2nd grade, 98% of Eaton students will score on grade level on the STAR Reading test and show proficiency on 2009 TCAP Reading/Language norm referenced test.

 

4.      Increase the number of fruit, vegetable and healthier entrée choices while decreasing the amount of fried food selections as evidenced by menu selection options published by the cafeteria manager each month.

 

    

2009-2010 Report Card Schedule

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on July 28, 2009

2009-2010 Report Card Schedule

Click on the link to view or print the 2009-2010 Report Card Schedule for Loudon County Schools.

Zac Browser

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Special Education | Posted on July 27, 2009

Zac Browser web site for children with autistic spectrum disorders

From the web site…Here you will find the best environment on the Internet for children living with various autism challenges.

Zac Browser is a totally free software package. It is the first Internet browser developed specifically for children living with variants of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, PDD not otherwise specified and PDD-NOS, also called atypical autism.

Zac Browser was designed to offer a pleasant, rewarding and secure experience. Children sing, play and discover the best that the Internet has to offer with only a few clicks of the mouse.

Zac Browser is software that allows your child to access games (a lot of games) activities (based on diverse interests) along with videos (that allow a stimulating experience and encourages children to talk). All games, activities and videos are specifically chosen for their positive effect on children suffering from autism.

National Gallery of Art Activities

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Art, Educational Resources | Posted on July 24, 2009

National Gallery of Art Activities for Kids

Check out these interactive art activities for elementary students. 

 

Create Your Own Web Site

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Blogs, Educational Resources, Odds and Ends, Professional Development, Technology | Posted on July 24, 2009

Jimdo Web Site Creation

You can very easily set up your own web site at Jimdo. 

Five On-Line Communities for Special Education Teachers

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Professional Development, Special Education | Posted on July 24, 2009

Five On-Line Communities for Special Education Teachers

Special education teachers can connect to others utilizing these online professional development communities. 

Free Music for Kids

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Music | Posted on July 21, 2009

Free Kids Music Web Site

You can download free music for your classroom from this web site. 

Resources for Teaching Students with Special Needs

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Special Education | Posted on July 20, 2009

Resources for Teaching Students with Special Needs is a blog site with several resources and links for teaching students with special needs. 

Inclusion Strategies and Resources

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Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Educational Resources, Professional Development, Special Education | Posted on July 20, 2009

Inclusion Strategies and Resources from Successful Teaching blog

This blog has several excellent strategies and resources for the inclusion classroom.

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