PSSA Resource

Here is a useful website resource that can help prep our students become better test takers and become better performers when it comes to the PSSA.

--Mr. Bujak

iPaper and Scribd: Toward a Paperless Classroom

When I first started blogging in 2005 I made a pledge to myself and to my students that our class would operate as a 100 percent paperless classroom. 2008 marks my fourth consecutive year of operating a totally paperless classroom. There are a number of reasons why I don't use paper: paper is too expensive, most students do not value paper, papers are messy, papers are hard to keep up with, students lose papers, teachers lose papers, papers get dirty, papers rip, papers drop and fall out of order and so on and so on and so on... Those are just a few of the reasons why I don't use paper.

Most of my colleagues use paper - paper memos, paper projects, paper handouts, paper tests, paper worksheets, paper quizzes, paper essays. I know this because I man the primary computer lab at my school and daily, a dozen or more students come to the lab needing to print essays, reports, 20 page web sites, college applications and the obligatory poster board pictures. I don't have a printer in my classroom, but there is a printer down the hall where I can send print jobs for students who must have paper.

I always ask those students who are paper dependent if their instructors will accept an Email submission in lieu of a printed paper. A handful of my colleagues are open to receiving assignments via Email, but the majority of the students at my school, despite their expertise using MySpace and Face Book, do not have Email accounts and/or do not know how to send an Email with an attachment.

In all fairness, it's easy for me to talk about the benefits of going paperless - I have twenty computers in my classroom. My colleagues have only one. I've heard talk that more computers are coming, but until then, what's a teacher to do?

One solution might be to start using Scribd. Scribd is another one of those free and amazing Web 2.0 tools that make document sharing as easy as pointing and clicking.
Users can explore thousands of documents on the Scribd web site and submit and share their original work in a matter of minutes.

Below is an example of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. The iPaper was authored by Andrew Churches and added to Scribd by Darren Kuropatwa.

Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Teaching Education andrew churches blooms taxonomy

Smart and practical web tools like Scribd make the idea of a paperless classroom a very plausible endeavor. Users can upload a variety of document files that they create as well as read the thousands of beautifully created documents that others have submitted to Scribd.
















If students, teachers and administrators are looking for an alternative to paper, then Scribd is, without a doubt one of the best ways to create professional looking documents and deliver those documents to a global audience with ease.

H Songhai
12/14/08

December Celebrations/Holidays

Days off in December, why?

Lets inform our students on why we celebrate these holidays during the month of December. Here is some information that can give you the opportunity to teach your students why different people partake in these celebrations.

Kwanza
Hanukkah
Christmas (story of the candy cane)

Graphic Organizers

All Teachers

Using visual instruments can be beneficial to students that need organization and visual aids. Here is a helpful link that gives you access to some cool graphic organizers that can enhance your instruction.

Syeed King
Literacy Coach

Short Stories

Attention English/Language Arts Instructors

Short Stories
English Teachers take time to visit Short Stories R Us. Here is a resource that have a plethora of short stories that can be incorporated into your instruction.

Mr. King
Literacy Coach

English/Lang. Arts Resource

Attention: English Teachers!!!!

Please refer to this website for some reference/resource exercises for your instruction. This is a helpful web resource that can easily be implemented into your daily instruction.


Syeed King
Literacy Coach

A Brave New World Wide Web

I came across this video from Mike Temple's Edublogs Tutorial.
The video, produced by David Truss, is informative and very well put together. There is a lot of food for thought in this presentation for teachers and administrators who want to know more about Web 2.0 and 21st Century teaching and learning. This video is a great place to get that conversation started. Truss challenges teachers to "not go quietly into their classrooms."



H Songhai
11/4/2008

Classroom Blogging

This is a good presentation by Michael Walker about blogs and feed readers. There is good information here about how to best use these tools in the classroom.
Other presentations like this can be found on the K12 Online 2008 Conference Blog and at the NotK12 Online 2008 home page.

H Songhai
10/22/2008


Classroom Blogging

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: blogging classroom)

A Quick Talk From Chris Lehmann

Are Schools Killing Creativity? An Interview With Sir Ken Robinson

I stumbled upon this interview via my Twitter network.
Some very compelling food for thought. How are we preparing and nurturing our students to be creative and thoughtful leaders in the 21st century?






H Songhai
10/13/08

Learning to be Unschooly

The current debate in the blogosphere over what’s “schooly” and what’s “un-schooly” reminds me of that classic Ray Charles recording, What’d I Say where Charles (the leader) shouts a line and the Raylettes (his background singers) repeat the line back, in unison. It’s like a preacher asking, “Can I get an Amen” and the congregation shouting back, “Aaaaameeeeennnn.”

At a certain point in the song, Charles shouts “heeeeyyyyyy,” and the Raylettes repeat the line “heeeeyyyyyy.” When he says “hooooo” the Raylettes respond back with “hooooo,” using the same approximate pitch and tone as Charles, the leader.

When Charles speeds up his lines, “heeyyyy, hooooo, heeyyy, hoooo, heeyy, hooo, hey, hoo, hey, hoo, hey, hoo, the Raylettes respond by speeding up their lines. This interplay is repeated numerous times throughout the song. Even the bass and piano lines are built on this same classic call and response exchange.



I contend that a similar call and response takes place in the classroom, between teachers and students. In many ways, the teacher’s lesson plan is like a musical score that is first sung by the leader – the teacher, then, the students, the chorus, upon hearing the leader’s phrasing, (lesson plans) respond back in generally the same key and tone as the teacher. The students do this through their schoolwork, homework and imaginative class participation. Once this simpatico is established, you have what is commonly referred to as a jam session.

In my mind, this musical comparison is far from radical. One might even call it conservative, even schooly. But as many a seasoned player has said to me in the past, “you’ve got to know how to play in, before you can play out.” As a teacher/leader, I need to hear you play the Julie Andrews version of My Favorite Things first, and then we can talk about playing it John Coltrane style (or your way). As a teacher/leader, I need to hear you play All The Things You Are in the tradition of Hammerstein and Kern, first, and then we can talk about playing it Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Paul Bley style. If that is being schooly, then I don’t want to be unschooly. (Luther Ingram)

This week my students were asked to sub-title their weekly This Week In Blogs slideshow “The Unschooly Edition.” This week, and possibly for the next several weeks, I want my students to arrange and design the curriculum and assessments for this final marking period as they see fit. Students in my Media Literacy class will use Survey Monkey, the online survey creation tool to create a series of tests, surveys and to take polls on a wide variety of schooly and unschooly topics that we mutually agree upon. My students will also be given the freedom to propose topics and assignments that are of particular interest to them. I'll be sure to keep you current.

H. Songhai
4/30/08

How Much Do You Make?... Beyond School

I came across this video on the Beyond School blog.



The Beyond School blog is the perfect companion for understanding the school of tomorrow, today. Clay Burell publishes Beyond School. I really like what he is doing and writing about. I think you will too.

H. Songhai