Great Start to a New School Year
30 08 2009
I do love the beginning of school. There are so many exciting opportunities and everything is still a possibility! All the great ideas from summer 
conferences are being put into action (or at least a plan for action). And the best is seeing all my teacher friends and the students again.
My teachers are off and running this year. Now I just have to keep up with them…
- I’ve got one 8th grade math teacher who has already completed a Voicethread with her class on the Origins of Algebra. Students had to research the history of Algebra and then make a text post about what they found most interesting from their research. Students then commented on each others posts. It was a fabulous project and one that was mainly homework. What a great way to use valuable face to face time for other topics.
- Another teacher is having 7th grade math students create their own review games on http://www.superteachertools.com/index.php.
- A Spanish teacher is having her 6th graders take the data they collected from from a classroom survey and creating graphs in Excel.
- One of our ESL teachers is embarking on a movie making project and an audiobook project (she is very ambitious).
- We’ve had teachers using the SMART Board and video cameras already.
- We also have had many beginning of the year PowerPoint projects (I was sure to give my Presentations 101 training first to the students).
- Students used video and audio for advisory assembly presentations.
And these our only the things I know about…
It’s nice to work here!
How’s your year started? Any great projects going?
Image Attribution
Image: ‘3, 2, 1 …‘
www.flickr.com/photos/7729940@N06/2354238160
You should check out this new free math games site: HoodaMath.com
[Reply]
Hey Katie,
Great blog! You have some very nice ideas here. I had somehow never heard of voice thread and am really going to push it to our admin. It also looks like your teachers are really making an effort to integrate your strategies. I’m sure the biggest obstacle you come across in your position is the dreaded technophile.
Please check out my ning I created over the summer. The International School Teacher- http://theinternationalschoolteacher.ning.com.
It’s dedicated to those of us in the field as a means of discourse, to share ideas, and to make contacts. I think you’ll recognize Melissa and Robert P. Ironically Robert is grading papers next to me and sends his regards. Once again, thanks for the informative blog.
Best regards,
Troy White
The American International School in Cyprus
[Reply]