Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Today is Earth Day - here are some resources for teachers



Earth Day, April 22nd, is a great time to talk to your students about the environment. 

Earth Day was started in 1962 as a way to bring attention to environmental issues. As polution increases, and the environment is continually affected by humans, it is a great time to get our students thinking about environmental issues. 


Here are some resources you can use with your students:


Green Cities Campaign

Earth Day Networks sitehttp://www.earthday.org/greencities/about/



Google Earth Day Resources
#mybeautifulearth https://plus.google.com/u/0/explore/mybeautifulearth
great photos of our earth.

Home
National Environmental Education Week - Resources for Environmental Education Week. This site has an entire section with resources for educators that includes curricula, quizzes, professional development and more. 



Home
Earth Day Network - this is another great resource for teaching about the environment and Earth Day. The educator resource page has lesson plans, Green your School guide, grant programs and more to help educators. 




Science Museum Climate Science Info Zone - information and resources on climate change, carbon footprint, and more. 



Think Green from Discovery Education - Think Green is another great free resource from Discovery Education that contains lesson plans, videos, and activities for teachers to use in their classroom. The resources are sorted by grade level and are interactive and educational. 

You can also go to the Think Green Resource Page to search for more resources by grade, topic, or resource. 


Discovery Education, Siemens STEM Academy also has some great resources. 

Every classroom can, and should, talk about Earth Day and the environment. We all need to help make sure that the Earth will be a healthy, viable, place for generations to come. It's also a great way to incorporate STEM topics into any classroom and relate STEM topics to the environment. 

English classes could write about the environment, including persuasive essays and letters on different topics. 

History classes could look at the history of Earth Day and the Environmentalist movement, along with the history of different environment events. 

Science classes can delve into the science of the environment, energy resources, energy production and more. 


What do you do for Earth Day in your classroom?


Some More Environmental Resources

Discovery Education Dawn Junior Wildlife Champions-free lesson plans about oil spills and wildlife

The Road Ahead - resources on electricity generation from Discovery Education

Discovery Education Turfmutt - environmental science lessons

25 Free Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery News - science news

Disney Planet Challenge - project based environmental contest with resources






Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Great list of app based on task you want students to accomplish




I found this great list of apps and tech tools that are organized based on the task you want students to accomplish. It was out on  Twitter and I can't find the original tweet. What do you want to do...?There's a tech tool for that. pic.twitter.com/kWFciWylLP


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Meeting Organization with Evernote




Meetings, meetings, meetings. They are a necessary evil. But, you can make them more organized and productive by being organized yourself.

I use Evernote as my main work (and personal) tool. For meetings, it is indispensable. Here's how:


  1. I clip the meeting/appointment slot from Outlook into Evernote. This has the invitees/attendees, agenda, topic, time and date, etc. 
  2. I then add any additional information and relevant files, along with links to other notes in Evernote. This way, everything related to the meeting is in one place.
  3. I use a template for meeting notes (see below) and copy it into this note. I will add questions I have before the meeting and then use it for the meeting itself. 
  4. I tag the meeting note for easy searching later. 
  5. I can take notes on my smartphone, tablet, or laptop or Chromebook and access all meeting info.
This lets me have everything I need for a meeting in one place, and makes it easier to find the information later.

You can also share the note with others after the meeting.

Meeting Template

Date: 
Topic: 
Objectives: 
Attendees:

Notes: 
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  •  
  •  
Questions to ask:
  •  
  •  
  •  


Action Items:

  •  
  •  
  •  





Related:

Evernote for Educators Resources

My Workflow as CIO - includes heavy use of Evernote

Another great feature of Evernote - integrated in Outlook

Keys to running Effective Meetings

Taking organizing and planning lessons from Ben Franklin - great tips for educators too




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