Digital Tools for PLC's

Here is a deck of slides I compiled for working with several of my schools on Digital Tools for PLC's. My inspiration/impetus for presenting this information comes from Bill Ferriter who recently presented here in Evansville on this very subject. Several of the examples shared are his. For anyone interested in this subject I highly recommend his blog, The Tempered Radical, and book Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year.

Storytelling One Second At A Time

Credit for this idea goes to @hughtheteacher

Making the Most out of Every Second

60 Seconds of Mesquite ISD

It's amazing how one simple shared link on a Twitter feed can open a tremendous idea for engaging students and utilizing technology in meaningful ways. @hughtheteacher shares how he has adapted a Montblanc campaign called Seconds of Beauty (sample below) into a storytelling project for his students. The original Montblanc campaign has resulted in truly beautiful videos created by combining sixty, one-second video clips into a one minute story.

2012 Election Education Resources

Obama photo by Pete Souza, The Obama-Biden Transition Project
Romney photo by Gage Skidmore

The 2012 Election is just weeks away and is generating tremendous interest among students and adults alike. This great interest is something that can be tapped by teachers in order to make content relevant and engaging to students, and there is certainly no lack of resources available to help do it. Our digital culture is changing the way elections are run, and providing opportunities for critical thinking and analysis of candidates' statements, positions, rhetoric and records. It is also providing opportunities to engage in the process of election digitally, through Twitter, Facebook, websites and other tools. What a tremendous gift to give a child - an opportunity to learn how to engage with information, evaluate it, reflect upon it, and formulate an opinion they can back with facts.

Here are some resources to help teach the 2012 election in your classroom, regardless of your content area. If you have some more I'd love to hear about them - please share them in the comments below!

• The New York Times
• Our Election 2012 Unit: An Overview
• From the website: In this unit, we’re putting teenagers front and center by having them consider these basic essential questions — questions central to any election — through the lens of a hypothetical situation in which the voting age has been lowered to 13. (1) Who are the candidates? (2) What are the issues? (3) How are the candidates trying to win the election? (4) Who do you think should win the election?
• The United States of Numeracy: The Math of a Presidential Campaign
• A presidential race is a gift to American history and civics classes. But it’s also rife with learning opportunities for math students, too. Here are 10 suggestions for looking at the campaign season through an arithmetical lens, using New York Times resources.
• FiveThirtyEight Blog - Provides information on the electoral college and predictions on where candidates stand
• The Electoral Map: Building A Path To Victory - Allows you to create your own scenarios with an electoral map
• Worksheet: Evaluate a Debate
• Worksheet: Television Commercial Analysis Chart
• Milestones: Mitt Romney - An interactive timeline of Mitt Romney’s life and career
• Milestones: Barack Obama - An interactive timeline of Barack Obama’s life and career

• NBC Learn
• Election Math
• Decision 2012 Election Timeline
• The Newseum is a 250,000 square foot “museum of news” in Washington, D.C. Its Digital Classroom team has created an interactive “Election Timeline” that utilizes NBC Learn videos to trace the major media moments of Decision 2012.
• Weekly Thought Starters