changED

I’ve Moved

Angela Cunningham — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:18:44 +0000

While this blog and all of its links will remain active, I am no longer posting here. Instead, please visit my new blog located here.

Posted in education

Permission to Fail

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:09:50 +0000

How often do we give ourselves permission to fail at something? What about our students?

Posted in inspiration

The History Lab

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:33:25 +0000

In my last post, I shared that one of my goals this year is to help my students become more active participants and contributors in my classroom. And while I have several ideas of my own about how to make this happen (Class Notebook, Delicious), I have also spent a great deal of time searching for what others are doing. So I started bookmarking websites only to decide that there has to be a better way.

What I really want is a database that includes all of these great ideas in one place. One that I can search for inspiration or use to share and collaborate with other social studies teachers. And since I couldn’t find such a site (at least not one organized in quite the way I envision it), I decided to create one, the History Lab.

My hope is that social studies teachers can use the site as a resource for project ideas. At the very least, it will grow into the database I was hoping to find as I add more of my finds in the coming weeks.

Posted in collaboration, technology

Taking IT to the Next Level…

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:00:01 +0000

While I haven’t quite worked out all of the details yet, THIS is what I want for my classroom:

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For more information on Technology in the Classroom, try the following resources:

Posted in inspiration

What’s in the Widgetbox?

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:47:22 +0000

I’ve spent most of the last week setting up my class website in order to get it ready for students on Friday (more on that later). In doing so, I’ve spent a great deal of time playing around with Widgetbox looking for fun gadgets to drop into the sidebars of the site. And I’m impressed. While I can’t guarantee that it is truly the “World’s best place to find and make widgets,” I can say that is my favorite.

First, I was able to make a couple of customized widgets in less than ten minutes, complete with tabs for Twitter accounts, Delicious bookmarks, and news updates from NPR and CNN. And while my final products required a Pro account ($29.99/year), I could have accomplished similar results using a couple of different free widgets.

In addition to allowing you to create a customized widget, Widgetbox also offers a number of free pre-made widgets perfect for educators. Among my favorites are:

General Education

English

Mathematics

Maths-Whizz Scientific Calculator

Science

Social Studies

It is important to note, however, that free widgets often run ads (I never ran across anything inappropriate for students) and that Widgetbox does not play well with WordPress.com.

And, as always, I’ll add widgets to the list as I find them so feel free to leave a comment with your favorites.

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For more educational widgets for your website, try the following resources:

Posted in technology

Mark Your Calendars!

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:35:22 +0000

The annual K12 Online Conference provides the opportunity to participate in a first rate conference from the comfort of your living room…for free. From December 7-11 and December14-17, forty presentations will be posted online at the conference blog allowing viewers to participate in both real time and on their own (I watched recordings of the 2007 sessions while standing in line to vote last year).

Sessions that I am looking particularly forward to include:

Building on Analog Success with 2.0 Technology with Kelley Connolly
Bridging History Using Web 2.0 Tools with Robin Beaver
Organizational Learning and Technology Collide with Ben Grey
Probing the Possibilities of a Paperless Pedagogy with Jason Neiffer
Building a Web 2.0 Culture with Paul Curtis
Ways of Working with Chris Betcher
Nurturing the 21st Century History Teacher with Thomas Daccord
Googlios: When Google Apps Meet ePortfolios & PLNs with G. Alex Ambrose
Remixing in the Classroom: Engagement for History Students with Neil Stephenson
Thriving in a Collaborative Web 2.0 Classroom with Thomas Daccord

Be sure to check out the entire conference program to find your favorites.

Posted in prodev

BCHS 2009 Homecoming Parade

Angela Cunningham — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:52:08 +0000

BCHS Cougars: Towering above the Competition

Posted in photos

Start a Discussion on an Edu Ning

Angela Cunningham — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:22:24 +0000

Once again, I am reorganizing the tabs above and thought that this information deserved a permanent home. And as always, I will continue to add sites as I find additional examples so feel free to leave a comment with your favorites.

General Education

Classroom 2.0 – Steve Hargadon
Content Literacy – Roland O’Daniel
Discovery Educator Network – Steve Dembo
EduBloggerWorld – Steve Hargadon
The Educator’s PLN – Thomas Whitby
Flat Classrooms – Julie Lindsey
The Future of Education – Steve Hargadon
The Global Education Collaborative – Lucy Gray
iConnect iLearn in the 21st Century – Kevin Honeycutt
Make IT Personal – Valerie Becker
Ning in Education – Ning
Seedlings – Bob Sprankle
UDL4All – Lisa Thumann

Art Education

Art Education 2.0 – Craig Roland

EFL Education

EFL Classroom 2.0

English Education

AP English – Dawn Hogue
English Companion – Jim Burke
NCTE Ning – NCTE

Mathematics Education

Mathematics 24×7 – Rashmi Kathuria

Science Education

Molecular Forces – Marta Toran
Teaching Science 2.0 – Eric Brunswell

Social Studies Education

I Teach Social Studies – Angela Cunningham
NCSS Network – NCSS

Technology Education

Google in Education – Dorit Eilon
The Interactive WhiteBoard Revolution – Chris Betcher
VoiceThread for Educators – Mark Carls

Posted in collaboration

Professional Development Meme Update

Angela Cunningham — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:32:19 +0000

No surprise…I’m a bit behind in getting to this. Nevertheless, here it is:

My Goals

Rework my class websites (here and here) so that they better compliment one another, allow for a deeper understanding of class content, and create more opportunities for collaboration both in and beyond my school. Look to the Maine Holocaust Education Network as an example of what can be done.

I am actually quite proud with how my iClassroom Wiki has shaped up. It has a nice, clean look and allows students…and their parents…to access class materials and updates. Students have even started building their own encyclopedia on the site. The iClassroom Ning, however, has not been touched. I can’t get past the fear that we will walk in one day and find it…and all of our materials…blocked by the District filters. I have requested a hosted WordPress blog as a replacement (in May), but I’m still waiting for access to it.

Learn more about Google Apps for Education and VoiceThread.

I am getting more and more comfortable with Google Apps and plan to introduce them to students as soon as they are officially trained to use District email, allowing them to register for their own Google accounts. And students will use Voicethread to encourage discussion in their encyclopedia entries.

Connect with other educators…
- Online via Twitter, I Teach Social Studies (which I have seriously neglected lately), and all of the other Ning Networks that allow me to lurk in the shadows.
- Face-to-Face via NECC

I continue to contribute to Twitter and a variety of Nings on a semi-regular basis. And NECC was an incredible experience that has encouraged me to attend other conferences this year, including NCSS in November and EduCon (hopefully with my principal) in January.

Read (at the very least) Outliers, Reinventing Project-Based Learning, Grown Up Digital, The Global Achievement Gap, and Disrupting Class.

I finished both Outliers and Tipping Point, but got a bit stalled on the rest.

In my spare time, I also plan to add links to the various pages on this blog, annotate the bookmarks I’ve saved via Delicious and Diigo, and redesign my freshman social studies course in order to make more connections with the other teachers on my team.

I did start tagging my social studies bookmarks with Kentucky Core Content numbers, but never got around to properly annotating them all. I guess it’s still a work in progress.

What are the chances of adding an extra couple of weeks to this summer so I can actually make it to the end of this list?

While I didn’t complete everything on the list, I am still proud of what I did accomplish this summer.

I am actually quite proud with how my iClassroom Wiki shaped up. It has a nice, clean look and allows students -

Posted in prodev

TED Talks with Sir Ken Robinson

Angela Cunningham — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:51:14 +0000

This has been around for nearly 3 years, but I think it’s worth watching again.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

We all have a vested interest in education.
We are preparing our students today for a tomorrow that we can only begin to imagine.
Creativity, the process of having original ideas that have value, is as important in education as literacy.
- Our current education system strips children of their creativity.
- We must encourage risk-taking – in our students and ourselves.
The entire structure of education is shifting, requiring us to rethink our views on intelligence.
- Intelligence is diverse.
- Intelligence is dynamic.
- Intelligence is distinct.

Posted in inspiration