Serendipity

Social Bookmarking…Deliciously Useful

rcoting — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:38:47 +0000

Teachers, you wanna know what’s in now? It’s called Social Bookmarking. According to Wikipedia, it is for internet users to share, organize, search and manage bookmarks of web resources. There is a famous website called Delicious. It’s for free and all you have to do is to sign in and start using it. It’s very convenient to use since you can log in wherever you are. As teachers, you would like to use this as one of your resources because there is an educational site where people post and you can use it in class. You can just export the link that you find useful to your students and tag it for their use. For example I found one video presentation about the General Properties of Acids and Bases which you would like to share it to your science class students. Start exploring and you’ll know what I am talking about.

RSS….Easy and Useful

rcoting — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:23:54 +0000

cutie

Teachers, listen to this, I have something to share. It’s called RSS for Really Simple Syndication. It is a way of subscribing to a website. As teachers, it’s very useful to have an RSS because we all want to be updated and stay informed. We can save a lot of time by not needing to visit each site individually. And what’s nice about it is almost all RSS deliver regular new web content. This is how you go about it, go to http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/feeds/index.html and search for the topic/s you are interested in and look for the orange symbol. Click and save it to your blog. Try it and you will see what I mean.

CLRN’S DIGITAL RESOURCES, What More Can You Ask?

rcoting — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:23:08 +0000

First of all, congratulations to you and to your school for that huge amount that was approved by the district. The next thing that you would want to do is use that budget wisely. I want to share what I’ve learned from our class and maybe you can go tell your supervisor or principal about it. This is called the CALIFORNIA LEARNING RESOURCE NETWORK or CLRN for short. Just go to clrn.org and you’ll see a whole compilation of software resources. I can show you around a little bit. Just go to Learning Resource (ELR) and you can either search for resources by standard or search for resources by subject/grade. You will be amazed by the extent of topics offered on every subject and every grade level. There are the newest and the most popular subject and the ones related to California Content Standard. Go ahead and see for yourself. Now if you are totally convinced, which I know you will, then go to your supervisor and spread the good news!

Cell phones in School: Flip them open?

rcoting — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:21:56 +0000

I recently read an article about cell phones rampantly and openly being used in school. Should cell phones be allowed in school? Personally, as a mom, yes! Cell phones should be allowed in school as long as they are turned off, put inside the bag and can only be used after school. Imagine if your child needs to talk to you for certain emergency matters but has no immediate way to reach you, won’t he freak out? What if it’s you who need to say something of importance too and you couldn’t reach him, how will you feel? School authorities are saying that cell phones are being used as a means of cheating, taking pictures that will be used in the future for harassment purposes and even drug dealing! They say that students are talking on their phones or texting rather than listening to the teacher or writing notes. Yes, these things are happening, but it’s just a matter of discipline and having a strict policy about this. Another thing is parents should cooperate with school authorities by talking to their children on when they can flip their cell phones open.

Wiki

rcoting — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:18:48 +0000

Wiki originated from the word wiki-wiki which is a Hawaiian term that means quick. As a matter of fact, it really is very easy and quick to use. It allows wiki users to create new page or comment on and change other users’ texts. And how can we teachers take advantage of this wiki? How can we put wiki into good use into our classrooms? One good thing is that Wiki has this advantage of enhancing group learning. Another is wiki can serve as a motivator to students. Usually, kids like their work being publised or shown to public and because of this, they pay attention to things that they normally don’t pay attention to like, spelling and grammar rules.
Teachers, there are ways for you to use wikis in your classroom. You can use it in Science fair projects, student portfolios, literature circles, organizing and conducting researches among others. It may seem complicated at first, but once you start the ball rolling, you’ll find it very helpful.

Microsoft Access…The Key to It

rcoting — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:00:50 +0000

Hi there, this is one thing that I learned from my computer class. It’s new to me and while it is still fresh in my mind, let me share some of what I learned to you. This thing is called Microsoft Access, and really, my title says it all! It’s the key to storing our data. I know as a teacher, you got a lot of stuffs to think of and to do. This is a database management system and it really helps you manage all your work. You might think that this is like Microsoft Excel, but it’s not, it is much more useful and has a lot of features which Excel does not have…and one thing that I learned is that Access has querries while Excel does not. Try it and i bet it will make your life more organized and less stressful.

IQ vs EQ

rcoting — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:30:38 +0000

Parents, what is more important, having a high IQ or a high EQ? Of course if having both high IQ and high EQ, then that’s the best.

According to the recent studies, students who achieve high scores in entrance exams had zero or negative correlation with their career success. More and more employers are realizing the importance of having an employee with emotional competence than an outstanding intelligence. They say people with high IQ usually display out- of-control emotions which can make them ineffective. They easily get upset and are not open to what others are thinking. They sometimes become illogical. While those with emotional maturity know how to express their emotions and know how to act. They have the willingness, the openness and self-confidence to develop and grow. They are mature enough to handle themselves and others.

So parents should start early with building their children’s emotional quotient if they want them to have a successful life, whether professional or personal. It is not something that can be developed overnight.

Too Much or Too Little?

rcoting — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:44:26 +0000

My daughter asked me to accompany her to the birthday party of her classmate today. It’s obvious that she asked me to go not because she like me to be there but because she needed me to drive her to the party. So, when we reached there, it’s a natural set up that she went to where her classmates were sitted while I stayed with some parents who also drove their children there. So when parents come together, what do you expect them to be talking about? Right, the conversation is always about some common topics…their children and/or the school. And that is exactly the case. I reached the table when they were at the height of the discussion about the amount of assignment the teachers give to our children. Some were complaining that their children have very few assignments and when they get home, they spend more time watching TV or playing computer than spending their time doing their assignment. A couple of parents find it just right and like it this way. What is too much and what is too little?

A recent study was made and they found out that the children are not burdened with their assignment. The study disagreed with some past reports that the amount of assignment has increased over time or that it’s more than what the students can handle. In fact, there’s a survey that showed 85% of the parents believe that their children are doing the right amount of assignment or sometimes even lesser.

For me, it’s not about too much or too little. It’s about whether our children are getting the most out of doing their assignment or not. Are these assignment really helping them learn or are they just being given for the sake of keeping them occupied?

A More Sophisticated Blog

rcoting — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:38:40 +0000

I’ve been posting for awhile and I just learned now that I can create a separate blog page. It’s a totally different page so once somebody opens your blog, they’ll not see all your blogs but some interesting front page! You can create to add more sophistication into your blog. It’s easy and it’s worth a try!

The Power of PowerPoint

rcoting — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:33:25 +0000

Power Kick!

It really amazes me how technology nowadays is so interesting and exciting. Try PowerPoint and you’ll understand what i am trying to say. Bring PowerPoint to your classrooms and you’ll see its power of transforming a boring class to an “upbeat” one. With all the features it has in it, lessons will never be the same again. When you creat slides, you can do as much as you want with it. Customize the way you like it and the way you think how you’ll get your students’ attention to your lesson. The animations are really cool and with all the sound effects that you can incorporate into your slides, you sure get a whole lot of woos and wows from your students! Editing is never a problem because the beauty with PowerPoint is that you’re the creator, so do as you please but just keep in mind how power ful PowerPoint is!