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Common Core Is Bringing Change
Today, I attended the Arkansas Dept. of Career Ed. Business and Marketing Technology Conclave. The goal was to discuss key questions about how Common Core will affect career education in Arkansas–what adjustments we will need to make. My table, table 25, had a wonderful discussion. I was awed by the discussion we had. We talked […]
Posted in: Reflection
Teaching Vocabulary
August 24, 2010
Most of us have read the research that says giving kids lists of words and having them learn and spit back definitions doesn’t work. It doesn’t grow kids’ vocabularies. Not really. I’ve read the research (and agree with it), but I still struggle with devising an organized system for teaching vocabulary. I like order–at least […]
Posted in: Projects/Lessons, Uncategorized
Tweaking Mini Laptops for the Classroom
August 19, 2010
I’ve just started my second year with a classroom set of Asus eeePC’s. I don’t know how I ever taught without them! I spent some time this summer researching applications to install that would make them a better tool–particularly for literacy. I thought I’d share the list. Google Chrome: We used Internet Explorer all last […]
Posted in: 21st Century Learning
Starting a Learning Journey
July 26, 2010
I’m blessed to be working with a group of colleagues from my school, collaborating in our 21st Century Learning Community (21clc). We are beginning year two together. This year, we’re undertaking a book study of Reinventing Project-Based Learning. We’ll be merging our district 21Things course with the book study, exploring several digital tools we can […]
Posted in: Reflection
Testing BlogJet
June 28, 2010
I just read (can’t remember where) a blogger explaining how he uses BlogJet, which allows him to blog even when he doesn’t have internet access. Sounds interesting. I’ve downloaded the application and am giving it a spin. Here’s the pre-written message from BlogJet: I have installed an interesting application – BlogJet. It’s a cool Windows client […]
Posted in: Blogging How-To
Teacher Inquiry Teams
June 22, 2010
I’ve just concluded a session at Arkansas ASCD conference, hearing Charles DeBerry, principal at a Harlem school. He explained one of the key tenets that has helped them improve to a grade “A” school: teacher inquiry teams. DeBerry described how teams of teachers meet regularly to review student work, focusing on a key target skill. […]
Posted in: 21st Century Learning, Uncategorized
Google Maps and More
October 12, 2009
I just discovered two awesome tools, and my mind is reeling with possibilities for my students. Google Maps allows anyone to create a customized map with placemarkers that, when clicked, launch a pop-up box complete with text, links, images, even videos. Think of all the novels or short stories where setting is prominent, especially novels […]
Flickr Trial
October 2, 2009
fortsmith_minis Originally uploaded by Lisa Huff I’m trying to see what this looks like when I use the “blog this” feature of Flickr to publish a photo that I’ve annotated. I’m wondering if my annotations will be visible. We’ll see!
Posted in: Uncategorized
Teaching How Diction Reveals Tone
September 16, 2009
Teaching students to dig deep into a text can be challenging, especially when today’s students aren’t regular readers. Since school started four weeks ago, I’ve been trying to inspire mine to establish a daily habit of reading and to read deeply. Today, we tackled diction and tone. I began the lesson by having three students […]
Posted in: Projects/Lessons
Classroom Redesign: It’s Finally Happening at My School!
June 9, 2009
I was perusing my blog this morning, reading through past posts, and I came across this one I wrote in January of this year. I had been silent on my blog for some time prior to that post, silent because I was teaching English full-time and trying to rally my district to embrace a major […]
Posted in: 21st Century Learning, Classroom Redesign
JustRead! 
June 16, 2011
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