Looks like the final countdown is on for the end of yet another school year! Since I know you're probably all busy marking, covering last pieces of curriculum, marking, planning field trips for antsy students, marking, writing report cards and purging that stack of papers from the back of your classroom, I suspect that noticing a little media release by SMART was somewhere down below item #20 on your to-do list last week.

Just a little heads up that SMART has a new iPhone app (available for download here), to help you be more efficient at reaching out for support when you need it.  

It's not rocket science, but it's a super helpful little program that let's you easily find the appropriate contact information when that solid green light on your SMART Board suddenly starts flashing red, or that bag of SMART Response clickers that you planned on using for a year end test are feeling the almost-June burn and being stubborn about connecting to your receiver.

Really handy for this upcoming "push to the end of the school year" where you're lucky to remember what your name is by the end of the day, nevermind where you stored that support sheet with SMART's tech support number.

And since I started this blog post off with a little phrase that has had me singing an irritating refrain from a well-known song for the past 20 minutes, here's a little something for you to rock out to for the rest of the day.

You're welcome.

Vanessa

I've decided that sometimes it's best for me to take a bit of a backseat and let someone else do the talking.  Check out this Ted Talk surrounding our perception of humour as critical thinking in education.

Vanessa

I'll admit it.  Part of being a bit of political junkie is listening to CBC radio from time to time [all non-Canadian readers can google it to bring you up to speed].  And on one of the programs that I was listening to awhile back, they were discussing a program called "Fold it" which is the feature of today's Fresh Look Fridays post.

Fold it is basically a computer game that encourages players to fold proteins in infinite numbers of ways to score points.  The creators of fold it then take these new structures and apply them to various research projects, hoping that one of them will be a brand new protein that could help prevent or treat diseases such as HIV, Alzheimer's and Cancer.

Crazy.

What I love about this site/download is that it not only is contributing important findings for science, but it also highlights certain principles that we, as educators, often know, but don't always model:

      1. 2 heads are nearly always better than 1

      2. Thinking outside the box is necessary for advancements in many areas.

      3. If you continue doing what was always done, you'll get the same results.

      4. There's a lot of value in "playing" at work.

      5. Sometimes being an expert on a subject can actually be a hinderance to your work.  Sort of a twist on the whole "can't see the forest for the trees" concept.  On the CBC radio program where I initally heard about Fold it, the interviewee was saying that some of their top "players" are a mechanic, a classical pianist and an engineer -- all people with little to no background in biology.

I have witnessed some pretty amazing problem solving happen with small groups of students.  I can only imagine what might happen if you pop this program up on your SMART Board and let a small group work on folding a new protein.  Who knows? They could be making a very valuable contribution to research!

Vanessa

The next long weekend is nearly upon us, and that means it's time to take a look at how the topic can be approached in class.  If you're looking for some of theose end-of-the-day/fill-in activities to use this week, fear no more.  I've found a short list for both the Canadian and American version of the holiday. For those of us here in Canada, check out the following resources (albeit scarce resources) regarding Victoria Day:

SMART Exchange -- a few SMART Notebook activities that are applicable.

Victoria Day website -- not super interactive, but a quick overview of what the holiday is all about.

And for our southern neighbours, here's a list of some activities for Memorial Day the week after:

SMART Exchange -- a list of applicable Notebook and Response activities.

Interactive Timeline that has been embedded in the Orange County Register

History Channel -- you can always rely on these guys for bringing you a variety of excellent content: videos, info, etc.

Happy Victoria Day/Memorial Day/Whatever other day other continents observe the next couple of weeks! In short: happy May long weekend!

Vanessa

A long, long time ago, in a school division far, far away, I was a member of a class whom took Calculus with a teacher and 10 students in the room, but 5 other students in 2 other towns.  The precursor to videoconferencing, it was a PictureTel unit that allowed us to interact with the other students, see their work and have them see what was being demonstrated on the board.  We chuckle about it now, as it seems a bit prehistoric -- we had a 20 inch TV (tube, of course) to see the students on, the entire unit was probably on the fritz just as often as it was working and the camera would zoom into the loudest noise in the room...so any outburst of laughter, and you were the embarrassed star of the show!

Fast forward approximately 6 years, and as a teacher, I was a member of a group piloting the use of a full videoconferencing suite at the school I was teaching at.  Boy, was it ever slick in comparision to what we'd used less than a decade earlier!  The focus of it's use had also changed: we were not primarily using it to deliver or receive curriculum, but rather to broaden our interaction and collaboration with peers and experts.

But where to find said experts and peers? There are a couple of sites that list videoconferencing opportunities, or just contacts that you can make to set up a VC on your own.

VC Alberta -- the original site set up to facilitate connections, it still houses a list of VC suites in K-12 around Alberta

2Learn2Gether -- branched out from the original VC Alberta, this is a current place to find upcoming VC opportunities, pd seminars, forums and events.

iCCAN -- connects nearly 60 communities in Alberta, with a searchable list of current sites.

These are just some available specifically in Alberta.  Of course, there are numerous other ones out there with links to areas beyond Alberta's borders.  Some are free, some cost money.  Personally, I'd highly recommend Social Studies teachers checking out Global Nomads Group (GNG) for some great VCs with a global focus.  Enjoy connecting, talking and brainstorming with people outside of your classroom!

Vanessa