Time Warp Video at Kopernik

Time Warp Video - Grades 5-7
Mon. Jan. 16, 2012, (MLK Holiday), 10am-3pm
Time Warp Registration
Students will use digital slow-motion video to reveal split-second events that occur in the blink of an eye. Students record catastrophic events such as a free-falling egg smashing to bits and see falling water in shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflow motion. Participants then simulate lunar impacts and document it by frame-by-frame video capture to analyze the projectile motion of these violent events. We will also record model rocket launches in slow motion. Students should bring a flash drive to take the videos they created home.
See http:/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifexamples of slow motion rockets
Slow Motion Rocket launch - Under Powered Launch!
Slow Motion Model Rocket Launch from Kopernik Observatory

Tips for teachers on managing the challenges of tech integration

Elementary computer teacher Mary Beth Hertz offers suggestions for educators who may be struggling in their efforts to incorporate technology in the classroom. There are many challenges to be faced on the way to success, and teachers should be candid with students when trying new ideas, learn from failures along the way, and remember to revise and reteach as necessary, Hertz writes. Click HERE to http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifread more.

Incorporating technology into project-based lessons

Instructional technologist Andrew Marcinek offers his strategies for using project-based lessons to teach digital literacy to students. Marcinek lets students demonstrate understanding of classroom topics using videos, websites or blog posts, which can help students practice critical thinking and analysis, discern reliable and false information, and use technology to share their findings. Click HERE to read more. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

How news articles can help teach Common Core "text structures"

The writer of this blog post suggests ways in which teachers can use news articles to teach students about "text structures" -- compare-contrast, problem-solution, cause-effect -- that are part of the Common Core Standards. For example, stories tracking the effects of an earthquake in Japan or the Occupy Wall Street protests feature key terms and phrases such as "for this reason" and "consequently" that illustrate cause and effect. Click HERE to read more.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

January Programs at the Waterman Center

Little People Big People Pre School Program - Animals in Winter

Saturday, January 28th 2-3:30 PM

Explore nature with your little one in Waterman Center’s Little People Big People Program for 3 and 4 year olds at 403 Hilton Road, Apalachin. In January, come and discover our local animals in winter. We’ll look for animal tracks along our wintry nature trails, play a hibernation game, read a story and enjoy a track-stamping craft. Please dress for the weather as part of the program will be outdoors.

Pre-registration is recommended. (Child must be accompanied by an adult.) $2.00 per person for members of Waterman Center; $3.00 per person for non-members. Call 625-2221 to register or for more information.

Snow shoe and Cross Country Ski equipment rental Rent cross-country ski and snowshoe equipment at Waterman Conservation Education Center, 403 Hilton Road, Apalachin. Rental hours are 10 AM – 3 PM, Monday through Saturday, snow permitting. Equipment is for use on the Waterman Center trails. Call ahead to ensure the equipment you need is available. Call 625-2221 for more information.

Sally Guydosh
Waterman Conservation Education Center
403 Hilton Rd, Apalachin, NY 13732
607-625-2221

How teachers can establish two-way communication with parents

Parents can be an important resource and can give helpful direction to teachers about how their children learn best, writes Syracuse, N.Y., educator Kevin Mixon. To establish effective two-way communication between teachers and parents, Mixon offers suggestions for eliciting parents' feedback during phone conversations, with surveys and through visits to students' homes. Click HERE to read more.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Ideas for using student data as part of teaching practice

Edutopia consulting online editor Rebecca Alber in this blog post suggests ways teachers can use student data as a resource for their teaching practices. In the classroom, teachers can collect student data as formative assessments through exit slips, quizzes or a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, Alber sughttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifgests. Teachers can use data from students' cumulative files to gain a better understanding about their lives, while testing data can be useful in setting individual student goals and creating student groups, among other things, she writes. Click HERE to read more.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

New Kind of Learner

Broadband, Social Networks, and Mobility Have Spawned a New Kind of Learner
By John K. Waters
December13, 2011
Students are different today because of technology. Every educator knows this, of course, but this change is about much more than agile thumbs, shriveling attention spans, and OMG'd vocabularies. According the Pew Research Center, the combination of widespread access to broadband Internet connectivity, the popularity of social networking, and the near ubiquity of mobile computing is producing a fundamentally new kind of learner, one that is self-directed, better equipped to capture information, more reliant on feedback from peers, more inclined to collaborate, and more oriented toward being their own "nodes of production." Click HERE to read more.

Commissioner King

NYS Education Commissioner John King addresses state-wide Teacher Center Directors and Policy Board members at their "December Dialogues" Conference held in Troy, NY, December 1 and 2, 2011. The Common Core Learning Standards, data-driven Instruction and the Teaching Standards were the focus of there dialogues.