A great professional development opportunity I attended in the past was Project Wild. You are given a great activity book filled with lessons that include the subject, grade and all expectations hit according to Ontario curriculum. I have used two of the activities in the book in class and they were a big hit. Check out their website!

Canadian Wildlife Federation

Great video on the importance of teaching social media skills to students. The importance of students knowing the responsibilities involved with using social media is no different than teaching manners in a classroom.

Social Media Video

Free Edu Tool: Piclet

 Piclet is a great tool for vocabulary building and can be used for higher concepts such as compare and contrast which is what I did in the link below. I contrasted the flower with the gun!

My Piclet Example!

Social Media in the Classroom

I couldn't agree more that using social media in the classroom is the future. Overall it engages the students far better than traditional methods. I particularly liked the use of App's by Xavier Lambert in his classroom to make Shakespeare far more engaging for the students. I remember dreading the Shakespeare unit every semester when I was in school, put it on an App that helps with translations and has animations I probably would have got a better grade!     

Professionally Speaking - Social Media in the Classroom

Interesting study involving blended learning with Math, huge gains using blended learning and technology, Blended Learning with Math

Another Dictator Bites the Dust

The power of social media can be seen with the passing of Kim Jung Il. How did I find out about this news topic? Through Facebook from friends actually living in Korea. NOT through CNN which is saying the South Korean military has been put on "High Alert" and  that the "Region is Tense" which makes it seem like the situation is ready to implode and a war could be imminent. But through my friends on Facebook "The mood is calm, Koreans are going about daily life like nothing even happened". The ability to connect with other around the world through Facebook or Twitter has given me firsthand knowledge of what's actually going on in Korea, rather than CNN which is trying to get the most hits on their website.  

Tech in the classroom

Here's an interesting article on tech in the classroom - Tech in the Classroom. Found it interesting that Samsung is attempting to "brand" classrooms in South Korea so that all students will have a Galaxy tablet which will replace textbooks in the long run.  A step in the right direction in my opinion!