These are, in my opinion, curricular areas that are less considered when professional development is being planned throughout districts. And though our teachers were free to choose from other sessions—for example, “Connecting ‘STEM’ and Literacy,” “Integrating ELA and Science in K-2,” “Math as a Second Language,” and “Writing Curriculum for English Language Learners”—all of our specialists chose to come to the Technology sessions.

Our cohort chose to visit as many other exemplary schools as we could in order to see how they integrate technology into specialty areas. This allowed us to focus on sharing information across the district and beyond.

The importance of doing so cannot be overlooked. The simple act of talking to another person drastically increases lesson improvements and fosters new ideas. It also adds a sense of connectedness and vigor to personal teaching practice.

Being a single school, our ability to share ideas with like-positioned colleagues is somewhat limited. It is probably no less challenging for teachers in larger districts to share ideas, given schedule constraints. That said, having administrative support and encouragement of external professional development opportunities and school visits is key in improving all aspects of instruction.

We were able to set up school visits for both the Country School (Weston) and the Franklin School (Newton). At both of these sites, we worked with the Technology Directors to plan the trip and later, when we were onsite, with the Instructional Technology Specialists. Lee McCanne (Weston) and Eileen Keane (Newton) were very excited to provide this opportunity for both groups of staff. Kate Benson (Weston) and Angie Galbraith (Newton) were our tour guides.

Once on campus, the day typically consisted of classroom visits, a school tour, and a chance to sit down and discuss some of the great projects happening in the schools. At the end of the day, each teacher walked away with the contact information for his or her counterpart, the better to foster opportunities for future collaboration.

This year, we are continuing our half-day training theme. Though our cohort of teachers has rotated, we look forward to visiting the Meadowbrook School in Weston and Burlington Public Schools. Both locations are ideal for schools looking to learn more about Google Apps and/or iPad deployments and One-to-One strategies. The two Technology Directors at these schools, Jon Schmid (Weston) and Dennis Vilano (Burlington), also believe that sharing knowledge is crucial to the job of both teachers and administrators.

We’ve been lucky to have such wonderful opportunities to visit several outstanding schools the last two years. We hope that more schools and districts will join us on our path, whether they be private, charter, or public. We are privileged to live in a state that is at the forefront of educational innovation. Sharing our talents and ideas will only serve to make our state that much better, and our students that much more prepared for the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jared Perrine is the Technology Integration Director of the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School. He is the Coordinator of the school’s Adventure Club and co-founder of RunBoston Running Tours. He is also a proud member/committee member of 被女同桌调教成鞋袜奴脚奴 and a board member of METAA. You can follow him @wiredpilgrim.

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As educators, we have an exciting opportunity to lead our students toward reading materials that not only support specific curricular needs, but that also nurture in them a sense of discovery as they develop their individual identities as readers. We can do so in part by utilizing the interactive tools, targeted lists, and thoughtful resources freely available on the Internet, and by pointing our students and fellow educators toward those that are most useful.

The following list includes a few of the wonderful sites available for kids to explore book reviews, genres, and eBooks on their own. The list also aims to provide adults with resources to help students experience fulfilling reading experiences.

1. International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)

ICDL’s goal is “to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world.” This website’s collection of children’s books from around the world is available to read immediately online. The free website can be used for many purposes. For example, teachers can share with students what a book published in another country looks like. Teachers can connect an ESL student to books in his or her 《特殊的房产销售2》 language. Finally, teachers can share the site with parents as a way to have students explore books at 《特殊的房产销售2》 on an interactive and kid-friendly platform. Top access a host of multicultural books, a user can simply hover over “Read Books” and click on “Simple Search,” “Books by Country,” or any other categories of interest.
Recommendation: Elementary
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

2. Scholastic Stacks

Scholastic has The Stacks running in Beta form only, but the site promises to be a safe place for kids to hang out on the Internet. Each student can create a profile with an avatar and their favorites (but without personal information). Teachers and parents will be more interested in the “Book and Authors” and “Blog” sections. Kids can click their way through reviews according to genre and read blog posts about interesting subjects related to reading and writing. Though there is a games section, Scholastic focuses most of the site’s content on literacy: titles, authors, movies based on books, and writing. Beware: Though students don’t use their real names, they can “Friend” one another and connect with people they don’t know in real life. If Scholastic accounts are used, it’s important to conduct an Internet Safety mini-lesson.
Recommendation: Middle grades
http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/

3. Megamouse Books

Have you ever wished for a website with multiple short stories available for students to read in one sitting? Megamouse Books is that website. In 2012, Emma Laybourn, a British teacher and librarian, created the site in order to write and provide free children’s stories, series, and in eBook format. If your classroom or library has access to portable devices, you can download stories directly onto them through apps like Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, Kindle, and Nook. Best of all, for the site is simple for students to navigate on their own.

The selection is limited, but many stories are very short, and Ms. Laybourn appears to be writing new stories regularly. Shorter tales are available for younger readers, and older readers have the option of previewing content on the site before downloading for free or purchase (depending on the title).
Recommendation: Elementary grades 2+, middle grades
http://www.megamousebooks.com/

4. Reading Rants

Jennifer Hubert writes this site for teens, to teens. She is very clear that teachers, parents, and librarians are welcome, but she does not provide recommendations for a book’s intended age range or level, as she believes that teens should not be restricted by what other people say is the right reader for a book. Therefore, Reading Rants is perfect for teen readers! It offers reviews written with teens in mind and also provides numerous links for further exploration, whether to useful archived blog posts or author websites. One of the website’s best features is a list of links to other review sites for teens allowing readers to connect with many already-evaluated book review websites. Reading Rants is not flashy but it has a beautiful format and the purpose is clear: find a good book.
Recommendation: Upper middle grades, high school
http://www.readingrants.org/

5. KidsReads/TeenReads

The Book Report Network publishes a very useful collection of websites for different types of readers, including kids and teens. These sites feature reviews, author information, book lists according to series or interests, reviews of to-be-published books, contests, polls, and other subject-specific posts. Students will have fun exploring the site and easily accessing recommendations for books. Both sites (KidsReads and TeenReads) provide access to many genres and reading levels, this ensuring that myriad interests and needs are met. The content changes often and the contest and poll features give kids a reason to keep coming back to see what’s new. KidsReads sometimes offers age recommendations, but the majority of reviews simply offer the book’s length and genre as far as specifics go. Kids and teens will enjoy the tone of both websites and the ease of navigation.
Recommendation: KidsReads: Elementary, middle grades; TeenReads: Upper middle grades, high school
http://www.kidsreads.com/
http://www.teenreads.com/

6. Choices Reading Lists

For more than 35 years the International Reading Association (IRA) has turned to children, young adults, teachers, librarians and reading specialists for their opinions and feedback in compiling annual, annotated lists. Books are chosen among the recently published and selected based primarily on how enjoyable they are to students. The IRA produces three lists annually: Children’s Choices, Young Adults’ Choices, and Teachers’ Choices. All lists include books reviewed by readers representing regions across the United States; an appealing layout incorporating cover illustrations and helpful book summaries. Through these lists, the IRA aims to connect young people with pleasurable reading experiences.

Recommendation: Teachers, parents, student of all grades
http://www.reading.org/Resources/Booklists.aspx

7. BiblioNasium

BiblioNasium offers a visually appealing, user-friendly social networking environment for students ages 6–13 where they can create and share virtual bookshelves of the books they read, recommend, or plan to read. They can also write reviews and log reading progress. Although parents can also set up an account for their child, BiblioNasium enables teachers to set up a virtual community, which they can then use to keep informed of student reading progress and share recommendations or required reading with both parents and students. Teachers are encouraged to invite parents to join the classroom with a provided template for easy inclusion.

Recommendation: Elementary and lower middle teachers, parents, students
https://www.biblionasium.com

8. Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, offers lists designed to connect young readers with high quality titles organized to meet specific interests and learning needs. Lists topics range from sports, the arts and the environment, to more complex concepts, such as Sense of Place and Sense of Self, in which books listed reveal a physical setting that somehow relates to the internal journey of its characters. Each list (there are 50+) includes an introductory statement with details on the selection and organization of the list, recommended ages for each book, and links to cover art and thoughtful synopses.
Recommendation: Teachers, parents, and students of all grades
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/detailLists.asp?idBookListCat=7

9. Reading Rockets For Parents

The mission behind Reading Rockets, an organization funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education, is to directly target struggling readers and provide the necessary resources to help them flourish. The site addresses that mission in part by providing parents of young readers the opportunity to access exciting books as well as share with their children more than 100 interviews with authors and illustrators.

Teachers will find the site particularly useful as a recommendation for parents looking to help their kids become active readers. The Parents section of Reading Rockets provides parents of early elementary students with a user-friendly navigation of themed book lists, articles aimed at encouraging reading, and multi-media author interviews.
Recommendation: Early elementary parents
http://www.readingrockets.org/audience/parents/

About the Authors

Norah Connolly-Djemazi is the librarian at the Argenziano School (K-8) in Somerville, MA. She enjoys teaching students how to navigate this overwhelming digital age but her favorite thing is connecting readers with the perfect book that keeps them coming back for more.

Emily Lappen Rocha is the librarian at the Arthur D. Healey School (K-8) in Somerville, MA. She welcomes the opportunity to enrich learning through integrating emerging technology tools.

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We summer staff watch the annual building renovations with excitement and apprehension. Will all of these new “improvements” work like we hope they will? Will they be finished in time? Will our staff like them?

As we enter the last two weeks before school starts, we find ourselves wondering the same things about our new technology initiatives. For the most part, summer technology prep is about refining what worked from previous years and improving what didn’t. Much time is spent on tweaking the computer images so that teachers are comfortable navigating, ordering more wireless access points to fill in holes in the network, increasing bandwidth, and more of the same.

It’s a great feeling to help prepare a “just right” educational environment in which teachers can practice their art. But helping to shape this environment isn’t simply about refinement; sometimes it’s about trying something new. Much like our summer building construction, this is where both excitement and apprehension come in.

This summer we are excited about two new tools our teachers will be employing to assist their instruction in the classroom: Apple’s iBooks Author (apple.com/ibooks-author) and Thalmic Lab’s Myo (thalmic.com/myo).

iBooks Author is a free program offered on OS 10.7 and later that allows “anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks for iPad.” This tool will become even more useful in the near future when Apple releases the iBook app for its computer OS. This means that whether teachers use an iPad or laptops as their go-to computing device, they will be able to share their carefully designed eBook creations with students. Originally, our intention was for teachers to employ this great tool to create rich lessons teeming with images, movies, and authentic text. However, it became apparent early on in our summer trainings that what teachers were most excited about was the ability to produce student work with the tool.

In typical classrooms, iPads are used to find information and utilize educational 互换后人妻的呻吟晓红. This year, iBooks Author will allow us to utilize our iPads as publishing tools. In the past, teachers have had students type their work before printing final drafts. With iBooks Author, students can turn out a polished product and read it in a fashion more comparable to how a majority of Americans read—on a tablet.

The consensus among our teachers was that iBooks Author would be a fairly student-friendly tool with an interface similar to other native 互换后人妻的呻吟晓红. Many feel that the program will be easy to integrate into existing curricula. For example, students can type personal narratives or persuasive essays into Microsoft Word just as they are used to, and then iBooks Author will seamlessly insert the document in a chapter format of their choice. Our teachers believe that the ability to add multimedia while using a familiar, easy-to-use process and tool will interest students and provide them with incentive to complete their writing assignments.

The Myo is an alternative input device that “lets you use the electrical activity in your muscles to wirelessly control your computer, phone, and other favorite digital technologies.” We have historically favored the use of Apple’s mirror technology (to AppleTVs) in lieu of buying expensive and bulky interactive whiteboards, and the Myo moves us another step closer to a hands-free classroom. Imagine a rich multimedia lesson where the teacher wasn’t tied to the whiteboard and didn’t have to carry a device around the room—all for under $300 per room (AppleTV and Myo). Instead, the teacher wears the myo on his or wrist and is able to manipulate content on their machine from anywhere in the room.

The one-to-one laptop program begins in the Fourth Grade at our school. In these classrooms it is crucial that teachers model both procedure and product of the classrooms. It will be in these rooms that we will pilot the use of the Myo with our AppleTV/Elmo document camera carts.

While using the Myo, the Fourth Grade teachers will be able to walk around the classroom and interact with their computers from afar. They will be able to open and manipulate 互换后人妻的呻吟晓红 all with the flick of a wrist. They will be able to flip through presentations from anywhere in the classroom while monitoring students. When transitioning from one subject area to the next, they will be able to switch 互换后人妻的呻吟晓红 with a simple hand movement. One teacher commented that finally, the technology in her classroom would be able to transition as smoothly as their students.

Our staff is very excited about using both the Myo and iBooks Author tools in the coming school year, though questions remain. Will these pieces of technology work like we hope they will? Will prep for the two pilots be finished in time? Will our staff enjoy using the two tools within the classroom environment? We remain optimistic.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jared Perrine is the Technology Integration Director of the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School (banneker.org). He is also Coordinator of the school’s Adventure Club (bannekeradventures.org) and co-founder of RunBoston Running Tours (runboston.org).

Courtney Collins is a second grade teacher at the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School. She grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from Providence College with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education. She taught at a public school in Hawaii before returning 《特殊的房产销售2》 to New England where she currently lives with her fiancé Josh, a fellow teacher, and their dog Maggie in Roslindale, MA.

Jennifer Van Hill is a fourth grade teacher at Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School. She has taught third, fourth, and fifth grades in 《特殊的房产销售2》 and South Carolina. She has a Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Georgia and a Master’s degree in Technology in Education from Lesley University.

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