Fantastic Fridays: Friday, Oct. 1 "Thinking Outside the Box"

Fantastic Fridays: Friday, Oct. 1-- "Thinking Outside the Box". 

Standards, benchmarks, grades, and testing are all key components of the education system here in America and at IHM School. In all of the details and complexity of education, it's helpful to occasionally reflect on the "big picture". Our IHM Philosophy states, "We strive to develop lifelong disciples and learners intellectually, spiritually, physically, and socially recognizing varied learning styles in a faith-based environment". This week's posting focuses on the development of the lifelong learners here in our building.

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Letters to the Homebound. 

Marli H. encourages students to use our Word Processing software (Pages on the Macs, or Word on the Dells) to compose letters to homebound parishioners and their friend. Students who may struggle with handwriting appreciate the chance to communicate without embarrassment of their writing challenges, and the recipients appreciate the clear text! It would also be possible to create audio or video messages using the Macs, which could be emailed by a teacher, posted anonymously to a website, or burned to a CD.

2. Student Websites:  Thinking Skills and Saints
Students often ask "Can we have free time?" It's nice to take a break from the standard curriculum, but there are some awesome game-based websites which cultivate thinking skills. Try a few-- even 5 minutes can promote math and reasoning skills!

• http://www.schooltimegames.com/logic.html 
• http://playwithyourmind.com/brain-games/online-brain-games/word-games/

November is traditionally the month of the fabulous "Saint Projects"! Many students will be researching a saint online. Try the following websites!

• http://saints.sqpn.com/ 
• http://www.catholic.org/saints/ "Saints and Angels"
• http://www.loyolapress.com/saints-for-kids.htm Loyola Press "Saints for Kids"

3. Teacher Productivity Tools:Education Nation and Pocket Projectors

• "Education Nation": This week, Rockefeller Plaza was the site for an enormous, publicized "Interactive Summit" about the state of education in the US. Sterling Elementary, in NC, was one of the "spotlighted schools". You may access the copious materials available at http://www.educationnation.com/ . On the opening day of this summit, President Obama was interviewed, and made the touching observation, "Well, first of all, there is nothing more important than teaching. I genuinely believe this. And I don't know a teacher who can't look back and say, 'You know what? Here are so many lives that I've touched, so many people who I've had influence over,' and each of us have memories of some great teacher who steered us in the right direction" (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39378576/ns/today-parenting/ ).
• "Pocket Projectors": I have to admit, as a techie, that I am fascinated by these! Starting at under $200 (less than an LCD tv, and it will project an image up to 72" diagonal!), 3M is manufacturing small, portable projectors. Check them out! I can't wait to try these out in the classroom. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Pocket/Projector/

Finally, here's our video for the week. This Columbia, SC teacher discusses how technology has impacted learning in her classroom:

http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=8EF952F6-CCDC-11DF-8853000C296BA163