Like every morning at Merit, we jumped right in with awesome tools: Rushton’s Resources - Be sure to check out An Unusual Football Game. Mobile Devices – If you’re wondering about the differences between the iPad and Android Xoom, here’s a chart that Jeff and Ben created. Regardless of your brand choice, this Apple video provides [...]

I headed back to Foothills College this morning to start Week 2 of the fabulous Merit 2011 Institute.  Here are some take-aways from today’s sessions: Geocaching with Diane Mein – Loved starting the morning roaming the beautiful Foothills campus in search of geocached sites. Diane provided basic background information to get us started, and then [...]

I’ve just finished an amazing week of learning at the Merit 2011 Institute. I arrived with high expectations, based on knowing that Rushton Hurley would be at the helm, with an awesome team of teacher leaders – all equally excited about sharing tools, ideas, strategies for re-visioning the upcoming school year. I truly enjoyed every [...]

I keep returning to The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools, an article that came my way last week via a Tweet from Jackie Gerstein (one of my favorite online mentors). The article is written by Tina Barseghian and references an ISTE 2011 presentation by Adam S. Bellow, author of the Tech Commandments. [...]

I already knew when I saw Suzie Boss’s Ripped from the Headlines – Real Events Yield Relevant Projects listed on ISTE’s Wednesday session that I would be ending the conference with a bang. With Paul Allison (National Writing Project/Teachers Teaching Teachers),  Katherine Schulten (NYT Learning Network) , and Matt Baird (Science Leadership Academy) joining Suzie, [...]

I’ve been a long-time fan of Facing History and Ourselves, a site and organization dedicated to “helping classrooms and communities worldwide link the past to moral choices today,” so I was thrilled to find a seat in their Tuesday session: Ostracism and Bullying: An Online Case Study for Educators. If you’re not familiar with Facing [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve revisited the Library of Congress Teachers website, so I’m  attending this session to see what’s new (and as a way to remember my LOC friend and mentor Leni Donlan). Gail Petri is the main presenter and has already uploaded her presentation: Differentiation through the Use of Primary Sources. Activity [...]

Jane Krauss and Diana Laufenberg are leading  the Beyond Words: Using Infographics to Help Kids Grapple with Complexity session: “With digital data burgeoning, helping students make sense of information is more challenging now than ever. Infographics –visual representations of data- can play a critical role in developing students’ information literacy so they can make sense [...]