Resource Roundup

Our elementary administrative team is made up of a principal and two associate principals. Every week we send out an email newsletter, Thursday Thoughts, to our faculty and staff to keep everyone up-to-date on news, celebrations, upcoming events, etc. I usually take the lead in pulling together the information to include in Thursday Thoughts.

Side note: Thursday is the last day of the working week for us, and Friday and Saturday make up our weekends. Yes, it is taking me some time to adjust my internal calendar!

I try to get a head start on Thursday Thoughts by putting together an outline over the weekend. This usually happens during the time that I also spend catching up on Pinterest as well as the blogs that I follow. Today I decided to include some of the finds from my social media surfing into next week’s newsletter, and I thought an appropriate name for this collection would be Resource Roundup. I figured I might as well add it here at Use Your Noodle, too.

Resource Roundup

• Blog Posting: Boost Question Complexity
  Imagine you are designing an assessment. You have a set of questions that you would like to ask but you are struggling to find ways to elevate the levels of complexity and rigor associated with those questions. One quick and easy way to boost depth of knowledge and rigor levels is to simply add a picture to the question. This post is from a blog that I follow, Life of an Educator, by Dr. Justin Tarte.
• Free App: Notability iTunes App of the Week
  Notability, a note-taking app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, is Apple’s Free App of the Week. It’s available in the App Store free of charge for a limited time. (It usually costs $2.99. I suggest downloading today if interested!) The app includes full-featured handwriting, PDF annotation, word processing, audio recording and media insertion. You can add pictures from your photostream, web clips, figures and drawing. You can also sync with cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox. It’s a fabulous app.
• Infographic: 10 Trends in Blended Learning
  A new infographic, “Blended Learning: 10 Trends,” gives a snapshot on how making student learning more personalized, more engaging, and more collaborative is driving innovation. I love the way infographics tell stories and help us make sense of data so quickly.
• Webinar: Revisiting the Differentiated Classroom
  In this ASCD webinar, Carol Ann Tomlinson (author of The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners) will look at some key changes that have—or should have—an impact on teaching and learning, and she will take note of important ideas that remain at the core of teaching that is successful with the broad range of learners typical of today’s schools and classrooms. The webinar will take place on Thursday, May 15, 2014 from 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Dubai time. I hope I can stay awake for this one!
• Pinterest for Teachers
  If you haven’t yet jumped onto Pinterest, you might want to give it a try on this page. Created as a place where teachers can find and share creative ideas, you’ll find lesson plans, classroom decor ideas and more. No, I’m not addicted to Pinterest. I can quit anytime. Seriously. I can.

This list will appear in the May 8, 2014 edition of Thursday Thoughts.