Cedar Park Goes Social

                   

           

Social Media and Cedar Park!

Last month the district office opened up social media tools to schools and students.  This allows teachers to use social media to help teach and schools to use social media to communicate to friends and families.  Cedar Park was one of the first Elementary schools to create both a Facebook page and a twitter account.  We use these accounts to share information, pictures, and updates about what is happening at our school.  It is a fantastic way for friends and families to connect, comment, and post information about our wonderful school!

Please visit our homepage at www.district196.org/cp to “Like us on Facebook” and “Follow us on twitter”!

Imagine the Future of Learning

4 inspiring kids imagine the future of learning

from TED Blog by Jamia Wilson

After more than 13 years of research convinced him that children have the ability to learn almost anything on their own,2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra aspires to shape the future of learning by building a School in the Cloud, helping kids “tap into their innate sense of wonder.”
In the spirit of Mitra’s invitation to the world to “ask kids big questions, and find big answers,” we asked four brilliant young people to tell us: What do you think is the future of learning?
Here, their answers.
Adora Svitak, 15-year-old writer, teacher and activist

“One of the most powerful shifts in the future of education will come from not only the tools at our disposal, but from an underutilized resource: the students whose voices have for too long been silent. We’re increasingly pushing for seats at the decision-making tables, empowering ourselves by shaping our own learning, and taking on activist roles both online and off. To me, this signals one of the most hopeful signs of the future of education — the shift from a top-down, learning-everything-from-the-authority-figure approach to an approach characterized by peer-to-peer learning, empowerment  and grassroots change.”

Watch Adora’s talk to discover “What adults can learn from kids” »

Kid President, 10-year-old inspiration machine

“My older brother and I believe kids and grown ups can change the world. We’re on a mission with our web series, Kid President, to do just that. If every classroom in the world could be full of grownups and kids working together, we’d live in a happier world. Kids want to know about the world and about how they can make an impact. Kids also have ideas. It’d be awesome if teachers and students could work together and put these ideas into action. There should be lessons in things like compassion and creativity. If those two things were taught more in schools we’d see some really cool things happen.”

Watch Kid President’s inspiring “pep talk” for the world »

Ying Ying Shang, 16-year-old blogger, teen advisor to the UN Foundation, and SPARK Movement activist

“For most of my life, the media has been a constant presence, whether it’s in the form of a TV droning in the background or the billboards that whiz by on the highway or the never-ending barrage of sounds and images on social media. That’s why I know the importance of learning media literacy early. It’s so important that the power of the media be recognized, both in its capacity for sexualization and distortion of reality, as well as its capacity to be harnessed for good.

Also, it seems inevitable that future educators will turn to online learning tools, replacing blackboards with smartboards and note packets with YouTube videos. In the wake of this shift, analysis and critical thinking skills should be taught more than ever in classrooms.”

Read Ying Ying’s blogs about creating healthy media and ending the sexualization of women and girls »

Thomas Suarez,13-year-old app developer and founder of Carrot Corp, Inc.

“The future of education should include programming as a major subject. The class will allow students to collaborate on code, teach each other, and communicate outside of the classroom using services such as Google+. This way, students will think more during other classes, be much more likely to get a job and, most important, have fun.”

Watch Thomas’s talk and learn about how he taught himself to build iPhone apps »

Join the conversation! What do you think is the future of learning? Tell us in the comment section below.

Great Links! - Differentiation Through Technology

Using Technology to Differentiate by Matt Armstrong

I attended a TIES training on using technology to differentiate instruction for our students. It was a workshop full of great ideas and the instructor provided great web links that I wanted to share with you. I think we are all aware of the importance of differentiation and I encourage you to explore the links on the following Wiki to see what you can use in your classroom and with your students.

Differentiate 4 Learners Wikispace

CK-12 Flexbooks

One website that I wanted to to highlight is called CK-12. It is full of resources that are divided by subject and content area. They cover everything from Math and Science to English and Astronomy. When you select a topic, it gives you links to resources that may provide readings, study guides, exercises, mind maps, etc. Much of it is teacher contributed, so you can share what you do with your class. Everything that I have looked at so far is free. It would be a great resource for you as a teacher to gain background insight into topics. It could also be a great resources for students, especially intermediate, to use for researching or independent work. If you only try one thing from the differentiation wiki above, I encourage you to check out CK-12.

Writing Ideas from the MnSTA Science Conference

Writing Ideas from the MnSTA Science Conference

By Carole Velasquez

At the MnSTA conference, I attended a session called “Do It, Write It:  Integrating hands-on experiments with great stories and kids’ writing.”  It reaffirmed the work we are doing here are Cedar Park around STEM and integrating lessons throughout our day.  I walked away with some ideas that I plan on incorporating around writing and science.

Here are those ideas:

• Do It:  Paper Chromatography; Read It:  Purple, Green & Yellow by Robert Munsch; Write It:  4-fold book with direction boxes, Beginning/Middle/End exercise
• Do It:  Paper Snowflakes; Read It:  Axle Annie by Robin Pulver; Write It:  Go outdoors to collect words for a group poem
•  Do It:  Color mixing; Read It:  Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leoni; Write It:  Write directions in the boxes (see example)

_________’s Directions for __________________ Experiment

Words I need:

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Step 4	Step 5	Step 6