Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wednesday Web of the Week: UEN Climate Science


web address: http://www.uen.org/climate


What's the climate today?  We rarely hear that question and well we shouldn't.  Climate is not a short term or temporary effect.  Climate is the long term persistent pattern of effects.  This is the case whether you are talking about Earth's climate or the climate in a school or workplace.  The daily changes in temperature, precipitation, and other factors create a pattern.  That pattern is climate.

Climate science is the study of those patterns and they do change and alter over time.  Places that were once lush are now deserts.  Many factors contribute to these changes in the long range patterns.

These patterns are useful to understand and to learn about.  They can help us make daily decisions about how we behave and how to contribute to a healthy climate.  UEN has provided some well recognized and award winning resources for teaching about Climate science.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tech Tip Tuesday: Get Ready for Summer!

Summer is getting close, and for students that means making lots of plans about how to take their newly full minds and get them completely emptied out in preparation for the next school year.  For teachers it means refreshing and resetting and sharpening up for the next year.  Some suggestions for what to do this summer:  Get some computer training.  There are some great sites out there that will let you pay them sums of money to train you.  There are some wonderful college classes and here are some great free resources:

And if your are still looking for more try UEN's Utah Specific resources:

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wednesday Web of the Week: WebRangers

Web Address: http://www.webrangers.us


Every once in a while it's nice to find a fantastic site that has broad appeal to lots of age groups and lots of subject areas.  This site is just such a site.  The National Parks service haslocations of interest for any subject area: history, science, math, language arts, and all the rest.




The site features a login option that allows a learner to keep track of what they have done and create a virtual portfolio of what they have completed. Visitors are allowed to navigate around the various tools and use nearly everything that a registered user can.


One of my very favorite activities is the Abraham Lincoln Timeline which quizzes you about various events in Lincoln's life and follows him from birth to the White House and beyond.

You can also learn more about the National Parks located in Utah at: http://www.uen.org/utahnationalparks/

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tech Tip Tuesday: Create a Digital Professional Development Portfolio

We have talked before about how a digital camera can be a virtual Swiss Army Knife of usefulness.  Another way that I have recently found my Digital Camera to be useful is as a virtual recorder of my professional development.  I could really go full bore and scan each certificate I get when I attend a conference, presentation or event, but another way I can create a record of my professional development is to simply snap a shot of my name tag.  This creates a date stamped record of professional development I have attended. If I am using a smart Phone or a camera with geo-tagging, I can capture the location information all with a quick snap of my camera.  This also saves me space because instead of keeping a huge box full of name tags for nostalgic reasons, I can load them on to a web based album and still keep the nostalgia without keeping the clutter.



What creative ways can you think of for using your digital camera?  Give us your ideas in the comments.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Web of the Week Wednesday: Tech Learning

Web Address: http://www.techlearning.com/

When we need a review of a restaurant we have dozens of places we can turn. Books, same thing, you can even get reviews of local plumbers, but where do we turn to get insightful reviews of the latest ideas and technologies specifically for education?  Well one plac is TechLearning.  This online Education Technology Magazine has reviews, teaching ideas, editorials and opinions, and some of the best resources around for learning about teaching with technology.

When you create a login you can also sign up for email alerts and a free copy of the print magazine.  The print magazine has the same type of content as the website and often sends you back to the website for further information, polls, or to find live links referred to in the article.  Both the magazine and the website are supported by advertising  but it isn't too obtrusive and is all educationally focused and school safe.

To learn a little more about TechLearning try this link: http://www.techlearning.com/About_us

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tech Tip Tuesday: Do some Math!

Super Short post here because I don't know what to add to what Microsoft has said.  They are providing a desktop graphing calculator for computers.  Download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9caca722-5235-401c-8d3f-9e242b794c3a

Welcome to Jorgie Learning

I really am learning and this blog is maintained both as a record of some of what I am doing as well as a place for me to train and teach others about creating an online presence. So please don't mind the dust. We aren't remodeling we are learning!

Visit some of my other blogs or the other blogs I find mildly entertaining for a more polished feel.

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