The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle

Digital media has slowly carved out a niche for itself in our homes. We read, hear, watch, stream, create and share digital content virtually every day. For some of us, it has grown beyond a niche and become a 600 pound gorilla that dominates our home. As digital media has become a pervasive element in our homes, we are transferring it into our classrooms to become as visible an instructional tool as the chalkboard and the textbook.

A recent survey by PBS and Grunwald Associates shows that the majority of K-12 teachers are using digital media in their classroom to help them provide a more engaging, creative and collaborative learning experience for their students, especially those with different learning styles and abilities. They use many types of digital media and value games and activities that allow students to experiment and learn at their own pace. Teachers are increasingly using digital media to communicate and collaborate with their peers across the hall and across the country. The 2009 survey, which included pre-kindergarten teachers for the first time, show similar trends for the teachers of our very youngest learners.

This trend will never reverse itself and will only accelerate. Fasten your seatbelts!

- Diane

Order up at Fizzy's Lunch Lab!

The rising tide of childhood obesity and the need to help our children establish healthy eating and exercise habits is unmistakable. Even in homes where well-balanced meals are served and kids go outside to play on a regular basis, there is still a need for high quality resources that help teach children healthy habits now that will result in a lifetime of healthy behaviors.

PBS is bringing these resources to a computer near you! Fizzy’s Lunch Lab is an online collection of videos, games, family activities, and recipes that help parents teach their kids about nutrition, safety in the kitchen and physical fitness. Each month’s theme ties these topics together in an entertaining way that make the learning fun. Special web pages for parents and teachers help adults help kids use the online content effectively at home or in the classroom.

Visit Fizzy’s Lunch Lab soon and order up a serving of fun!

- Diane

Have you checked out Ohio on iTunes U yet?

Attention educators, teachers, and curriculum directors out there - have you checked out Ohio on iTunes U yet? If not, you really should!
CET features several funded multimedia projects on Ohio on iTunes U, including Vertices: Geometry Meets Art, Fitness Fanatic, and Joel’s Library Jam.
So, you might be asking, what is Ohio on iTunes U? Here is a brief description at http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/:

“iTunes U, part of the iTunes Store, is possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners. With over 200,000 educational audio and video files available, iTunes U* has quickly become the engine for the mobile learning movement. It puts the power of the iTunes Store in the hands of qualifying universities so they can distribute their educational media to their students or to the world.”

An Introduction to iTunes U
Watch the video

Also, take a moment to peruse the other offerings from Ohio on iTunes U, including ThinkTV Educational Services, Cincinnati Public Radio, and WOUB – Ohio University, just to name a few other Ohio organizations with content there. There is such a wide array of teaching tools, instructional media, and supplemental education material there that you will likely find just about any topic you are searching for.
You don’t even need to have an iPod or an iPhone to use iTunes and take advantage of these offerings – you can simply download the iTunes software for free to your desktop, visit the iTunes store, and find iTunes U at the very bottom of the page. Once you are in iTunes U, choose "Ohio" at the right and start checking out all the offerings. The video will play using iTunes software, which makes this very easy to use!
-Amanda

Right Tools for the Job

You can’t escape the negative economic news. Your students can’t either. The fortunate ones are aware of the belt-tightening going on in their home but aren’t feeling the pinch too badly. It is a story they hear in the background on the evening news or see as a headline in the daily newspaper. The less lucky ones are feeling the direct impact of a job loss or a home foreclosure on their family. They are sensing the anxiety and trying to understand what is going on around them.

Teachers see the need to help their students better understand the social and geopolitical implications caused by the local, national and international shockwaves of the economic tumult of today. They also see the need to create a historical perspective by exploring the last worldwide economic meltdown of the 1930’s, known as the Great Depression.

To help meet that need, CET has brought together many useful digital multimedia resources and organized them on the Internet for your classroom use. On our Learn About Our Economy webpage, you’ll find video segments from our Producing Ohio multimedia curriculum kit and links back to the Producing Ohio website where you’ll find lesson plans, a standards correlation chart and more resources appropriate for the middle school classroom. On our Economic and Financial Literacy webpage, you’ll find a wide array of video and text resources for use with teens and young adults.

- Diane

Celebrate Excellence 2009

For more than 90 years, the Hamilton County Educational Service Center (HCESC) has provided the public school districts in Hamilton County with numerous services related to special education, as well as professional development for teachers and administrators. HCESC focuses on innovation by bringing together educational best practices and leading-edge knowledge to serve 150,000 students and 10,000 educators in Southwest Ohio. The staff of nearly 500 education professionals emphasizes quality processes and proven implementation experience with a constant focus on what’s best for children. The result is better use of resources, better schools, better teaching, better learning, better students.

As the non-profit fundraising arm of the HCESC, the Hamilton County Education Foundation provides an annual scholarship to a teacher returning to school at the University of Cincinnati as well as a teacher returning to Xavier University for their Masters in Special Education. These scholarships are directly addressing the national shortage of special education teachers – in a sense the Foundation is “growing its own.”

The annual “Celebrate Excellence” event is the Foundation’s main fundraiser recognizing the “Educators of the Year” from more than twenty public school districts in Hamilton County. The event is unique in that it brings K-12 education, university, business and civic leaders together to pay tribute to this impressive group. Anthony Munoz, president of his own education foundation, (http://www.munozfoundation.org/) serves as Master of Ceremonies. The 2009 keynote address was presented by the Ohio Department of Education’s Senior Associate Superintendent for Educational Programs Marilyn Troyer.

The Foundation – like our business, culture and arts communities – hopes that by providing scholarships and recognizing our local educators, more of them will choose to live and work here. Characteristically uncomfortable in the spotlight – not uncommon for those who are called to their profession - educators focus on the success of their kids. Celebrate Excellence honors these dedicated individuals who daily serve as parent, priest, friend, advisor, protector, confidant, and teacher to our children. Their superintendent gives them the day off. They get to hang with Anthony Munoz. And best of all, they get to hear what their nominator says about them.
· “She has stretched the boundaries of education, teaching us not only how to sing but to be good people.”
· “The words ‘no’, ‘impossible,’ and ‘I don’t have time’ do not exist in his vocabulary.”
· “I plan on majoring in education, and she is the teacher that I am trying to model myself after.”

There is no greater praise for those who answer the call.

- Submitted by Robyn Carey Allgeyer

Veterans in our midst

To too many of us, Veterans Day is just another day off from school or from work. Or a day when our trash isn’t picked up or our mail isn’t delivered. Far too many of us give little thought to the sacrifices made by the men and women who have served in the armed forces, especially those who served abroad during times of conflict. The families of those veterans who didn’t come home or that came home with visible or invisible scars made sacrifices that often went unnoticed as well.

So, if many of us do not grasp the importance of our veterans’ contributions to our country, how can we effectively pass the story along to our children? How can we help them understand the true cost to the individual yet see how their collective dedication and selflessness has ensured our country’s survival?

Glen Grundei, now a retired teacher from Winton Woods City Schools, saw the need to teach his students more about World War II than the few paragraphs included in their history textbook. He wanted them to know more than some dates and names and locations. He wanted them to know something about the human side of the war. He wanted them to hear the stories, see the faces, and read the letters. So he built the Hall of Heroes in Winton Woods Primary North School .

While still teaching at Winton Woods Primary North, Mr. Grundei began collecting donations of artifacts from World War II veterans to become part of a permanent exhibit that could be used to help his students better understand the global conflict by learning more about the individuals who experienced it. Even after his retirement a few years ago, Mr. Grundei continued to maintain and connect the precious collection of personal items in the Hall of Heroes with students at Winton Woods Primary North and the larger community beyond.

You can visit the Hall of Heroes virtually (http://www.cetconnect.org/Education/Education.aspx) to see and learn more about the many veterans who have shared a bit of themselves and their story so that future generations would better understand our history.

Thank You!

- Diane

New Study Shows PBS Educational Content and Interactive Games Increase Literacy

There was a new study conducted by researchers at the Education Development Center, Inc. and SRI International which shows that preschoolers who participated in "media-rich literary curriculum" from the popular PBS Kids programs Super Why!, Between the Lions, and Sesame Street were better prepared for their first year of school than those children who did not participate. This is proof positive of the educational impact of PBS programming and interactive media on children, making them better able to find success in the classroom at the earliest, most formative stage of learning.

Here is an excerpt from this important announcement from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB):

“This study underscores the important and unprecedented work that the Ready To Learn initiative has accomplished by teaching these children the skills they will need to succeed in life,” said Pat Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB congratulates the producers, the teachers and caregivers, station staff and their community partners who have made the Ready To Learn initiative the success that it is today.”

Read more from the announcement here, or to find out more about the study, visit the Center for Children and Technology website @ http://cct.edc.org/ready_to_learn.asp

You can introduce children, especially 2-8-year-olds, to the content and games observed in this study at the websites for Super Why!, Between the Lions, and Sesame Street so they can be Ready to Learn in the classroom.