"We've Got Mail" from Idiazabal, Cordoba in Argentina!

Well our students have received their first emails from our friends in Idiazabal and I cannot wait until Thursday when they actually get their mail.  I'll spend the day with Marlyn and her students as they write their replies.  There's so much to learn about life in Argentina, I hope our students are as excited as we are!

It's probably a good thing that no one sees us as we Skye with Analia and Ayelen, we are like little children in a toy store!!  We talk and laugh and ask lots of questions. The time flies!  Before we know it, we've been skyping for 2 hours sometimes!  Along the way we've met both Analia's and Ayelen's family and taken pictures too!

Here are Analia, the computer teacher and Ayelen, the English teacher.  These two are the greatest, we are so lucky to have found them!! You've got to love how technology makes the world so much smaller!!

And here's Ayelen's family who joined us for a few minutes this evening!

Can you tell we are having a great time?

We also shot some video using Jing to capture the story of the Grand Opening of the new library at their school, Instituto Jose Maria Paz. Ayelen's uncle played a huge part in getting it funded through revenues from a book he wrote about his struggle through some very difficult times in Argentina. It's almost 5 minutes long and I'm having some trouble loading it but will continue to troubleshoot.  Keep your fingers crossed that I get it figured out.

Algebra and Real Life

Had to share this blog post!

"There are real-life applications for algebra, Patrick Honner writes in this blog post. In response to an essay that argued against the necessity of algebra, Honner offers common-core-aligned lessons on how algebraic concepts can be used to, among other things, tackle home mortgages, evaluate colleges and recalculate recipes."

Click here to read more about it!

Assessment and PBL - Great Ideas to Consider

The sharing of  information and ideas is a great way to learn and continue to grow professionally!  Check out this link a colleague shared with me from one of my favorite blogs, Edutopia.

  

Practical PBL: The Ongoing Challenges of Assessment

The Cuba Project

Who could believe that I would get a chance to visit Cuba, let alone return with the hopes of having our MHS students communicate with a high school in Havana?  Well it's true.  I did go to Cuba.  And I did write and deliver a handwritten letter to the Minister of Education for the Republic of Cuba.  My letter requested permission to correspond with students at a Aristides Viera Gonzales High School in Havana!  I should hear back from the Minister within the next 50 days or so.  In the meantime, I'm continuing to learn more about our neighboring island and plan to share my experiences/stories with some of our social studies classes in October!

More with Analia in Argentina!

Just got off of another Skype video conference call with Marlyn and Analia from Argentina!  It is so interesting to learn about life there in a small town, smaller than our school!  Can't wait for our students to start communicating!!  Here's a picture of the 3 of us Skyping!  Analia in her kitchen and the two of us in Marlyn's classroom.

Check out this town of about 1500 people. It's surrounded by farmland.

Maps & Graphs of Linear Inequalities

Check out this application for adding some real meaning to graphing linear inequalities.
Thanks to Jonathan Claydon at NHS!!

http://infinitesums.com/commentary/2012/9/23/linear-inequality-exploration.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

ePals in Argentina

Can't be more excited about connecting with 2 teachers in a tiny town in Argentina through ePals.  Marlyn Hernandez and I had a one hour Skype call with them last week to get the planning details down on how our Spanish III students will be emailing back and forth with the English and computer students there.  Sometimes communicating in Spanish and sometimes in English and eventually the students will meet face to face via Skype!.  We've got to get this going now because they have their summer break at the end of November and won't be back in school until March!

Kick-Off Rigor and Relevance Aug. 2012

Had a great time with our faculty as we began our journey through the Rigor & Relevance Framework and our five year plan, T-2-4.  Check out the action in the pics below.  I'm planning to chart our progress through time as we all gain more experience with the framework and implementation!

NHS Video Interview - Sideways

Just testing to see if I can upload a video I made on an iPad.
Note to self, keep the iPad in the portrait position so you don't have to look at videos sideways!
Size of the video file seems to be an issue too. Under 100MG works great!

This original video was larger than 100MG but I used Handbrake to convert it to an MP4 video which got it below the size limit!  Handbrake is a program that can be installed on teacher machines.  It is in the Kace software librbary but I had a tech person install it for me.