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6/11/2012
Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers™
Calling all dads! Not only are men in the minority on most school faculties, your special day (Father’s Day) can get lost amid graduations, last day of school, departure for the beach, and simple end-of-school exhaustion. During this week leading up to your day, drop a few hints about how the rest of us can make it a dream day. Thinking Teachers recognize the impact of good dads!
Thanks
Thank you to the many teachers who took time during crazy season to complete our user survey. We are pouring over the results now and will use your comments and data about impact to continue to improve TeachersFirst.
And the winners are...
Winners for TWO contests are being notified as this email goes out. We will announce the names of teachers who will be attending ISTE courtesy of TeachersFirst’s ISTE12 Thinking Teachers Contest. Winners will also be announced this week for Lifetime’s $300,000 Dream School Challenge cosponsored by TeachersFirst/The Source for Learning. It feels great to see happy teachers WIN something!
Speaking of ISTE
Most of you will not be in San Diego. Budgets have never been tighter. Why not join us for an hour to learn from those who are there. We will be sharing OK2Ask® LIVE from our booth in the exhibit hall at 3:30 pm Pacific time (6:30 Eastern). Click to watch from the link that will be top center on the TeachersFirst home page under News and Updates. Learn vicariously!
Summer Reading for YOU
The beach is calling. If you are like most teachers, summer is your chance to renew and refresh. The June installment in our Help I lost my library/media specialist series has you in mind. Find Summer Reading choices for teachers, including both books and blogs. Grab your mobile device or eReader and head outside for a new lease on your teaching life.
Dads and Olympics
If your school is still in session, find Father’s Day and other events on the Classroom Planning Calendar. Your students can also enjoy the building anticipation by exploring Resources for the Olympics. If you're looking for ways to make free, high tech gifts for Dad, why not try some of the tools from TeachersFirst's Special Occasion Ideas for the Classroom.
Summer sizzles with OK2Ask®
Registrations for the first of our OK2Ask July and August sessions will open soon. Get a jump on the hottest offering by reading the full schedule and descriptions now posted. This summer’s plans include many terrific topics, held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Read and/or download the full summer OK2Ask® schedule and mark your calendar for OK2Ask free, online teacher professional development (and certificates). Registration opens about a month before each session.
Summer dream
If your school paid for it, which would you most like to do this summer? Take a three credit graduate class? Attend a major conference? Develop new teaching materials? Vote for your preference in the weekly poll on the TeachersFirst home page.
Around the World Once a Week (#xw1w)
XW1W for the week of June 10: What do you do on the first day of summer break? Across the World Once a Week (XW1W) uses microblogging or blogging tools to share responses about everyday life from any corner of the world. The XW1W FAQ page explains it all. Make today’s instant communications an instant learning experience.
Featured Sites
This week in our Featured Sites, find tools both simple and sophisticated and several science wonders:
- Whales and dolphins
- Oceanic pollution
- Amazing animations of health topics
- Cute idiom practice
- Marvelous math idea
- Floor planning—applied math!
- A helpful eBook converter
- Tracing tweets way back
And more! Don’t miss our many additional recent additions from the link at the bottom of the Featured sites page.
May your week bring a chance to dream.
Your “teacher to go,”
Candace Hackett Shively
Director of K-12 Initiatives