Fordham RETC

Khan Academy Now on the iPad

Stephen — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:54:48 +0000

The Khan Academy has released an iPad app to access their collection of over 2,700 educational videos. The videos range from K-12 topics to adult education. You can stream all the videos and even download select ones to your iPad for offline viewing. You can also begin watching a video on one device and pick up where you left off on another (I was unable to test this functionality). Khan describes the App as follows:

Spend an afternoon brushing up on Statistics. Discover how the Krebs cycle works. Learn about the fundamentals of Computer Science. Prepare for that upcoming SAT. Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, learn how fire stick farming changed the landscape of Australia.

All of this is pretty impressive for a free app. You can download it now from the App Store.

Kahn Academy videos are already widely used in many classroom. This app will be a great addition. If you are unfamiliar with them, here is a bit from their about page:

The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We’re a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

Easter Break

Admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:41:02 +0000

Fordham University and the Fordham Community Learning Center will be closed April 5th to the 9th, for Easter Break. PLATO Credit Recovery classes will resume regular schedule on Tuesday, April 10th.

Haiku Learning

Kraig — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:26:57 +0000

We are running an online course using Haiku Learning’s LMS (haikulearning.com). Very easy to use, and they allow you to setup a free class. Adding content (text, images, audio, video, web pages, almost anything), polls, and even creating Wikiproject for individuals or groups of students to work on are possible with a few clicks, none of which use Java – or, I believe, Flash – so it is available on a range of tablets (I could access the system on my Nook, but not post a discussion.)

If you decide to buy, their pricing is reasonable. It can be tied into a Google App for Education domain. Support is great, too. So this is a good balance between a pricey course management system and setting up your own Moodle from scratch.

Free download of “Framework for K-12 Science Education”

Kraig — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:46:24 +0000

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

A report released today by the National Research Council presents a new framework for K-12 science education that identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all students should learn by the end of high school. The framework will serve as the foundation for new K-12 science education standards, to replace those issued more than a decade ago. The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering; all three are independent, nongovernmental organizations.

A PDF of the prepublication can be downloaded at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165

The Magic Catalog

Stephen — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:48:46 +0000

by Mike Haufe

We’ve mentioned FreeKindleBooks.org in the past. They are a great resource to download freely available content to your Kindle, iPad, or other ebook reading device.

FreeKinldeBooks now offers The Magic Catalog. This is an ebook simply filled with links to other free ebooks, put together in an alphabetical list. What makes it so useful is now you can download one book and find great content all from within your Kindle or iPad App. There is no need to search through all of Project Gutenberg, or deal with messy links and trying to download the correct file type. The Magic Ebook takes care of all of that. Linking you to the book you want, in the correct file type without any mess.

The Magic Catalog is available in two versions, a MOBI file or an EPUB file. If you have a Kindle, you should download the MOBI version. If you have an iPad, the EPUB will work with iBooks nicely. You can download both directly from your device without needing to download it to your computer.

(source: Free Kindle Books, TUAW)

Take Notes

Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:12:36 +0000

If you don’t take notes, we cannot re-set your mastery test. You will need to re-do the module and take notes.

Staff Meeting

Admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:27:52 +0000

The next staff meeting will be on Tuesday, April 5th at 6:30

Fordham Sports

Admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:53:33 +0000

Students in the 21CCLC Credit Recovery Program are invited to attend a Fordham University baseball or softball game. Physical Education Students can earn extra hours for attending games on additional days. To see the dates of the games and sign up see Ms. Claudio at the front door.

Puzzle Generator

dagustino — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:43:35 +0000

During our last professional development session, we created crossword puzzles as a way of developing alternative methods of assessing student learning. A great, free resource is ClassHelper.org, which can be reached by clicking on the image below:

This site offers a variety of puzzles that the user can design with specific content for various grade levels.

PowerPoint Game Templates

dagustino — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:25:50 +0000

At the most recent professional development session, three PowerPoint games show templates were shared: Hollywood Squares (for science), Jeopardy (for grammar review), and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (for history). Clicking on the image below will allow you to download the slideshow. After downloading, you can edit the text and images of the templates for use with varying grade levels and subject areas.

Games are an interesting and fun way to check for student understanding, a form of alternative assessment.