On Bullying

Posted on March 12, 2013 by ESA Library

From The Globe and Mail: The Six Biggest Myths About Bullying that Parents and Teachers Should Know.

Active vs. Passive Voice

Posted on March 11, 2013 by ESA Library

Here is a cute one passed along by a colleague in BC.
I know that students always have difficulty with active vs passive voice. I have an example on the bottom of the peer-editing worksheet I use with my students which they may refer to while doing peer-editing.
This is so much better than the example that I have. No one will ever forget this…

700 Free Courses

Posted on March 11, 2013 by ESA Library

A Master List of 700 Free Courses from Great Universities…

From Open Culture (the best free cultural and educational media on the web… or so they say!)

... 700 Free Online Courses from top universities. Here’s the lowdown: This master list lets you download free courses from schools like Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, Harvard and UC Berkeley. Generally, the courses can be accessed via YouTube, iTunes or university web sites. Right now you’ll find 85 courses in Philosophy, 60 in History, 80 in Computer Science, 35 in Physics, and that’s just beginning to scratch the surface. Most of the courses were recently produced. But, in some cases, we’ve layered in lecture series by famous intellectuals recorded years ago. You can listen to these lectures whenever you want, and pretty much wherever you want. Here are some highlights from the complete list.

Skype in the Classroom

Posted on March 4, 2013 by ESA Library

I’ve been using Skype in my teaching practice in the Library this year. The possibilities are potentially endless. For lots of ideas and information about how to make use of Skype as a teaching tool, visit Skype in the Classroom.

Create an Effective Classroom Website

Posted on March 2, 2013 by ESA Library

No doubt you have already have a classroom website or will be required to create one in the very near future. Virtually every classroom teacher around the globe is being caught up in the development of this essential communication tool. Most of the early birds to this challenge went out and used providers such as Teacher Web. Now, more and more districts are implementing a provider that the entire district will use that provides continuity and uniformity. This obviously will have its benefits for staff development but may stifle creativity.

I started about 8 years ago with a variety of services, but about two years ago my district settled on one software host for us all to use. I dove in and decided to embrace the challenge to develop a comprehensive site that would be useful for students, parents, and teachers. Visit my classroom website to see how I have put many of the following ideas into place: The Borgeson Bunch. I would like to share with you some of what I have learned during that journey…