Google Teacher Academy NY

It's official! The next Google Teacher Academy will be held in New York City on February 15, 2007.

After a successful pilot program in Silicon Valley, CA, we're taking Google's FREE K-12 training program on the road. The Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.

50 educators from the NY Tri-State area will be selected to attend the Academy based on their passion for teaching, their experience as trainers, and their use of technology in K-12 settings. Applications for the New York event are due on January 21, 2007. NOTE: Each applicant is REQUIRED to produce and submit an original one-minute video.

Learn more about the program and the application process here. And please spread the word to anyone who may be interested in joining us!

BTW - My colleagues and I at WestEd jointly coordinate the Google Teacher Academy program with our friends at Google. Cristin Frodella at Google heads up their K-12 education efforts, and she's been fantastic to work with. It's her vision and hard work that make the Academy (and the ITM!) possible, and we're excited to take this professional development program to more regions in 2007!

ITM in the Top 100 Ed Blogs

The Online Education Database has listed us as one of
the Top 100 Education Blogs!





The list also includes a lot of our friends such David Warlick's Two Cents Worth, Will Richardson's Weblogg-Ed, and Steve Dembo's Teach 42, as well as our very own, Wes Fryer's Speed of Creativity, and Lucy Gray's A Teacher's Life.

For anyone eager to explore the Blogosphere, this is a great place to start!

Good thing you had nothing better to do over the Winter Break...

Cerf's Up: Design

Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf shares his thoughts on the process of "designing" in the 21st century.

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Downloads
> Quicktime MP4 (10 MB)

Windows Users:
right-click the link above and select "save link as..."

Mac Users:
"control" + click the link above and select "save link as..."

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Show Notes:

As one of the original inventors of the Internet, Vint Cerf is widely recognized as a leading thinker on how 21st century technologies are transforming our daily lives. Learn more about Vint on Wikipedia.

For more resources on "design", see the entry for ITM 3: Living in 3D.

ITM Extra: SketchUp

Aidan Chopra from SketchUp gives us an in depth look at SketchUp and how it can be used in the classroom.

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Downloads
> Quicktime MP4 (16 MB)

Windows Users:
right-click the link above and select "save link as..."

Mac Users:
"control" + click the link above and select "save link as..."

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Show Notes:

Our interview with Aidan Chopra on SketchUp was so good, we thought we'd release the whole thing! Isn't Aidan great? He can work magic with SketchUp. Learn more about Google's FREE 3D modeling tool at sketchup.google.com.

Also see the full entry for ITM 3: Living in 3D.

Season's Greetings

Even though we are all probably in the midst of the holiday rush this week, I’d like to point out a few activities that might be fun for your students and families. Woodlands Junior School in England has posted an online advent calendar, which serves as a teaching tool for Christmas traditions around the world. Also, check out an activity at Google Earth called the Google Santa Tracker and Toy Hunt. Download the .kml file from the aforementioned site and during the 12 days preceding Christmas, you can launch Google Earth each day to receive a clue about Santa’s flight path. Of course, you can always also track Santa at the famed NORAD site. Find lots of cool things to download and watch some celebrity video clips. I don’t know who half of these people are; perhaps I am seriously out of touch. Anyway, the tracking fun at this site begins Christmas Eve, so make sure to bookmark this site and return to it often. Not everyone in the world celebrates Christmas, and to find out more about various celebrations, visit the Earth Calendar, a site where you can browse holidays by religion, country and date.

As for New Year’s resolutions, if you’re planning on making one, here’s an idea from last year that might be worth replicating. If you’re a blogger, make a resolution and tag it 2007resolutions. If you search Technorati with that tag (a keyword), you’ll be able to read all the resolutions of other bloggers using that tag AND track them in your RSS reader of choice. Maybe you’ll be inspired by the ideas of others! (If you have no idea what I am referring to in terms of RSS and newsreaders, check out this article by Wesley Fryer for more information !)

Along the same lines, one my favorite sites is 43 Things and you can see my list of things I want to accomplish. At 43 Things, people list goals and dreams, sometimes sharing goals with others. Online communities form around these goals and people can swap information. 43Things also has a tutorial on using the site for making resolutions, too. Again, tags make it possible to search for inspiration and you can subscribe to RSS feeds. While you are there, check out their sister site, 43Places.

While exploring these fun activities on a personal level, think about how they could be potentially used in your classrooms. I believe that once teachers find personal meaning while using technology, that transfer to the classroom naturally occurs. For instance, using the treasure hunt motif of the Google Earth Santa Tracker, teachers could design thematic hunts for students. If you’re inclined to design web pages, perhaps the Woodland Junior School advent calendar might serve as a model. And finally, 43Things and 43Places might be used for getting your students to focus on goal setting and dreaming big.


Finally, to ITM bloggers and readers, I wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season. I look forward to learning more from you all in the coming new year!

iCards available here.