I just got back from the NCTM National Conference in Indianapolis. This math is for all teachers teaching grades 5-12. It is so difficult in these grades to provide meaningful yet engaging lessons. Visit www.youcandothecube.com and get information on how you can use our favorite chilhood puzzle, the Rubik’s Cube, in your math classroom. The activities are aligned with national standards as well as 21st Century Skills.

In this blog post, Glenn Wiebe suggests two web sites that are beneficial for the teaching of history. See his original post here: http://historytech.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/best-of-history-web-sites/

The Internet is wonderful for entertainment and interesting content, however, not every site, including YouTube, is necessarily a safe site for kids nor accessible in most school settings because it’s hard to filter out the bad content from the good. Luckily, many of the children’s sites across the Internet publish their own version of YouTube, dedicated exclusively for kids and no one else. Go to Educational Freeware  to find ten video websistes that are safe for kids as well as a lot of other free resources http://tinyurl.com/3ojkvb6 .

Welcome to the 25th annual TIE Conference. It is a pleasure and a privilege to have you
participate in the region’s largest professional development event for
educators. I encourage you to engage fully in all the conference has to offer –
nationally recognized keynote speakers, stimulating breakout sessions, a
technology-rich exhibit hall, fabulous prizes and much, much more.
TIE 2011 reflects the finest in education/government/business partnerships. Through
cooperation and collaboration with schools, professional education
organizations, the South Dakota Department of Education and technology vendors,
TIE leaders have shaped an event that helps participants discover the potential
of sound technology integration for all learners. The result is a conference
that features a wealth of relevant technology-related information for today’s
schools and communities. The enthusiasm and commitment of TIE 2011 partners is
reflected in the breadth and depth of conference activities.

TIE Twitters and we invite you to join in the conversation. You can find a Twitter
TIE-torial here http://xrl.us/twitterattie.
You can follow all the happenings at TIE when you follow the #TIE11 Twitter hashtag.
On Monday evening you are invited to a “big screen” premier of TIE’s latest DVD
production, Digital Citizenship: Breaking the Culture of Mean. Please join us
at the Elks Theatre in downtown Rapid City from 5:30 to 6:30pm for a viewing
and a panel discussion.

At the conclusion of a great TIE Conference, attendees are energized and anxious
to bring ideas and strategies back to the classroom. Often we have so many good
ideas, we lose track of them. This year conference resources from presentations
will be posted on the TIE Conference Ning http://tieconference.ning.com.
We’ve encouraged presenters to post presentations, handouts and links so that
you can easily access them after you return home.

Thanks go to a host of people, organizations and agencies for the success of this
event. Also, as the Director of TIE, I offer a special thanks to the TIE staff
members that work diligently throughout the year to ensure that the TIE
conference is a powerful and productive experience for participants.

TIME  published a thought-provoking article “Zero Tolerance, Zero Sense.” The article looks at two scenarios in which young men violated a policy and were punished according to the Zero Tolerance policy. One situation is commended; the other has a different sort of ending. Read the article and see what you think. Does your organization need to rethink its Zero Tolerance policy?

This blog post from Glenn Wiebe caught my attention. He starts out discussing the passing of Dick Winters:

Major Richard “Dick” Winters was a retired paratrooper who served as a captain in Easy Company, 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division and made famous as part of Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 best-selling book Band of Brothers and Tom Hank’s 2001 HBO mini-series of the same name.

Wiebe goes on to explain the importance of primary sources in education. I agree completely but what I focused on what his question “What stories are we asking our students to write down?”  This question lends itself to education as a whole. Just what are we asking our students to do? Let’s be clear about this and make sure we doing relevant work with them. We need to make conscious decisions when planning lessons and assigning work. Mostly, we need to make sure they are meaningful.

Read Glenn’s post: http://historytech.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/dick-winters-oral-history-and-personal-primary-sources/

We have now posted the keynote speakers here in our TIE-Lights blog.  If you aren’t excited enough about this year’s 25th Annual TIE Conference perhaps you would like to know that we are giving away 25 iPads!  That’s right, 25 iPads!

If you haven’t had the time to submit a proposal for either an in-depth session or a breakout session, time is limited. The deadline is January 9th.  We would love to have you present. Our teachers and administrators in this state are certainly some of the finest anywhere and we encourage you to share your knowledge.

Either way, make your plans to join us in Rapid City April 3rd through the 5th! It’s going to be a great time!

Kevin Honeycutt

I am especially excited about our closing keynote speaker, Kevin Honeycutt.  I met Kevin in June of 2008 at the San Antonio ISTE Conference. You can’t help but be drawn into Kevin’s enthusiasm. He is highly energetic and deeply committed to education. Kevin is funny, talented, creative, and engaging. I am so very lucky to consider myself his friend.

Kevin is not a stranger to South Dakota.  He has been brought here from Kansas on a number of occasions to present. He really enjoys his time in our area!

Kevin’s bio from his website, http://kevinhoneycutt.org/, is as follows:

I grew up in poverty and my family moved a lot, always staying a step ahead of the ramifications of my father’s behavior. As I witnessed education around the country I collected powerful experiences that still influence my conversations and my work with educators. I spent 13 years teaching art K-12 in public school and spent summers leading creative, adventure camps for kids for 17 years. For the past three years I have hosted a creative learning site called ArtSnacks  (http://artsnacks.org) where I share 150+ ten minute drawing videos that support standards curriculum. This social “learning” network is my Petri-dish for learning to mentor teachers and students in virtual environments.

I am currently serving my eighth year as a Technology Integration Specialist at ESSDACK, an educational service center based in Hutchinson, Kansas. At ESSDACK I research and develop programs with a strong passion for making teachers and learners comfortable with technology. I am a school board member in the town of Inman Kansas and am currently serving in my second term. I feel that one of my most important roles is to help vision what the future holds for learners and to help move my district in right, new directions. During my classroom tenure, I developed project-based approaches to learning that infused technology and problem solving skills. I created a film program for kids and developed it into a fully functioning curriculum at the high school level.

I have developed; online safety, anti-bullying and cyber-bullying curriculum which I share with parents, teachers and students around the country and I certify instructors in my curriculum. I continue to work with schools to develop innovative, engaging curriculum to better prepare learners for the world they will face when they graduate. I am passionate about meeting the needs of at-risk learners and I work with kids in juvenile detention, developing approaches to re-engage the “lost” learner. I travel the country speaking at conferences and working with educators at the grassroots level and I like to promote a “tradigital” approach to education.

I like to bring my personal life experience and a sense of humor to the mission of helping prepare 21st century learners!

With a little encouragement, I am willing to bet we can convince Kevin to host a digital jam for us.  If you have never played an instrument on your cell phone, iPad, or computer, this is something to behold!  Be prepared for fun!

Have you ever wondered if  video games, texting, and social networking tools are good for kids? Are they learning or lazy or anti-social? In a PBS interview, science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at what happens to teenage brains in a rapid-fire, multi-tasking world of technology and gadgets. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/

Jim Lehrer interviews Miles O’Brien, and others in the next video http://tinyurl.com/2f5tduy. Two of the students are 16-year old twins, Rakhee and Anika Jain who are part of a 20-year study being conducted by the National Institute of Mental health to better understand how the adolescent brain develops and adapts to doing all the different technological gadgets and internet tools – often at the same time.

Other notable contributors to the interview are Dr. Jay Giedd, neuroscientist at the National Institute of Mental Health; Dr. Gary Small, psychiatry professor at UCLA and co-author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind; Marcel Just, neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University, and Daphne Bavelier, professor at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at the University of Rochester.

Steve Hargadon

Tuesday morning at the TIE Conference we are honored to have Steve Hargadon keynote for us.  I get excited about his belief that 21^st century learning will be “learner-driven.” Mr. Hargadon is involved with many aspects of education and I have to admit I am a big fan of his.

 His bio from his website, stevehargadon.com, is as follows:

I am the Social Learning Consultant for Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate, founder of the Classroom 2.0 social network, host of the Future of Education interview series, and co-chair of the Global Education Conference (links below). I pioneered the use of social networking in education, particularly for professional development. I blog, speak, and consult on educational technology, I run the Open Source Pavilion and speaker series for the ISTE, CUE, and other edtech shows, and I am the organizer of the annual EduBloggerCon, OpenSourceCon, and the “unplugged” and “bloggers’ cafe” areas at both ISTE and CUE. I am also the Emerging Technologies Chair for ISTE, the author of “Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education,” the recipient of the 2010 Technology in Learning Leadership Award (CUE), and a blogger at www.SteveHargadon.com. I have consulted for PBS, Intel, Ning, Microsoft, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, CoSN, the U.S. State Department, and others on educational technology and specifically on social networking. My wife and I have four children.

April 5^th please plan on attending this keynote. I have no doubt it is going to leave us all wanting more!