African Storybook website #5: Some lovely new stories

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a one of those updates.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This project is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.
This week the African Storybook Project sent out a newsflash showing their most recent story updates. We have displayed them below with links to their spot on the website.

Have you visited http://www.africanstorybook.org/, the home of the African Storybook Project (ASP)? It is a truly amazing, local website.  The stories, which are all for the younger grades,  can be read on site or downloaded to print and use. Their current collection of Featured Stories on the website home page is a great reflection of the ASP's growth and diversity after just one year in existence. The aim of the African Storybook Project is to provide Creative Commons-licensed stories for the children of Africa in all the local African languages as well as the languages of wider communication used on our continent.

Do click on the links below and read the English versions of their  latest offerings shown below:

Anansi and Turtle http://goo.gl/RrwRhV	A very tall man http://goo.gl/CRLB3R
'M'e Maneo's pumpkin http://goo.gl/GLrlmH	Hen tricks Eagle http://goo.gl/59fRhl
Elephant and Chameleon http://goo.gl/b3Smco	Colours of a rainbow http://goo.gl/qZez62
A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai http://goo.gl/HiuaCd	The animals dig a well http://goo.gl/lJIlxn

Blended learning - visit classrooms via video

In recent times I was doing some research on blended learning for a course I was writing for an educational company. I was really excited after watching a number of different online videos on the topic which I had discovered on various sites; and want to keep a record of them on my blog. Blended learning, to me, sounds ideal because students learn at least in part through the delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace (Wikipedia).

One interesting thing that I discovered about blended learning is that there are many versions. The one that appealed the most to me is called  the rotation model. It is said to be the most popular version. and the most common one used in the primary school classroom. This is likened to the ‘Learning Stations’ pedagogy that many primary school teachers use in their classrooms. Here are five really interesting videos that allow one to visit a blended learning classroom and see it in operation.

1. Blended Learning in Spokane Public Schools
An increasing number of Spokane Public Schools teachers are using Blended Learning, which employs online learning, student pacing and small group instruction to give a more personalized educational experience. Learn more at www.spokaneschools.org

2. What Blended Learning Looks Like in the Classroom
This video was made in Ontario, Canada. Ontario has been engaging in a province-wide collaborative research study on effective technology-enabled teaching and learning practices. This video shows the reflections of the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board.

3. Blended Learning: Making it Work in Your Classroom
This is one of the Edutopia videos in their Blended Learning page on their blog. It shows a high school classroom participating in Blended Learning instruction. However the focus of the video is that it illustrates how a school-wide approach to blended learning allows teachers the flexibility to define and implement online instruction that meets their students needs.



4. Redesigning the school day at KIPP LA using a Station Rotation
This video has been uploaded by the Khan Academy. It shows a second grader class doing their blended learning programs throughout the day.

5. Aspire ERES Academy: Blended Learning in Action
Aspire Public Schools is one of the nation's top-performing large school systems serving predominantly low-income students. Aspire seeks to transform underserved communities and it has a track record of success, with 100% of graduating seniors accepted to four year colleges. Always pushing the boundaries on innovation in teaching and learning, Aspire decided in 2011 to introduce blended learning into two of its schools. This video showcases blended learning in action at Aspire ERES Academy, a K-8 school located in Oakland, CA.



6. Blended Learning in Spokane Public Schools
An increasing number of Spokane Public Schools teachers are using Blended Learning, which employs online learning, student pacing and small group instruction to give a more personalized educational experience. Learn more at www.spokaneschools.org



All these videos highlight some of the benefits of blended learning, the main ones being that students are engaged, they can work at their own pace and get help from peers as well as from the teacher,  and they can direct their own learning.

I love Google #39

Every week I like to keep a record of what educators and others are posting with regard to Google.  Here are 11 from this week.

Great Google posts this week #39

View more lists from Fiona Beal