Welcome to the official  MSTL wiki    

If you are currently or have been involved in any of Nazareth College's MSTL Summer Institutes, or school year seminars, this wiki is yours!  The links below may be useful in acquainting yourself with what wikis are and how to use them.  Please check out the "Our wiki could" page.  Let's start building a super resource for K-6 teachers.

Our MSTL Institute focuses on helping teachers become hands-on educators, empowering them to  engage students in the proces of learning mathematics, science and literacy using technological innovation. We kick things off each school year with a four-day wo

rkshop and then continue developing community throughout the year with supper seminars, fresh wiki content, teacher mentor coaches and lots of networking!

Here are hot web sites that we think you might enjoy!

See our latest research results!

Biology/Science

Beverly's Pick of the Month

From the Free Technology for Teac

her e-newsletter:

Wild Sanctuary - Sounds of Nature on Google Earth

Wild Sanctuary is a great resource that allows users to listen to the "sounds of nature" as recorded around the world. Wild Sanctuary offers Google Earth and Google Maps files of placemarks containing audio recordings from around the world. Each placemark features a recording of the sounds of nature (birds, waves, rivers, mammals, etc.) made at that location.

Applications for Education
Wild Sanctuary's "sounds of natur

e" maps are great examples of how Google Maps or Google Earth can be used in a science class. In the lower grades Wild Sanctuary's maps are good resources for students to explore on their own. In the upper grades Wild Sanctuary's maps are a good model for students to use in creating their own maps. A fun project that would get students outside of the classroom and get them using technology would be to have students make recordings of their local environment and include those recordings on placemarks on their own maps.

Here are som

e related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Using Maps in an Elementary School Math Lesson

Carol's Pick of the Month

How the Turtle Got Its Shell; How the Bat Got Its Wing: Evolution through Developmental Changes

Lecture by Scott Gilbert of Swarthmore College, who wrote the premier developmental biology textbook for college courses

Free Attendance For High School Teachers and Students At the 59th Annual American Society For Cell Biology Meeting in Philadelphia

Pass it on!  See the flyers below:

http://ascb.org/meetings/pdf/hsflyr2-2010.pdf

http://ascb.org/meetings/pdf/FreeHSTeacherReg-2010.pdf

Commenter-at-Large

Lynn's Pick of the Month

Are you a teache

r with 5 years or less experience?  Then you can apply for the NSTA New Teacher Award.  You will receive $1000 towards expenses to attend the NSTA national conference this year.  There are often less applicants than the available awards!!!   Check it out!

http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx#simmons

K-12: Target Field Trip Grants

http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-031880

The Target Field Trip Grants program provides funds for K-12 field trips in order to give students throughout the country the opportunity to explore more of the world outside the classroom. For the 2009-2010 school year, 5,000 grants of up to $800 each will be awarded to educators, teachers, principals, paraprofessionals, and classified staff who are employed by accredited K-12 public, private, or charter schools. Types of eligible field trips include art, science, and cultural museum visits; community service and civic projects; and career enrichment opportunities. Funds may be used to cover trip-related costs such as transportation, ticket fees, resource materials, and supplies. Online applications will be available from August 5 through November 3, 2009.

There is never enough money, no matter where you teach!  Sign up for a monthly newsletter that alerts you to grants big and small. 

http://www.education-world.com/a_admin/grants/additional_grants.shtml

Fabulous Oppo

rtunity!  ExxonMobil Teachers Academy!

Teachers can learn more about math and science teaching.  This is a chance for third-through-fifth grade teachers to be selected for a chance to go to a cool math and science camp next summer. The 2010 Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a camp where teachers go and learn about math and science through fun ways! The 2010 camp will be one week long and teachers will learn with other teachers from across the country. Best of all, it's free for them.  The web site asks for students to nominate their teachers, so ask someone to nominate you, or nominate yourself!  It's supposed to be a really fabulous experience!  Check it out at http://www.sendmyteacher.com/send_your_teacher.php

Literacy

Thank you Tracy and Nicole for the Photostory information. the Supper Seminar was great. Check out our results by clicking on Fall 2010 Supper Seminar in the navigator. I would love to see what teachers do with this, text, and voice. A great opportunity to improve read alouds, fluency decoding and comprehension. If you have not tried this, check it out, and share with us!

Mathematics

Nicole's PIck of the Month

Plus Magazine is a free online publication dedicated to introducing readers to practical applications of mathematics. Plus Magazine strives to reach that goal through the publication of mathematics-related news articles, podcasts, and mathematics puzzles designed around "real-life" scenarios.

Heather's Pick of the Month

I had mentioned blogging and wrote a page here about it, but I just found a great resource for new bloggers:

Resources for K-12 blogging

(And here's a recent post on a blog I really like about Why to blog with More Follow-Up here).

Technology

Tracy's Pick of the Month

Do you ever need help with Word, Excel, or PowerPoint? How about tips for surfing the net for specific information? The following website has tip sheets for some common used software and applications. You can download them from the website and print them out. The nice thing is they are in color and could be laminated to keep close at hand by computers, either for your own use or your students. Check it out!

www.makeuseof.com/tag/14

Questions about MSTL at Naz?