New Twitter, ETC11 Thoughts, etc

Some additions since my last post:

1. I have fallen into the trap of Twitter, and I must admit, I love it.  You can follow me @bennettscience.
2. I’m at the EARCOS Teacher’s conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia this week and I just finished a Mastery Learningpresentation for the first time outside of YISS…great response.
3. New ideas on tracking student progress using QR codes (thanks, Jeff Utecht for the seminar) that would allow me to go mostly paperless tracking students (scroll down).

I presented Mastery Learning and the Reverse Classroom at EARCOS and I had a great response from the international educators that came.  Lots of good thoughts and feedback and I’m looking forward to networking with interested people.  Always feel free to e mail me with thoughts or questions.  Another great site is the Teacher Vodcasting Network NING site (think private Facebook).

Because of the response I’ve gotten, I’m going to be adding a new tab on this blog that will serve as a repository of resources I’ve put together.  I’m all over the place right now and I’d like to organize the presentations, videos, thoughts, etc, into one, easily accessible page, so I’ll update this again when that is done.

In the meantime, here are some links in case you lost yours:

1. Mastery Learning Part 1/3 (YouTube)
2. Mastery Learning presentation slideshow (PDF format)
3. My website
4. Bennett Chemistry YouTube Channel

The other big thought I’ve had today has to do with QR Codes.  If you don’t know what a QR code is, think about it when you’re walking around if there is print advertising present.  They are little black and white boxes (see left) being added to print media that can be scanned with any smart phone and provides instant digital information about the ad or even about where you are in the city.  These are huge in Seoul right now and they’re spreading across the world.

Anyways, Jeff Utecht, from International School Bangkok, led a session on producing custom QR codes to be used in the classroom.  The simplicity is amazing and the potential it can have.  The first thought I had with QR codes is checking off student objectives in a given unit.  If I post codes for each objective, I can check with them and then they can scan the custom code and send me a tweet or even an e mail so I have a digital copy of their work.

I’m going to try to work this in my next unit and see if the addition helps or if its something that needs to be implemented at the beginning of the year.  You can follow my thoughts on Twitter (@bennettscience) as I begin to work this out.

Cheers!