Do you use interactive whiteboards in your classroom? I just read an article on the Digital Education blog at Education Week that says the incorporation of interactive whiteboards and accompanying software improves student achievement on tests by an average of 16 percent. That’s pretty impressive.
I know our primary school is beginning to implement them in some classrooms. They haven’t adopted an online elementary curriculum yet, but they are looking at a few. Right now they’re using a combination of elementary school textbooks and online activities.
I can tell you that all of the programs Kendall Hunt’s new online learning platform, Flourish, are whiteboard ready. Our middle school math program, Math Innovations, which is available on Flourish, is LOADED with whiteboard activities. So if you’re looking for an online math curriculum and improved student achievement, maybe you should look at Math Innovations and Flourish!!
As an educational publishing company, Kendall Hunt must, of course, keep up with the trends and keep our business current. That’s the only way we can keep offering our outstanding high school science textbooks, elementary school textbooks, and higher education products.
Of course one of the biggest topics of conversation around here is social media. How and when to use it, who uses it, etc. We are on We Are Teachers, a great online teacher community, but what about students? Some people are involved in a discussion about whether the use of classroom technology, such as online math and science curricula, an online elementary curriculum and the like, reflects what students are doing in their lives outside of school. We know that social media tools are considered a distraction at schools, so much so that many schools have blocked access to Facebook, MySpace and other online communities altogether. And with the growth of cyberbullying, it can become a real safety issue besides.
The other side of this coin is the collaborative nature or team/community building potential of these applications. Students working together toward a shared result, and all the educational benefits that come along with that. So is there a happy medium? Has your school found a way? Tell me about it!
Yes, I am still alive. I know I've been MIA a bit the past couple weeks, but with good reason. I've been madly building content for the new, improved Kendall Hunt Web site (seriously, I've been like a troll in the basement just clicking away).
But it's finally done. You can view it at the same place:
http://www.kendallhunt.com, but you'll find it easier to navigate with improved functionality. You can now set up an account, check your order history, and when you come back and login after you've ordered the first time, you won't have to re-enter your shipping and billing info every time!
You'll find our same great products, high school biology textbooks, our online math curriculum, gifted and talented resources and all kinds of elementary education books. We'll be continually updating and improving the new site, hopefully incorporating more social media, more online learning opportunities and expanded professional development choices, so check back in often!
In the meantime, you'll find that some of the links in older blogposts might not work anymore because of the new configuration. I'll try to change some of them, but the search tool on the site is really intuitive, so if you can't link to something from an old post, just head to the site and give the search a try!
Wow, those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer have flown by faster than the Thunderbirds at the July 4th air show, haven’t they? The start of school is imminent, for you teachers I know many of you are already back. What’s new at your school’s this year? I’d love to hear the latest from any of you. As you pulled out your teacher edition textbooks or logged onto your online science curriculum, what new ideas have struck you? It seems like we’re always trying to find the next, latest, greatest, whizz-bang way to engage and motivate students.
How much do you use an online math curriculum? Maybe your district doesn’t have one yet, or maybe all your curricula are online. I’m doing a little research right now about whether online curricula work better for some students than for others, and I’ll let you know what I learn. But in the meantime I’d love to hear what you think, how you use your online elementary curriculum, and how your students do with them.
That first day of school isn’t far away now, is it? My son starts 5th grade this Fall, which, due to a very crowded elementary school, is the first year of middle school in our town. While he’s pretty excited, I’m of course suffering from, “Ack, my baby’s going to middle school, where has the time gone?” syndrome.
All this talk about middle school got me looking in depth at Kendall Hunt Publishing’s middle school offerings this week. We talk a lot about high school science textbooks and elementary education books, but we don’t talk all that much about middle school. But have you checked out our new Math Innovations program? It’s amazing. It develops mathematical habits of mind, teaching students to think like mathematicians. It improves the reasoning and critical thinking skills that are crucial to success in the 21st century.
Math Innovations offers textbooks, but is also a robust online math curriculum with an array of technology options to enhance and supplement the text. Three grade levels and five units per grade allows for customized alignment to state and district standards. Check it out when you have a chance!!
So we’ve decided to add a couple of new topics to our blog discussions here: math and online learning. Specifically in the online learning area we want to discuss what, if any online science curriculum you’re using, and what, if any, online math curriculum you have in place. As the PreK-12 world turns increasingly toward at least one online elementary curriculum and certainly as many as several high school programs online, I’m interested in your feedback on those you currently have.
And if you aren’t using any online curricula, do you want to? Have you looked at any? What’s keeping you from using them, or what’s the one thing that would make you jump into the online learning world?
Now, I also said we’d be talking about math, specifically grade school mathematics and gifted and talented math. Okay, math genius I never was and never will be, but I love math…the basic kind, anyway. And if you haven’t checked out our two gifted and talented math programs, Project M²: Mentoring Young Mathematicians, and Project M³: Mentoring 
Mathematical Minds, please do so. Project M² is geared toward Kindergarten through grade 2 and Project M³ is designed for grades 3-5. These outstanding, research-based, inquiry driven programs offer everything you need to implement a gifted program into your grade school mathematics.
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