A fellow TRT in my district shared with me an email that she sent to her whole staff about blogging during the summer months as a way to try blogging. What a great idea! Here are the resources from her email:
Traveling anywhere this summer and want to keep a personal record of your experiences? Try Travellerspoint, a personal travel diary that you can share with whomever you want!
If you're not sure about a travel diary, per se, you could also try the Travel Blog system, which allows you to keep updated by email or mobile phone.
Sounds like a great way to get into blogging, if you've never done it before! If you try it this summer, please come back and let us know!!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Engaging Students with Interactive Whiteboard Technology
Here are notes from another SMART webinar I attended on Engaging Students with Special Needs:
The biggest strategy mentioned in engaging students, especially through the use of SMART Boards, are using images and visual representations. One of the teachers featured (I didn't get names on this one) talked about how she uses movies, flip cameras, text with key words written in a different color to add visual engagement to any writing activity she is doing. She will also use pictures and words in collaboration with each other as much as possible. For students who need more help with writing activities she also will use audio by recording her voice and using different voice tones. She then uses buttons from the gallery and links it to another page with the correct tone used and the students push a button to identify the tone.
Another teacher uses the board as a way to help with organization and responsibility. She creates a chart with assignments on it that she leaves up and when students have completed an assignment they check it off.
When she begins teaching new vocabulary, she uses the word, then shows a picture, and then the students have to guess the definition of the word. To make it more engaging, she layers the picture on top of the definition of the word and then uses animation to make the picture disappear revealing the correct definition. In math class, she uses the random number generator tool from the gallery to randomly create numbers. Underneath the tool are numbers and the students have to write out in word form the number that was generated. Something like this:
To do this, create the words and then right click and select "infinite cloner". You can use the same words over and over again.
Her favorite tools to use with special needs students are the spotlight (to help focus student's attention) and screen shade tools. One thing I learned was that you can use the screen shade in any program, I previously thought you could only use this in the notebook software! She also suggested using Vizzle, a web based visual learning website that has curriculum driven interactive lessons just for special education students.
The last thing talked about were working on student's social skills. I think this is a great idea! I worked with our social worker last year to create stories with students using PhotoStory. You could really see the improvement later in the year! This teacher uses www.do2learn.com/games to help with social skills. She also takes pictures (from magazines, internet, or of themselves) and attaches word bubbles to the picture. The students then have to write in the facial expressions they see. This helps students talk about how they feel or how other students may feel.
One of the most important things they mentioned in the webinar was actually for teachers. They said don't be afraid to try new things in front of the students; show the students how valuable problem solving skills are, even when things don't work out right! Show them the strategies we teacher them to solve a problem or ask students, they often know quick ways to fix it too!
The biggest strategy mentioned in engaging students, especially through the use of SMART Boards, are using images and visual representations. One of the teachers featured (I didn't get names on this one) talked about how she uses movies, flip cameras, text with key words written in a different color to add visual engagement to any writing activity she is doing. She will also use pictures and words in collaboration with each other as much as possible. For students who need more help with writing activities she also will use audio by recording her voice and using different voice tones. She then uses buttons from the gallery and links it to another page with the correct tone used and the students push a button to identify the tone.
Another teacher uses the board as a way to help with organization and responsibility. She creates a chart with assignments on it that she leaves up and when students have completed an assignment they check it off.
When she begins teaching new vocabulary, she uses the word, then shows a picture, and then the students have to guess the definition of the word. To make it more engaging, she layers the picture on top of the definition of the word and then uses animation to make the picture disappear revealing the correct definition. In math class, she uses the random number generator tool from the gallery to randomly create numbers. Underneath the tool are numbers and the students have to write out in word form the number that was generated. Something like this:
To do this, create the words and then right click and select "infinite cloner". You can use the same words over and over again.
Her favorite tools to use with special needs students are the spotlight (to help focus student's attention) and screen shade tools. One thing I learned was that you can use the screen shade in any program, I previously thought you could only use this in the notebook software! She also suggested using Vizzle, a web based visual learning website that has curriculum driven interactive lessons just for special education students.
The last thing talked about were working on student's social skills. I think this is a great idea! I worked with our social worker last year to create stories with students using PhotoStory. You could really see the improvement later in the year! This teacher uses www.do2learn.com/games to help with social skills. She also takes pictures (from magazines, internet, or of themselves) and attaches word bubbles to the picture. The students then have to write in the facial expressions they see. This helps students talk about how they feel or how other students may feel.
One of the most important things they mentioned in the webinar was actually for teachers. They said don't be afraid to try new things in front of the students; show the students how valuable problem solving skills are, even when things don't work out right! Show them the strategies we teacher them to solve a problem or ask students, they often know quick ways to fix it too!
Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement, Part 3
The last teacher featured in this webinar is Tom Reardon, a high school math teacher in Ohio. Tom likes to use the SMART Board and it's various features to help the students see the problem in front of them. He does this by using color. Here are some examples he showed us in the webinar:
I really like the various colors and pens used, it helps me see the breakdown of the problem better. Again, not being a math person, I think this would be a great idea to use with order of operations. Take each part and break it down into different colors helping the student to see each part.
He saves all of his class notes from SMART Notebook and exports them to .pdf's, which saves the different colors his uses in the problems and posts it to his website for students who may need to go back and look at the information.
Tom also likes to use the recorder tool. He uses it to pre-record lessons and if he can't be there, the students feel as if he there's with them. The great thing about the SMART Notebook is that it uses more than just voice, it also records anything you do in SMART Notebook, such as breaking down a complex problem. Again, this can also be used for the student that needs to go back and see the explanation one more time. He also uses the recorder as a way to buy class time. At first this concept confused me, but as Tom explained it's a great way for students to solve their own problems. Tom teaches AP Calculus and around Spring Break he gives his students a packet to work on and a CD. The students work on the packet and if they get stuck on a question (or when they finish and need the answers), they go to the CD and see Tom solving the problem in notebook. He solves every problem in the packet and records himself solving the problem and giving explanations along the way, then saves the files as .wmv's. I thought this could be something we could do with released SOL's questions.
The last thing Tom talked about what integrating the graphing calculators with the notebook software. I didn't realize that notebook can instantly perform screen captures of what is on the calculator. Plus, students get to keep up with him and look at their calculators while he teaches the concept.
You can learn more about what Tom does and see sample lessons and videos at www.TomReardon.com.
He saves all of his class notes from SMART Notebook and exports them to .pdf's, which saves the different colors his uses in the problems and posts it to his website for students who may need to go back and look at the information.
Tom also likes to use the recorder tool. He uses it to pre-record lessons and if he can't be there, the students feel as if he there's with them. The great thing about the SMART Notebook is that it uses more than just voice, it also records anything you do in SMART Notebook, such as breaking down a complex problem. Again, this can also be used for the student that needs to go back and see the explanation one more time. He also uses the recorder as a way to buy class time. At first this concept confused me, but as Tom explained it's a great way for students to solve their own problems. Tom teaches AP Calculus and around Spring Break he gives his students a packet to work on and a CD. The students work on the packet and if they get stuck on a question (or when they finish and need the answers), they go to the CD and see Tom solving the problem in notebook. He solves every problem in the packet and records himself solving the problem and giving explanations along the way, then saves the files as .wmv's. I thought this could be something we could do with released SOL's questions.
The last thing Tom talked about what integrating the graphing calculators with the notebook software. I didn't realize that notebook can instantly perform screen captures of what is on the calculator. Plus, students get to keep up with him and look at their calculators while he teaches the concept.
You can learn more about what Tom does and see sample lessons and videos at www.TomReardon.com.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement, Part 2
The next teacher featured in this webinar was Barbara Mutch, a high school math teacher in Canada. Barbara first talked about how teachers at her school bundle activities within the SMART notebook software. All the math teachers in her building do this, so when students move grade levels or have to transfer classes they are receiving the same style of instruction. I believe she also mentioned that each grade level math teacher uses the same bundle activities so they all plan together too.
These bundles include lessons with assignments, worksheets, solutions, links, videos, and images, and more so students see the entire concept or lesson they are working on. Teachers use these bundles with they have substitutes or for students who miss class. Everything they need is included right in the bundle. Each day's lessons are also included on their school website. She uses the website as a way to encourage engagement at home, by posting her daily notes, which parents and students love having accessibility to.
Barbara has also begun working with other teachers in her building on using this format and one teacher commented that they liked the ability to incorporate all technologies used into one file format through the use of SMART Notebook.
She also talked about using SMART Response remotes. Everyday, students use these and they are sitting on each desk when they walk in. Students sign in at the beginning of class and usually she uses their real names to also look at data from that day's activities, but sometimes she uses the anonymous mode or the celebrity mode, where students receive names of celebrities and that way students are less embarrassed because they're real name is not showing, but they teacher knows who it really is.
These bundles include lessons with assignments, worksheets, solutions, links, videos, and images, and more so students see the entire concept or lesson they are working on. Teachers use these bundles with they have substitutes or for students who miss class. Everything they need is included right in the bundle. Each day's lessons are also included on their school website. She uses the website as a way to encourage engagement at home, by posting her daily notes, which parents and students love having accessibility to.
Barbara has also begun working with other teachers in her building on using this format and one teacher commented that they liked the ability to incorporate all technologies used into one file format through the use of SMART Notebook.
She also talked about using SMART Response remotes. Everyday, students use these and they are sitting on each desk when they walk in. Students sign in at the beginning of class and usually she uses their real names to also look at data from that day's activities, but sometimes she uses the anonymous mode or the celebrity mode, where students receive names of celebrities and that way students are less embarrassed because they're real name is not showing, but they teacher knows who it really is.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement
This is part 1 of 3 posts.
Yesterday, I attended a SMART webinar on "Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement: Create Technology-Enabled Learning Environments that Get Results" with Giancarlo Brutto.
I took about a page and a half of notes from this webinar that featured three different teachers and how they are using their SMART boards in their math classrooms. SMART board usage is going to be one of our primary goals next year in my building and I got some helpful ideas. The first teacher who showed classroom examples was Michelle Meehan, a 7th grade math teacher at a middle school a couple of counties away from us. Her school is a SMART exemplary school and I'm thinking I would like to contact her and maybe arrange a little teacher field trip next year!
Michelle uses lots of visuals and auditory cues to help her special education students. She'll display problem on the board and then uses pictures and animations to help make better connections for her students and by creating interactive lessons she sees the students make the leap from concepts being abstract to more concrete. She also very much likes using her airliner (the SMART slate) to walk around the room and make sure that everyone can hear when she's explaining problems and concepts.
Michelle is also starting to use the new additional math tools, (I'm not a math person, so this may be a very simple way of explaining this). She explained when she teaches area of a parallelogram she uses a tool that is able to cut off parts of the parallelogram and students see it becomes a rectangle and by using the formula for finding the area of a rectangle, they can then transfer that to finding the area of the parallelogram. For a non-math person, I thought this was really cool! She also uses a tool (the shape division tool?) that allows you to break up a shape into different parts to help explain fractions. You can then move around the broken shapes and show how they make up certain fractions.
The last thing Michelle explained was how she uses SMART Response remotes. She likes them because she can get instant feedback from the students and how they are understanding the concept or problem being explained. For example, she has students work on one-step equations and during the instruction can have students give feedback about their understanding and when everyone is comfortable move onto two-step equations without having to stop instruction.
Yesterday, I attended a SMART webinar on "Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement: Create Technology-Enabled Learning Environments that Get Results" with Giancarlo Brutto.
I took about a page and a half of notes from this webinar that featured three different teachers and how they are using their SMART boards in their math classrooms. SMART board usage is going to be one of our primary goals next year in my building and I got some helpful ideas. The first teacher who showed classroom examples was Michelle Meehan, a 7th grade math teacher at a middle school a couple of counties away from us. Her school is a SMART exemplary school and I'm thinking I would like to contact her and maybe arrange a little teacher field trip next year!
Michelle uses lots of visuals and auditory cues to help her special education students. She'll display problem on the board and then uses pictures and animations to help make better connections for her students and by creating interactive lessons she sees the students make the leap from concepts being abstract to more concrete. She also very much likes using her airliner (the SMART slate) to walk around the room and make sure that everyone can hear when she's explaining problems and concepts.
Michelle is also starting to use the new additional math tools, (I'm not a math person, so this may be a very simple way of explaining this). She explained when she teaches area of a parallelogram she uses a tool that is able to cut off parts of the parallelogram and students see it becomes a rectangle and by using the formula for finding the area of a rectangle, they can then transfer that to finding the area of the parallelogram. For a non-math person, I thought this was really cool! She also uses a tool (the shape division tool?) that allows you to break up a shape into different parts to help explain fractions. You can then move around the broken shapes and show how they make up certain fractions.
The last thing Michelle explained was how she uses SMART Response remotes. She likes them because she can get instant feedback from the students and how they are understanding the concept or problem being explained. For example, she has students work on one-step equations and during the instruction can have students give feedback about their understanding and when everyone is comfortable move onto two-step equations without having to stop instruction.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
It Brings Gifts or Stabs You in the Back
"Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other."
~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971
It seems that technology has been getting a bad rap these days. Now, I'm all for technology, but I know it is not the be all, end all. We have created some great projects at my school using technology this year, such as Digital Scrapbooks of the 1920's, podcasts describing what life was like in the Victorian Era of Charles Dickens' England, movies as a persuasion to better our world, just to name a few.
But there are those days when technology can get the better of us. I couldn't get online last week at home for a mere 24 hours and just about went crazy. To my credit, I did have two papers to write and needed to get on blackboard to verify my assignments and needed to grade work for one of my online students. I did NEED the internet at this time. I WANTED to get online and post some blog posts too, but I decided I could wait on that, I DIDN'T NEED it that badly.
I'm hearing more and more thought, that there are those out there that say technology is meddling with our children's minds and making them less sociable beings. I turned on the t.v. last week to an episode of Oprah in which the entire family wasn't communicating. They needed Oprah's help in getting their lives back on track. They weren't eating dinner together, they spent more time on cell phones, housework wasn't getting done, etc. However, for the few minutes I watched, I felt that technology was getting the blame for all of their problems. The specialist on the episode said, they have to drop the technology and get to know one other on a personal level and to an extent I agree.
Like I said, technology is not everything and like the quote says above, there's good and bad to technology. Spending time with my loved ones would be my preferable way to spend my time. However, my family is spread out between Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. While growing up, my closest family members were 8 hours away! I really didn't feel as if I knew most of them. Not well, anyways. Most of my family members are not on facebook, but for those that have recently signed up, I've learned more about them in the last few months, than I've learned in my entire lifetime. The good stuff, people! Not the so and so is doing this with their boyfriend stuff...I'm talking about things like favorite colors, favorite foods, the kinds of things that make them tick! I see family connections and similarities I didn't see before.
At some point though, I think each person has to take responsibility for what they do with technology and how much they use it. Should students be allowed to use technology 24/7? No, they need fresh air, time to communicate through something other than facebook and a cell phone, and time to rest those eyes from a computer screen. Everyone could exercise some self-control when it comes to technology and unplug from it every day.
I set times up for myself each night when I get home and if I'm doing classwork, I work until I get to my stopping point on the assignment. If I don't have classwork, I'll check my email, look at facebook real quick, and other sites I want to check up on and I turn off my computer for the night, it's a hour max. Weekends, I barely look at my email unless I know I have something planned and need to communicate with others. Sundays I work on blog posts and that's it.
Student do need to be taught that time away from technology won't hurt them, but I think it's unfair to take it away entirely. Students can communicate and collaborate with students their age in foreign countries, create videos that make us adults stand up and pay attention. They CAN learn from one another using technology.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Welcome!
Welcome to my newest home on the web! I hope you are joining me from my previous home for My Technication or maybe you are reading my blog for the first time. In either case, I'm glad you made it! The blog should look pretty much the same (for now) so you should be able to still look at older posts. I will be deleting the old address in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for stopping by!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Doodle4Google
I discovered the Doodle4Google competition last year and with the help of our wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Coffman, we got the ball rolling with 15 participants. Even though we had made announcements about the competition and the deadline, I got a LOT of students who cam up to me after the deadline asking if they could still participate. So I was pretty sure I would do this again.
This year I was even more determined to get the word out about the competition. I know this has nothing to do with technology, but I can't help that I want students to be creative! This is a great little competition and this year we had 32 participants and some great entries! If you've never heard of this before, each school is allowed to send 6 entries to Google. Students are to re-create the Google logo based on that year's theme. This year, the theme was, "If I Could Anything, I Would...".
At our school, we have chosen to vote for the top six doodles and this year another teacher asked about doing honorable mentions, which I was all for! Take a look at our winning entries and honorable mentions:
A post on Mr. C's Class Blog alerted me that the regional competitions have taken place and voting for the national winner is upon us! Sadly, none of our entries made it past regionals. However, a student at Thornburg Middle, Ryan Watson, from our neighboring county, Spotsylvania, made it in! Way to go! Go vote for Ryan here!
This year I was even more determined to get the word out about the competition. I know this has nothing to do with technology, but I can't help that I want students to be creative! This is a great little competition and this year we had 32 participants and some great entries! If you've never heard of this before, each school is allowed to send 6 entries to Google. Students are to re-create the Google logo based on that year's theme. This year, the theme was, "If I Could Anything, I Would...".
At our school, we have chosen to vote for the top six doodles and this year another teacher asked about doing honorable mentions, which I was all for! Take a look at our winning entries and honorable mentions:
A post on Mr. C's Class Blog alerted me that the regional competitions have taken place and voting for the national winner is upon us! Sadly, none of our entries made it past regionals. However, a student at Thornburg Middle, Ryan Watson, from our neighboring county, Spotsylvania, made it in! Way to go! Go vote for Ryan here!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Making Over Math
Watch this TED Video, that Free Technology for Teachers posted earlier today:
Dan Meyer brings up some great points about how to get kids more engaged in the problem solving process. He talks about how textbooks help us (teachers) give kids the easy answers when it comes to word problems and problem solving and how that is making kids impatient in the math classroom. Instead of making a straight line from point A to point B, we should be helping to build student's critical thinking skills by giving them visual keys and discussion points to be asking the right questions when it comes to solving mathematical problems.
From a technology viewpoint, I agree with Meyer's ideas about using multimedia examples and practical (real world) examples to teach. I wholeheartedly believe that every time students learn something there needs to be something visual to represent it for them-that's simply how they learn now. It has to be engaging, interesting, and able to grab their attention and make them think. I also think it's important, especially in math, that students realize how a certain formula can be used to calculate something that will use later in life. They need to see that not just careers such as engineering or science are the only careers that use math.
Websites and resources such as flickr.com are great ways to incorporate pictures of real world examples and grab their attention. Then back it up with videos from DE Streaming or BrainPop that give more information or as Meyer states help the discussion along.
Dan Meyer brings up some great points about how to get kids more engaged in the problem solving process. He talks about how textbooks help us (teachers) give kids the easy answers when it comes to word problems and problem solving and how that is making kids impatient in the math classroom. Instead of making a straight line from point A to point B, we should be helping to build student's critical thinking skills by giving them visual keys and discussion points to be asking the right questions when it comes to solving mathematical problems.
From a technology viewpoint, I agree with Meyer's ideas about using multimedia examples and practical (real world) examples to teach. I wholeheartedly believe that every time students learn something there needs to be something visual to represent it for them-that's simply how they learn now. It has to be engaging, interesting, and able to grab their attention and make them think. I also think it's important, especially in math, that students realize how a certain formula can be used to calculate something that will use later in life. They need to see that not just careers such as engineering or science are the only careers that use math.
Websites and resources such as flickr.com are great ways to incorporate pictures of real world examples and grab their attention. Then back it up with videos from DE Streaming or BrainPop that give more information or as Meyer states help the discussion along.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 05/04/2010
MAKE BELIEFS COMIX! Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of All Ages
Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of All Ages
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 04/30/2010
Mapped historical photos, film, and audio |
VocabSushi: The better way to build your vocabulary | Contextual Examples From the Daily News
fractions, decimals, and percents
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wallwisher
I was reading something last week about wallwisher and decided it was time to finally try it out. I'm very pleased with the results and the ease of quickly putting a page together. If you haven't heard of wallwisher, it's a digital wall where you can poll your students, get comments from students, or find out what they are thinking about whatever questions you pose to them.
To create your own wallwisher, you start by creating a url. I just used the subject area I was doing and used that in mine. Then I decided who gets to see my wall and who gets to post on it. Then I chose my background. After that I set up my question and send the url to anyone who needs access to my wall. Super easy!
Can you help me out in trying this tool by going to my wall and leaving a comment?
To create your own wallwisher, you start by creating a url. I just used the subject area I was doing and used that in mine. Then I decided who gets to see my wall and who gets to post on it. Then I chose my background. After that I set up my question and send the url to anyone who needs access to my wall. Super easy!
Can you help me out in trying this tool by going to my wall and leaving a comment?
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
FETC Virtual Wrap - Up #2
As I was saying yesterday, I didn't get much farther than the blogs at the FETC Virtual Conference last week. I will need to catch up in the archives.
Someone mentioned a webinar on Innovation in Education: Aligning Teacher Effectiveness to Greater Student Achievement by Kathleen Fulton. I couldn't find this on the schedule, so I'm not sure it was during the FETC conference, however, I mention it because the post had some good thoughts on students and PowerPoint usage. We all know PowerPoint can have a bad rap because people read straight from them, but that's a presentation problem, not a PowerPoint problem. What some mentioned is that they are using Presentation Zen, Slideology, and Sliderocket as ways to get their students to stop reading their slides and be more interactive with their audience.
In one class, a teacher has given his students time to write a short reflection paper about what they have learned during the unit and then they create a PowerPoint with 10 slides and under 10 minutes to tell the class what they have learned. Someone else stated this is similar to PechaKucha, which I had to look up. It's an event held in Japan for designers, which draws from the Japanese term for "chit chat", with the idea of 20 images in 20 seconds. The idea is to make presentations concise and keeps things moving at a rapid pace. Another poster said they have found telling their students to think of each slide like a road map as a way to get slides with not so much information.
Some interesting thoughts!
There's a history teacher I work with where we've done a lot of PowerPoint presentations in her classes and we like to give her students a little bit more of a template to work from, creating slides with key points for them to remember to talk about on their slides. For example, we just finished a 1920's digital scrapbook. One slide was about the Harlem Renaissance and on the slide were clues to help the students such as, who was a famous musician during this time period? Why were they famous? or we included a text box saying insert a picture or movie here. Then the students can design it how they want, moving text boxes and changing fonts, etc.
What kinds of projects have others done with PowerPoint? How do you keep students from putting too much on it or from reading it word for word?
Someone mentioned a webinar on Innovation in Education: Aligning Teacher Effectiveness to Greater Student Achievement by Kathleen Fulton. I couldn't find this on the schedule, so I'm not sure it was during the FETC conference, however, I mention it because the post had some good thoughts on students and PowerPoint usage. We all know PowerPoint can have a bad rap because people read straight from them, but that's a presentation problem, not a PowerPoint problem. What some mentioned is that they are using Presentation Zen, Slideology, and Sliderocket as ways to get their students to stop reading their slides and be more interactive with their audience.
In one class, a teacher has given his students time to write a short reflection paper about what they have learned during the unit and then they create a PowerPoint with 10 slides and under 10 minutes to tell the class what they have learned. Someone else stated this is similar to PechaKucha, which I had to look up. It's an event held in Japan for designers, which draws from the Japanese term for "chit chat", with the idea of 20 images in 20 seconds. The idea is to make presentations concise and keeps things moving at a rapid pace. Another poster said they have found telling their students to think of each slide like a road map as a way to get slides with not so much information.
Some interesting thoughts!
There's a history teacher I work with where we've done a lot of PowerPoint presentations in her classes and we like to give her students a little bit more of a template to work from, creating slides with key points for them to remember to talk about on their slides. For example, we just finished a 1920's digital scrapbook. One slide was about the Harlem Renaissance and on the slide were clues to help the students such as, who was a famous musician during this time period? Why were they famous? or we included a text box saying insert a picture or movie here. Then the students can design it how they want, moving text boxes and changing fonts, etc.
What kinds of projects have others done with PowerPoint? How do you keep students from putting too much on it or from reading it word for word?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 04/28/2010
Make the Most of Your Interactive Whiteboard
EDTECH: Focus On K-12
K-12+, Elementary, Middle School, High School, AP, IB, SAT, College, Trivia, Interactive vocabulary practice!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
FETC Virtual Wrap - Up #1
I didn't get a lot of time to check the FETC virtual conference last week, but I did get a chance to go to the blogging area and see what educators were talking about. One of the topics that caught my eye was the idea of having online clubs. There's a school in Florida that has found more members are getting involved by having clubs online instead of face to face: "We currently have 10 online student clubs. Some have over 150 members, some meet weekly, some monthly. Students love the flexibility of time and we get many traditional school students that can't participate at their school due to time constraints." I find this idea to very interesting!
Some of the ways these online clubs are meeting are through Elluminate, blogs, wikis, Nings, Blackboard, and Moodle. Elluminate can be fully moderated and supervised; blogs and wikis also can be set up to be moderated before posting, as can the Ning. Some of their activities include club happenings, book discussions, and a virtual health club.
I've toyed with the idea of having a student video club, where I would teach students how to make all of kinds of videos and movies and eventually doing something with a school video contest. I think it would be awfully hard to pull off entirely online, but it might be a good way to get more students involved because they could make their movies and just upload them on their own time.
The original poster, who I neglected to get a name for, said they would be interested in collaborating, comparing notes, or sharing ideas can be contacted at http://www.flvs.net/areas/studentservices/clubs/Pages/default.aspx.
What are your thoughts about online clubs? Would this be something you would do at your school?
I saw another post on John Kuglin's session where he talked about clouds and the free tools available with Google (the docs, apps, calendar, Google Earth, etc.) What I didn't realize is that Google gives free 1 gig online storage for students. What a great way to get projects from home to school and back, to the library, or to a friend's house! Apparently, he also talked about Schoolfusion, which is what my school district uses, and the importance of teachers needing websites. I, too, think this is important so that students have a way to go back and see what was done in class if they need extra support. With the use of electronic files, a scanner, or an interactive white board, teachers can save their lessons from the day and then upload to their site for those students or for students who were out sick. It's also a great way for teachers and parents to have ongoing communication as parents know what is going on in class by seeing announcements, projects, worksheets, calendars, class notes, or study guides and being able to send email or post messages on a blog or a message board when they have questions.
Does your school have something similar to Schoolfusion or do you use a website with your classes? What are ways you like to use it?
Some of the ways these online clubs are meeting are through Elluminate, blogs, wikis, Nings, Blackboard, and Moodle. Elluminate can be fully moderated and supervised; blogs and wikis also can be set up to be moderated before posting, as can the Ning. Some of their activities include club happenings, book discussions, and a virtual health club.
I've toyed with the idea of having a student video club, where I would teach students how to make all of kinds of videos and movies and eventually doing something with a school video contest. I think it would be awfully hard to pull off entirely online, but it might be a good way to get more students involved because they could make their movies and just upload them on their own time.
The original poster, who I neglected to get a name for, said they would be interested in collaborating, comparing notes, or sharing ideas can be contacted at http://www.flvs.net/areas/studentservices/clubs/Pages/default.aspx.
What are your thoughts about online clubs? Would this be something you would do at your school?
I saw another post on John Kuglin's session where he talked about clouds and the free tools available with Google (the docs, apps, calendar, Google Earth, etc.) What I didn't realize is that Google gives free 1 gig online storage for students. What a great way to get projects from home to school and back, to the library, or to a friend's house! Apparently, he also talked about Schoolfusion, which is what my school district uses, and the importance of teachers needing websites. I, too, think this is important so that students have a way to go back and see what was done in class if they need extra support. With the use of electronic files, a scanner, or an interactive white board, teachers can save their lessons from the day and then upload to their site for those students or for students who were out sick. It's also a great way for teachers and parents to have ongoing communication as parents know what is going on in class by seeing announcements, projects, worksheets, calendars, class notes, or study guides and being able to send email or post messages on a blog or a message board when they have questions.
Does your school have something similar to Schoolfusion or do you use a website with your classes? What are ways you like to use it?
Friday, April 23, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 04/24/2010
Technology Night Wrap-Up
The first Technology Night at my school was a success! Teachers and students got to showcase their projects with parents and members of the community and everyone seemed to have a great time. We had about 20 families present, which was more than we had anticipated, so I'm very happy with the turnout.
There was a large cloud of people visiting Ms. Poole's class project on persuasion movies, and the Qwizdom and Smartboard demos seemed to be very popular with parents, as well. I had some parents ask about our equipment and why we use macbooks. I'm always eager to answer this question! I get a lot of people asking me about PC's being easier and why we spend money on the macbooks. Having both PC's and mac's available was one of the reasons I took a job in this school system. I think it's INCREDIBLY important for our students to learn both systems, because you never know what you're going to run into down the road. As a student, I ran into both and had to know how to use them and now I'm very lucky to be so versatile-having that really helps in the job market too.
The only thing I would have changed was more student participation. Some teachers told me they had a hard time getting their students to come. The booths that had more students there to discuss their projects had more people around them and more interest than the others. I think having some kind of student initiative would be helpful, such as extra credit, or free ice cream in the cafeteria for participating.
The night was small, but hopefully, will be the first step in addressing more awareness about technology in our schools. Way, way, down the road, I would love to add a video component to this night and have a school video contest and make it a red carpet event!
There was a large cloud of people visiting Ms. Poole's class project on persuasion movies, and the Qwizdom and Smartboard demos seemed to be very popular with parents, as well. I had some parents ask about our equipment and why we use macbooks. I'm always eager to answer this question! I get a lot of people asking me about PC's being easier and why we spend money on the macbooks. Having both PC's and mac's available was one of the reasons I took a job in this school system. I think it's INCREDIBLY important for our students to learn both systems, because you never know what you're going to run into down the road. As a student, I ran into both and had to know how to use them and now I'm very lucky to be so versatile-having that really helps in the job market too.
The only thing I would have changed was more student participation. Some teachers told me they had a hard time getting their students to come. The booths that had more students there to discuss their projects had more people around them and more interest than the others. I think having some kind of student initiative would be helpful, such as extra credit, or free ice cream in the cafeteria for participating.
The night was small, but hopefully, will be the first step in addressing more awareness about technology in our schools. Way, way, down the road, I would love to add a video component to this night and have a school video contest and make it a red carpet event!
DEN Spring Virtual Conference Tomorrow
The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is once again offering their Spring virtual conference tomorrow from 9 am - 4 pm. All sessions are free and jam packed full of great ideas! You can register here.
Here's the schedule:
9 AM
Connections, Conversations, and Collaborations: Creating a Personal Learning Network That Works For You
Lee Kolbert, DEN Guru, Palm Beach County, FL
10 AM
Homework Gone Digital
Matt Monjan, Discovery Education, Silver Spring, MD
11 AM
When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room
Dean Shareski, Digital Learning Consultant, Prairie South School Division, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada
12 PM
Cell Phones, Internet and Oprah: How the US Presence in Iraq Has Affected Women’s Lives
Christina Asquith, Author of “Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family and Survival in the New Iraq”
1 PM
Connecting Language Learners to the Curriculum through Digital Media
Lindsay Hopkins, Discovery Education, Los Angeles, CA
2 PM
Rock OUR World!
Carol Anne McGuire, STAR Discovery Educator, Anaheim, CA
3 PM
DEN in Ten
Lance Rougeux, Discovery Education, Mechanicsburg, PA
See more details on each session here.
Here's the schedule:
9 AM
Connections, Conversations, and Collaborations: Creating a Personal Learning Network That Works For You
Lee Kolbert, DEN Guru, Palm Beach County, FL
10 AM
Homework Gone Digital
Matt Monjan, Discovery Education, Silver Spring, MD
11 AM
When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room
Dean Shareski, Digital Learning Consultant, Prairie South School Division, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada
12 PM
Cell Phones, Internet and Oprah: How the US Presence in Iraq Has Affected Women’s Lives
Christina Asquith, Author of “Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family and Survival in the New Iraq”
1 PM
Connecting Language Learners to the Curriculum through Digital Media
Lindsay Hopkins, Discovery Education, Los Angeles, CA
2 PM
Rock OUR World!
Carol Anne McGuire, STAR Discovery Educator, Anaheim, CA
3 PM
DEN in Ten
Lance Rougeux, Discovery Education, Mechanicsburg, PA
See more details on each session here.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Playing with Animoto
I have an upcoming math project using Animoto and I haven't really played around with this site yet, so I decided to give it a try this morning. If you don't know what Animoto is, it's a site that makes videos out of your pictures. When I logged in, they also told me I could now use short video clips; not sure how long they've had that feature. I used pictures from our Technology Night on Tuesday, so you'll get a peek at what it was like (it went very well, I'll post more in a bit!).
Here's the video I created:
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
I am really, really impressed with how easy this is! You're finished in about 4 steps: upload, edit (if necessary), select music, and hit create. Animoto does the rest for you! The hardest part is being patient while the photos upload. I had 3 photos that seemed to be taking forever and I hit refresh on my browser thinking I would probably have to start all over again, but all the pictures popped in, including the ones I was waiting on. I may have just gotten lucky on that one though!
The music is also very hip for today's students. I hear lots of complaints from students when doing a project involving music; that it's not music they like. There is the option to upload your own mp3's, but the stock music they have is good enough that I want to go look up some of the artists on itunes.
I'm not sure why I waited so long to try Animoto, I really like it! Now, I'm intrigued in how else to use this! Has anyone else used this yet? What did you like/dislike? Please comment below!
Here's the video I created:
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
I am really, really impressed with how easy this is! You're finished in about 4 steps: upload, edit (if necessary), select music, and hit create. Animoto does the rest for you! The hardest part is being patient while the photos upload. I had 3 photos that seemed to be taking forever and I hit refresh on my browser thinking I would probably have to start all over again, but all the pictures popped in, including the ones I was waiting on. I may have just gotten lucky on that one though!
The music is also very hip for today's students. I hear lots of complaints from students when doing a project involving music; that it's not music they like. There is the option to upload your own mp3's, but the stock music they have is good enough that I want to go look up some of the artists on itunes.
I'm not sure why I waited so long to try Animoto, I really like it! Now, I'm intrigued in how else to use this! Has anyone else used this yet? What did you like/dislike? Please comment below!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
FETC Virtual Conference Tomorrow!
It's the week of virtual conferences, it seems! Tomorrow is the Florida Educational Technology Conference's turn from 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (The DEN's virtual conference is Saturday!) I love virtual conferences, because it gives you a chance to listen in when you want and if you aren't able to, then you can hear the archived sessions. That's smart thinking!
This should also be a great opportunity to hear about educational technology issues on the national level. I'm most looking forward to the sessions in the afternoon/evening on computer safety and web 2.0.
You can register here.
Here's the full rundown of the schedule:
This should also be a great opportunity to hear about educational technology issues on the national level. I'm most looking forward to the sessions in the afternoon/evening on computer safety and web 2.0.
You can register here.
Here's the full rundown of the schedule:
| 10:30 - 11:00 am | Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time |
| 11:00 - 11:45 am | Keynote Presentation - Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by TechnologyKaren CatorDirector of the Office of Educational Technology U.S. Department of Education Washington, D.C. |
| 12:00 - 1:00 pm | A Panel Discussion: How We Will Use the National Ed Tech PlanAnn McMullan, Executive Director Educational Technology, Klein ISD, Texas,Jill Hobson, Director of Instructional Technology and Media Services, Forsyth County Schools, Georgia Brenda Williams, Executive Director, West Virginia Department of Education Moderator: Geoff Fletcher, Editorial Director, Education Group, 1105 Media, Inc.. |
| 1:15 - 2:25 pm | The New 21st Century Classroom: Using the Cloud to Create Affordable Learning SystemsJohn KuglinRetired Associate Dean University of Montana |
| 2:30-3:00 pm | Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time |
| 3:00 - 4:10 pm | Computer Safety and Security Threats Teachers and Students Face: Deal with Them NOW!Brent WilliamsEducational Technology Center Kennesaw State University |
| 4:15 - 5:00 pm | Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time |
| 5:00 - 6:00 pm | Web 2.0 and EducationJulie EvansChief Executive Officer Project Tomorrow |
Oops!
So even technology resource teachers still get a few lessons on using technology! Laugh along with me, please!
Earlier today, I was adding some tips on using SMART boards to my wiki. For whatever reason, I clicked on my contact page, a google form I created about a year ago, so anyone who wanted to contact me could easily send me a message. I decided to update that form, went in and changed a few options, presto, done!
Hmm...I thought, let's check on the form I created for my blog. AND I had contacts in the spreadsheet. FROM a year ago. THAT I didn't know about.
Not quite sure what I was thinking when I set this up, but obviously some thought went through my head that I would get an email or some notification that someone had filled out that form. Oops! Luckily, the 3 or 4 people who have contacted me via that page weren't teachers in dire need of technology help and thought I had brushed them off. But I apologize to any of you still reading and didn't get a response back from me. I guess it just goes to show that there a LOTS of options in these amazing websites and widgets and web 2.0 tools that we have grown to love; learn from me and check all of them out thoroughly!
After looking around the spreadsheet a bit more, I found those all important notification settings. All is right again! Please contact me whenever you like or feel free to leave a comment!
Earlier today, I was adding some tips on using SMART boards to my wiki. For whatever reason, I clicked on my contact page, a google form I created about a year ago, so anyone who wanted to contact me could easily send me a message. I decided to update that form, went in and changed a few options, presto, done!
Hmm...I thought, let's check on the form I created for my blog. AND I had contacts in the spreadsheet. FROM a year ago. THAT I didn't know about.
Not quite sure what I was thinking when I set this up, but obviously some thought went through my head that I would get an email or some notification that someone had filled out that form. Oops! Luckily, the 3 or 4 people who have contacted me via that page weren't teachers in dire need of technology help and thought I had brushed them off. But I apologize to any of you still reading and didn't get a response back from me. I guess it just goes to show that there a LOTS of options in these amazing websites and widgets and web 2.0 tools that we have grown to love; learn from me and check all of them out thoroughly!
After looking around the spreadsheet a bit more, I found those all important notification settings. All is right again! Please contact me whenever you like or feel free to leave a comment!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Technology Night!
My school is hosting its first Technology Night tonight! This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and it's finally happening. It's such a great chance to build a community for the students to share their work, thoughts, and receive feedback. Each teacher participating has picked student projects to show and the teacher and students will discuss how they went about creating the project and show examples and possibly teach a part of the project to viewers.
I think it's also important to celebrate the achievements students make and some of the projects I've seen this year have blown me away! I remember a teacher saying in one class that they've struggled to get a student to turn in assignments and was amazed to see the work they were doing on this particular project. There was another instance, where a student wasn't all that into the project and when we told them they could add pictures of themself using the camera on the computer and they were all for it! It turned into a great project about the student teaching how to balance chemical equations.
Tonight we are featuring projects on:
1. Persuasion movies created in imovie by an 8th grade Language Arts class
2. Six Kingdom Comics created in Comic Life by a 7th grade Life Science class
3. Victorian Era podcasts created in Garageband by a 7th grade Language Arts class
4. Making Music created in Garageband by an 8th grade Band class
5. Balancing Chemical Equation comics created in Comic Life an 8th grade Physical Science class
6. Invention podcasts created in Garageband by a 6th grade Social Studies class
7. 1920's Digital Scrapbook created in PowerPoint by a 6th grade Social Studies class
8. Digital Poetry Posters created in Glogster by a 7th grade Language class
I think it's also important to celebrate the achievements students make and some of the projects I've seen this year have blown me away! I remember a teacher saying in one class that they've struggled to get a student to turn in assignments and was amazed to see the work they were doing on this particular project. There was another instance, where a student wasn't all that into the project and when we told them they could add pictures of themself using the camera on the computer and they were all for it! It turned into a great project about the student teaching how to balance chemical equations.
Tonight we are featuring projects on:
1. Persuasion movies created in imovie by an 8th grade Language Arts class
2. Six Kingdom Comics created in Comic Life by a 7th grade Life Science class
3. Victorian Era podcasts created in Garageband by a 7th grade Language Arts class
4. Making Music created in Garageband by an 8th grade Band class
5. Balancing Chemical Equation comics created in Comic Life an 8th grade Physical Science class
6. Invention podcasts created in Garageband by a 6th grade Social Studies class
7. 1920's Digital Scrapbook created in PowerPoint by a 6th grade Social Studies class
8. Digital Poetry Posters created in Glogster by a 7th grade Language class
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Blog Posts to Check out!
Here are some links for your enjoyment!
1. Take Students Around the World with Virtual Field Trips
ISTE'S NECC '09 Blog
2. Virtual Field Trip Planning Kit
Free Technology for Teachers
3. April - National Autism Awareness Month
Talking Smartboards and Much More!
This post has some great tips on raising awareness for autism!
It's my spring break this coming week! I hope to catch up on writing some posts about the projects I've been working on and get those posted. So be on the lookout for those!
1. Take Students Around the World with Virtual Field Trips
ISTE'S NECC '09 Blog
2. Virtual Field Trip Planning Kit
Free Technology for Teachers
3. April - National Autism Awareness Month
Talking Smartboards and Much More!
This post has some great tips on raising awareness for autism!
It's my spring break this coming week! I hope to catch up on writing some posts about the projects I've been working on and get those posted. So be on the lookout for those!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
World Autism Awareness Day
I was in middle school when I first realized what autism was. It was in the early 1990's and I don't think much had been talked about it before then. We had a group of students in our school that would only join us for our elective classes such as PE and art classes. As sixth graders, we knew these students as "disabled", but didn't really know why they were the way they were. Several of the students acted much as we did, except that they didn't communicate with us. It wasn't until my art teacher, Mrs. Cumberland (wonderful woman!) actually talked to us in class one day, that I think many of us realized that our classmates were autistic. Having them in class with us was so normal; it was just another experience of the world for us.
It turned out to be a good experience for me. A few years later, our former neighbors moved in with their young son who was autistic. Having experienced this before I felt right at home with him, compared to my parents who were a little nervous about this child who made "strange noises". One of the things that fascinated him was water, which wasn't good considering a creek runs behind all our houses! On nice days, we would go on "lookout" as sometimes he would be able to open the door and run like mad past our house to the creek. If we didn't see another adult close behind, we were up and out the door chasing after him!
When my mom began working as a substitute teacher, she was asked to work in what they called at the time, the "severe and profound" room. Because of her experience with our neighbors, she said yes. She ended up loving it, something that surprised all of us! She would work in this area for six years.
Unfortunately, as many of us in the education world know, autism is on the rise. In December 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued their ADDM autism prevalence report, which concluded that the prevalence of autism had risen to 1 in every 110 births in the United States and almost 1 in 70 boys. Families who have children with autism have to provide for special child care and schooling. The Autism Society estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million. You'll notice that I've added an autism puzzle badge to my sidebar and if you would like more information or would like to make a donation, it will link you to The Autism Society.
Also, if you're interested, Autism Speaks is also sponsoring the Light It Up Blue Event on April 1st. According totheir site, “On the night of April 1, prominent buildings across North America and the world including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada will be lit up blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Friday, April 2.” Please help spread the word!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Persuasive Movies
On Friday, I got a chance to work with one of our Language Arts teachers on a persuasive movie project she is doing with her students. The students are currently learning how to write persuasive essays, however, they are taking it one step further by creating movies similar to a public service announcement (PSA) using imovie. The students have already added pictures to their movies and as I walked around the room, I was truly impressed with their topics and maturity in discussing some really deep ideas. Some of the topics include obesity in America, solar energy, helping victims of the Haiti earthquake, technology advancement, and treatment of pets.
I was unable to attend the classes where the students were creating their storyboards and learning how to use imovie, which is unfortunate because I would have liked to see how this teacher set it up. I know most of last week was dedicated to researching topics, and then the scripting and storyboarding took place. Their movie is to include both negative and positive aspects of their topic, with a call to action at the end of the movie. This idea seemed to stump some students. I told them to look up different organizations and copy and paste the website URL to a text slide and tell viewers what they can do to help.
One particular group was looking to find video footage of how pets are treated. I told them how they could look for videos on youtube at home and convert the video using a converter such as zamzar.com and then bring the video in on a flash drive. It took us a couple of times of converting the video to the right format to get it to import into imovie. The .mov file is the one that worked. I then showed the students how to take out the background sound from this footage and then they entered the text they needed to finish their video.
All the students seem to be very into the process and are working hard. It's always nice to hear a classroom buzzing with energy over a project! I'm very excited to see their final products!
I was unable to attend the classes where the students were creating their storyboards and learning how to use imovie, which is unfortunate because I would have liked to see how this teacher set it up. I know most of last week was dedicated to researching topics, and then the scripting and storyboarding took place. Their movie is to include both negative and positive aspects of their topic, with a call to action at the end of the movie. This idea seemed to stump some students. I told them to look up different organizations and copy and paste the website URL to a text slide and tell viewers what they can do to help.
One particular group was looking to find video footage of how pets are treated. I told them how they could look for videos on youtube at home and convert the video using a converter such as zamzar.com and then bring the video in on a flash drive. It took us a couple of times of converting the video to the right format to get it to import into imovie. The .mov file is the one that worked. I then showed the students how to take out the background sound from this footage and then they entered the text they needed to finish their video.
All the students seem to be very into the process and are working hard. It's always nice to hear a classroom buzzing with energy over a project! I'm very excited to see their final products!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Happy Friday!
Here are some exciting posts you should check out from Free Technology for Teachers! I'll try and read some other blogs this week and get some different ideas from around the web, but these 3 are great ideas!
Free Technology for Teachers
This looks like a great idea to help students get the most out of researching on the web. Students want
quick answers and sometimes get caught up in searches that don't lead them to more specific information
on topic areas.
2. Mac for Beginners
Free Technology for Teachers
3. 20+ Ways to Use Flip Cameras in the Classroom
Free Technology for Teachers
Friday, March 19, 2010
Websites You Should Check Out 03/20/2010
Online lab promotes math understanding
The Feather | Features article |
Fenton leads math trail-blazing
The Feather | News article |
The Feather | Features article | Math resources enhance learning process
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
TGIF!
It's been a long week working on Glogster posters! I'll be writing more about that later, but here are some blog posts to peruse during your weekend. Happy Friday!
1. Creative Exercises for Artists and Art Students
Free Technology for Teachers
2. Putting Tech in Phys. Ed - Google Maps Bike Routes
Free Technology for Teachers
3. Turn Your Spreadsheets into Word Clouds
Free Technology for Teachers
4. Top 10 Reasons Communicating on Computers Impacts Quality of Writing
ISTE Connects
1. Creative Exercises for Artists and Art Students
Free Technology for Teachers
2. Putting Tech in Phys. Ed - Google Maps Bike Routes
Free Technology for Teachers
3. Turn Your Spreadsheets into Word Clouds
Free Technology for Teachers
4. Top 10 Reasons Communicating on Computers Impacts Quality of Writing
ISTE Connects
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Life Premiere Screening
I got the wonderful opportunity last week to be invited to a screening of Discovery Channel's newest movie, Life, premiering March 21st. It was held in downtown DC at the beautiful and ornately designed Mellon Auditorium. According to the program I received, the auditorium connects the two wings of the building that houses of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; what a fitting place to hold this premiere!
Once, I got through security (yes, security!) the event was much bigger than I had anticipated, with members of the press (The Washington Post and CBS Evening News) and the International Community (Ambassadors from China, Spain, Columbia, and Argentina to name a few) were in attendance. I sat next to two delegates from the Embassy of Singapore, as well!
The President and CEO of Discovery Communications welcomed those present to celebrate Discovery's 25th anniversary and introduced us to the HUGE production undertaking that took place to create Life. It took 4 years and countless hours of filming, anywhere from 23 days to 3 months per animal and across the globe. The goal of this project was to get never before seen footage of animals in the wild and after watching the premiere the goal was accomplished! I wasn't sure if I was going to be watching this series, but I've since re-considered and already have it set on my tivo!
It took my breath away to watch the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra provide the live soundtrack and then look further up to the screen as such animals as the Brown Tufted Capuchin, similar to a monkey, pound on palm nuts to reach the meat and food inside the nut or as the Basilisk lizard literally runs on water! My attention was constantly moving between the musicians and the screen.
The reception that followed included little Chinese boxes with sushi and noodles and everyone was talking about the animals and how those scenes were captured. They were truly amazing!
Upon leaving, each guest received a DVD of the first night's episode and a t-shirt.
Once, I got through security (yes, security!) the event was much bigger than I had anticipated, with members of the press (The Washington Post and CBS Evening News) and the International Community (Ambassadors from China, Spain, Columbia, and Argentina to name a few) were in attendance. I sat next to two delegates from the Embassy of Singapore, as well!
The President and CEO of Discovery Communications welcomed those present to celebrate Discovery's 25th anniversary and introduced us to the HUGE production undertaking that took place to create Life. It took 4 years and countless hours of filming, anywhere from 23 days to 3 months per animal and across the globe. The goal of this project was to get never before seen footage of animals in the wild and after watching the premiere the goal was accomplished! I wasn't sure if I was going to be watching this series, but I've since re-considered and already have it set on my tivo!
It took my breath away to watch the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra provide the live soundtrack and then look further up to the screen as such animals as the Brown Tufted Capuchin, similar to a monkey, pound on palm nuts to reach the meat and food inside the nut or as the Basilisk lizard literally runs on water! My attention was constantly moving between the musicians and the screen.
The reception that followed included little Chinese boxes with sushi and noodles and everyone was talking about the animals and how those scenes were captured. They were truly amazing!
Upon leaving, each guest received a DVD of the first night's episode and a t-shirt.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Happy Friday!
Here are some great blog postings from excellent teachers and technology integrators. Check out #10 for sure!
1. Game Based Learning with Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics
Trails Optional
2. Flixtime: Another Worthy Animoto Alternative
NCS-Tech
3. The Great Wordle Crisis
The Whiteboard Blog
4. NOVA on Hulu
Free Technology for Teachers
5. Big, Huge, Free Presidents Timeline Poster
Free Technology for Teachers
6. Auto-Captioning Available on All YouTube Videos
Free Technology for Teachers
7. How to Embed a Map into Blogs and Wikis
Free Technology for Teachers
8. How the Web Works - A Slideshow from the BBC
Free Technology for Teachers
9. Top 50 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Google Maps
Virtual Hosting.com
10. How To Teach an Old Dog New Tech, Part 2
ISTE Connects Blog
Trails Optional
2. Flixtime: Another Worthy Animoto Alternative
NCS-Tech
3. The Great Wordle Crisis
The Whiteboard Blog
4. NOVA on Hulu
Free Technology for Teachers
5. Big, Huge, Free Presidents Timeline Poster
Free Technology for Teachers
6. Auto-Captioning Available on All YouTube Videos
Free Technology for Teachers
7. How to Embed a Map into Blogs and Wikis
Free Technology for Teachers
8. How the Web Works - A Slideshow from the BBC
Free Technology for Teachers
9. Top 50 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Google Maps
Virtual Hosting.com
10. How To Teach an Old Dog New Tech, Part 2
ISTE Connects Blog
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Share Your Smart Board Lessons
Lots of sweepstakes going on right on! Here's two more from Smart and CDW-G.
Do you have a great SMART Notebook lesson activity? Now you can share it on the SMART Exchange online community for a chance to win a variety of SMART Products, including a SMART Interactive Classroom PE. You have to submit your lesson activities by May 31st to participate. This would be great for those teachers participarting in SCPS' online Notebook 10 course!
Here are the contest guidelines. The lesson activity must:
Then go over to CDW-G and Discovery Education's sweepstakes for a chance to win a 21st century classroom, with an interactive whiteboard, notebook computers, wireless cart, projectors and document camera.
Good luck!
Do you have a great SMART Notebook lesson activity? Now you can share it on the SMART Exchange online community for a chance to win a variety of SMART Products, including a SMART Interactive Classroom PE. You have to submit your lesson activities by May 31st to participate. This would be great for those teachers participarting in SCPS' online Notebook 10 course!
Here are the contest guidelines. The lesson activity must:
- be at least 5 pages in length
- be original
- be creative
- be visually appealing
- be easy for teachers to use and adapt
- be interactive
Then go over to CDW-G and Discovery Education's sweepstakes for a chance to win a 21st century classroom, with an interactive whiteboard, notebook computers, wireless cart, projectors and document camera.
Good luck!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
What Skills Do Students Need to Know?
Recently, I was helping a teacher who was having her students type up essays they have recently finished revising. Both their teacher and myself were surprised when the students didn't know how to format their essays; both of us were receiving questions on alignment, how to change font (and then explain why Blackadder in size 18 wasn't the font to use to write an essay for school), and how to save. We turned to each other after class asking, shouldn't 7th graders know how to do this?
During the rest of the days classes, we showed the students how their paper should be set up, with a heading, title, and where the alignment icons were located and which ones they needed to use for their heading and title. Then we would show them how to set up the body of their essay and where the font and size tools were located and to use Times New Roman in size 12. Then where and how to save their essays. It wasn't a problem to do this, but it made me think about why I hadn't had to do this before and as the instructional technology guru in the building, how did I miss this?
Some other questions floating through my head included, "what kind of computer skills should students be receiving and at what age?" "What kind of computer skills should teachers and myself be talking about when creating a lesson?" "What more can I do to prepare students before they reach high school?" In talking with other teachers that used to teach elementary school, I found out that students really don't receive any of these skills before reaching middle school. They have computer lab time, but that doesn't mean they're learning how to use MS Office and the skills we assumed the students were already taught.
We also talked about this topic at that week's technology committee meeting. Other teachers agreed with me that some kind of plan needs to be put into place to teach these skills, without taking away from instruction time, which is obviously the difficult part. How do we teach these skills without taking away from instruction time and giving everyone one MORE item to accomplish.
For now, it involves asking the question, "What do I want my students to learn and what technology skills are associated with that?" Then go step by step and teach it to them. Eventually, my goal will be to work with various departments at certain points throughout the year, in helping students work with MS Office and building up their skills with various assignments.
I would love to hear if you've run into a similar problem at your school or how you go about teaching these skills. Please share below!
During the rest of the days classes, we showed the students how their paper should be set up, with a heading, title, and where the alignment icons were located and which ones they needed to use for their heading and title. Then we would show them how to set up the body of their essay and where the font and size tools were located and to use Times New Roman in size 12. Then where and how to save their essays. It wasn't a problem to do this, but it made me think about why I hadn't had to do this before and as the instructional technology guru in the building, how did I miss this?
Some other questions floating through my head included, "what kind of computer skills should students be receiving and at what age?" "What kind of computer skills should teachers and myself be talking about when creating a lesson?" "What more can I do to prepare students before they reach high school?" In talking with other teachers that used to teach elementary school, I found out that students really don't receive any of these skills before reaching middle school. They have computer lab time, but that doesn't mean they're learning how to use MS Office and the skills we assumed the students were already taught.
We also talked about this topic at that week's technology committee meeting. Other teachers agreed with me that some kind of plan needs to be put into place to teach these skills, without taking away from instruction time, which is obviously the difficult part. How do we teach these skills without taking away from instruction time and giving everyone one MORE item to accomplish.
For now, it involves asking the question, "What do I want my students to learn and what technology skills are associated with that?" Then go step by step and teach it to them. Eventually, my goal will be to work with various departments at certain points throughout the year, in helping students work with MS Office and building up their skills with various assignments.
I would love to hear if you've run into a similar problem at your school or how you go about teaching these skills. Please share below!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Web 20.10
Discovery Education has just announced the creation of their newest support website for teachers! Web 20.10 is provides free online support and is designed to tune-up your teaching techniques! Get the latest on Internet Safety, Media Literacy, Web 2.0 Tools, and Tech Tips through how to videos. This website is specifically designed to help us teachers, keep up with our 21st century students.
While you're there, you can also sign up for their sweepstakes, where the grand prize winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to attend the educational tech conference of your choice, the latest in tech gadgets for your classroom, a new laptop and scholarship funds for an online degree!
While you're there, you can also sign up for their sweepstakes, where the grand prize winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to attend the educational tech conference of your choice, the latest in tech gadgets for your classroom, a new laptop and scholarship funds for an online degree!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Upcoming DEN Webinars
Hi there!
Here's the latest in Discovery Education Network (DEN) webinars:
TONIGHT!
Monday, March 8 @ 7PM EST - Using Technology to Create New Knowledge with Hall Davidson
We will look at how understanding the creation of new knowledge is integral in preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 9 @ 1PM EST - How Math Can Solve Everyday Problems with Garth Sundem
Bestselling author Garth Sundem will show students how to use math to solve everyday problems in life, and they’ll learn a thing or two about the design and solving of algebraic equations at the same time. Your students will see that math can be fun—and funny, too! This fun webinar uses basic algebra and a healthy helping of humor to provide fail-safe solutions to just about anything. Students are encouraged to participate!
Wednesday, March 10 @ 7PM EST - Virtual Field Trips with Google Earth
Tuesday, March 16 @ 7PM EST - Failure to Communicate
Come ready to look at images, audio, video and PowerPoint in a whole new way!
Wednesday, March 17 @ 7PM EST - EdTechConnect with Scott Kinney
Tuesday, March 23 @ 7PM EST - Little Hands, Giant Reach with Steve Dembo
See how innovative classroom teachers are are using free technologies to improve communication, impact student learning, and above all... make learning exciting!
Here's the latest in Discovery Education Network (DEN) webinars:
TONIGHT!
Monday, March 8 @ 7PM EST - Using Technology to Create New Knowledge with Hall Davidson
We will look at how understanding the creation of new knowledge is integral in preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 9 @ 1PM EST - How Math Can Solve Everyday Problems with Garth Sundem
Bestselling author Garth Sundem will show students how to use math to solve everyday problems in life, and they’ll learn a thing or two about the design and solving of algebraic equations at the same time. Your students will see that math can be fun—and funny, too! This fun webinar uses basic algebra and a healthy helping of humor to provide fail-safe solutions to just about anything. Students are encouraged to participate!
Wednesday, March 10 @ 7PM EST - Virtual Field Trips with Google Earth
Tuesday, March 16 @ 7PM EST - Failure to Communicate
Come ready to look at images, audio, video and PowerPoint in a whole new way!
Wednesday, March 17 @ 7PM EST - EdTechConnect with Scott Kinney
Tuesday, March 23 @ 7PM EST - Little Hands, Giant Reach with Steve Dembo
See how innovative classroom teachers are are using free technologies to improve communication, impact student learning, and above all... make learning exciting!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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