Tuesday, June 30, 2009
NECC Day 2 - Monday, First session
Here's my wrap up of my first session at NECC from Monday.
I started out with a great session on Enabling Reading with 21st Century Skills with John Long and Debbie Svec. They had 6 ways to use technology through Digital Reading Portfolios, Graphic Organizers, Ipod/iread, Gaming Software, Podcasting, and Webchats. Not only was he a dynamic speaker, the examples he showed us of students using the technology spoke for itself.
With Digital Reading portfolios, Long captures students reading samples throughout the year, which he can store for authentic assessment. Some of the advantages he found by doing this was: Students try harder because they hear themselves and want to sound better. He said one student went home and practiced and came back saying he was determined to sound better than he did the day before; Parents like it because they can hear student improvement, If using ipod, you can put the recording straight into itunes and parents can hear from home, or you can burn a CD at the end of the year.
With graphic organizers, Long used Inspiration and Kidspiration in the normal ways of brainstorming and organizing thoughts, but he also used it for storyboarding for digital storytelling projects. I thought this was another inventive way to use this software and I would like to try it with any projects we do in Comic Life next year.
Svec's ipod and iread program is what interested me the most. In this program, students would check out the text version of a book and an ipod with the audio verison to read along with the text to enhance fluency. They were able to do this project through an initial grant and bought something like 200 ipod nanos. The kids only use it at home and check the ipods out when they leave school and back in, in the morning and the ipods charge during the day. In the length of time they have been doing this project only 1 pod was ever lost and the parent quickly replaced it. That's pretty good numbers! They buy the audio book versions off of itunes. One teacher asked, "What if the students don't pay attention to the audio" and Long explained that that may occur at first, but the students quickly use both as they find it better to understand the both the text and the audio.
With Gaming, Svec uses Cranium Core, an online program that has read alouds and games, and then they add discuss and defend groups, which allows the students to build their reading, writing and listening skills, adds an engagement factor, and resources to intervention strategy. One of the main aspects this program works with is main idea and author’s purpose. The presenters said that the students would actually begin arguing in class about author’s purpose with each other because they were so into it. It really allowed the students to have social interaction with each other and let them talk about the issues in the book. The price really can't be beat either; $365 a year for the entire school and it sounds like any book you read, you can use this program with it. I really want to check out this website and this program!
Then Long talked about podcasting. He's got three student teams that he has put together: 1) MOD Squad (Multimedia on Demand), which does digital storytelling and guides, 2) Tech Ambassadors, and 3) Team TLC. With the training he has done at their school, there are over 200 teacher websites, with over 900 podcasts from 2 years, and they get an average of 150,000 hits a week! Absolutely amazing stuff! One of the teachers he works with does a podcast a week, and throught their podcasting (this nearly broke my heart) a parent who is serving in Iraq and was able to hear his daughter and stay in contact with her. They showed three examples of student podcasting: !) Student who did a book review, but told the parts of the book that held the conflict, the resolution, etc. 2)Students did a promotional commercials for books. This example was Farenheit 451-imagine a world without books? And from there they created a story to get kids to read the book. 3) Students did Q&A sessions. One student acted as host, and another student who read the book and answers the questions. The student used anecdotes when answering and talked about how his life experiences are similar to those of the main character.
The last thing we looked at were web chats. One of the groups Svec worked with was a group she created called the GStar Girls, who asked one day how they could talk with the author of the book they had finished reading. By email, the teacher contacted the author and the girls got to use ichat to ask author questions. This could also probably be done with Skype. I've heard of a lot of people, including Oprah Winfrey who are using Skype to communicate.
Great session with lots of great ideas!
I started out with a great session on Enabling Reading with 21st Century Skills with John Long and Debbie Svec. They had 6 ways to use technology through Digital Reading Portfolios, Graphic Organizers, Ipod/iread, Gaming Software, Podcasting, and Webchats. Not only was he a dynamic speaker, the examples he showed us of students using the technology spoke for itself.
With Digital Reading portfolios, Long captures students reading samples throughout the year, which he can store for authentic assessment. Some of the advantages he found by doing this was: Students try harder because they hear themselves and want to sound better. He said one student went home and practiced and came back saying he was determined to sound better than he did the day before; Parents like it because they can hear student improvement, If using ipod, you can put the recording straight into itunes and parents can hear from home, or you can burn a CD at the end of the year.
With graphic organizers, Long used Inspiration and Kidspiration in the normal ways of brainstorming and organizing thoughts, but he also used it for storyboarding for digital storytelling projects. I thought this was another inventive way to use this software and I would like to try it with any projects we do in Comic Life next year.
Svec's ipod and iread program is what interested me the most. In this program, students would check out the text version of a book and an ipod with the audio verison to read along with the text to enhance fluency. They were able to do this project through an initial grant and bought something like 200 ipod nanos. The kids only use it at home and check the ipods out when they leave school and back in, in the morning and the ipods charge during the day. In the length of time they have been doing this project only 1 pod was ever lost and the parent quickly replaced it. That's pretty good numbers! They buy the audio book versions off of itunes. One teacher asked, "What if the students don't pay attention to the audio" and Long explained that that may occur at first, but the students quickly use both as they find it better to understand the both the text and the audio.
With Gaming, Svec uses Cranium Core, an online program that has read alouds and games, and then they add discuss and defend groups, which allows the students to build their reading, writing and listening skills, adds an engagement factor, and resources to intervention strategy. One of the main aspects this program works with is main idea and author’s purpose. The presenters said that the students would actually begin arguing in class about author’s purpose with each other because they were so into it. It really allowed the students to have social interaction with each other and let them talk about the issues in the book. The price really can't be beat either; $365 a year for the entire school and it sounds like any book you read, you can use this program with it. I really want to check out this website and this program!
Then Long talked about podcasting. He's got three student teams that he has put together: 1) MOD Squad (Multimedia on Demand), which does digital storytelling and guides, 2) Tech Ambassadors, and 3) Team TLC. With the training he has done at their school, there are over 200 teacher websites, with over 900 podcasts from 2 years, and they get an average of 150,000 hits a week! Absolutely amazing stuff! One of the teachers he works with does a podcast a week, and throught their podcasting (this nearly broke my heart) a parent who is serving in Iraq and was able to hear his daughter and stay in contact with her. They showed three examples of student podcasting: !) Student who did a book review, but told the parts of the book that held the conflict, the resolution, etc. 2)Students did a promotional commercials for books. This example was Farenheit 451-imagine a world without books? And from there they created a story to get kids to read the book. 3) Students did Q&A sessions. One student acted as host, and another student who read the book and answers the questions. The student used anecdotes when answering and talked about how his life experiences are similar to those of the main character.
The last thing we looked at were web chats. One of the groups Svec worked with was a group she created called the GStar Girls, who asked one day how they could talk with the author of the book they had finished reading. By email, the teacher contacted the author and the girls got to use ichat to ask author questions. This could also probably be done with Skype. I've heard of a lot of people, including Oprah Winfrey who are using Skype to communicate.
Great session with lots of great ideas!
Monday, June 29, 2009
My First Day at Necc
So here I am at NECC! This place is HUGE and there are so MANY things to see and learn and do! I went up on Sunday to get the lay of the land, volunteer and attend the opening keynote address with Malcolm Gladwell. I started out by volunteering in Presenter's World for three hours, and helping presenter's get some of those last minute presentations put together. I met teachers from Ireland, Ohio, Canada, and some great student presenters who were eager to try out their presentations on me. They were both from schools that use alternative assessments in their schools, with portfolios and online classes. They were so excited to be here and share what they've learned with teachers from around the world.
After my volunteer hours, I attempted to get into the ISTE Member welcome and orientation session, which had started earlier, but the fire marshall was doing a great job and the room was over capacity, so the session was closed. Patience paid off though, as some people left the room and they let some more people back in, and I was able to catch the last 20 or so minutes and see the great digital storytelling videos for the ISTE contest and vote on the winner. I then ran into some colleagues of mine, grabbed an expensive chicken sandwich (isn't convention food always expensive?) and up to the ballrooms for the keynote.
The president of ISTE spoke about some upcoming changes, such as changing the name of NECC to ISTE. All the promotional ads and brochures for next year bear the ISTE2010 in Denver on them. I don't like name changes after something has been used for so long and people know it by that name, but in this case, I'm happy about this change. It is now a global organization and with 60 different countries attending NECC this year, it's also a proven point.
Then Gladwell spoke. He is an author of three books on the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences. Many of the things he said makes sense with education, such as students who work harder and put forth the effort will do well in the long run. He provided some interesting examples (rock bands and football players) that I wouldn't immediately think would relate to education. Specifically, he talked about Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, and some top NFL players. He made some very good points with these examples and remember my own experiences as a student struggling in certain subject areas, but that the effort I put forth often helped me get through those challenges. I thought one of the best thoughts I took away from the keynote was, success grows from having had many failures, not successes. It's very true and something I often forget when I'm frustrated with something not turning out the way I want it to.
After the keynote address, I went to the Opening gala and met up with teachers in my current county and my previous one. It was great catching up with them and talking about what we've done this year. Tomorrow I'll report on how Monday went.
After my volunteer hours, I attempted to get into the ISTE Member welcome and orientation session, which had started earlier, but the fire marshall was doing a great job and the room was over capacity, so the session was closed. Patience paid off though, as some people left the room and they let some more people back in, and I was able to catch the last 20 or so minutes and see the great digital storytelling videos for the ISTE contest and vote on the winner. I then ran into some colleagues of mine, grabbed an expensive chicken sandwich (isn't convention food always expensive?) and up to the ballrooms for the keynote.
The president of ISTE spoke about some upcoming changes, such as changing the name of NECC to ISTE. All the promotional ads and brochures for next year bear the ISTE2010 in Denver on them. I don't like name changes after something has been used for so long and people know it by that name, but in this case, I'm happy about this change. It is now a global organization and with 60 different countries attending NECC this year, it's also a proven point.
Then Gladwell spoke. He is an author of three books on the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences. Many of the things he said makes sense with education, such as students who work harder and put forth the effort will do well in the long run. He provided some interesting examples (rock bands and football players) that I wouldn't immediately think would relate to education. Specifically, he talked about Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, and some top NFL players. He made some very good points with these examples and remember my own experiences as a student struggling in certain subject areas, but that the effort I put forth often helped me get through those challenges. I thought one of the best thoughts I took away from the keynote was, success grows from having had many failures, not successes. It's very true and something I often forget when I'm frustrated with something not turning out the way I want it to.
After the keynote address, I went to the Opening gala and met up with teachers in my current county and my previous one. It was great catching up with them and talking about what we've done this year. Tomorrow I'll report on how Monday went.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
DEN Pre-NECC Extravaganza and 100th post?
So this is technically the 100th post to be on the blog, but that's with the automatic Diigo posts that happen everytime I find a new website to add to my bookmarks, so I'm not really counting this as my 100th post, but I thought it would still be nice to at least say I reached 100 posts in about a year and a half!
Yesterday, in preparation for my first National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), I attended the DEN Pre-NECC Extraganza at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. Since I live close by, it was a no-brainer! What fun we had! We got to play "mock" school as we were students at Discovery School for the day. We had four periods, recess, and teams.
My first session was with Jen Dorman, where I learned about all thing "Ogs", as in Glogs, Blogs, and Vlogs. I've used Glogster before, but got to hear about more ways teachers are using it. Jen showed us several examples, and one on chromosomes and genes caught my attention. However, I did learn a great time saving tip: ADD IMAGES FROM THE WEB--You don't always have to download an image you like on the web and then re-upload into Glogster. You can use DE Streaming and search for pictures and choose a preview option (small, medium or large), which then opens the picture in another window in a web browser, with it's own URL! Copy the URL, go back to Glogster and paste it in the image from web box. The image goes right on your page.
Jen also shared a tip she used for class blogging, where she would assign a class scribe for each period and during the last three minutes of class, this person typed up what the class had done and posted it to the blog. What a great way for getting the students involved in communicating classwork! She also said the students would get very excited when they received comments from other teachers and the public! Jen was a high school teacher, so having the public comment would vary by school and grade level, but it was wonderful to hear how much the students wanted to keep learning because they were getting comments on their work. So instead of having students turn assignments in, have them publish it, and feedback from each other and the school community!
Vlogs are a great alternative to blogging. Jen also shared that some of her kids were downright scared to do writing assignments, but as soon as a camera was turned on, they'd start sharing like crazy! So in some cases, it might be easier to have kids articulating themselves in a "digital blog" instead of writing out the whole assignment.
The next session I did was, 50 Ways to Integrate DE Streaming, but it wasn't like the normal sessions on this, because there is a new updated version of DE streaming coming out very soon and we got to learn about the new features in this session with Jannita Demian. When you search for videos now, you will get results similar to how you did before, but now when you roll over a video you also get a pop up bubble (not window) with a 10 second video preview, with a description of the movie, teacher guides (this has great stuff) and in some cases a little box that says edit-which allows you to edit the movie. ANother change is the "Builders" have moved! They are no longer found in the Teacher Center as they've been upgraded to their own section. Look in the black box under the toolbar and you're find a link to them there. You can also check the "most popular" and "recently added" tabs for videos that fall into those categories. I also finally found the Discovery Atlas, which is in the Teacher Center. If you're a DEN member, you can check out these changes now.
There were some great ideas during this session: One teacher said she turns the volume off and has the kids narrate the video and uses this activity as a great assessment to see what they learned. Another idea was using PowerPoint and 6 or so pictures on a slide from a habitat/biome and connecting sounds from animals that would live in that type of environment and the kids have to identify what animal that is. When you click on the picture, you then get another slide with information about that animal. And all of this comes from DE Streaming!
My third session was on DE Streaming and Google Earth with Justin Karkow. I had gone to this same session at CRSTE with Jen Dorman and wasn't sure I was going to learn anything new, but I certainly did! I finally got Google Earth 5 to download on my computer and I was able to keep right up with Justin as he showed us the timeline and day and night features. The timeline allows you to look at a place through time and this icon, a clock, is found right under the toolbar. The day and night tool (there's probably an actual name for this) is right beside the clock and allows you to see the day and night views of a location. I liked Justin's math example as well. He would teach his students about measurement by taking a video from DE Streaming and embedding it into a placemark and then adding directions for what he wanted his students to do, and then the students would navigate to the placemark of a pyramid in Egypt and they would have to find the surface area of the pyramid. How fun does that sound?
The fourth session was our "assembly" time and I learned more about mediashare, which Star DEN members have access to. It seems like I need to check this out a bit more. I did use it briefly this spring when I was looking for video examples for a math film project I was doing with the 8th graders.
After "school" was over we celebrated the fourth birthday of the DEN. I had a great time yesterday and can't wait to see what awaits me this week at NECC!
Yesterday, in preparation for my first National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), I attended the DEN Pre-NECC Extraganza at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. Since I live close by, it was a no-brainer! What fun we had! We got to play "mock" school as we were students at Discovery School for the day. We had four periods, recess, and teams.
My first session was with Jen Dorman, where I learned about all thing "Ogs", as in Glogs, Blogs, and Vlogs. I've used Glogster before, but got to hear about more ways teachers are using it. Jen showed us several examples, and one on chromosomes and genes caught my attention. However, I did learn a great time saving tip: ADD IMAGES FROM THE WEB--You don't always have to download an image you like on the web and then re-upload into Glogster. You can use DE Streaming and search for pictures and choose a preview option (small, medium or large), which then opens the picture in another window in a web browser, with it's own URL! Copy the URL, go back to Glogster and paste it in the image from web box. The image goes right on your page.
Jen also shared a tip she used for class blogging, where she would assign a class scribe for each period and during the last three minutes of class, this person typed up what the class had done and posted it to the blog. What a great way for getting the students involved in communicating classwork! She also said the students would get very excited when they received comments from other teachers and the public! Jen was a high school teacher, so having the public comment would vary by school and grade level, but it was wonderful to hear how much the students wanted to keep learning because they were getting comments on their work. So instead of having students turn assignments in, have them publish it, and feedback from each other and the school community!
Vlogs are a great alternative to blogging. Jen also shared that some of her kids were downright scared to do writing assignments, but as soon as a camera was turned on, they'd start sharing like crazy! So in some cases, it might be easier to have kids articulating themselves in a "digital blog" instead of writing out the whole assignment.
The next session I did was, 50 Ways to Integrate DE Streaming, but it wasn't like the normal sessions on this, because there is a new updated version of DE streaming coming out very soon and we got to learn about the new features in this session with Jannita Demian. When you search for videos now, you will get results similar to how you did before, but now when you roll over a video you also get a pop up bubble (not window) with a 10 second video preview, with a description of the movie, teacher guides (this has great stuff) and in some cases a little box that says edit-which allows you to edit the movie. ANother change is the "Builders" have moved! They are no longer found in the Teacher Center as they've been upgraded to their own section. Look in the black box under the toolbar and you're find a link to them there. You can also check the "most popular" and "recently added" tabs for videos that fall into those categories. I also finally found the Discovery Atlas, which is in the Teacher Center. If you're a DEN member, you can check out these changes now.
There were some great ideas during this session: One teacher said she turns the volume off and has the kids narrate the video and uses this activity as a great assessment to see what they learned. Another idea was using PowerPoint and 6 or so pictures on a slide from a habitat/biome and connecting sounds from animals that would live in that type of environment and the kids have to identify what animal that is. When you click on the picture, you then get another slide with information about that animal. And all of this comes from DE Streaming!
My third session was on DE Streaming and Google Earth with Justin Karkow. I had gone to this same session at CRSTE with Jen Dorman and wasn't sure I was going to learn anything new, but I certainly did! I finally got Google Earth 5 to download on my computer and I was able to keep right up with Justin as he showed us the timeline and day and night features. The timeline allows you to look at a place through time and this icon, a clock, is found right under the toolbar. The day and night tool (there's probably an actual name for this) is right beside the clock and allows you to see the day and night views of a location. I liked Justin's math example as well. He would teach his students about measurement by taking a video from DE Streaming and embedding it into a placemark and then adding directions for what he wanted his students to do, and then the students would navigate to the placemark of a pyramid in Egypt and they would have to find the surface area of the pyramid. How fun does that sound?
The fourth session was our "assembly" time and I learned more about mediashare, which Star DEN members have access to. It seems like I need to check this out a bit more. I did use it briefly this spring when I was looking for video examples for a math film project I was doing with the 8th graders.
After "school" was over we celebrated the fourth birthday of the DEN. I had a great time yesterday and can't wait to see what awaits me this week at NECC!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/25/2009
Forty One Interesting Ways (and tips) to use your Interactive Whiteboard - Google Docs
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Animated guide: Hurricanes
Find out more about how hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones form and why they are so devastating.
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | How earthquakes happen
Why does the earth move? A guide to the origin of earthquakes.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/19/2009
The ISTE Community Ning is a year round social network for ISTE Members, affiliated organizations and groups, and educational leaders.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/17/2009
High Techpectations: Expanding Your NECC 2009 Experience
Cross Posted at the Infinite Thinking Machine View and edit NECC 2009 Washington, DC in a larger map. Please add your recommendations! It's that time of year again... The International...
XP Math - Forums - Powered by vBulletin - Arcade
Mr. Hui's XP Math features a math games league, free math lesson plans, a free math eBooks, a database of mathematical careers and a discussion board.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Success!
It's fixed! Oh thank goodness! For two days, I've been trying to figure out what was wrong with my blog layout. I read about page sizes, photo sizes, length of blog posts and checked all that out, with no change. It turns out it was one of my automated diigo posts. So that post about Jamendo has been deleted, but you can find it on my diigo lists under collaborative projects.
I'm just so happy my blog is back to normal!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Please Excuse My Blog
Dear Readers,
Please excuse the current state of my blog. I'm working to fix the problem of my right navigation column merging with the actual blog posts. Not sure how this happened, so stay tuned and read as best you can until it's fixed.
Thanks!
Please excuse the current state of my blog. I'm working to fix the problem of my right navigation column merging with the actual blog posts. Not sure how this happened, so stay tuned and read as best you can until it's fixed.
Thanks!
Great summer sessions with the DEN!
Get ready for a new school year with the DEN! The entire month of August is jam-packed with free webinars, on Digital Storytellling, Leadership, Science, and Web 2.0. Each week in the month of August, the Discovery Educator Network will be having online webinar classes on the above topics and getting teachers ready to start the new school year back in style and with some new tricks! Sessions will be 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. You can enroll today at: http://community.discoveryeducation.com/webinar. I am definitely checking out the sessions on "Discovery Education Media and imovie" during the first week and the "Virtual Field Trips with DE Media and Google Earth" during the last week. How exciting do these sound?
Here's a rundown of the schedule:
August 3, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Thinking Outside the Slide
August 4, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Digital Storytelling Made Easy with Discovery Education Content, Animoto and PhotoStory
August 5, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Director's Cut - Discovery Education Media and MovieMaker
August 6, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Discovery Education Media and iMovie
August 10, 2009 Leadership Week: The Information Society is HERE: Are our schools up to the task?
August 11, 2009 Leadership Week: Policies, Safety and Social Networking
August 12, 2009 Leadership Week: Web 2.0 for Administrators and Others: Schools, Tools, and the 21st Century
August 13, 2009 Leadership Week: Data Driven Decisions with Discovery Education Assessment
August 17, 2009 Science Week: Myth Busted - Easy Ways to Integrate Digital Media into Your Science Classroom
August 18, 2009 Science Week: Getting Your Hands Dirty with Discovery Education Science
August 19, 2009 Science Week: Differentiating Instruction with the Discovery Education Science Assessment Manager
August 20, 2009 Science Week: More and Muir Tech Tips for Going Green
August 24, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Get Your Glog On! The DE streaming Builders and Glogster
August 25, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: The Thread that Ties it All Together: Discovery Education Content and Voicethread
August 26, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Virtual Field Trips with Discovery Education Media and Google Earth
August 27, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Learning Through the Funnies: Mixing Discovery Education Content with Free Comic Tools
Which ones are you most interested in? Comment away in the comment section!
Here's a rundown of the schedule:
August 3, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Thinking Outside the Slide
August 4, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Digital Storytelling Made Easy with Discovery Education Content, Animoto and PhotoStory
August 5, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Director's Cut - Discovery Education Media and MovieMaker
August 6, 2009 Digital Storytelling Week: Discovery Education Media and iMovie
August 10, 2009 Leadership Week: The Information Society is HERE: Are our schools up to the task?
August 11, 2009 Leadership Week: Policies, Safety and Social Networking
August 12, 2009 Leadership Week: Web 2.0 for Administrators and Others: Schools, Tools, and the 21st Century
August 13, 2009 Leadership Week: Data Driven Decisions with Discovery Education Assessment
August 17, 2009 Science Week: Myth Busted - Easy Ways to Integrate Digital Media into Your Science Classroom
August 18, 2009 Science Week: Getting Your Hands Dirty with Discovery Education Science
August 19, 2009 Science Week: Differentiating Instruction with the Discovery Education Science Assessment Manager
August 20, 2009 Science Week: More and Muir Tech Tips for Going Green
August 24, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Get Your Glog On! The DE streaming Builders and Glogster
August 25, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: The Thread that Ties it All Together: Discovery Education Content and Voicethread
August 26, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Virtual Field Trips with Discovery Education Media and Google Earth
August 27, 2009 Web 2.0 Week: Learning Through the Funnies: Mixing Discovery Education Content with Free Comic Tools
Which ones are you most interested in? Comment away in the comment section!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Two PDS Sessions This Summer
After the students are gone and the teachers have started on their summer breaks, I'll still be working and getting things settled from this past school year and getting myself prepared for next year. But I'm offering two PDS sessions for teachers at my school during my last two weeks of June. Both sessions can be found in MLP.
The first session will be a one-on-one technology training event, entitled "Implementing New Technology Tools". Pick the day and time you like to come in between June 18-25 and meet with me to discuss any piece of technology or software in the building you would like to learn more about. I'll give you the run down on how they work and discuss ideas. Hopefully, we can also put a lesson plan or two together. I had a teacher ask me yesterday, "Can we talk about more than 1 piece of technology?" Absolutely! Whatever time you have, we'll make it happen.
The second PDS session is called "Using the Smart Airliner". This will actually be about the Smartboard, airliner, and smart notebook software and will be more formal than the first session I'm offering. It will be on June 25 from 8:30-12:00. We'll learn all about all three tools and how they're similar and different and how to feel more comfortable using them. They'll be opportunities for practice time as well!
The first session will be a one-on-one technology training event, entitled "Implementing New Technology Tools". Pick the day and time you like to come in between June 18-25 and meet with me to discuss any piece of technology or software in the building you would like to learn more about. I'll give you the run down on how they work and discuss ideas. Hopefully, we can also put a lesson plan or two together. I had a teacher ask me yesterday, "Can we talk about more than 1 piece of technology?" Absolutely! Whatever time you have, we'll make it happen.
The second PDS session is called "Using the Smart Airliner". This will actually be about the Smartboard, airliner, and smart notebook software and will be more formal than the first session I'm offering. It will be on June 25 from 8:30-12:00. We'll learn all about all three tools and how they're similar and different and how to feel more comfortable using them. They'll be opportunities for practice time as well!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wiki, Wiki...This Summer!
I am going to be participating in a summer PDS series on wikis provided by PBWorks.com, formally PBWiki, called "PBWorks Summer Camp"! I think I found this on Twitter last week and I took a look and immediately signed up. It's a FREE (we all know how I like free learning tools!), completely online summer PDS on how to use wikis in the classroom. It runs from June 22 - July 21 and every week I will have assignments to complete, webinars to participate in, and homework! 
I have two reasons for doing participating in this: 1) While, I have learned about wikis before, I haven't really used them with a group of students and 2) There was some discussion earlier this year about the geography classes at my school wanting to use wikis, however, we all decided we weren't quite ready for that step. So I want to prepared to use them next year. Hopefully, through some of the assignments I have to do, I can start creating some ideas and lessons to get us ready for this!
The only hard part will be trying to complete assignments while I'm at NECC! If sounds like something you would be interested in, there's still time to register!
I have two reasons for doing participating in this: 1) While, I have learned about wikis before, I haven't really used them with a group of students and 2) There was some discussion earlier this year about the geography classes at my school wanting to use wikis, however, we all decided we weren't quite ready for that step. So I want to prepared to use them next year. Hopefully, through some of the assignments I have to do, I can start creating some ideas and lessons to get us ready for this!
The only hard part will be trying to complete assignments while I'm at NECC! If sounds like something you would be interested in, there's still time to register!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Woohoo!
I am very big on Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). I became a Star DEN member back in 2005 quite by accident. I was a new teacher and looking for anything and everything to help me along the way.
A fellow veteran teacher suggested that I check out a unitedstreaming training taking place at one of the elementary schools. There I met other teachers finding out what this "unitedstreaming" thing was all about and two representatives of the DEN. At the end of the training, they told us about the DEN and what it was. Being an eager first year teacher, I signed up - I thought it would look great on my resume!
I went to my first DEN summer institute that summer at Valley Forge, PA and met people like Lance Rougeux, now the Director of the DEN; Jenn Dorman, another teacher and now an account manager with the DEN, and Heather Blanton, a great TRT down in southwest VA. I learned the most about podcasting and making movies with Windows Movie Maker and got to hear Will Richardson speak live to us about blogging. These were things I had never done before! It was an adventorous four days for me. It was also my first trip driving on I-495 by myself! And then some pretty nasty storms had gone through the Philly area before I arrived and half the roads I needed to take to the site were flooded and closed down. It was literally a miracle I found it, because I can tell you, I really did not know where I was going!
There have been other opportunities such as this one that have made me a true believer in the DEN. I've gotten a wealth of information from the online and FREE webinars, the Days of Discovery (like the one hosted by CRSTE I went to about two weeks ago), and the pre-conference events before the major technology conferences.
But I had no idea the hold this organization would have over me. It is such a great community of teachers! Everytime I go to an event I learn something or make a great contact, like the wonderful ladies from South Dakota I met at a DEN lunch when I went to FETC. So when I heard that the leadership councils were looking for new members I applied thinking I could give back some of what I've gotten. There are 22 leardership councils in the DEN and Virginia is one of the lucky states to have one.
And guess what I got yesterday? The official email telling me I was selected to be on the VA leadership council and then several other emails from current members congratulating me! I very much hope I can represent the DEN and the great state of Virginia as I take on this new role. I can't wait to bring some great professional development and learning to more teachers and get some new Virginia DEN members along the way!
A fellow veteran teacher suggested that I check out a unitedstreaming training taking place at one of the elementary schools. There I met other teachers finding out what this "unitedstreaming" thing was all about and two representatives of the DEN. At the end of the training, they told us about the DEN and what it was. Being an eager first year teacher, I signed up - I thought it would look great on my resume!
I went to my first DEN summer institute that summer at Valley Forge, PA and met people like Lance Rougeux, now the Director of the DEN; Jenn Dorman, another teacher and now an account manager with the DEN, and Heather Blanton, a great TRT down in southwest VA. I learned the most about podcasting and making movies with Windows Movie Maker and got to hear Will Richardson speak live to us about blogging. These were things I had never done before! It was an adventorous four days for me. It was also my first trip driving on I-495 by myself! And then some pretty nasty storms had gone through the Philly area before I arrived and half the roads I needed to take to the site were flooded and closed down. It was literally a miracle I found it, because I can tell you, I really did not know where I was going!
There have been other opportunities such as this one that have made me a true believer in the DEN. I've gotten a wealth of information from the online and FREE webinars, the Days of Discovery (like the one hosted by CRSTE I went to about two weeks ago), and the pre-conference events before the major technology conferences.
But I had no idea the hold this organization would have over me. It is such a great community of teachers! Everytime I go to an event I learn something or make a great contact, like the wonderful ladies from South Dakota I met at a DEN lunch when I went to FETC. So when I heard that the leadership councils were looking for new members I applied thinking I could give back some of what I've gotten. There are 22 leardership councils in the DEN and Virginia is one of the lucky states to have one.
And guess what I got yesterday? The official email telling me I was selected to be on the VA leadership council and then several other emails from current members congratulating me! I very much hope I can represent the DEN and the great state of Virginia as I take on this new role. I can't wait to bring some great professional development and learning to more teachers and get some new Virginia DEN members along the way!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/06/2009
ReadWriteThink: Student Materials: Construct-a-Word
Construct a Word.
verbs-online.com: Online Verb Conjugation Trainer - Learn Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, English
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/04/2009
earth album alpha - a slicker google maps + flickr mash-up
a google maps + flickr mashup that allows you to explore the world
A free Resource for Teachers who use Google Earth. Providing everything from lesson ideas to complete lesson plans for both single computer classrooms to full computer labs.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Interesting Websites 06/03/2009
ESL Conversation Questions - What if...? (I-TESL-J)
A list of questions you can use to generate conversations in the ESL/EFL classroom.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
CRSTE Day of Discovery
I spent my Saturday this past weekend in Arlington, VA at the CRSTE Day of Discovery. The Captial Region Society for Technology Educators (CRSTE) is a newly formed educational technology group and they partnered with Discovery Education to create this day. I apologize in advance as this is a long post describing my day.
It started at 8:30 with a keynote address from Matt Monjan, from Discovery. One of my colleagues who I attended grad school with commented, that she felt like she was back in class again hearing about the concepts of digital natives and constructivism. I think that describes a real attribute of this organization, is that they are current and know what students and teachers need to grow in their use of technology. Matt did a great job and I was ready to start off my day with Jen Dorman's session on "Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere! Google Earth and DE Streaming". Jen's presentation is available on her DEN blog at http://denblogs.com/jendorman here.
I've done a little dabbling in Google Earth (GE), but really need to use this tool next school year. Jen had some great ideas and advice: First, the Google Earth pro version is free to educators by sending an email to GEEC@google.com. You'll receive an email with a download after a couple of weeks. Next, she told us about the "my maps" feature in Google Maps, which can be a good substitute while you're waiting for that GE Pro version to arrive, or if GE is not allowed your computers, which luckily is not the case in our district. The "my maps" feature allows you to add hyperlinks and more to your maps and is great for collaborating or for group work. The teacher can create the map and then "invite" students to join and each students can add to the map. Looking at this on my own, I also found some groups that had created their own and shared. There is one for teachers who use technology and you can placemark where you are in the world. There are other topics including real estate, islands, and points of interest. I would have to look at this some more though to create my own map.
For GE, Jen explained an example she did with a history class, where each group was given one major battle from World War II and they had to add events and placemarks as the battle occurred. Her greatest piece of advice, was making sure the first step each group was to create a folder for their project and to make sure all placemarks, videos, etc. were placed in this folder. This sounds like a great way to learn about events in history!
Another idea Jen had was to use the ruler tool for studying math. I had no idea there was a ruler tool in GE. She said Washington, DC is great place in GE to use this for. For example, students can find the circumference between certain parks or buildings, measure the distance from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial, etc. She added that Africa is another great place to use this tool.
After the GE session, I attended "Getting Interactive with Glogs and DE Builders" with Mike Hakkarinen from Frederick County Schools in Maryland. Mark did a great job and has some fantastic products from his classes. Mark just created a new blog for the builders at http://discoverybuilders.blogspot.com. Everything from his presentation is this site, as well. If you don't know much about the DE builders, they are the assignment, quiz, and writing prompt builders in DE streaming's teacher center. Each builder helps teachers with creating online assignment, quizzes, and writing prompts. Some inventive teachers have begun using web 2.0 tools with the builders, which is what Mark talked about in his session and the results are pretty amazing!
The first tip Mark gave was to put a link to the student center on the desktop computers students use, for our district, our CTT could add an icon to our Novell windows and it would take the students directly to the page, where they could sign in to use the online tools the teacher has created. The first builder Mark used was the writing prompt builder. He's a science teacher and recently his students were learning about the relationships between grass, crickets, and anoles. So he took a picture of a cricket from DE streaming and embedded it into the prompt builder and added a writing prompt for the students to type up. When they're finished, students submit their writings and it's automatically sent via email to Mark.
For the Quiz builder, Mark embedded a video from DE streaming. After students watched the video, they could then take a quiz on what they watched. The best part is that students can read the questions first, then watch the video; they can watch and then take the quiz; or they can watch, take the quiz, and refer back to the video when needed. Another great feature is that when you are setting up the quiz you can decide on how the students view it, such as multiple questions at a time or one question at a time.
In the assignment builder, Mark talked about using a web 2.0 tool called Blabberize, which is similar to a voki. If you've never heard of either, they are two tools that allow you to record messages and then post onto a website, blog, wiki, or just about anywhere! With voki, you actually create a character that talks and with Blabberize, you can make images talk, such as a lion. If your students are studying about Africa in Geography class or biomes in Science class, a talking lion could come in handy! Mark uses this as a way to describe to his students what they need to do in their assignment. He simply embeds the html code from Blabberize and pastes it in the learning objective box and he's all set! He also suggested trying Dabbleboard, an online interactive whiteboard, Voicethread and Glogster.
The last session I attended was on Professional Development in Second Life with Fred Delventhal, from Arlington Public Schools. I've heard lots of talk about how educators, especially DEN Stars are using Second Life, but I haven't really tipped my toes into this yet. So I was interested to hear what this is about. Fred talked about how Discovery has set up PD sessions here and the different tech society's that are located in Second Life as well, such as ISTE and VSTE. It was a good overall tour of what's in Second Life, however I would have liked to have seen how you get started, create an avatar, and get them to move (I hear this is not easy at first).
Overall, it was great day, with a few surpises. I got to see old and current colleagues that I didn't know were going to be there and chat with some teachers from other districts, as well as learn some great ideas!
It started at 8:30 with a keynote address from Matt Monjan, from Discovery. One of my colleagues who I attended grad school with commented, that she felt like she was back in class again hearing about the concepts of digital natives and constructivism. I think that describes a real attribute of this organization, is that they are current and know what students and teachers need to grow in their use of technology. Matt did a great job and I was ready to start off my day with Jen Dorman's session on "Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere! Google Earth and DE Streaming". Jen's presentation is available on her DEN blog at http://denblogs.com/jendorman here.
I've done a little dabbling in Google Earth (GE), but really need to use this tool next school year. Jen had some great ideas and advice: First, the Google Earth pro version is free to educators by sending an email to GEEC@google.com. You'll receive an email with a download after a couple of weeks. Next, she told us about the "my maps" feature in Google Maps, which can be a good substitute while you're waiting for that GE Pro version to arrive, or if GE is not allowed your computers, which luckily is not the case in our district. The "my maps" feature allows you to add hyperlinks and more to your maps and is great for collaborating or for group work. The teacher can create the map and then "invite" students to join and each students can add to the map. Looking at this on my own, I also found some groups that had created their own and shared. There is one for teachers who use technology and you can placemark where you are in the world. There are other topics including real estate, islands, and points of interest. I would have to look at this some more though to create my own map.
For GE, Jen explained an example she did with a history class, where each group was given one major battle from World War II and they had to add events and placemarks as the battle occurred. Her greatest piece of advice, was making sure the first step each group was to create a folder for their project and to make sure all placemarks, videos, etc. were placed in this folder. This sounds like a great way to learn about events in history!
Another idea Jen had was to use the ruler tool for studying math. I had no idea there was a ruler tool in GE. She said Washington, DC is great place in GE to use this for. For example, students can find the circumference between certain parks or buildings, measure the distance from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial, etc. She added that Africa is another great place to use this tool.
After the GE session, I attended "Getting Interactive with Glogs and DE Builders" with Mike Hakkarinen from Frederick County Schools in Maryland. Mark did a great job and has some fantastic products from his classes. Mark just created a new blog for the builders at http://discoverybuilders.blogspot.com. Everything from his presentation is this site, as well. If you don't know much about the DE builders, they are the assignment, quiz, and writing prompt builders in DE streaming's teacher center. Each builder helps teachers with creating online assignment, quizzes, and writing prompts. Some inventive teachers have begun using web 2.0 tools with the builders, which is what Mark talked about in his session and the results are pretty amazing!
The first tip Mark gave was to put a link to the student center on the desktop computers students use, for our district, our CTT could add an icon to our Novell windows and it would take the students directly to the page, where they could sign in to use the online tools the teacher has created. The first builder Mark used was the writing prompt builder. He's a science teacher and recently his students were learning about the relationships between grass, crickets, and anoles. So he took a picture of a cricket from DE streaming and embedded it into the prompt builder and added a writing prompt for the students to type up. When they're finished, students submit their writings and it's automatically sent via email to Mark.
For the Quiz builder, Mark embedded a video from DE streaming. After students watched the video, they could then take a quiz on what they watched. The best part is that students can read the questions first, then watch the video; they can watch and then take the quiz; or they can watch, take the quiz, and refer back to the video when needed. Another great feature is that when you are setting up the quiz you can decide on how the students view it, such as multiple questions at a time or one question at a time.
In the assignment builder, Mark talked about using a web 2.0 tool called Blabberize, which is similar to a voki. If you've never heard of either, they are two tools that allow you to record messages and then post onto a website, blog, wiki, or just about anywhere! With voki, you actually create a character that talks and with Blabberize, you can make images talk, such as a lion. If your students are studying about Africa in Geography class or biomes in Science class, a talking lion could come in handy! Mark uses this as a way to describe to his students what they need to do in their assignment. He simply embeds the html code from Blabberize and pastes it in the learning objective box and he's all set! He also suggested trying Dabbleboard, an online interactive whiteboard, Voicethread and Glogster.
The last session I attended was on Professional Development in Second Life with Fred Delventhal, from Arlington Public Schools. I've heard lots of talk about how educators, especially DEN Stars are using Second Life, but I haven't really tipped my toes into this yet. So I was interested to hear what this is about. Fred talked about how Discovery has set up PD sessions here and the different tech society's that are located in Second Life as well, such as ISTE and VSTE. It was a good overall tour of what's in Second Life, however I would have liked to have seen how you get started, create an avatar, and get them to move (I hear this is not easy at first).
Overall, it was great day, with a few surpises. I got to see old and current colleagues that I didn't know were going to be there and chat with some teachers from other districts, as well as learn some great ideas!
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