I think I have finally recoverd from the VSTE conference last week. I ended up not feeling so good when I returned.
I've talked with a couple of teachers already about ideas I found at the conference. The sixth grade science teachers and I may have come up with a little something interesting about the water cycle. I'll share more as the project comes together. I also talked with some teachers about using document cameras. I was hoping this wasn't going to be an expensive venture, but I think I'm wrong. Two of the teachers I talked with said they have used them before and would give up their overhead projectors to have one of these in their rooms! That's saying something!
I stumbled across this great blog post today at the DEN and thought I would share. It would be great if we started an educational movement with unitedstreaming. Be sure to check out the comments and add your idea!
By the way, does anyone have material for professional development for blogs they would like to share? I'm developing a session now and would love ideas anyone has. I'm all about not re-inventing the wheel!
Check out this video on document cameras:
Showing posts with label VSTE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VSTE. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Back home
I love to travel and especially learn new things, but it's also nice to be back home. The drive home was rough with the worst fog I have ever seen with almost zero visibility in front of you.
I learned lots of great things about Google Earth such as how to create placemarks, paths, traveling journeys for students, and imbedding icons, descriptions, pictures, and websites. I can't wait to put together a workshop for staff. The presenter was Scott Meisenzahl, a Technology Resource Teacher from Loudoun County. You can find this presentation and others from Loudoun at their It's a jungle out there...get technofied site.
I also learned a few more tricks for podcasts, digital storytelling, and this thing called stop-motion animation or "claymation", which allows students to make models out of clay, take pictures of every movement, and throw the pictures into movie maker or imovie and create a short video. It sounds very similar to what we did in the ITS program during spring 2007 with adding visual effects to our movies. This type of animation can work well with any curriculum, but I liked that it would work with cycles/changes in science and math concepts. Now, that's pretty cool. There are examples of some movies at Tech4learning. The exact web page is www.tech4learning.com/claykits/samples.html. The presenter for this was Michael Butler from Botetourt County. He also did a great presentation on Google Sketchup! and how you can use it in the middle school math classroom. There's a few teachers I can think of to show this to.
I have some pictures from VSTE, as well, and I should be posting those shortly! Have a great week!
I learned lots of great things about Google Earth such as how to create placemarks, paths, traveling journeys for students, and imbedding icons, descriptions, pictures, and websites. I can't wait to put together a workshop for staff. The presenter was Scott Meisenzahl, a Technology Resource Teacher from Loudoun County. You can find this presentation and others from Loudoun at their It's a jungle out there...get technofied site.
I also learned a few more tricks for podcasts, digital storytelling, and this thing called stop-motion animation or "claymation", which allows students to make models out of clay, take pictures of every movement, and throw the pictures into movie maker or imovie and create a short video. It sounds very similar to what we did in the ITS program during spring 2007 with adding visual effects to our movies. This type of animation can work well with any curriculum, but I liked that it would work with cycles/changes in science and math concepts. Now, that's pretty cool. There are examples of some movies at Tech4learning. The exact web page is www.tech4learning.com/claykits/samples.html. The presenter for this was Michael Butler from Botetourt County. He also did a great presentation on Google Sketchup! and how you can use it in the middle school math classroom. There's a few teachers I can think of to show this to.
I have some pictures from VSTE, as well, and I should be posting those shortly! Have a great week!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Traveling Stories
Here's are the websites that I mentioned yesterday:
The Traveling Stories
and
Virginia Trekkers
I attended a couple more sessions yesterday. I attended one with John Hendron, which was about podcasting and using this tool more effectively in the classroom. I think I got some great ideas! 4 more sessions today.
The Traveling Stories
and
Virginia Trekkers
I attended a couple more sessions yesterday. I attended one with John Hendron, which was about podcasting and using this tool more effectively in the classroom. I think I got some great ideas! 4 more sessions today.
Monday, February 25, 2008
VSTEing away
I'm at the Virginia Society for Technology Education (VSTE) Conference in Roanoke this week. I'm having a blast so far! Yesterday, I attended my first two sessions. The first one was about travelling stories through podcasts. Two schools in Henrico County will take one class or group and start a story, record it and then send the story to another group or class. That class would then have to finish it. Once the whole process was through, the two groups would get together and then listen to whole story. I'm not giving it the full justice here and I can't remember the website at the moment, but I'll give that in my update.
My best story from the conference so far is this: In the first timers session, I sat down not really paying attention to where I was sitting. Another woman engaged myself and the person sitting next to me in a conversation. The woman beside me said she was from Tazewell, VA. Before going to college, I never would have known where this was, however, I told the woman that I had been there, having gone home once with a friend of mine who lived there. We talked for a few more minutes, before I asked the woman her last name. When she told me, I couldn't help laughing! I told her, not only had I been in Tazewell, I'd been to her house! Definitely giving me a strange look, she realized I was her daughter's friend from college! We exchanged phone numbers and she updated me on her daughter. Small world, indeed! Thought I would share. I'll be back with more later.
My best story from the conference so far is this: In the first timers session, I sat down not really paying attention to where I was sitting. Another woman engaged myself and the person sitting next to me in a conversation. The woman beside me said she was from Tazewell, VA. Before going to college, I never would have known where this was, however, I told the woman that I had been there, having gone home once with a friend of mine who lived there. We talked for a few more minutes, before I asked the woman her last name. When she told me, I couldn't help laughing! I told her, not only had I been in Tazewell, I'd been to her house! Definitely giving me a strange look, she realized I was her daughter's friend from college! We exchanged phone numbers and she updated me on her daughter. Small world, indeed! Thought I would share. I'll be back with more later.
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