I know that I may be a little bit behind on this post but I was lucky enough to get to attend the NCTIES Conference at the beginning of the month of March. While there I got to see a number of people that I have not seen since last years conference. I also got to showcase a couple of years of work on my part into concurrent and technology fair sessions. For the better part of the past three years I have had a little side project within our school district separate from my normal everyday activities. This side project has been on Document Cameras(doc...
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Yep. Google Will Do That...
Posted on 11:46 by Unknown
We all know Google will do searches, mail, calendars, images and tons more stuff but I got really excited when I came across this list on Twitter with all the Google Tools and Apps, listed A-Z. So many great resources. It was so helpful, I have done several workshops for our district on the lesser known Google tools that can play big roles in the classroom and plan to do several more. Below is the presentation. What are your favorite unknown Google Tools?...
Do You Know Why School Buses Are Yellow?
Posted on 05:41 by Unknown

On my blog, I have a widget from Wonderopolis called Wonder of the Day. On the Wonderopolis homepage, I noticed that there are categories in the sidebar listing everything from Animals to Fairy Tales to History to Nutrition to Seasons to Transportation to Writing (archived Wonders of the Day). I decided to see what was in the Colors category ...When the Colors category opened up, there is a big picture of a School Bus with the caption: Take a...
150th Anniversary of the Civil War
Posted on 05:11 by Unknown
150th Anniversary of the Civil War Commemorate the sesquicentennial with over 300 video clips fromA&E Television Networks and numerous teacher resources!What do you know about the Gettysburg Address? Abraham Lincoln? Ulysses S. Grant? From 1861 to 1865, the War of the States created a significant amount of historical content in which we now share with students starting the day they attend school.Learn360 and our longstanding content partner A&E Television Networks, which includes A&E®, HISTORY® and BIO® , bring you all the resources...
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
You Mean I Have to Clean My Interactive White Board?
Posted on 08:18 by Unknown

'Using the SMARTBoard in Room 14 - 25' http://www.flickr.com/photos/10204545@N02/3129063547by: Jess McCulloch Think of all those fingerprints that you see on your Interactive White Board. How do you clean them? It really doesn't matter what type of IWB you have, they clean pretty much the same way.SMART Boards: According to SMART Technologies, do not use anything abrasive to clean the board. This includes Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...
Friday, 25 March 2011
A Gaggle of Gadgets
Posted on 12:40 by Unknown
I had another great opportunity this year at NCTIES to attend a session with Leslie Fisher on tech gadgets. For me it seems to make a great start to my conference happenings when I get to have the ADD-Geek moment and get it out of the way first thing.As usual we had a packed house in the session room and there were people sitting in the aisles, standing along the walls and sitting on the credenzas in the back of the room. I don't know but I think that Leslie seems to be a big draw at the NCTIES conferences, "I'm Just Sayin."Since I am unfortunately...
Thursday, 24 March 2011
March - Women's History Month
Posted on 20:07 by Unknown

There are many aspects to think about for Women's History Month. We could focus on the struggle for women to win the right to vote. Find out more at Social Studies for Kids and check out who was arrested for trying to vote for president and ordered to pay $1,000. Maybe we would have a woman mayor, lawyer or even president some day.Graphic courtesy of ArtToday Thinkfinity has a great listing of lesson plans, newsletters, and calendar events noting...
21st Century Skills in the Classroom
Posted on 15:21 by Unknown
Traditionally, we think of the classroom setting as a relationship between teachers and students. The teacher is expected to create an atmosphere that fosters learning while preparing their students for the next step in the educational process. The student is then responsible for learning the material presented by the teacher and proving their knowledge on exams. On some level this still occurs, however fashioning a classroom that prepares students for success in the 21st Century goes beyond the common lecture within the classroom. Now more...
Information from the netTrekker Newsletter!
Posted on 11:32 by Unknown
Upcoming Webinar!The netTrekker Training Team will be sharing valuable tips during a webinar Monday, March 28 at 4:30 PM EST. The webinar, "My Community," will be focused on the new Teacher-only widget that easily connects you with the rest of the netTrekker community. Learn about the various resources available to help you make the most of your netTrekker subscription! Click here for more information and to sign up for this Learning for Today event!Explore... Learn... Connect... and Build with NT101 Are you new to netTrekker? Do you want to connect...
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Have You Visited Atomic Learning Lately?
Posted on 08:12 by Unknown

Did you know ... You can learn how to create and edit audio that you can insert into software or web apps like EDUGlogster? You can also create and edit podcasts. View the tutorials on Audacity and start creating and editing audio.Have you heard about ...Curriki is free open source curriculum resources. View the tutorials to learn how to search for these free resources and become a member of Curriki for free.How about ...ActivInspire and SMART Notebook?...
And You Thought Only Kids Did The Reading...
Posted on 07:52 by Unknown

Web 2.0 and Social Media information is easily available for teachers, administrators and other school leaders. Through blogs (like this one), Twitter, News sites, Wikis, and general websites, it can get a bit overwhelming if you try to sit down and sift through all the fluff to get to the good stuff. Thank goodness for RSS and RSS Readers.What is RSS you ask?In a nutshell, Really Simple Service, or RSS allows you to get instant updates when your...
Monday, 21 March 2011
What Makes a 21st Century Learner?
Posted on 20:11 by Unknown

So often we hear the phrase “21st Century Learner,” but what does that actually mean? This exact question was asked of me by one of my professors awhile back and I admit, it caught me off guard. Not only was I put on the spot, but I too pondered the same question for quite some time. The only truthful way I knew to go about answering this question was to draw on my own experience and intuition. I sat and pictured my students in my classroom and visualized...
Battle of the Books!
Posted on 12:21 by Unknown
Congratulations to Meadowlark Middle School who will represent WSFCS at the Regional Battle of the Books Competition on April 8! What an awesome team of readers and competitors!Congratulations to ALL the middle school students who participated in Friday's competition! The students demonstrated that they were well prepared and were ready to "battle" over the details of the books. Great sportsmanship, good manners, and mutual respect for other...
EDSITEment again ...
Posted on 10:10 by Unknown
I have recently been learning even more about the EDSITEment site from the National Endowment for the Humanities.This program consists of over 500 lessons, 300 sites, student interactives and a monthly newsletter, as well as a Facebook page and twitter feed. They are trying to share resources and information in as many ways as possible.They also have a number of other features which are not so easy to find such as under the Reference Shelf , they have four quick reference indexes of lessons and one for websites:Advanced Placement U.S. History...
Friday, 18 March 2011
Have You Ever Wondered ...?
Posted on 05:46 by Unknown

I have been invited to attend the 20th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy. I am very excited about attending this conference. One of the things they have asked me to do was to send digital images of blogs, wikis, etc. to share at the panel presentation I will be a part of. This reminded me that I hadn't written a blog post about Wonderopolis™. I wrote a blog post about Thinkfinity resources for Black History Month, one for Smithsonian's...
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Need Money for Technology
Posted on 21:37 by Unknown
Are you sitting in your classroom wondering why you do not have the same technology products as the other teachers have in their schools? Are you wondering how you can get those technology items for the students in your classroom.Why not try Donors Choose. What is Donors Choose you are asking."DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need."So what do you do to get funding for your technology needs. Well all you have to do is to start with an idea, then take that to Donors Choose and then sit back...
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Sounding like Shmoop?
Posted on 17:57 by Unknown

For some unknown reason, this primarily elementary school person has been spending time learning about resources for middle and high school. Most of the sessions I attended at NCTIES were related to middle or high school, and I have spent the first three days of this week at either a middle or a high school. I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something ...In the workshop I did today, I asked teachers for resources they thought would be useful...
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Updating the Firmware On the eInstruction Pulse Remotes
Posted on 11:41 by Unknown

There have been firmware updates to the RF receiver for the Mobi wireless tablet and firmware updates for the Mobi tablet itself. There also have been firmware updates for the CPS Pulse RF receiver. The Pulse remotes also have firmware updates. That is what this blog is about. This update allows a user to enter more than 20 characters to answer an essay question in CPS using the Pulse remotes. The process is relatively fast unless you have many sets...
Trick Out Your Next Presentation With Google Charts
Posted on 08:32 by Unknown
I am constantly encouraging teachers to use the Web 2.0 tools I blog about and teach about in their classroom. One of the tools I use to hook teachers is Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for a while now. I like the ability to write and create from anywhere and the ability to give access to others with a simple email invite (Think Collaboration...isn't that the definition of Web 2.0?). While there are a few things missing, overall I have...
Thursday, 10 March 2011
You Just Received a New Classroom Solution Cart ...
Posted on 12:31 by Unknown

... What do you do now? I went to a workshop yesterday afternoon that my boss, Marlo Gaddis conducted on a classroom solution cart for the Activ Classroom. She talked about turning the computer on (and where it was located in the cart); the speakers, microphones, remotes, calibrating the board, and introduced the document camera.On the remote control for the projector, there are a couple of buttons that everyone should be aware of: Blank...
Advice For Animoto
Posted on 11:00 by Unknown

If you haven't heard by now, Animoto is one of the best photo/video mashup tools out there. (You can read some past posts I've done on it here.) In a nutshell, users can upload photos and videos, select some music to set the mood and create some of the most professional (and really cool looking) videos out there.Here is one I did for the InaugurationA while back I asked my PLN what advice they would give to new Animoto users. Here is what they said:What...
March Resources
Posted on 10:05 by Unknown

Even though there isn't a National Holiday during the month of March; many more events are happening. You can find events that are celebrated for the whole month, for a week, or for each day of the month.About.com has a "Long List of March Holidays and Special Days such as Women's History MonthIrish-American Heritage MonthYouth Art MonthIt was really interesting to see that March 7th was the day that Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent was granted...
March resources in netTrekker
Posted on 06:22 by Unknown

Did you know that netTrekker has groups of resources to go along with themes each month? You can find these Monthly Projects by looking in My Portfolio in netTrekker. Each registered user of netTrekker has their very own portfolio to store things in ... so if you don't have My Portfolio in the sidebar when you visit netTrekker, make sure you register using your school code and the teacher code.Inside My Portfolio, look for a folder called Global:...
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
From Lit Trips to Wordle ...
Posted on 17:49 by Unknown

My workshop today scheduled for today was on Google Lit Trips. We ended up talking about Wordle. You might ask what the connection is between those two things ...Our Instructional Technology Department has a wiki where we post resources for the workshops that we do as well as a range of other resources. As I was guiding teachers to that wiki to the Google Lit Trips page which is linked to a LiveBinder full of resources, they saw something they liked...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)