At ASCD2011 I sat down with the good folks over at Follett and talked about a wide variety of topics surrounding technology, leadership and more.Here is the first part of the interview on Building A PLN.What do you think? What are some other important aspects of PLN building or just network building in general. What works for y...
Friday, 27 May 2011
Seeking Some Advice?
Posted on 05:07 by Unknown
Now that the 2010-2011 academic year is coming to a close, I started thinking back to my first year as a classroom teacher. Even though my colleagues taught me a lot, sometimes its the experience itself that teaches you the most. Looking back I wondered how differently certain situations could have played out "if only I had known" certain things.My first year was one of the hardest. I remember wondering what the teachers around me were doing to meet the high demands of the job. Perhaps they had something special in their bag of tricks...
Thursday, 26 May 2011
What is a Teacher Lock?
Posted on 07:44 by Unknown
Did you know that in ActivInspire you can lock down your flipchart page? No, well guess what... you have the option to do that. If we have it how do we use it. Very easily, from the main toolbar at the top of the window select Tools then More Tools... and once you are there you will select Teacher Lock which the second to last option on the menu list. You can also access the Teacher Lock from the ActivInspire Toolbox by first clicking on the...
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Tickertape: What is it?
Posted on 07:51 by Unknown
Now that you are using ActivInspire in your ActivClassroom have you explored some of the other Tools that are available to you? Let's take a look at one of the right now called Tickertape. You can access this tool by one of a couple of ways. The most common way to access is to click on Tools and More Tools... on the top toolbar. You can also Click the Menu Button from the Toolbox, then choose Tools --> More Tools... and Tickertape. Another...
This Month from netTrekker!
Posted on 07:09 by Unknown

Since you may be looking for some information/activities either for the end of the year or in early preparation for next year, I thought I would share some information I received from netTrekker about some featured services.As a WSFCS teacher, you have access to netTrekker. You can find a link to netTrekker on WSFCS Learning Village dashboard. Each school has a school code that will allow you to connect to the school's account and create your own...
Where in the World Is ...
Posted on 06:59 by Unknown

... Trekking the Planet expedition?I found a great post on Twitter this morning from @TrekkingPlanet. Darren and Sandy are talking about their upcoming 400 day world journey and their expedition is named "Trekking the Planet". This trip will start in January and they are asking teachers and students to follow them on their journey. They are going to be hiking and using ground transportation as much as possible in order to really learn the culture...
Monday, 23 May 2011
A Book Treasure Chest
Posted on 18:27 by Unknown

I grew up with a love of reading. I saw my parents reading. I saw books in our house (my dad's office is overflowing with books with folded corners and notes written on pages ... hmmm I just realized that may help explain why most of my books have folded corners and notes written in them). I remember stories being read to me, for some reason I really remember hearing Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst (one...
Camp Inspire ...
Posted on 12:18 by Unknown
Summer is coming, school will be out and you are sending your children to camps. Why not attend a camp set up and designed with the teacher in mind? Come and join the fun at Camp Inspire on July 19 & 20 from 9am to 3pm at Sherwood Forest Elementary School in the heart of Beautiful Winston-Salem. What are we going to be doing during these two days? Funny you should ask. You, as a teacher, will be able to select from a menu list of sessions to attend that will help you better understand the workings of Prometheans ActivInspire software. But wait...
Using Google Earth In The Science Classroom
Posted on 10:43 by Unknown

Seems like a no brainer right? Earth, science, they just go together. But Google Earth is way more than a glorified stand alone Google Map. There are so many cool and easy things to explore.In Google Earth there are layers. Each of these layers are interesting facts, locations or events plotted on the globe. There are some pretty standard ones; roads, buildings, terrain. But there are some interesting ones that can support what you are...
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Free Math Games for IWB's
Posted on 06:21 by Unknown

I was trying to think of something to write about and I was looking through my Twitter feed and came across a blog posted by @JamesHollis. His latest blog post "SMARTBoard Users - Mangahigh is Now Free" caught my eye. According to the web site: "Mangahigh.com is one of the world’s first games-based-learning sites, where students learn Mathematics via purpose-built casual games that balance fun and learning." The games are tied to core...
Computer Training In Pictures
Posted on 05:59 by Unknown

I love my job, but sometimes it can be frustrating trying to meet the needs of all the teachers and staff members in my district. I constantly look for ways to give teachers instruction that they can do on their own or in groups, together. These are not meant to replace the face-to-face training that I do or the other resources I create. They are merely there to provide that additional information some teachers/staff need.In the past I have blogged...
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
What is a Graphic Novel?
Posted on 13:04 by Unknown
Graphic novels are expressed through many frames of pictures and words. They are similar to comic books in appearance but have the depth of novels. Graphic novels are important to introduce students to for many reasons. Students are given opportunities to analyze many forms of literature. Some of these are poetry, fiction, and non fiction. Students who may not respond well to some literature might love graphic novels.On a blog post concerning Graphic Novels on the Big Universe Blog, this comment was made providing another possible...
Monday, 16 May 2011
Keeping Your Students Motivated in the End!
Posted on 08:29 by Unknown

Today I came across a useful blog post by Laura Candler, a National Board Certified Teacher who wrote about different ways teachers can keep their students motivated at the end of the year. This time of year is a struggle for various reasons, especially for those of you in the classroom. As spring fever sets in, schedules are switched to accommodate testing and your students are zoning out. As they become more chatty and restless perhaps you are...
Friday, 13 May 2011
Working with Layers and ActivInspire
Posted on 13:17 by Unknown

Lately I have been learning a lot about ActivInspire software for Promethean boards. I must say that I have really been enjoying seeing what the software could do. I am not finished looking at all the possibilities; I still have a lot to look into and learn.The latest thing that I have been learning about is layers. The flipchart (which is what ActivInspire calls its documents) has several different layers. There are: Background layer, Bottom layer,...
Thursday, 12 May 2011
More Than Bookmarking with Diigo
Posted on 07:40 by Unknown

There are so many resources available to us now through the internet that I am having a hard time keeping up with all of them or remembering where to find the information. Sure, I can use the Favorites menu to mark a site, blog, wiki or whatever catches my eye; but I've noticed my list and folders going completely out of control and it takes me longer to find what I was looking for than necessary.Others have mentioned using Diigo as...
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Do Some Learning...In Your Slippers
Posted on 07:54 by Unknown

There are some really good, free webinars coming up from Simple K12. The best part? They are free, and with many of them you get some great books to take back to your classroom. Wish there were more hours in the day? Need new ways to improve student work ethic? Looking for FREE web tools to improve your lesson plans? We at SimpleK12 have found some amazing free web tools, tools that will not only save you time, but inspire your students...
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
So you want to be a better writer ....
Posted on 17:20 by Unknown
On Monday nights on Twitter, a group of 4th grade teachers meet, talk, and share resources using the hashtag #4thchat. I found this chat by accident a few weeks ago and wrote a blog post about the night they shared Math resources. Last night's chat was about Social Media in the Classroom. The 4th grade chat has a wiki where they post the resources shared during the chat, the chat archives, and many of resources relevant to 4th grade. They even have their own logo for the #4thchat! :)When I was a 4th grade teacher, I primarily taught Narrative Writing...
ActivExpression Update?
Posted on 11:49 by Unknown
Do you have ActivExpressions in your school? Do you know if they are up to date and current with the version of Firmware that is on them? Do you even know what I am talking about?If not, then keep reading so that you can make sure that your ActivExpressions are up to date so they can work with the newest version of ActivInspire and the features that are available in the Question Editing system.So how do you know what version of firmware is on your ActivExpression. Well if you can turn on the device you can pretty much know what version you have....
Get Your Classroom Popping with BrainPOP Educators!
Posted on 09:52 by Unknown
As a classroom teacher BrainPOP Educators was one of the resources I loved using. Even if your school has not purchased a subscription, BrainPop Educators is a FREE resource they offer to all teachers. One of my favorite resources is their graphic organizers. With 55 graphic organizers and counting, they’ve become a valuable resource in my bag of tricks. Whether you are showing a BrainPOP or studying current events, you can find a useful graphic organizer no matter what content you teach. One day you might be teaching your students how to take...
Friday, 6 May 2011
Work Your Way Up the Studyladder
Posted on 08:46 by Unknown

As I was scrolling through Twitter this morning, I came across a tweet from @teachersharetp (Toby Price). He created a Livebinder on using Special Needs SMART Notebook Lessons. I am always on the lookout for something that can be used with Interactive White Boards (IWB). When I went to Mr. Price's resources web page, I found a link to something called Studyladder. (I also noticed that he has a Studyladder Livebinder on his resource page.) Anyway,...
Next Vista For Learning
Posted on 08:32 by Unknown
Last week I talked a little bit about Common Craft and the In Plain English video series. (If you missed it, check it out here.) So it seems I am hung up on videos because I have another great site that has tons of great videos to help you learn new concepts, present information in ways that might not be quite conventional and some that are just plain awesome.I consider Rushton Hurley one of the most forward thinking educators around. He has been a Keynote speaker all across the country this year at several state technology conferences and other...
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Can Podcasting Be Used More In The Classroom?
Posted on 11:27 by Unknown

Podcasting is one of those things I feel is underutilized in the classroom. It is a fun and effective way for students and teachers to produce creative projects or broadcast information. There are so many reasons teachers can use it with their students or as part of their instruction. I created a “Podcasting Using Audacity” course in Moodle that teachers take. Teachers from many different grade levels and subjects have taken the class and continue...
A Question A Day
Posted on 05:04 by Unknown
So we have now had a new multi-touch mobile SMARTBoard with the extreme short throw projector in our office for a little over a month now and I have to weigh in on it.First off the multi-touch capability for me has to be one of the best features of the board. The ability to have two people working on the board at the same time is a great feature. As well the ability to size images similarly to what an iPad/iPod, SMARTTable or Microsoft Surface can do with the multi-point drag feature. Most of the rest of the board features are the same as they...
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