Giant Stride
It’s all that exists between you and a new experience.
Some very clever Roanoke County students created this very informative video about safety rules.
DINO SAFETY
Roanoke County Schools have only been in session for a few days but the teachers are fired up about using technology to connect with learners around the world. Here’s just a sampling of what the teachers I work with are up to:
The Oreo Cookie Project - Both Mrs. Clifford and Ms. Zebosky from Green Valley Elementary school are starting the year out right! Cookies and collaboration, what could be better? Both teachers will participate in The Oreo Cookie Project this month!
Are you taller than a First Grader? - Quite possibly you are! The real question is How Tall is a First Grader? Mrs. Kern’s class from Back Creek Elementary is going to participate with students around the country to determine this information. Students will be measured this fall and again this spring.
Regions of Virginia - Mrs. Stanley’s Fourth Graders will collaborate with students across the state this year to learn interesting facts about the Regions of Virginia. Check in with their wiki from time to time to view Voicethread and Podcast projects!
Oceans of Ideas - Both Mrs. Steffen’s & Ms. Rooney’s classes created amazing digital stories last year after participating in a unit that focused on the ocean. Here’s a taste of what the students created! This year’s 8th Graders will participate in this unit again and collaborate with <ahem>a certain diver this fall.
This type of collaboration just skims the surface of what is available to the students in your classroom! Here are a few other projects that are up and coming:
And up an coming soon:
The Zoo Math Project- a multi-district (Roanoke City, Salem, & Roanoke Co), Third Grade Math adventure based on our very own Mill Mt. Zoo! Stay tuned for details!
Story Chasers - Students can share stories on a variety of topics with other kids around the world. First up, Spooky Ghost Stories!!!
Animal Habitats - Students in Texas would love to discuss habitats and food chains with students in Virginia.
Ocean Voicethreads - Do your students understand the ocean environment and the characteristics of the Continental Shelf & Slope? Not only can they ask me questions that I’ll gladly answer after diving, but they can collaborate with other students around the world to discuss ideas and issues.
The ability to collaborate with classrooms around the district, state, country or globe is easier than ever! Let’s get together soon to get your kids involved in this amazing learning activity.
The 2008-09 school year is just around the corner and promises to be action packed and full of adventure. Here’s a run down of just a few highlights!
ACTIVboards ACTIVboards have been added to each elementary classroom and many of the secondary classrooms. YIPPEE!! This fabulous tool will transform your classroom and revolutionize the way you teach. Training is available this year in all shapes and sizes -classes, workshops, user groups, and grade level & individual sessions. Please let me know how I can best help you get comfortable with your board. I’ll be glad to help you find pre-designed flipcharts and we can work together to plan and team teach lessons.
New Email Our new email system is web based so there’s no software to download. Your First Class mailbox will exist for another month or two but no new email will come into your mailbox. If you need help moving your existing emails into folders or organizing mail lists, please let me know!
Flip Cameras Digital Video has never been easier! Press play, press stop, and use the camera’s USB plug to download the video to your computer. I have a small library of Flip Cameras available for checkout! Let’s get together so I can show you how easy and fun these little tools are.
Blogs A blog is a free nifty web tool that allows your to create and maintain an online journal. The administrators in our building will be blogging this year and I’ll be right there will them! When you visit my blog you’ll get a sampling of what’s happening in technology -both in our schools and the rest of the world. Wanna get your students excited about the writing process?? There’s no better way than to get them writing for an audience. I would love to work with you and your students to make blogging a reality!
Networking with other classrooms Remember the days when Pen Pals were the only way to collaborate with other classrooms? Those days are gone forever! Collaborating with classroomss around the county, the country, or the world is a close as your nearest Wiki and as easy as typing in a box. Here are a few projects on the books already for teachers with a sense of adventure:
The Monster Exchange Fun, easy, and perfect for practicing descriptive writing!
Story Chasers - A multi-state collaborative designed to to support story telling.
There are more- many more - for all grade levels and subject areas. Teachers all over the world are connecting to share information and I’m happy to help you get started.
These great educational tools are quick and easy to use - contact me soon so we can get started!
A small group of ITRTs gathered at the DOE this week to learn how to use data gathered from standardized tests to support teaching and learning. Not necessarily a setting where you’d expect a discussion about Blogging to begin.
The workshop was informative. We spent a good deal of time analyzing test data and learning to identify strengths and weaknesses within demographic and program areas. We strategized about how to best work with teachers and building administrators to use this information to improve instruction. The magic didn’t happen, though, until the discussion turned to how technology could facilitate instructional changes.
With a group comprised of Instructional Technology Resource Teachers there was no need to worry about technology “buy in”. We all understand how technology can improve instruction. What was interesting to me was the way information was generated. Enthusiasm electrified was what I witnessed. It started gently, just a few polite suggestions about technologies that might support certain curriculum areas. Soon, though, a group of curious educators were exploring how technologies were being used in different districts and with each inquiry, the energy level grew. Blog, wiki, De.icio.us and twitter accounts were shared and the learning grew exponentially. Soon, we were sharing, exploring, teaching, learning, and creating simultaneously. The room took on a life of it’s own.
It occurred to me that this was exactly the type of learning that today’s students should be experiencing in school. If we can help teachers use technology to generate this type of energy for learning, there might be less need for data analysis.
TAG! You’re it!!
I was scrolling back through a week of Twitters tonight when I discovered that I’d missed a tweet from fellow ITRT, Tina Coffey. Tina tagged me with a meme…a Passion Quilt. By accepting the meme, I need to share why I’m passionate about teaching with technology. I also need to add an image that captures my passion.
Like my friend, Tina, I’ve struggled with narrowing my focus to just one reason that I’m passionate about technology as an avenue to learning. Technology opens doors and it certainly levels the playing field for learners everywhere, but what I love best about technology is that it allows me to bring another passion of mine into the classroom from anywhere in the world.
So I’ve chosen this image, one that my husband snapped on the reefs of Cozumel in 2005. It is one of many images available on my flickr site. The title I give it is “Seeing What Is.”
I love that I can use technology to bring the ocean to my students in a very real way. I love that I can give my students a “fish-eye view” of the world beneath the waves. I hope that it also inspires them to express and share their own passions. And while using technology to learn about the ocean environment is certainly not the only trick up my sleeve, it is by far, my very favorite.
And so, I pass on the passion with a little Meme toss of my own!
The rules are simple:
The Meme toss goes to:
- Thom Ryder -http://www.newt9.blogspot.com/
- Melanie Lewis - http://melanielewis.edublogs.org/
I know I’m supposed to share with five, but I’ll have to get some Blog addresses at VSTE this week and toss to the rest. Tina swooped most of the bloggers I know, so I’ll have to find a few others.
I was playing with Tumblr this morning and trying to figure out how to post a video clip on my page. I headed over to Voicethread to grab one of the threads I’ve created and when I logged in, I found a brand new Voicethread in my panel.
One of the classes that I worked with when I was diving in Cozumel created a “What I’ve learned” Voicethread. I couldn’t resist - I had to respond to the kids. This has been such a great project and I look forward to doing more projects of this nature. I’m no Jacques Cousteau, but I’m willing do what I can to help people understand the ocean environment.
Here’s the Thread:
Last weekend, Tina Coffey, fellow ITRT and a field reporter for GenTech, interviewed me for <gasp> my very first Podcast! We discussed many aspects of the ocean unit I’ve been involved with lately. Since I can talk about the ocean all day, it was easy to talk about this project.
It was an honor to have the opportunity to share how technology could connect information to content in a different, and hopefully meaningful, way. I look forward to sharing more tidbits about the project when posting student creations.
I had the opportunity to teach students across the Roanoke Valley about the ocean last week.
That’s not an unusual statement for a teacher to make. After all, we work with students all the time and if we’re lucky, we get to teach about the things we love.What made these lessons unique was the vehicle for lesson delivery. I was scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico, while teaching and used VoiceThread to answer the questions that students asked.
For as long as I’ve been diving in the ocean, I’ve struggled to find a way to bring this experience to the classroom. I’ve brought back pictures,videos and stories, but I’ve never been able to really “nail” the content. The kids are always interested in the things I bring back and the lessons always go well, but I always walk away from the lessons feeling like I’ve generated interest, but not necessarily understanding.
This is as close as I’ve ever come to helping students understand the balance of the ocean ecosystem. I’ve posted my lesson invitation, the one used to harvest questions before leaving for Cozumel, below. The other Voicethreads are posted on the page called Ocean Voicethreads.
Our regional Teacher Training Institute was held last weekend at the CATCE center in Franklin County, VA. 85 educators gave up most of their weekend to learn how to effectively use technology-rich lessons with their students. I ran sessions on Digital Story Telling, a teaching technique that is near and dear to my heart, and co-taught a presentation on Internet Safety with fellow Master Teacher, Sharon Bolan.
All in all, I feel like the weekend was a success and that the educators that attended came away with several easy-to-use ideas and activities. Several of the educators asked for our Internet Safety presentation, so I’ve uploaded it here and will link it to the Web Safety Wiki. http://websafety.wikispaces.com
I’ve had my blog for quite some time…well, weeks anyway. I’ve kept it all to myself because I have no blog confidence at all. I haven’t told my colleagues, I haven’t told my students.
If no one knows it is here, I can just blog away and no one will know…no one will judge.
I doubt that I’m the only one out there with blog anxiety, but it is, to say the least, a limiting factor. Enter, the K12 Online Conference. What a learning opportunity this conference presents! The best presenters on the planet are now in my living room. And while I hope my blog will still remain secluded, I don’t feel like I can benefit from the conference without attempting to blog it. Tonight’s giant stride is a blog link on Attendr…the next, blogging about the conference.
