Back to work?

I survived the 5 days of classes and sessions that revolved around the WVSTC last week.  I think my wife was a bit concerned about my abiltiy to function on a few of those days.  Now, however, I'm back to work at SHS this week and am finding that we still have lots to do. 

I got the chance to spend this morning and afternoon with about 10 AWESOME teachers who are excited about learning.  I so look forward to that enthusiasm rubbing off on their students.  MS Word was not so much of a challenge for them once they realized that I'd get them where they wanted to go.  And, the airliners/slates were more of a problem for me than it was for them.  Once they all got connected, they went to town playing around with them and figuring out how to use them or what they could do with them.

One unexpected event today was when I got to introduce Google Docs.  Since I was showing how to use Word as a collaborative and a teaching tool (not just a productivity tool) and we finished a bit early, I helped the teachers set up Gmail accounts and we played around in the Google Docs.  I think I had at least one that was figuring out how to use the site in his classroom!  What an accomplishment. 

And, in case the "mayor" reads this - Thank you for the kind words!!

TIS pre-WVSTC work day

Spent today at a "TIS" conference in Charleston. This is the prelude to the real WVSTC that begins in the morning. It was an exciting day. I just want to share some of the information that I learned today (some of it was re-learned.. LOL).

Digital camera workshop and how to 'frame' the picture - You're not supposed to center the picture in the middle of the viewfinder. Instead, you should look at what you see and place the focus of your photo in on of the "thirds" areas. Imagine your viewfinder having a tic tac toe board on it. Those magical spots is where the lines would cross. Next, make sure you have some sort of line that an eye can follow in the back of the photograph. Both of these are basic to good photographs.

Thinkfinity - The website has been redesigned to be more user friendly. They've also added a Thinkfinity Community where you can have a Facebook-like interface to get to build your PLN (professional learning network).

ePortfolios - I learned more about my personal ePortfolio that is available through the WVLearns website. You can have one too.. You just have to log in and it's there. If you've never been there, visit this link and you can self-register: http://wvlearns.k12.wv.us/ . This is an awesome way to store important artifacts and work examples.

WVWrites - This is the new version of Writing Roadmap. It has a new user-friendlier interface and has been re-programmed to score student work based on the WV Writing Rubric instead of their standard rubric. I also learned that it has been tweaked to lower the scores of students who use too few sentences and don't meet the compound/complex sentence requirements. We also learned that students who are creative in their writing may not do so well in the scoring because they are not writing for the audience - the artificial intelligence that scores the document. These creative students need to be sure that they are meeting the requirements of the scoring rubric first and foremost.

SMARTBoards - Nice review of what I've been teaching this week. I did learn during this activity of the Acuity Unwired website that will directly interface with certain brands of student responders. I'm still looking into the Acuity site (I'd never heard of this part of Acuity) and whether or not they work with Qwizdom and SMART responders.

Podcasting - I've learned it before, tried it before, but until today, I wasn't really seeing how I can use it. I want to do more of a video podcast instead of just audio and plan on using Jing for that.

Looking forward to a great day tomorrow.

Professional Development

I spent the past few days teaching others how to use their SMART Boards while a colleague led the discussions on how to integrate them into their curricula. HOW AMAZING! Watching people walk in with an "I can't do this" attitude and then see them leave with a "I can't wait to start playing with this stuff" attitude made my effort completely worthwhile.

YouTube and TeacherTube are currently in my sight as I search for some videos to use at the beginning of the year. Having run across some of my favorites - "Did You Know" by Karl Fisch and "Pay Attention" by jdst4 got me thinking about how I've come a very long way in the past few years. Yeah, I liked using videos and graphing calculators in class but now I like to also use other interactive tools like Qwizdom, SMARTboards, online research, techSteps, and my favorite tool, the PBL unit. Four years ago, I thought I was doing inquiry learning, now I realize that I wasn't, and still have a way to go to get there.

On this spectrum of 21st Century teaching, I'm pleased that I'm heading toward the "seamless integration" end and away from the no-integration end. My question for you: where are you?

Sunday GazetteMail article

http://sundaygazettemail.com/Life/201007240166?build=yes

We learn by our mistakes - one of my favorite things to tell students when they aren't successful at something. How is a student to know if she is right or wrong without someone telling her that answer. Sometimes it is a parent, sometimes it is a teacher, but most often, it is a friend who helps out and does the teaching. This is part of the reasoning behind the need for and use of collaborative learning in schools. Thanks Ms. Fuller for your article.

Hello world...

Hello world. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Humm.. I've heard that before.. It is true though. I feel more empowered to teach today than I ever have. With the emerging technologies, this digital immigrant is striving to stay on top of the game and to help others in their quest to improve what they do as well.

I spent three days this week developing an action plan for the upcoming year at the school where I begin teaching this fall. I've realize that while I think I know a lot, there is a lot that I don't know. So, I"m spending the few days I have off over the next week or so exploring all the software and websites that we were exposed to.

Collaborative learning has been a mainstay of my teaching style from Day 1, even though I didn't realize that was what I was doing until about Day 256834921345. Now, with Google Docs and wallwisher.com and a bunch of other programs, I can take my collaborative learning style a step further and do things that I had only imagined doing. I am excited!!!

Time to head off of here, church is in a bit.

Until next time, ciao.