If you have time this weekend (July 30-Aug. 1), I recommend checking out The Reform Symposium. This online conference will showcase innovation in education. From their site: The Reform Symposium is a free online conference for educators, administrators, parents and students. This year the conference is focused on innovative practices in education and what role these practices can play in educational reform.
Check it out! If you miss something, recordings of the presentations will be archived at the presenter's pages.
The twitter hashtag for this conference is #rscon10 if you want to follow it on twitter.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
ISTE Conference
Well, it's my first ISTE. Yesterday, the Mario Armstrong opening was good and they gave away cool free stuff, but I didn't win, but that's ok! Last night was the keynote. It wasn't everyone's favorite...we decided to grab dinner rather than listen to all of it. I saw different responses on twitter about the keynote. Some said the content was good, but the delivery wasn't. Some just seemed to not like it at all. We had a nice dinner, then went back to the hotel to schedule our Monday.
This morning (Monday), we attended Ian Jukes session on Digital Learners. Here is a link to my notes from that session. He was a very challenging presenter in that he made us think about the way we are teaching students and if it's to prepare them for the world WE lived in growing up OR if we are preparing them for the world THEY will be joining. It made me think of a lot of ways we could change some of the ways we are teaching at our school. I hope all the teachers at PDS read the notes on the link. There is also a website on the notes that you can visit to join and find his presentation. I totally enjoyed that session.
I also attended Gary Stager's session about Creativity 2.0. My notes are here. It has some challenging points as well.
I went to a session on iPods and was hoping that there would be more educational apps discussed, but it was a little more personal apps or not things for elementary students, but I enjoyed the session.
I had to stop and grab lunch while my laptop recharges. I am about to attend a Google Earth BYOL (Bring your own laptop) session. I have high hopes for that and hope to learn a lot to take back to my teachers.
I visited the exhibit hall briefly and you could probably spend 3 days in there and not see everything! Very elaborate setups, presentations, etc. at every booth! I was able to get a 10 minute chair massage in there...now that is a vendor that knows how to reach their audience!
I am not feeling too great...sinus problems, but there is no way I am slowing down. This conference is GREAT and there is SO MUCH here that I am sure I am missing so much, but trying to make the most of every minute! I really hope we can come to this every year. I know that is asking a lot, but WOW! That is the best word I can think of to explain this to you, WOW!
As a first-timer at ISTE, I feel very fortunate that I work at PDS. Sometimes I feel bad telling people about the set up at our school. I am always quick to say that we are very blessed. I am glad that I was able to attend and I hope that you find my notes and posts beneficial.
This morning (Monday), we attended Ian Jukes session on Digital Learners. Here is a link to my notes from that session. He was a very challenging presenter in that he made us think about the way we are teaching students and if it's to prepare them for the world WE lived in growing up OR if we are preparing them for the world THEY will be joining. It made me think of a lot of ways we could change some of the ways we are teaching at our school. I hope all the teachers at PDS read the notes on the link. There is also a website on the notes that you can visit to join and find his presentation. I totally enjoyed that session.
I also attended Gary Stager's session about Creativity 2.0. My notes are here. It has some challenging points as well.
I went to a session on iPods and was hoping that there would be more educational apps discussed, but it was a little more personal apps or not things for elementary students, but I enjoyed the session.
I had to stop and grab lunch while my laptop recharges. I am about to attend a Google Earth BYOL (Bring your own laptop) session. I have high hopes for that and hope to learn a lot to take back to my teachers.
I visited the exhibit hall briefly and you could probably spend 3 days in there and not see everything! Very elaborate setups, presentations, etc. at every booth! I was able to get a 10 minute chair massage in there...now that is a vendor that knows how to reach their audience!
I am not feeling too great...sinus problems, but there is no way I am slowing down. This conference is GREAT and there is SO MUCH here that I am sure I am missing so much, but trying to make the most of every minute! I really hope we can come to this every year. I know that is asking a lot, but WOW! That is the best word I can think of to explain this to you, WOW!
As a first-timer at ISTE, I feel very fortunate that I work at PDS. Sometimes I feel bad telling people about the set up at our school. I am always quick to say that we are very blessed. I am glad that I was able to attend and I hope that you find my notes and posts beneficial.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Off to ISTE
Sorry I haven't posted in a while...I was on a 7 day cruise, home for 6 days, then came to North Carolina.
As I wrap up my family vacation at the beautiful beaches in North Carolina (after a last minute change of plans from going to Gulf Shores since the oil spill has reached there), I will be driving home a LONG 12-14 hours tomorrow (Saturday) and flying off to ISTE Sunday morning. I'm sure I will be asleep on the plane, but can't wait for ISTE. This is my first year to attend and I am so excited at the opportunities to meet a lot of people from my PLN face to face and learn as much as I can to share here and with my teachers at PDS. Hopefully, I will be blogging as time permits, so I can share with YOU what I am learning at ISTE. I will also take notes using Google Docs and share those notes with everyone. Sharing is the way to go!!!
As I wrap up my family vacation at the beautiful beaches in North Carolina (after a last minute change of plans from going to Gulf Shores since the oil spill has reached there), I will be driving home a LONG 12-14 hours tomorrow (Saturday) and flying off to ISTE Sunday morning. I'm sure I will be asleep on the plane, but can't wait for ISTE. This is my first year to attend and I am so excited at the opportunities to meet a lot of people from my PLN face to face and learn as much as I can to share here and with my teachers at PDS. Hopefully, I will be blogging as time permits, so I can share with YOU what I am learning at ISTE. I will also take notes using Google Docs and share those notes with everyone. Sharing is the way to go!!!
Looking for Ed Tech Blogs to Follow?
If you are looking for Ed Tech blogs to follow, you may want to visit this site. I was contacted by the author about including my blog in their Top 100 technology blogs for teachers article. I am very honored to be included on this list. There are lots to check out, so when you have some time...I suggest going to their site and looking for a few blogs to follow. Many thanks to Alexis for including Tech Tips for Teachers on her list. :)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Showcase Your School!
@mcarls created a wiki for schools to show off their school using a Voicethread. @bethdiaz agreed for her class to do this project to showcase Presbyterian Day School in Memphis, TN (where we work!) Her 2nd graders took pictures of places they wanted to showcase, wrote a sentence about it, and recorded their voice on the voicethread. It was so much fun for them to do this project! Below is our finished Voicethread and we welcome your comments!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Another Jeopardy Game!
Need a quick way to review for a test or end of the year final???
Super Teacher Tools is a GREAT site! I'm just posting about Jeopardy, but if you visit the site, I encourage you to check out all the great resources there.
Now, let's get to Jeopardy! This is an online (or offline) way to play jeopardy with your students. I used this with a 3rd grade class and the students LOVED it! Then, the teacher had the students create a game with a partner and host their game with the class. So, it's so simple, even a 3rd grader can create one!!!
This is a Flash based game that saves as a text file, so you can load any game you create and play it any time. Click here to see a sample game.
Basically, you click make a new game link enter the question and answers, save it by clicking Create Game File link that the bottom of the page and it's ready to go!
There are more detailed directions on the site, but I think you should be able to use it without problems.
Friday, April 9, 2010
FlockDraw
The tools are on the right hand side...basic drawing tools...not too difficult to figure out. There is also a text tool to add text.
These can also be embedded into your blog or another site (see below).
Note: I am having some trouble figuring out how to get it to save for others to draw on it after you have closed it out. If you figure that out, I'd love to know. In the meantime, as long as you don't close the window, seems like it is ok.
If you have used this with students, please leave a comment to share with those reading (and me, too!)
Here is a sample I quickly made. Please feel free to add to it so you (and others) can see what it does.
