Findings at the AEA 267 InfoTech Advisory Board Meeting

I learned about TrueFlix (very similar to BookFlix but for 3rd-5th graders) yesterday at an AEA 267 meeting.  I have played around with it a little bit, but it is affiliated with AEA267 and uses the same AEA267 Username and Password assigned to each building.  It is not on the www.iowaaeaonline.orgweb site as not all AEAs in the state subscribe to it yet.  Take a look around, see if it would work for you, a couple students or all your students and if you think it might be beneficial add as a link to your SchoolFusion page(s).

I also learned about neibors.lib.overdrive.com for your AudioBook and/or eBook needs through the public libraries.  When you get to the web site, click on the Quick Reference Guide on the left hand side for more information, but essentially if you have a public library card you have access to download free audiobooks to be played on your computer or mp3 devices and access to download free ebooks for your ebook devices such as Kindle, Nook, iPad and more.

Lastly I learned that AEA267 will be offering, hopefully before May, a new online print center so we are able to order larger prints and more graphical prints over the internet, just like you would order something online through Amazon.com.  You can place your order, upload your order, track your order and create an order to be printed and then shipped to you instead of having to fill out a form each time and email it along with your attachments.  

Also Iowa AEA PD Online is looking for more online instructors to teach classes online to other teaching professionals needing certification or graduate credit hours.  If you feel this is something you are interested in check out the Iowa AEA PD online link above.

Tech&Learning Web Sites - 2011

Listed below are 2011 web site reviews from Tech & Learning broken down into educational categories.  If you have time to take a look at just 1 that is better than nothing.

iPad Resources
A Catalog of iPad Apps for Teachers and Students » 
Top 10 iPad Tips & Tricks »
iPads, iPod Touches, and iPhones as Assistive Technology in Education »
Back-to-School Apps for Teachers »
Involve, Prepare, Apply, and Develop: iPads in the Classroom »

Video, Clip Art, Images Resources
Top 10 Sites for Images and Clip Art »
Top 10 Alternatives to YouTube » 
Photo Ops: 10 Innovative Ways to Use Visual Media »
Top 10 Sites for Video Editing »

Teacher Resources
Top 100 Sites of 2011 »
Top 10 Sites for Educational Games »
Top 25 Web 2.0 Sites for Education »
Web Tools that Every Educator Should Have in the Bag » 
Top 10 Sites for Educational Resources »
Top 10 Self Help Sites for Technology »
Upgrade your KWL Chart to the 21st Century »


Student Resources
A Math Hater’s Five Fave Math Resources »

Digital Storytelling Tools »

E-textbooks made available offline »

Top 10 Sites for Creating Word Clouds »

Tech Integration Meetings

My Technology Integration Meeting goal is almost complete.  I have been and still am actively setting up reoccurring monthly Tech Integration meetings with subject levels such as Social Studies, English, etc. at the High School, by open Periods of the school day such as Period 1, Period 7, etc. at the Middle School and by Grade Level such as Kindergarten, 3rd grade, etc. at South Side Elementary.

At the High School I am able to meet with more than 75% of the staff 1 time each month for 15-20 minutes, taking the time to showcase a few technology tools and taking the time to gather thoughts and ideas from them to help them integrate technology into their classrooms.
At the Middle School I am able to meet with more than 50% of the staff 1 time each month for 15-20 minutes.  I am still working on a few grade levels, trying to find a common time once per month to meet, but it has been tough, which is a fault to no one except the busy schedules the teachers and staff have each and every day, all day.
At South Side Elementary I am starting to meet with more than 75% of the staff 1 time each month for 15-20 minutes.  I am hoping to make this a reoccurring monthly meeting for the rest of the school year as I have only had 1 meeting with each grade level compared to 3 meetings with the High School teachers already throughout the school year.

These meetings have been great to showcase Web Site Resources that I have gathered, allow teachers to use applications more extensively than they have used them before, and to provide them the opportunity to just "play around" with different online tools such as their Gmail and Google Docs.

In time I will be gathering resources from them to better support the foundation of their curriculum through the use of technology.

6th Graders Using Numbers

This morning I worked with a 6th grade teacher who introduced Numbers to her Math students for the purpose of them understand how to enter data in a spreadsheet, take that data and turn it into a graph, and from the data type a conclusion paragraph interpreting the data.  The lesson went very well and the students caught on quickly about the purpose and uses of Numbers, and about the functions Numbers provides.  Most people do not like exploring software that deals with spreadsheets, but these students really seemed to enjoy plotting their 10 day weather forecast, turning that information into a double line graph, and then writing a conclusion paragraph as if they were report the forecast for the next 10 days.
Definitely something I did not expect going into the classroom, as my previous experiences with Numbers or Excel with students have not boded well, but I underestimated.

I will be joining another teacher on Wednesday teaching the same lesson.  So it will again be interesting to see how the students handle Numbers and how they learn the purpose and uses of Numbers.

Before Thanksgiving Break Continued

4th Grade students used a few web sites, learned about Pages (Microsoft Word), Keynote (Microsoft PowerPoint) and used KidSpiration.  They are becoming experts in using the laptops fluently and being able to login to any computer with their own account information so they do not have to use the same computer each time.
Their online activities were:
http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16
Pages
Keynote

5th Grade students used a few web sites, learned about Pages (Microsoft Word), Keynote (Microsoft PowerPoint) and used iMovie to create mystery book information.  They definitely are experts in using the laptops fluently, being able to login to any computer with their own account information and are quickly starting to learn all of the keyboard shortcuts to use the laptops more efficiently.

Their online activities were:

http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16

Pages

Keynote

iMovie

4-5th Middle School TAG students are starting to use iMovie to create digital portfolios with Mrs. Braun.  They just started but I can't wait to see their finished products over time with the information they include and with their final revised product with iMovie.

Before Thanksgiving Break

Well, I almost reached my goal of showcasing technology skills to all Kindergarten - 5th grade classrooms, 26 of them, before Thanksgiving break, but came 2 classes short.  Thank You so much to all of the classroom teachers that replied back to my email and set up a time with different technology activities and skills.  Hopefully I can catch all of the teachers next time I set up this endeavor, maybe between the start of the New Years and Valentine's Day.

Kindergarten classrooms focused on a couple online activities, but more importantly how to use the laptops, plug in the headphones, how to get to the Internet, and how to put them away.
Their online activities were:
http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16
http://www.abcya.com/

Technology Professional Development

Here are some Technology Based Graphic Organizers that you could:

-Create, print and individually provide to the students
-Create and project through your LCD projector to work as a class
-Put on your SchoolFusion page for students to individually use on the laptops and then print for their portfolio or as an assessment piece

http://classtools.net/
http://www.thinkport.org/technology/template.tp
http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/cc/vp_gle/2nd/more/graphic_organizers.htm





Downloadable Organizers
http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm

KidSpiration/Inspiration

-Reading/Writing has Comparing, KWL Chart, Venn Diagram, StoryBoard
-Math has Fact Families, Measuring and Comparing Furniture Sizes
-Science has Alike and Different, Cause and Effect, Comparison,
-Social Studies has Community Comparison, Culture Comparison, Wants & Needs, Where I Live

The Day of Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday was awesome, but was a work in progress to get it ready for the first time this school year.  Tech Tuesday is provided to the 9-12 grade students in their advisories at the end of the day on the 1st Tuesday of each month to better help them learn a little bit more about using technology in the classrooms with their laptops (I am looking more into how to provide this to students at the Middle School).
Last year this was provided to the HS students through videos displayed on all of the TVs in the classroom.  Well this year, there are no TVs in the HS teachers' classrooms, but each teacher has a laptop that connects to their mounted LCD projector.  So I came up with the idea of using Jing, which is an application located in your Applications folder to screencast with video and audio how to use different technology applications such as their SchoolFusion personal calendar and TwoUp.  The teachers then received my videos online and were able to showcase them online to the students through their LCD projectors, while I and the Bulldog Byte team members (10-12 grade technology students) assisted their advisory and other students.

As far as I know it worked well for the teachers and the students enjoyed it.  Definitely a process I will keep working on.