BCLUW 1:1 Visit

I visited BCLUW in Conrad on Thursday, March 29 to see how year 3 of having a 1:1 laptop program was going and how it compared to our year 2 of having a 1:1 laptop program.  It was awesome to see how the teachers are incorporating technology into their curriculum with their students learning and it was awesome to see that we are progressing at the right pace and on the right track to integrate technology into the student's curriculum and to make the teachers feel technology as just a tool and nothing more.  It was good to hear that phrased at the meeting that:

Technology is just a tool
Technology is an enhancement not a crutch
Good teachers are still going to be good teachers, with or without, technology

Of course we could always be doing more, doing it differently but so could everything else, to be done more to be done differently.

We are getting there (with technology)

H-D District Tech Committee Meeting

The Hampton-Dumont District Tech Committee Meeting is just around the corner with ideas flowing galore and presenters from the various H-D schools getting ideas ready to showcase to the Tech Committee.  This year we are very interested in seeing how teachers throughout all of the H-D schools are integrating technology into their curriculum, using technology to benefit them as educators, and their students using technology to benefit them as learners.  Listed below is a tentative agenda on the information we are wanting to showcase and have showcased to members and presenters at the H-D District Tech Committee.

12:30-1:15 - Lunch Provided
1:00-1:15 - Introductions (while we eat lunch)
1:15-1:45 - Technology Activity/Break
1:45-1:55 - Tech Presenter
1:55-2:05 - Tech Department Information
2:05-2:15 - Tech Presenter
2:15-2:20 - H-D Technology Survey/Research Information
2:20-2:40 - Tech Presenter
2:40-2:45 - Shift Happens Video/Break
2:45-2:55 - Tech Presenter
2:55-3:05 - SchoolFusion
3:05-3:15 - Tech Presenter
3:15-3:25 - Tech Presenter
3:25-3:30 - Conclusion/Thoughts

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.

Findings at the AEA 267 Technology Integrationist Meeting

Findings at the AEA 267 Technology Integrationist Meeting shows that Hampton-Dumont, compared to other schools, has some technology areas to improve on, but is excelling in many areas of technology that we should feel accomplished about, yet wanting to further achieve more.

Areas to Improve on
Using software, applications, online tools to promote student learning, K-12
Using Google Forms for formative and summative assessments including Semester Tests to try and make testing a more paperless environment
Exploring the possibility of iPads
1:1 Laptop Classroom Management
Returning students documents paperlessly (Google Docs Collections is a possibility)

Areas we are Excelling
Teachers use of technology through Tech PDs
Teachers showcasing their use of technology through Tech PDs
Uses of Bulldog Byte in classrooms and outside of classrooms
Using the 1:1 Laptops
Turning in student documents through SchoolFusion

3 Technology Resolutions for 2012

A few things to try out with Technology for the 2012 year and the rest of the 2011-2012 school year.

Find or be an edtech mentor/friend with another educator at your school.
     You most likely have a mentor/friend that you converse with related to teaching and learning.  Use that same mentor/fried or find another mentor/friend that you feel comfortable using technology with to be a edtech mentor/fried when you need help or support with technology personally and/or with students.

Try Twitter (really!)  www.twitter.com
     I have been user twitter for the past year, without even personally posting a comment, and have gained numerous ideas and thoughts related to technology and a variety of educational topics.
Try searching and following #edtech or #edchat when you setup a Free account.


Join a Professional EdTech Network
     I have recently done this but have not explored it enough.  Very similar to how local Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) might be setup between you and your colleagues, try joining an online Professional EdTech Network to receive emails or notifications with ideas and content related to your interests.  Below are some to look into.
www.iste.org
www.edupln.org 


Thoughts and ideas gathered from: http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_jim_vanides/3_edtech_tips_resolutions_2012

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.

Technology Tools Advent Calendars

The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy.  Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students or yourself to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day.  Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit.  Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories.  

The potential curricular related advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.  

The technology tools advent calendars showcase a different Web 2.0 Technology Tool each day for teacher use, student use or both.

Technology Tools Advent Calendars

http://www.wix.com/ktenkely/advent

http://www.librarycraft.com/festive24things/2010/12/01/

Potential Curricular related Advent Calendars

http://dirtdirt.com/advent/09/?tillchristmas
Click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/index.html#calendar
This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world.  As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.

Morton Mondays REborn

While at Waukee I started Morton Mondays during the months that I was not committed to coaching HS Football and HS Track & Field.  I have extended the Morton Mondays to the Hampton-Dumont CSD again during the months that I am not committed to coaching HS Football and HS Track & Field.  So that means Morton Mondays takes place from the very end of October to the very beginning of February, during 2 Mondays of each of the months in between.  I am offering 1 Morton Mondays session on a Monday after school hours, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm and 1 Morton Mondays session on a Monday before school hours, 7:30 am - 8:30 am.
I will be holding my 3rd session on Monday, November 28 after school with the focus being on Creating a Paperless Environment.  So far my other sessions have covered Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Mail, and Pages, Numbers and Keynote.  The attendance at these sessions have been much appreciated with 1 HDCSD staff member attending during the 1st session and 2 HDCSD staff members attending during the 2nd session.
I am really hoping more HDCSD staff members will be attending the upcoming sessions in support of the topic being showcased and in support of using that time as additional technology support time.
Morton Mondays is being provided to the HSCSD staff members to allow them to learn a little bit more about technology and to allow them an opportunity to gain technology support during times when they are less busy.

5th Graders Using iMovie

About 2-3 weeks ago I was emailed by Mrs. Harr and Mrs. Carr to provide some ideas related to using iMovie in their 5th grade classroom so students can report on a mystery book they have read.  Instead of kids typing out their report about the book, the used iMovie to express their report about the book for others to view and learn from.  I was in their classroom each day for 1 full week for 1 hour at a time.
The 1st day I introduced iMovie and they were able to play around with it, while having the opportunity to create their Book title slide, Author title slide, and Reviewed By title slide for the start of their iMovie project.  Mrs. Harr and Mrs. Carr provided them with a checklist of iMovie skills that they had to try out and use to get graded on.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days the students kept working on their iMovie while adding their video recorded book review of their mystery book through the web cam on the laptops.  The students then were able to add music or sound effects to their iMovie project, before finalizing it on the 5th day and getting it onto Mrs. Harr's computer for her to look at and then showcase.

It took some time trying to figure out the right web site tool to be able to showcase each students finished product, but we finally found 1 that was free, so far has no limit on storage space and is easy to use.

It is: http://www.capzles.com/

and the students finished products are here:
http://www.capzles.com/#/4abfa7ac-e811-4b88-b019-d0f280f41def

Take a look.

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/

Hearing from the Students

You would seem that my presence in the elementary classrooms, related to using technology, has been assumed for a couple years.  I say this because the students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade already know my name for being in their classrooms 1 maybe 2 times so far this year, my first year.  That has been a huge inspiration as it tells me the students are sincere, they understand my purpose when I am in their classrooms to teach and/or help out and they enjoy what they are learning from me.  Case-in-point is today when I visited the same 3rd grade classroom I visited 2 days ago to do Keyboarding, and this time to assist with using KidSpiration.  I had so many kids come up to me stating they used the Keyboarding game/activities at home on their computer or at the library the past couple of days because they enjoyed the time they spent using the technology in their classroom.
This is what I want from the students when using technology.  A chance to take what they learned and apply it at home, at the library or anywhere they can get on the computer, and to be excited about it.  Then coming into their next time to see my introducing another piece of technology that they could effectively use on their own at home or again in the classroom.
A great surprise.

Bulldog Byte students helping out at Tech PDs

The Technology Professional Development held at the High School on Wednesday, October 26 was the first professional development that the Bulldog Byte team (HS technology students) were invited to speak, participate and assist.  Yes, that is what I said assist.  2 Bulldog Byte students volunteered to assist me during the Tech PD which focused on SchoolFusion, staff finding 1 web site to use personally, with students or both, and to better understand the Iowa AEA Online web site and its resources.

For the very first time, that the Bulldog Byte students were invited to participate with teachers, outside of the school working hours, it was AWESOME.  These students were shown the agenda for the Tech PD that day, and then they just hit the ground running.  They assisted with typing in the answer to the teachers questions that were projected through a LCD projector onto the screen, when the teachers were given time to find 1 beneficial education web site the students helped the teachers explore the web site(s), bookmark the web site(s), and add them to their SchoolFusion page(s) and the students showcased why they use certain web sites from the Iowa AEA Online web site and for what purposes.

These students did an awesome job helping out the teachers, and this experience will definitely be something that will be filtered down to each Bulldog Byte student having the opportunity to do.

So what if students know more then teachers do.  Use the students as a resource and a guide for your teaching and learning.  Let them help you out and problem-solve.  This is how we learned.  Being able to problem-solve certain situations for success or failure but in both cases real-world experiences were obtained.

Gotta Chance to Teach Students Again

On Friday I was able to visit a few Middle School classrooms and a few Elementary classrooms, and I even had the chance in a 3rd grade classroom to teach the students again.
I first had the chance to show some assistive devices to a legally blind student's associate to better help him stay on track with the information, ideas and handouts his teacher was providing to the rest of the class.  I am still trying to figure out the braille printer but I was able to download Natural Reader to provide the student and his associate an opportunity to highlight words from reproduced worksheets and have them read to him.  Hopefully this better helps the student, as I am still in search of finding more assistive devices to better help accommodate his needs.
I then got a chance to work with a small group of Middle School students to help assist them in getting logged onto the laptops and into Skills Tutor which is a part of Skills Iowa that provides the students with extended activities to keep them on track and/or to advance them.
In the afternoon I was able to work with a 3rd grade classroom and actually taught the group of students, with the use of the laptops on the laptop cart, how to use BookFlix, which is a reading web site that is a part of the IowaAEAOnline web sites.  It was awesome getting to know the students in the classroom, seeing how excited their faces were when I introduced the web site to them, and how eager they were to be able to use and explore the web site on their own.  Once I finished showcasing BookFlix and allowed them to work with BookFlix on their own for about 15 minutes, the students were as quiet as a mouse and focused on reading a book online to themselves or better yet having the book read to them while they followed along with the highlighted words from the story.
To finish out the day I was able to watch HS students in a WebPage Development class showcase their web pages through the use of iWeb.  The students had a few requirements they had to fill and you could see their passion with using the WebPage Development application and their passion with the information they were showcasing through the iWeb web pages.

Having a chance to explore all of theses opportunities really exhibits to me the excitement and dedication the teachers have in providing the students with the possibilities of exploring technology.

Educational Internet Activities during break

If you and your kids need some educational activities to do using the Internet during break, then have your students look at some of the web sites below. Most of them they have used, but a couple may be new. Thanks.

Student Internet Resources

Subject Specific Websites

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Integration Times

Throughout the year and during my open lab times, all Kindergarten - 5th grade students and teachers are able to sign up and come into the computer lab to integrate technology into their classroom curriculum. Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students do this at least 1 time a cycle and the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students do this off and on, as they also have a mobile laptop cart available for them to use in their classrooms throughout the school year. Talk to your students about what they are learning in the computer lab each and every day and allow them to showcase their skills to you at home, and I think you might be amazed.

Year 2 of my Technology Blog

Year 2 of my Technology Blog has begun. My goal is to be able to add posts 1-2 times a week on how all of the students that come into the computer lab are doing. I will see every kid in the computer lab sometime throughout the school year and I am eager to learn each of their names and personalities. 3rd grade students focus mostly on keyboarding skills, while introducing a few Internet Safety topics to them throughout the year. They can practice typing at home throughout the school year using the lessons and games located on the 3rd grade keyboarding website. 4th grade students will be using a typing program called Type to Learn 3 to refocus their learning on using the keyboard properly. They will also extensively focus on the basics of the Internet and Internet Safety and do a project with Microsoft Excel. 5th grade students will focus on Internet Searching, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word as a graphic publisher, and Microsoft PowerPoint on a year long project where they will be looking up information about their country of choice to try and entice Mr. Morton to travel there next summer. They will also finish the year learning about and creating a project with iMovie.