Presented Google applications today to my teachers. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were off yesterday for a snow day or that they were bored out of their minds, but all the grades were pretty quiet. For the sake of my ego, I’m going with they were tired ;o)
Here’s a copy of my presentation.
Until next time ~ Danita
WOW! Remind me never to apply for 3 session at a conference again! I thought I would apply for 3 sessions in hopes that NCAECT would accept one. Surprise! The good thing was that we presented back to back to back in the same room and all on the first day.
Our best session was our first one, Digital Photos, now what?. We had people sitting on the floor. Kim and I were expecting maybe 20 tops. You can only imagine our surprise when people kept coming in. It was great! Of course, we had a few stumbles, but since it was our first time presenting on digital photos, it went very well. Our Animoto didn’t load in time, but Kim was a huge hit with Gogofrog. If you haven’t tried Gogofrog, you have to – it’s great!
We then presented Wiki This Way. We have done this particular session before, so it went off fairly well. I hope everyone learned something. We had some great comments from the teachers. Again, we had a huge turnout, but not standing room only.
Finally, we ended with Creating Magic with Web 2.0 Tools. Again, this was a rerun for us, but it still went well. Not as many people this time since it was also during Tammy Worcester’s session. She is so good, that I really didn’t blame people for attending her session. In fact, I suggested that a couple of teachers go there and view our wiki later. But, we did have a good turnout. I think that we need to refocus if we use this session again. Web 2.0 tools is just too wide open. Skypeing with a NASA trainer was the highlight. The teachers loved that!
Even though we didn’t get to attend many sessions on the last day, there were a couple of teachers presenting their lessons on SmartBoards in the hallway that I thought was one of the most beneficial I have ever attended. Susie and her partner, whom I’m sorry I have forgotten her name, had some great ideas! I’m so glad that she made a wiki. I volunteered to make one for her is she would send me her lessons. They are great – check them out!
The NCAECT conference was really good this year. Scott Smith and Marlo Gaddis did a wonderful job. It was one of the best conferences I have attended in recent years.
Until next time ~ Danita
I had an aha moment this afternoon. I was speaking to one of the teachers at East Lee about East becoming a STEM school next year, when she offered one of the best analogies I have ever heard. As we were discussing how to get the teachers involved, Misty offered this:
“You have given us an ocean of opportunities this year, but we need to learn the swim first. Start with very basic ideas and how to use them in the classroom, then when we’re ready, we’ll jump in and tackle some of those waves.”
Wow! I’d never though of it like that. She’s right. I have offered an ocean hoping that someone would like to try to find one fish, but if you’re afraid of the water, you’ll never jump in. I was approaching it so wrong. I was throwing so much out there that I was overwhelming everyone and not giving them a life preserver to grab onto. I should have listened to Jen Wagner‘s Baby Steps post. What I thought were baby steps were actually giant leaps for many people.
Hmmmm…. so many things to reconsider. When you’re an avid swimmer, it’s hard to relate to people who fear the water. I need to go back to that first time I saw the ocean and start from there. To feel the excitement of the sand between my toes – the first time I saw a blog or a wiki.
Misty very kindly told me that I need to come up with step by step ways that teachers can use technology in their classrooms. As she put it, “just like the end of grade test manual tells you what to say and when”. That might be a challenge, but I think I can do it.
So, I think I will begin next year with wikis. I’ll show the teachers specific ways they can use them in their classrooms and write a lesson idea for each of the four core curriculum areas. That way they will have something they can read from a script if they need to do so.
Thank you Misty for opening my eyes. Hopefully, we’ll all be swimming in the ocean by this time next year.
Until next time,
Danita
Flickr
Geocaching … An Educational Adventure
Crystal Turney and Beth Hamilton
also on United Streaming
great staff building activity
Geocaching as a learning tool
1. Stimulates creative teaching
2. Motivates students
3. Fosters cooperative learning and teamwork
4. Promotes higher order thinking skills
5. Integrates various curriculum areas
6. Instills a respect and consideration for others
7. Creates awareness for environment
From National Geographic:
Crack the Code – http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/01/crackcode.html
Can buy a gps for about $120 – Garmin
Catawba County Schools, North Carolina has lessons – http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us
DPI will loan GPS out to schools – try local colleges
What a wonderful week I had! It began Monday with my friend Kim and I presenting at the North Carolina Elementary Education Conference. We did our Web Wizards Web 2.0 presentation. How fun it is to have someone you can work with so well. She’s great and really does know her stuff. The best part was when we were asked at the end of the session to present wikis to 15 LEA’s in Western Carolina. How cool!
Thursday, I had an advanced wikis workshop for my teachers. We had about 8 teachers there, but the sharing and learning we did was phenomenal! I need to have a sharing session soon. While we were talking about wikis, we got off on tangents (reminds me of my teaching days) of other web 2.0 applications – Skype was popular. Now that the fire is spreading, people are spending more and more of their time discovering new applications. I would love to be able to sit back, listen, and facilitate a great web 2.0 discussion. It’s coming! How exciting!
Today was the awesome closure to a great week. We took my 12 year old St. Bernard, Katie, to the Lee County Fair for the 4-H dog show. Nothing fancy, but it sure is fun. Katie loves it! She gets all the attention she can stand and has everyone eating out of her hand, uh, paw. She won several blue ribbons and a couple of 2nd places. She didn’t win Best in Show like she did in 2005, but she had a great time. Now, she will sleep for days to recover 
)
Until next time ~ Danita
Robeson County, North Carolina Technology Showcase
Here I am, listening to David Warlick’s keynote on Flat Classrooms. Do you think I should heckle him from the audience )
I am so excited! All the paperwork has been completed and the teachers have all signed their contracts for our workshop this summer. Dr. Len Annetta from NC State University is coming to Lee County to work with our middle school teachers on making educational virtual video games. Have I said I’m excited?
Dr. Annetta wanted 9 teachers from East Lee and West Lee. Being the pessimist realist that I am, I told him I didn’t think we would have that many from each school; in fact we may not have that many from both schools. Well, boy oh boy, was I wrong!
We have 34 signed up! Can you believe it? That’s a fantastic number! I’m so proud that there is that much interest. The fact that the teachers are receiving a stipend and a laptop might be some incentive, too, but hey, at least they’re coming! I plan on blogging about our progress this summer. I can’t wait to make my own game
The games will deal with all the discipline areas and integrate science and math. Dr. Annetta is hoping that we will develop a database of games for teachers from all over North Carolina to use. The first year the teachers will work on making their game. The second year, we will be bringing kids in to test drive the games. Can you imagine how much fun they are going to have?
Side note: My class is hard! My first assignment was a bomb. Thank goodness that the professor has the philosophy that students need to reach mastery. That means she’s going to let me re-do it. Thank goodness! Keep me in your thoughts – I need it! The next 8 weeks are going to be interesting to say the least ….
Until next time ~ Danita
Flickr: Teachers discussing ethics
I previously posted my notes from the NCAECT Conference on my blog (see previous entries), but I want to leave the links if anyone is interested in reading. Remember, my head goes faster than my fingers or is it my fingers go faster than my head. Whichever one it is, there are typos (I can guarantee that!). I’m having problems publishing Monday’s notes. That’s a shame because it was a day long session with Will Richardson.
Until next time ~ Danita
Flickr: Notes
I spent the day in Raleigh observing a fabulous event. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction sponsored the North Carolina Legislative School Technology Day. WOW! What a wonderful experience.
The school districts in the state were invited to showcase what their students are doing with technology. This included bringing student representatives to explain the technology. How exciting to speak with elementary school kiddos who could articulately tell you how they use technology. Our county was well represented by Deep River Elementary led by the technology facilitator Kim Collazo. Kim is doing some phenomenal technology activities with her students. I can’t wait until they get to the middle schools and teach me!
I was most impressed with two 5th grade young ladies who taught me how to animate a PowerPoint while using Paint to make a background. I had not thought of painting a background then drawing and painting an object to animate in the PowerPoint. Out of the mouths of babes.
There was also a middle school group that was powering cars and fans with water. The possibilities for this technology is endless. So are the futures of these students. I sure hope that the State Legislators were able to see what these students were accomplishing.
Howard Lee, the Chairman of the State Board of Education, began the session as only Howard can. He encouraged the students as well as the teachers. He received several rounds of applause. Of course, one was when he mentioned that teachers in the state will be making more money soon. What teacher wouldn’t applaud that?
But, he also hit home when he told the students that it didn’t matter what sex you are, color you are, what your home life is like, how smart you are, or how much money your family has, it is your responsibility to be the best you can be. There are no excuses for not succeeding in this day and age. He told them that there were too many people and dedicated teachers that were begging to help them for them not to take advantaged of that help. Bravo Howard, bravo!
Howard Lee also told the story of being held back in 1st grade. His mother was his teacher and she refused to pass him to second grade even though he had the highest average in the class. She told him that he did just enough to be better than the other students, but he didn’t do his best. That lesson has stuck with Howard and he shares it with students whenever he can.
This day was an excellent example of how the digital natives are surpassing us “dinosaurs”. Just when I think I’ve got it, along comes a 5th grader who very gently puts me in my place.
Until next time ~ Danita
Flickr: Our Presentation
