WOW! We had our first meet and greet of our PLN for educators in my county. It was fabulous! We had 14 strong educators there that truly love technology and want to use it more in their classroom. The ideas were flying. And the sharing was unbelievable. These teachers that have never met were sharing and asking for more information from the other teachers. It was so exciting!

We had a very diverse group from Kindergarten teachers to High School teachers to 2 Technology Facilitators. I enjoyed being about to guide the discussion, but not direct it. Everyone seemed so comfortable with one another.

One of the requests was that we all get together during the summer for a week (yes, they wanted a week!) to ‘play’ and learn from each other in a computer lab. Now remember, this is without pay and without credit. Can you imagine? I was shocked! These are truly great people!

We did set another date for a meeting to talk and share more. Hopefully, our group will grow and we can meet once a quarter next year.

I can’t wait to see what else this group does!

Until next time ~ Danita

I presented a Google Applications workshop on Thursday afternoon. While I was sure that no one would come, in came 4 very diverse learners. Granted, I would have liked to have had a roomful, I will take 4 eager learners over a roomful of relucant learners anytime.

We got right into learning about the different apps when I hear “Wow! That’s cool!” and “I didn’t know Google could do that!”. This just egged me on even more. I love when you can show something new to someone who will use what you are showing them.

We explored and played and learned and grew together. I am a HUGE Google fan and one day dream of being a Google Educator and going to the training. But, until then, I will share what I know of Google and hope to hear more “Wow! That’s cool!”.

You can find my PowerPoint and presentation wiki here.

Until next time ~ Danita

Google Image From Here

Session 7
Matrix Reloaded – Geometry
Ian Nelson – Asheville High School
- Students create a frame-by-frame animation of a geometric figure on a TI graphing calculator
- Individuals – pairs – small groups

Session 6
Roller Coasters and Energy Conservation
Jeff Milbourne – NC School of Science and Math
- Kids design roller coaster for CaroWinds
- Scaffolding activities
o 1 what makes an enjoyable roller coaster?
 Used blog to post ideas and drawings
o 2 energy skate park
 Think about new physics that is involved in roller coasters
 Can’t show motion on a board – use 3D and games and interactive
 phet in Google
o 3 energy-go-round
 Stations made from everyday objects
 Get kids to think about how energy changes
 More traditional lab activities
o 4 work/energy challenges
 Quantitative problems – go from conceptual to computational problems
o 5 human horsepower
 Run up a flight of stairs and find out your horse power
 Idea of work and power
o Web conference with each other using illuminate to collaborate and communicate with each other
o Final product
 Safety of roller coaster
 Presentation – most chose PowerPoint
 Understanding of energy
o Mini –projects
 Driver’s safety manual – motion
 Usian bolt at the Beijing Olympics – motion
 A traffic nightmare – collisions
 Bungee jumping – simple harmonic motion
 The large Hadron collider – magnetism
 Volcanism on lo – energy
o milbourne@ncssm.edu
o 919-416-2762

Session 5
Emerging PBL Part C
Matt Sears
- 21st century Student Outcomes and Support Systems
o http://www.21stcenturyskills.org
o Life and career skills
o Learning and innovation Skills
o Information, Media, and Technology Skills
o Core Subjects and 21st century Themes
 What might you find in your classroom
 Communication – present ideas
o Presentation skills
o Collaboration
o Writing & vocabulary
o Sharing
• Problem-solving/logic/reasoning skills
• Higher order thinking skills
• Researching
• Ethics
• Typing/computer application
• Punctuality
• Organizational skills
- What they tell the parents:
o Not only will your child have the same content knowledge, but also ….. to better prepare them for 21st century learning
o 5 categories that students are evaluated
 Communication skills 10%
 Work ethic 15%
 Content knowledge 60%
 Inventive thinking (hard to assess) 5%
• Problem solving/logic/reasoning skills
• Higher order thinking
• Creativity
 Technology skills 10%
- Never give a project where you grade all 5 of the above points
- State objectives on rubric
- New Technology Foundation
o Based in Napa, California
- *** Activity
o Student created group wikis on Earthquakes Around the World
 Variety of embed media
• 2 other than images
 Cite sources
 Organized
• Stay on track
• No duplication
 Easy to follow
 Communication (in History tab)
 Correct content
 Proper grammar (Communication)
 Computer skills (Likert Survey with Google Docs)
 Demonstrate that they contacted an expert outside of school
• Using Skype or Twitter or Blog & cell phone
- Technology Fair where students present what they have done throughout the year

Emerging PBL Part B
Lee Fleming
School Development Coach with New Technology Foundation
- General Questions – Need to know for our group:
o Midway project crash
 Greater front end planning versus end grading in regular classrooms
o EOC
o Pacing guide
o Big picture too big or too small
o Content and process
o Engagement in content
 Student ownership
 Competition
 Interest surveys
• Make a list of who might need this knowledge
- Big Picture
o Identify standards you will assess
 How much time will you spend on each standard for this course?
 What objectives will you include?
o Find how your standards are used in the real world and who uses these standards
- WHO might need to have this knowledge?
o environmentalist
- WHY might they need this information?
o To identify the effects of industrialism on a developing nation
- What might this person DO with this knowledge?
o Create ways to prevent the negative effects of industrialism, share with government or people these effects
- Start:
o Planning out the year – what the most important points my students need to know at the end of the year?