* School ended well.  We will be opening a new middle school in the fall - SanLee Middle School.  It’s going to be great!  I am VERY excited!  Each teacher will receive their own laptop and each classroom will have 5 computers in the room along with a SmartBoard, Elmo document camera, and LCD projector.  Plus, the Principal is fabulous!

* We presented at the Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, South Carolina.  Wonderful group of teachers!  I really would like to attend again next year.  We presented 4 sessions and every one of them were full - even the 8:00 AM session!  Talk about impressed!

* Today I am in a McRel training.  Very good for beginners, but nothing new - yet - for us.  Matt is good and the information is FABULOUS.   This would be a wonderful workshop for teachers and there are several here with us.

* Went home to see my family for a few days.  Hubby and I also went to Carolina Beach over 4th of July weekend.  We had a wonderful time! It was good to get away for a few days.

* Hubby found a job - YIPPEE!!  Only bad part is the shift.  But, hopefully, it will change soon.

Well, that’s an update in a nutshell.  I was hoping to have the time to go into a lot more detail, but maybe soon.

Until next time ~ Danita

We are struggling with the idea of how much do we protect the students from the Internet and how much we allow them to grow.  I’m assuming that by that statement you can figure out where I stand.  I am all in favor of teaching students the positives and possible downfalls of the Internet.  If we don’t teach the students, how will they know?

Is it better to shut everything down and shelter our students or teach them the correct way to surf the Internet?  I’m afraid there are some who are of the opinion that it is better to shut everything down.  Hmmmmm, and what do the kids do when they are given a few freedoms? They won’t know how to work the Internet safely.

So, where do we stand?  Do we shelter or do we teach?  I, of course, am definitely standing on the teach side of the road.  Where are you?

If you get an opportunity, check out a couple of new sites and let me know what you think:   Glogster and Animoto.  I’d like to share these with my teachers and would like your opinion first.  Both are wonderful resources, but are they safe enough for our students?  Are there truly any sites on the Internet that are 100% ’safe’?

Until next time ~ Danita

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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

NCAECT

Until next time ~ Danita

   Flickr