November All Day Tech Coach Follow-up
Posted by psteffen on November 9, 2006
Share what you plan to do in your classroom or with the teachers at your site between now and the All Day Coach Meeting in February. Set specific goals about what you plan to accomplish and what you still want to learn more about.
Mary Damiani said
Katie and I looked at a variety of blogging resources, sites, and examples. We read a number of different articles lauding the use of blogging for student engagement in a variety of subjects. We also looked at several blogging sites from within the district.
My goal for today was to create a blog for use with the Accelerated Reader Program at our school. I selected Blogger as the site I felt would best meet the needs of our students and at the same time be user friendly for teachers. I connected the blogging site to my webpage for easy access and posted my first blog which introduces the blog and reminds students of the AUP guidlines. Initially I plan to start with my class and have invited a couple of other teachers to participate before attempting to go school wide with the blog.
Tamra Ross said
What I plan to do in my classroom…
monica schott said
I still plan to find funding sources to get a SmartBoard for our computer lab. I will ask for imput from our teachers and comtinue to look on the web for funding sources. Once I am able to get a SmartBoard, then I want to learn how to effectively use it interactivly with our kids!!!!!
Betsy Wilkening said
I would like to have my students create some podcasts to put on my new website repository at http://mrswilkening.podomatic.com/.
I would also like to upload other podcasts to there and have them go out and post comments about the particular topic. I would like to see about doing videocasting in February since I have a webcam at school. Mitch and I were also talking about how to add pictures as they did in the Ellis Island podcast that we saw. I will also probably have some other questions as I go along and work more with podcasting.
Jan Horetski said
This was wonderful. I will be able to have my students complete their first podcast next week. They are working on a small group report of different Native American tribes. I plan to have a meeting with the staff after I post my first podcast. I know there are teachers that wanted to learn podcasting as their choice so I will invite them to learn – the little I know. I will direct them to Patti’s page for and Audacity for help as well.
I know I only know the bare minimum about podcasting – just enough to be excited and get started. I want to go to the next step. What is the next step? I think adding different things or working with other media. I need to learn more of the vocabulary so when people say things like RSS etc – I know what they are talking about – at least a little.
Liesl Scheffel said
I’m hoping I can find a teacher to work with who will let me do some podcasting with his or her students. I think that a storytelling project or poetry unit would be especially easy and fun to do as a first project. I would also like to offer a workshop for any teachers that might be interested, once I get a better handle on the mechanics of posting the podcasts. This is an area I need to focus on for next time.
My main focus at school this year is unitedstreaming. Michael Warrick and I will have held several workshops by our next meeting. The first one will be next week!
As always, I continue to work with teachers on posting grades and using Easy Grade Pro. I realy hope to build some capacity in this area, as teachers are often requesting help. Maybe we need to identify one teacher in each of our Professional Learning Communities who can be a “go-to” person for the rest of the PLC.
Tamra Ross said
What I plan to do in my classroom…
*Create a “SmartBoard Use Contract” for my students to use as a beginning lesson on the use and respect of the equipment!
*Begin exploring the use of my new SmartBoard.
*Find resources that are ready-made to use.
*Create my own resources to use.
*Use the SmartBoard to enhance the Saxon Math program.
*Become comfortable incorporating the use of the SmartBoard throughout the day in all subject areas.
In February, I would like to learn more about creating INTERACTIVE lessons. I don’t know what else I may want to know about yet until I use the SmartBoard more.
Jennifer Callahan said
I plan to informally share what I learned with the staff at my school. During the presentation, I was able to get several specific questions answered and learned how to do a couple of tasks that are things the teachers at my school need to know in order to move forward with their use of SmartBoards in the classroom. I plan to couple the things I learned with specific online applets and tools to create sample lesson plans for the teachers at my school to use and gather ideas from. I will share these with them informally, as our site is small and that is an easy way to disseminate information.
mwarrick said
I plan to keep exploring the different features of United Streaming.
I plan to email (with Liesl) the staff about the opportunity to learn more about United Streaming. Entice is the better word. The email will have to “grab” the reader as this is the most amazing workshop ever held. It will make their jobs and even their lives more interesting and fulfilling! The United Streaming site provides so many helpful tips on doing staff development. I will implement those.
I will continue to add more videos to My Content as that is my professional goad as a teacher this year. At least 2 new videos per quarter and document that on my curriculum map.
Thrilled to blog at you,
Michael
Ron Nason said
I plan to help create an ad hoc committee that will look at how we can make the best use of our technology resources in planning for next year and beyond. This includes exploring using Read 180 and other resources to address the need of those students approaching the standards and move toward project-based learning in our 2 computer labs and away from weekly visits. I want to collaborate with teachers who have signed up for time to work with projects and find ways to share these with others to build interest.
I want to learn more about video conferencing using IChat (provided this fits district guidelines) and work with interested teacher(s) in participating in a project that shares students’ work.
Mitch Miller said
My goal is to further integrate podcasting with state standards and the curriculum. How best to use this in the classroom is still my question.
My immediate goal is to publish at least one more podcast and insure that it is also posted at Podomatic and Bloglines.
Katrina Lantz said
Once the Smartboard is up and operational in our lab, I will plan lessons for my class and try them out.I’d like to try a couple of the lessons from Smartboard websie too. I will then show my teachers and use some of the 2 page handouts from the Smartboard training site.
What I still need to do is have time to play around with the Smartboard. Hopefully it will be up and running by Thanksgiving break.
Susie said
I will continue to use my Smartboard in my classroom, but will make it more interactive for students. The most useful site was the lesson plan site. It contains lessons for all grade levels in multiple subject areas that are ready to use.
I am most excited about the quick podcast site that Patti, Cindy, and Leisl helped me make. I will continue to work on that for next time.
Next time I will switch to the podcast group to learn more about podcasting.
Laurie Celaya said
Between now and the February meeting, our school will plan to have our teacher who currently has a SmartBoard share the main features and quick overview of the ways it can be used in a classroom.
I would like to learn more about funding and actually try to create a lesson using the SmartBoards.
Barbara Robeson said
I plan to review the teaching tutorials & learn more about the features available at United streaming. My thought is to set up a Webinar with Christine Sanders on one of our early out staff meetings. The Webinar that we participated in today was enticing. I can see how it would be a great way to introduce or re-introduce United streaming to our staff. The Webinar allowed Christine to differentiate the lesson we participated in today. There were those that had an advanced understanding of United streaming & others with significantly less, but she was able to present in a way that we were all enticed.
Cindy Rolewski said
I am really excited about today–it was just what I needed. We had time to work and search and also to share with one another. I would love to have had two whole days!
I am most excited about Podomatic that Patti showed us. I think it makes the whole process of posting our audio files much easier and also allows for others to post to our site.
Here is what I played with today: http://lacimacast.podomatic.com/
I have outlined a whole plan for working with my students, and with those of two other teachers, to get busy podcasting.
I think we can easily fill another whole day! I want to explore more on free music and videocasting.
Thanks!
Katie Collins said
I thoroughly enjoyed having the whole day devoted to doing what I wanted to do. I was able to do the following:
1) put finishing touches on my podcast
2) place the podcast onto a website
3) work on my webpage including the new podcast site
I will be working some more on my site to make it more user friendly for all my students. I will also be making more podcasts with more student input and control.
Next time I would like to be able to learn to create more varied podcasts reflecting the different grade levels.
Lourdes said
I have learned a lot about how to intergrate United Streaming into the curriculum. There are activities not only to use with my classroom, but to introduce to the staff. Today I have put together an example of Inspiration and PowerPoint using images and videos from United Streaming. Joanna and I will be presenting these to the teachers to “inspire” them or “sell” them on the program. We have set up four sessions for teachers to attend on different United Steaming topics. I still want to continue to explore United Streaming. I would later like to learn about Podcasting.
Joanna said
Goal
Lourdes and I have created a “Nash Mini-Grant” to promote United Streaming. It entails the teachers attending four class sessions to be scheduled before spring break. Our principal, Rusty Farley, has provided funds so teachers can earn vouchers for $200 by attending the classes. They can additionally earn up to two more vouchers of $50 each by creating projects using United Streaming. We currently have six teachers signed up.
Our goal before our February meeting is to begin the classes and get teachers excited about the possibilities.
Today’s Lesson
I appreciated the United Streaming presentation during our webinar with Cristin Sanders. It was concise but complete. It was a great example of how to run a training session since the same information is available to us on their web site.
Joanna
Lourdes said
Ditto Joanna’s message.
Peggy said
Here are the comments from the end of the day:
What we liked:
All the time to work and learn
How the groups were differentiated
Focusing on one idea
We weren’t too overwhelmed with so much information
We got to select what we wanted to do.
Food – cookies and bagels
What we didn’t like:
Too Cold
Word Press telling us to go slower
Technology not working
Needed more Movement, interaction and less presenter talking
Robert Walling said
After the all day tech coach meeting, I am in the process of publishing a podcast. My students have planned and written scripts for the first show. We are now in the process of recording the podcast on the computer, getting it edited, and published on the podomatic site that I created.
We are creating a unit of the unit podcast all about magnets and electricity to help us study for the unit test. The student groups selected a topic that was taught and developed a script telling about what we did and what we learned. It will probably only be about 5 minutes this time around, but it is a start!
Cris Robson said
Hi all! Here is my time warp message for November
I was not able to attend the November all day meeting as I was visiting new tech schools in Napa & Sacramento. I have already presented what I have seen to you in the February all day meeting, so I don’t want to bore you with a rehash, but here is a link to the new tech foundation so that you can get more information on the New Tech model:
http://www.newtechfoundation.org/
The school we visited in Napa has a link:
http://www.nths.nvusd.k12.ca.us
The school we visited in Sacramento also has a link:
http://schools.scusd.edu/SacNewTech/
The main things that really struck me about both of these models were:
1. The small school model
2. The high level of communication between all students & teachers
3. The communication skills of all students
4. The level of thinking and learning in every classroom
5. The collaborative PBL (project based learning) being done at all grade levels in every classroom.
6. The buy-in and involvement from the students, teachers and community
7. Every student had access to a computer in every class
8. 21st century learning was taking place in every single moment at these schools! WOW!
There were many other things as well. If I did not answer your questions during the Feb all day meeting, or here, please let me know!
Katie said
Before our November meeting, my school and I were working on our Curriculum Mapper. It has been the main source of technology in our school. At this point the teachers are not ready to learn about SMARTboards because there is only one in the school and that one is in the computer lab.
Personally, I have been working on my blog that is linked to my website. I have been playing around and coming up with easy ideas that my kids could use to get them comfortable with blogging before we dive right in.