08.12.10
Welcome to 2010-2011!
Welcome to my classroom, which will be filled with new technology this school year. We will learn how to use it together!
08.09.10
SMART Training Starting for Teachers
Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom, fellow teachers. Training starts the week of Aug. 9 for high school (mainly, that is) teachers and middle school teachers. The week of August 16, elementary teachers are scheduled for training.
Only those brave Pioneers will be trained in this session and will be using all the technologies in classrooms during the fall. After the November in-service, installation of the equipment will continue in the elementary schools, then the middle schools, and finally the high schools. Our Pioneers will then lead their colleagues through training at district in-services.
If you have questions about the training or the process, please let me know by email or phone.
New Features in Edublogs
In the Campus edition of Edublogs, there are always new features for users. The latest include creating a 3D tag cloud (I am looking forward to figuring this one out), putting your calendar with appointments on your site, and adding a PayPal account to your site. Not all of these would work in every classroom, but I am glad they are working to give us improvements and choices. To take a look at a list of Edublogs features, check out the Edublogs web site!
08.07.10
A New School Year
Here we are again–for some of us a most repeated activity and for others brand new–the start of a new school year. What will it bring for me? Let’s see–lots of training to plan, lots of training to do, lots of new things to learn, lots of new people to help and learn from. In the words of one of my favorite five year olds, it’s a lot of lots!
Here is wishing all of you the very best for your school year. In the words of Robert Frost, “I go to school the youth, to learn the future.” A benefit for teaching is that you, too, can learn. Can you think of a better reason?
03.08.10
MACUL 2010
What a great topic that is–MACUL 2010–and especially what can be learned at this conference. I look forward to spending time visiting the vendors’ area, too, to see what the latest and greatest technology is coming into our schools.
Now to try out threaded comments–will they work on this post? I will find out soon!
02.12.10
February 2010
Wow, the year is already getting old! Where is the time flying? I remember when I was a kid someone telling me not to wish I was older–older comes too fast. They were right!
The technology showcase was a wonderful success, thanks to the staff of the high school and all the teachers who prepared their students to present. My school district likes the opportunity to shine, and they truly did that evening. All of them deserve sincere thanks.
Daniel Pink has a new book, Drive, which gives his view on motivation–something teachers have been dealing with forever. According to Pink, intrinsic motivation is the force that is necessary for economic success in the business world; allowing workers the freedom to pursue outside ideas leads to success, like Google workers (Google labs is one example). Working on a personal interest makes the job easier. Applying this to education is a natural step. But as most teachers already know, motivation has to come from within the student. In order to succeed, students need to want to learn. I am looking forward to reading this book.
Have a great February. I look forward to the rest of what is starting out as a very fast year!
01.20.10
Blog Tech Tips #1: shift/enter
This latest post will be based on teaching someone new to blogging how to use their blog. If this is you, follow along!
Each time I hit enter, I notice I go down two spaces instead of one. I wonder if this trick works.
I am a tricky dude. It did. If you hold down the shift key when you hit enter, you only go down one line. But why do that? When you press enter, you are creating a new paragraph. When you do this on the computer, it puts in white space, making the page easier to read. Be wary of becoming a tricky dude like me!
Student Guidelines
Providing students with guidelines that adhere to classroom and school rules, as well as the district’s AUP, is important. If you don’t tell them what the rules are, they won’t know them. If you don’t tell them what they can and cannot do, they will do it all. It’s their nature: they are children!
Here are a couple of links to a few versions of student guidelines for using a blog. You are welcome to take a look at them (they are all available on the Internet), and along with your district’s AUP, see if you can use these to base one on for your student blog use. If you would like to veiw more, try searching.
From the MISD web site, here is really good one.
(word document)
From Bud the Teacher’s Blog, these rules have had over 16,000 hits in the last year. For secondary (6-12) students, they are a good place to start.
For those of you who like a more open format for your rules, the following Word document, from Class Blogmeister, a blogging service, is a pledge for students to read and sign. Take a look to see if this is something you would like to use.
For the elementary classroom, this blog by a fellow Edublogging teacher lists some good rules. Please take a moment to read them to see if they would help you with your rules.
Mr. Salsich’s Class (3rd Grade) Blog Guidelines
Here is one more resource to help you design your own blogging guidelines. It is broken into the categories Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Literate.
01.19.10
Spring into 2010
Spring–I am ready even though it is only January 19! Working to set up workshops for teachers has been a lot of fun: they want to learn, that’s why they are in these classes. Here’s hoping the best for your new year, both in and out of the classroom.
