VPSD Technology

I have dunced across a couple of neat applications that seem to have some potential…

Diigo

This site is a social bookmarking site, similar to Delicious (in fact, it syncs bookmarks with delicious!), but it has some neat twists.  With Diigo, not only can you bookmark sites and have them online wherever you are, but you can also annotate, highlight and sticky webpages!  Yeah!  If you are on a site and there is some information there that you find pertinent, you can highlight it, right click on it, and set to highlight in a color…  and it will be there the next time you visit the page!  You can also add stickies to remind yourself what you were thinking while you were there.  But what kind of a world would it be if this application were so cool but you could not share it in a web 2.0 world???  You don’t have to worry about that, because you can share bookmarks, highlights and stickies with others!  You can create groups and share the page with your group, where they receive an email automatically that you tagged something.  Then they can view, they can highlight (in another color, if need be) and they can also add to your sticky, to keep a running record of you notes.  I have just started playing with it, and can envision many cool ways that this application can be integrated!  Comment if you have some integration thoughts!

Scribus

Another application is Scribus.  Scribus is a document publishing application, very similar to Adobe InDesign, but unline InDesign, Scribus is free.  Again, I have just started to play with it, and it does seem like a cool alternative to InDesign.  Trick is, most people do not need such a robust program.  Most can do almost the same with MS Publisher or plain old MS Word.  But if you need higher level requirements, it might be worth a look.  Scribus, being a full program, is a bit of a download hog.  But from my initial testing, seems to be worth the wait.

Wow!  I just received a feed from a Microsoft blog about references in Word 2007.  It described how to create a custom bibliography in Word 07.  Formatted bibliography!  I just had to open it up, take a look and explore!  It must be my undergraduate Language and Literature concentration or just my geekiness, but this has possibilitiies…

I opened MS Word 07, and went to the references tab, but this time I really looked…  This has the possibility to be a great resource for reports and articles written by students.

Table of Contents. This is where you would go to create a table of contents, add text, and update as you go.  Very user-manageable.

Footnotes and Endnotes.  Looks like it is as simple as pressing a button to add them.  There is also a notes feature related to those endnotes and footnotes.

Citations and Bibliography.  This is where I got really giddy.  You can insert citations in a report by pressing a button.  You can customize the style, such as MLA and APA, and there is a form box that asks for the details of the resource type, and you just type in the required information.  This data is then used in the creation of a Bibliography or Works Cited page.  These citations are also remembered with the document, so if you open your file on another computer, it will open the current citations, so you can continue to work on the article and reference the citation again (without retyping everything!).

Captions.  Press a button and you can add a caption.  You can also insert a table of captions to reference.

Index.  By tagging an entry, you can create an index at the end of the article that points to the location of those topics.

As I play on this tab, I get more excited for all of the students who use MS Word 2007, because these features are such a resource to their work.  Less time can be spent on the “official” formatting, and more effort placed into the appropriateness of the resource in the article and referencing works cited for ethical respect.

I bet everyone who wrote articles without these tools in the past are now distraught that they did not have these tools when they were writing…  I know I am!

Patrick

A question posed to me earlier in the year was if there was a font for the lined paper for handwriting.  In response to that inquiry, the district acquired Startwrite software for the primary classrooms, so that teachers can create and customize their own handwriting practice sheet.  This software if very simple, but one of the best in the industry.

Here is another resource that can be used to teach handwriting in conjunction with projection devices in primary.  Since second grade has projectors on the whiteboard, with first grade getting them this summer and kindergarten the following, I thought that this Notebook file may be a nice resource to use when teaching handwriting.

handwriting-background

By displaying this background onto the whiteboard, the teacher has a template on the board for students to view and practice their letters.  The teacher can use the pens to model on the whiteboard with the template displayed in the background, have a child or two try for guided practice, and use as a whole group activity before individual practice (possibly on sheets created with Startwrite).

Since this file is SMART Notebook 10, it can also be used on the SMART Board in the ES Lab and Health Room, and Airliners can be used also, but those may be a bit trick, since you can’t see the lines on the tablet…  But the template can be added to and amended, as the Notebook Gallery is full of letters on lines, like the background.

Patrick

This year, in June, VPSD Tech Team will conduct 1/2 day trainings throughout the month covering a variety of topics.  Based initially upon survey results from a previous post, a schedule of topics was positioned to meet teachers’ training needs.

Registration for these sessions will run from April 27 through May 22.  Feel free to register for as many of the sessions as you are interested in.  Sessions have attendance max numbers, to make the sessions the most beneficial for attendees.  Once a session fills up, any further registrants will be placed on a waiting list, should someone need to cancel from a session after registering.  You will be notified via email as to your registration status.

Attendance at these sessions carries with it a stipend of $15 per hour.  Most sessions are 3 hours long.

Please take some time to explore the Summer 2009 PD session wiki and register for the session(s) of your choice starting on April 27.

Patrick

Here’s another batch of resources to integrate into lessons or activities that take advantage of the dynamics of a SMART Board or projector in your classroom.

Letter Dice
Grade Level- Any
Subject- Spelling

This activity projects random letters on the board that can be used to make various words.  It is an emulation of the board game Boggle.  Pretty cool just for an in-between or indoor recess activity too.

Area of a Circle
Grade Level- MS
Subject- Math (Geometry)

This is a SMART Notebook file with activities related to determining the area of a circle, utilizing interactive tools within Notebook.

Light and Shadows
Grade Level- Intermediate
Subject- Science

This activity illustrates the relationship of light and shadows with three interactive activities.  For each Lesson, select Start Activity to view the interactive application.

Number Sequences
Grade Level- PK, Primary
Subject- Math

This interactive activity lets students determine the correct number that needs to be placed into the number sequence.  Can be used with teacher moving the numbers in whole group, students using SMART Board to move the numbers to the correct location (but it may be a bit high up there for the kids to reach), or students can use the Airliner to move the numbers.  The sequences gain in difficulty as they are successful.  The only glitch is at the end, once the activity has been completed, it does not like to start over.

This should keep you busy for a bit!  If you have any specific subjects you are looking for, just let me know!

One of the nice things about Valley Park School District are the abundance of instructional resources available to meet student needs.  One of the tremendous tools for addressing visual, logical and kinesthetic intellingences are the projection devices and SMART Boards that are in nearly every classroom in the district.  These interactive whiteboards (or airliners in primary) are great tools to activate participation from students, and not just passivity.

To increase resources for teachers, I plan to share some resources for your projector systems and interactive whiteboards that you can use to assist in greater integration of technology within the curriculum and instruction of your learning targets that address:

• Content Reinforcement
• Skill Supplement
• Context Development

I plan to share resources for all levels, and diversify subjects, regularly in these blog posts.  But I will also house them all on a page (that I am still developing) that you can reference as well.  I’ll get that out to everyone once it is of value.  Also, attendees at the summer SMARTBoard and SMART Notebook trainings in June will learn about these resources and can compile and sort other resources to add to the list.

Here goes!

Eggtimer
Grade Level- Any
Subject- Any

There are times when a teacher needs to define a specific time allocation to certain tasks, and this website makes that time very visual with a countdown.  I know when I taught, when I gave my students time guidelines it helped keep them on task, but when they digress it is usually due to them not realizing the time remaining to complete their task.  This website makes that countdown very visual!  (especially on a SMARTBoard)

Plant Science
Grade Level- Intermediate
Subject- Science

This webpage has a compilation of three plant science lessons and activities.  The reason for including this in the list is the interactive activity in Activity 1.  This is an interactive flash diagram of plant parts that would fit nicely on a projection device, whether you utilize their lesson templates or incorporate into your own instruction activity.

What’s the Difference
Grade Level- PK-Primary
Subject- Language, Science

This is an interactive site that deals with sorting and classification.  There are a bank of items and two places to sort them based on characteristics of those items.  Can be used in early science to illustrate classification and characteristics or in language as a discussion starter for reasoning and debate about why they fit into those categories).

The Raven- Edgar Allen Poe
Grade Level- HS
Subject_ Literature

This SMART Notebook file can be used during the teaching of the poem, The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe.   As Trish Alexander indicated in her Teacher T.A.L.K. blog, April is Poetry month, and this is a classic poem to include in your studies. There are two reasons why this is included in this list.  First, the person who created this SMART Notebookfile included many cool elements, so it is a good example of the many things your can do with this version.  Second, I love Edgar Allen Poe, and especially The Raven!  When in doubt on a slide, click the ? and it will describe what needs to be done on the page.

That’s it for now!  I’ll have another batch soon.  Feel free to share any that you have had success with and I’ll include in these posts!

Patrick

One of the great things that I like about technology is the ability to integrate it into curriculum to dynamically address skill, content or context, from the learning target level to the artifacts of learning.  Utilizing the correct tool to meet the needs of the students, both as a group and as an individual, demonstrates the power of the process.  Being able to address instruction to the individual student is referenced in differentiated instruction, constructivism and multiple intelligences, to name a few.

A great article that I read recently about Multiple Intelligences was A New Frame of Mind from the April/May 2009 issue of Edutopia. There were many articles about the power of addressing instruction through multiple intelligences in this issue, but this article is an interview with the the theorist and Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Howard Gardner.  One of the things I like best about Professor Gardner is not just his theory of Multiple Intelligences, but his dedication to the importance of values in schools and education for student achievement being an ends and not a means of schools.

One of the quotes of the interview that had particular interest to me was…

“…the challenge in education is to help students develop valued areas of knowledge, skill, and values.  I don’t care which intelligences are mobilized, so long as the requisite knowledge or skill or values are attained.  And that is why one can learn history or math or science or values using a variety of entry points, pedagogies, and forms of assessment.”

Here is a Howard Gardner Video from Edutopia

If you are feeling adventurous and want to take a brief quiz that will provide a detailed and graphical diagram of your dominant intelligences, click here.

Good news for those teachers who like to use Moodle.

With a little inquisitiveness from Susan Evans regarding themes, we figured out how to customize themes to courses. This new upgrade of Moodle and the Moodle server allows us to take the downloaded zip files of the themes and add them to the Moodle server, so that they appear in the drop-down of themes that you can use in your courses. This customization only effects your course, and not the global theme of Moodle!

Also with this, there is a tutorial regarding how to create your own theme off of the Standard White theme, which is the base for all themes. If you know some basic html and maybe css, then you can take that theme and change the coding for your personal needs. You could add a logo (another test I made while adding themes, you will notice it on the main district Moodle page) and a header, change colors and fonts. All kinds of things! If that is an interest, let me know and I’ll see what we can do about getting you the Standard White theme file so you can customize. Here is the link to the tutorial for Creating a Custom Theme.

These are all topics that we can go over at the New Moodle and Moodle Worktime workshops over the summer.  Or if you would like to try it earlier, let me know and I can stop by when you are available.  Adding a theme takes a few minutes, changing a theme takes seconds.  Since I have not created a custom theme, not sure how long that takes, but we can find out together! 

Patrick

Here is an exciting bit of news to bring to you!  This summer, the VPSD Tech Team plans to provide summer trainings in the afternoons in June (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).  These training events will go from 12:30-3:30 PM, so summer school teachers are still able to attend.  These training opportunities include $15/hour stipend for your summer time.

To assist with the scheduling of multiple sessions of a subject, or interest in a topic, I would like to get your input regarding which training sessions you would be MOST interested in attending.  This is not a commitment, because I have yet to formalize a schedule as yet, but your input would go a long way in the amount of sessions of each I can offer.  Please use the poll below to let me know about your preferences.  If one of the topics gets no responses of interest, I will forgo that one and replace with another topic or add another session of a high interest tpoic.  If you can think of another selection that is not on the list, please provide that in the other option.

I will look over the responses around mid-April so I can get a schedule out to everyone with enough time to register for the sessions, hopefully by early May.  Spaces within the sessions will be limited so we can provide meaningful time for everyone, so first come first served!

Today, I have the honor to assist with the Cyber Summit, presented by CharacterPlus of the Cooperating School District and hosted at Lindenwood University.  The Cyber Summit is a one-day conference for students addressing issues with cyberbullying and student empowerment for technology and internet ethics and safety.  At this event, they are expecting about 120 students from schools throughout the area.  Valley Park School District will have 16 Middle School students here, led by Mr. Neal and Mrs. Venn (last minute replacement for Mr. Hagan).  The keynote address to the students is from Tina Meier, the mother of the Meghan who was cyberbullied in St. Charles back in 2006.

The session I am co-presenting is called Fight Cyberbullying with Cyberaction.  Diane Stirling from CSD/CharacterPlus spearheaded the presentation and asked if I would assist.  I can’t tell Diane or CharacterPlus no to an offer to assist with something this powerful for students!  We are presenting two breakout sessions after the keynote.

In our session, students will observe two or three cyberbully related videos and discuss as a group.  They will then read an article defining cyberbullying, as well as look at websites from England and Canada depicting events that students do to keep themselves safe.  Many sites out there address what parents or schools can do to keep students safe, but the true power is students knowing how to keep themselves safe (this is where the cyberaction comes in!).  A recent study published by the American Psychological Association states that students who feel connected to their school and teacher are more likely to take action when issues like this take place.  The reasoning for the correlation is that these students express that they feel they are more likely to be heard and felt a sense of belonging.  Developing this community is very important to the success of any action!

Then our session has the students brainstorm actions and activities they can do to raise awareness and support, both before cyberbullying occurs and after it has affected students.  We will come together and share our reflections before the students go back to their schools to enact their ideas.

This is just one of the great breakouts here.  Other breakouts feature a lawyer and the Executive Director of INOBTR, a website aimed at Middle and high School students afor cybersafety.

It is great to see so many students (and VPSD students, at that!) attending such a meaningful conference!

Patrick