Friday, November 5, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
What a Week
Well, needless to say it has been a while but as a result of my attendance at the ACTEM conference I have been re-introduced to the importance of sharing. This inspiration came from the fine keynote given on Friday morning at the conference by Angela Maiers and Vicki Davis. Their theme of "you can do it" got me thinking about the value of developing personal learning networks. They did this by not talking but by demonstration which I think made the difference for me as I have heard several presentations on this topic but never got that fired up over them.
Another morsel of advice was to "start small". It is with this in mind that I make this attempt at jump-starting this blog. My goal is to make a post once a week and then see what happens.
So may I present the week of October 11, 2010:
Wow, what a week. I have learned so much and been exposed to even more.
Monday - a day off from school but it was far from a day off, if you teach you know what I mean.
Finished up my presentation for the workshop on SMART Board training I will be presenting on
Wednesday. Things learned = thanks to Richard Byrne and his Free Technology for Teachers site I was introduced to Splicd a site that allows one to trim You Tube videos to show just the segments you want.
Tuesday - Conducted our first Maine YMCA Model Legislature Model Legislature training session via a video conference by using our Tandberg machine. We had five sites with a couple connected via a Movi account. Things learned = 1. when using Movi on a MacBook be sure to connect via an ethernet cable as opposed to using wireless 2. be sure to turn off or extend the sleep feature.
Wednesday - Taught my follow-up workshop on using the SMART Board. Great group and they seemed to learn a lot by the hands-on experience. Learned that when using the MacBook there is no video player icon after downloading a video in QuickTime, all you need to do is go to Quicktime and play the video.
Thursday - The day I was looking forward to and it sure didn't disappoint. I am blessed to work in MSAD 49 as they allowed (and paid for) me to attend the ACTEM Pre-conference. I attended Richard Bryne's "Google Under the Hood" session as I have been inspired by his Free Tech site and thought it would be great to have him as a teacher. Needless to say it was a great decision. With lightning quick speed he presented Google's wide array of offerings. Too many to mention here but the one that I will be trying first is Google Fast Flip. I will be having my students use the site to make quick comparisons on how different papers cover the same story. One other tidbit I learned was the fact that Richard has two cats so obviously he could do no wrong in my eyes :-)
My afternoon was filled with great things regarding Leveraging Free Tools to Improve the Classroom taught by our fearless leader Vicki Davis. We learned by creating a class wiki, which by the way wasn't something "make believe" it is for real. Check it out - freetech4me. The goal of our site is to offer a working wiki that allows visitors to discover "free tools" that have been evaluated in regard to their usefulness in today's classroom. We also encourage you to join us and share your evaluation of a site that has worked well for you.
Friday's entry is going to have to wait. This has been fun but has taken longer than expected and I need to get some exercise - so off tot he gym I go, hi-ho.
Another morsel of advice was to "start small". It is with this in mind that I make this attempt at jump-starting this blog. My goal is to make a post once a week and then see what happens.
So may I present the week of October 11, 2010:
Wow, what a week. I have learned so much and been exposed to even more.
Monday - a day off from school but it was far from a day off, if you teach you know what I mean.
Finished up my presentation for the workshop on SMART Board training I will be presenting on
Wednesday. Things learned = thanks to Richard Byrne and his Free Technology for Teachers site I was introduced to Splicd a site that allows one to trim You Tube videos to show just the segments you want.
Tuesday - Conducted our first Maine YMCA Model Legislature Model Legislature training session via a video conference by using our Tandberg machine. We had five sites with a couple connected via a Movi account. Things learned = 1. when using Movi on a MacBook be sure to connect via an ethernet cable as opposed to using wireless 2. be sure to turn off or extend the sleep feature.
Wednesday - Taught my follow-up workshop on using the SMART Board. Great group and they seemed to learn a lot by the hands-on experience. Learned that when using the MacBook there is no video player icon after downloading a video in QuickTime, all you need to do is go to Quicktime and play the video.
Thursday - The day I was looking forward to and it sure didn't disappoint. I am blessed to work in MSAD 49 as they allowed (and paid for) me to attend the ACTEM Pre-conference. I attended Richard Bryne's "Google Under the Hood" session as I have been inspired by his Free Tech site and thought it would be great to have him as a teacher. Needless to say it was a great decision. With lightning quick speed he presented Google's wide array of offerings. Too many to mention here but the one that I will be trying first is Google Fast Flip. I will be having my students use the site to make quick comparisons on how different papers cover the same story. One other tidbit I learned was the fact that Richard has two cats so obviously he could do no wrong in my eyes :-)
My afternoon was filled with great things regarding Leveraging Free Tools to Improve the Classroom taught by our fearless leader Vicki Davis. We learned by creating a class wiki, which by the way wasn't something "make believe" it is for real. Check it out - freetech4me. The goal of our site is to offer a working wiki that allows visitors to discover "free tools" that have been evaluated in regard to their usefulness in today's classroom. We also encourage you to join us and share your evaluation of a site that has worked well for you.
Friday's entry is going to have to wait. This has been fun but has taken longer than expected and I need to get some exercise - so off tot he gym I go, hi-ho.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Summer Technology Institute
Here we are in Belfast, Maine on a beautiful summer day. Looking forward to resuming my attempt to learn ways of using technology to enhance my class offerings. As you can see, my March attempt didn't get too far. Hopefully, with a full week to concentrate on this I will be able to better use blogs.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Back in the Blogging Business
This blog is created in conjunction with an online course (Learning and Teaching with Web 2.o Tools). Our teacher is Phil Brookhouse who is courageously leading us to try 2.o tools to enhance our teaching offerings. I have dabbled with blogs before but had a difficult time staying up with all the traffic that came my way. As a result I am always looking for suggestions as to how best to manage a classroom site.
Seeing the merit in the blogs is not an issue as I readily learned the value they provided for my "quieter" students. Looking forward to trying this again.
Seeing the merit in the blogs is not an issue as I readily learned the value they provided for my "quieter" students. Looking forward to trying this again.
As far as the title is concerned, it came about thanks to the assistance of one of my seven cat friends. As I was lying in bed trying to think of something creative up jumped our "oldest" and proceded to purr up a storm. Bingo - the title popped into my head as my feline friends have a way of relieving stress and opening up thought channels. I know - corny but it works for me!
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