Last night was a smashing success!!! The Valley of Kent was ALIVE with Technology and Student Driven Academic Success last night as over 60 teachers, each with 2 to 15 students, in coordination with 30 local business displayed "technology in the classroom" and "technology based jobs". The crowds filled the new ShoWare center for nearly 4 hours.
With attendance in the thousands, it was an amazing and wonderful event with a beautiful focus on our students and our futures leaders' outstanding skills and technologically creations. Students from K to 12 were on hand showing off their incredible talents and advanced skills in the field of technology.
Mill Creek was well represented with over 15 of the 60 educator displays. From Ms. Hunt's digital portfolios and digital memories and Ms. V's recycling Green Team efforts to Ms. Clarke's World Civilizations, Ms. Love's Languages Arts, and Ms. Yemothy's Tech Integration in the Science Classroom, students were spotlighted and the center of attention for the all community to see. KTA's students were also there in force showcasing their skills too. Ms. Piehl's 3d skate park models were one of the hot spots to check out while Ms. Roach's geometry students provided attendees with a glimpse into the 1:1 classroom with mock classes for adults to try. Additionally, Mill Creek's nationally recognized for excellence yearbook editor team was on hand displaying their awarding winning 2008-09 yearbook and providing visitors with a sneak peak of the 2009-10 Tech 5 Laptop Yearbook.
While the world is dealing with all the trials and tribulations of current events, Kent was shinning bright last night with incredible student drive technologically advanced academic success for all the world to see. Amazing is an understand statement!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Moving in the Right Direction
So the first two week’s of OneNote integration with Moodle has gone very smoothly. I think the smooth transition is because my students already had 3 months of Moodle experience and just prior to this unit a full 2 week emersion in OneNote. Therefore putting the two concepts/programs together made a smooth pairing up.
The freedom from paper and distributing 15 to 20 page packets to each of my students was a great experience this past Monday. Typically when I start a unit of 2 to 4 weeks, I have a unit packet with reading, activities, vocabulary and assignments to distribute. However this week, there were only 5 students who needed a packet because they don’t take home their computers. It was not only liberating but also very rewarding on an environmental level.
There was one “small” snafu that occurred with this full paperless transition. That “snafu” was that my workspace on the shared Student drive was now at its 90% threshold and would not allow for any more documents or uploads. Something I did not know existed more had I ever come close to hitting in my prior four years of teaching. Thanks to the warning email and the wonderful team of IT gurus we have at the district office, we found a solution. Next week when we transition to your 2nd unit in OneNote I will have to set aside a class to help teach my students how to relocate their files to their H:drive and only provide a “shortcut” (hyperlink) to my workspace so that their files are actually in their shared space on the server and not overloading my allowance.
It was a great experience to run into such a terminal problem, then find out that I was “pushing the limits” of our server space. This was something that IT was not expecting a teacher to do and they happily called an emergency brainstorming meeting to find the solution. It was great to be the problem, the challenge and the success all in the matter of 3 days.
The freedom from paper and distributing 15 to 20 page packets to each of my students was a great experience this past Monday. Typically when I start a unit of 2 to 4 weeks, I have a unit packet with reading, activities, vocabulary and assignments to distribute. However this week, there were only 5 students who needed a packet because they don’t take home their computers. It was not only liberating but also very rewarding on an environmental level.
There was one “small” snafu that occurred with this full paperless transition. That “snafu” was that my workspace on the shared Student drive was now at its 90% threshold and would not allow for any more documents or uploads. Something I did not know existed more had I ever come close to hitting in my prior four years of teaching. Thanks to the warning email and the wonderful team of IT gurus we have at the district office, we found a solution. Next week when we transition to your 2nd unit in OneNote I will have to set aside a class to help teach my students how to relocate their files to their H:drive and only provide a “shortcut” (hyperlink) to my workspace so that their files are actually in their shared space on the server and not overloading my allowance.
It was a great experience to run into such a terminal problem, then find out that I was “pushing the limits” of our server space. This was something that IT was not expecting a teacher to do and they happily called an emergency brainstorming meeting to find the solution. It was great to be the problem, the challenge and the success all in the matter of 3 days.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Supply & Resource Checklist
For me to be able to complete the GAME plan I have set out for myself, I will be in need of a "few things". Most of what I need, I already have access to. The biggest hurdle is making sure my kids have their laptops and are not currently on a "TV" better known as a tech violation (which means they lose their take home privileges for 3 to 5 days).
Our laptops come pretty well stocked with MS Office, OneNote, Publisher, PDF Creator, Email and more. The educational portal to track work, grade lessons, record grades and submit work is provided via our district and is named Moodle. It is a free web based portal that simple requires the district to provide server space. Lastly, the animation program SCRATCH is free on the internet for educational use thanks to MIT.
The OneNote program from Microsoft is a key element that I have already spent 2 weeks training my students how to use. Today (Jan 20th) we implemented the plan of using OneNote with Moodle instead of printing 125 – 18 page packets for 3 weeks of work.
The worksheets, activities, creations projects and even lab activities are mostly “pre” done for me from previous year’s lessons. Some new technology twists is that I assigning the kids to create their crossword puzzles, make their own Avatar and graphic organizers.
My “shopping list” would include
Websites such as:
www.voki.com
www.wordle.net
www.puzzlemaker.com
www.scratch.mti.edu
www.brainpop.com
Hardware student all have their laptop.
Software: OneNote and access to District Server with Moodle
Graphic Organizers and worksheets are pre-designed templates through MS Office’s Publisher that I have made and modified for our previous units for this current unit’s topic.
Our laptops come pretty well stocked with MS Office, OneNote, Publisher, PDF Creator, Email and more. The educational portal to track work, grade lessons, record grades and submit work is provided via our district and is named Moodle. It is a free web based portal that simple requires the district to provide server space. Lastly, the animation program SCRATCH is free on the internet for educational use thanks to MIT.
The OneNote program from Microsoft is a key element that I have already spent 2 weeks training my students how to use. Today (Jan 20th) we implemented the plan of using OneNote with Moodle instead of printing 125 – 18 page packets for 3 weeks of work.
The worksheets, activities, creations projects and even lab activities are mostly “pre” done for me from previous year’s lessons. Some new technology twists is that I assigning the kids to create their crossword puzzles, make their own Avatar and graphic organizers.
My “shopping list” would include
Websites such as:
www.voki.com
www.wordle.net
www.puzzlemaker.com
www.scratch.mti.edu
www.brainpop.com
Hardware student all have their laptop.
Software: OneNote and access to District Server with Moodle
Graphic Organizers and worksheets are pre-designed templates through MS Office’s Publisher that I have made and modified for our previous units for this current unit’s topic.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The GAME Plan
G: Goal –
G1) customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
G2) demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
A: Actions Plans –
A1) Creating more differentiated instructional levels. Changing how I current grade the “same project” at the student’s level to actually providing a partially different set of work. I am creating 3 levels of work per same unit to allow for gifted and ELL/IEP students to be more challenged as well as produce higher quality work.
A2) The plan is to better learn or master two new software program.
~ Currently, I have focus on better learning the Scratch program from MTI so that my students can create animated video shorts. Students will have the opportunity to use Scratch for our Atomic Learning units. With the goal of creating at least 3 different atomic structures.
~ The other program I am working at is OneNote from Microsoft’s Office Suite. I have immersed myself and student into using this electronic notebook system. We will continue to use it for the balance of the school. Ideally becoming virtually paperless in the classroom. Students will use it to receive their work, take their notes, watch movies and complete worksheets virtual in OneNote before entering their work in to Moodle for grading, evaluation and feedback.
M: Monitoring Plans –
M1) Students will take an initial pre-assessment probe on the content topic and then complete the post-assessment probe at the end of the unit. Additional, time management skills and student maintained planners will be use to gauge progress.
M2) Routine daily use of the OneNote program will be a key monitoring factor. The ability to see students work more routinely through the synced electronic notebooks will also be a helpful monitoring tool.
E: Evaluation Plans -
E1) The best means to evaluate the success of the different class of students will be three-fold. First starting with the quality of work that each student creates. Second, students passing score (goal of 80%) of the districts end of content exam scores. Third, student and teacher evaluations of growth, comprehension and methods.
E2) Direct visual usage of OneNote in conjunction with Moodle. Decrease in problems, lost work and delays in classroom operations will be an evaluation aspect to judge smooth integration of the OneNote system. For Scratch, the students creations will be the final indication of their success with the program.
G1) customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
G2) demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
A: Actions Plans –
A1) Creating more differentiated instructional levels. Changing how I current grade the “same project” at the student’s level to actually providing a partially different set of work. I am creating 3 levels of work per same unit to allow for gifted and ELL/IEP students to be more challenged as well as produce higher quality work.
A2) The plan is to better learn or master two new software program.
~ Currently, I have focus on better learning the Scratch program from MTI so that my students can create animated video shorts. Students will have the opportunity to use Scratch for our Atomic Learning units. With the goal of creating at least 3 different atomic structures.
~ The other program I am working at is OneNote from Microsoft’s Office Suite. I have immersed myself and student into using this electronic notebook system. We will continue to use it for the balance of the school. Ideally becoming virtually paperless in the classroom. Students will use it to receive their work, take their notes, watch movies and complete worksheets virtual in OneNote before entering their work in to Moodle for grading, evaluation and feedback.
M: Monitoring Plans –
M1) Students will take an initial pre-assessment probe on the content topic and then complete the post-assessment probe at the end of the unit. Additional, time management skills and student maintained planners will be use to gauge progress.
M2) Routine daily use of the OneNote program will be a key monitoring factor. The ability to see students work more routinely through the synced electronic notebooks will also be a helpful monitoring tool.
E: Evaluation Plans -
E1) The best means to evaluate the success of the different class of students will be three-fold. First starting with the quality of work that each student creates. Second, students passing score (goal of 80%) of the districts end of content exam scores. Third, student and teacher evaluations of growth, comprehension and methods.
E2) Direct visual usage of OneNote in conjunction with Moodle. Decrease in problems, lost work and delays in classroom operations will be an evaluation aspect to judge smooth integration of the OneNote system. For Scratch, the students creations will be the final indication of their success with the program.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)