I was berated by our marvelous Mo J. for missing the Feel Good Friday post last week, so I wanted to make sure not to disappoint this week! A great link came through my Twitter feed this week that was perfect!

A lot like the Make a Flake site I posted before the holidays, Incredibox is a cool site that can be a great diversion in our otherwise hectic days! There isn’t a lot of educational value to it, unless you are one of our wonderful music teachers, but it can be loads of fun for everyone!

The site taps into your musical side by helping you make your very own beatboxes. To get started, just drag the types of sounds you want from sections like instruments, percussion, chorus, effects, and more into your little beatboxer guys t-shirt, and you’ll start to hear the beat. If you want to mix it up, or add something else, just click on your beatboxer shirt to remove a sound.

So go, make beautiful music, and have a great day!

It’s “Three for Thursday” a day early! I’ve come across three really nice websites for African American History month. Click the pictures for the site.

	African American History Month – “Recognizing the enterprise and entrepreneurship of African Americans, both past and present, that helped strengthen and invigorate the nation”
	Voices – Ordinary People/Extraordinary Stories -  “personal accounts of America’s struggle to fulfill the promise of equality for all”
	African American History - “Meet some of the people and visit some of the places that have shaped our nation”

We have amazing numbers of students using SchoolFusion and Edulink. About 84% of our students use SchoolFusion regularly, and just last month we had 40,000 student “hits” to Edulink. I think this is GREAT! First of all, it is a testament to just how well our teachers are utilizing SchoolFusion. Kids would have little reason to use this tool if teachers weren’t making it a valuable instructional experience for them. Secondly, I think it’s also an example of students being held accountable for their own learning. It’s THEIR job to check their class webpages. It’s THEIR job to check on their grades. It’s THEIR job to take an active role in their education. And, happily, the numbers show that an increasing number of our students are doing just that.

However, we do have a few that are slipping through the cracks. The same student names show up every month when I run the usage reports–the very students who would benefit the most from these tools are not yet using them. It begs the question — what can we do to help them help themselves?

First of all, when I send out the list of kids not logging in to the systems (SchoolFusion and Edulink), check it over and look for names of kids you might know. If you have one of those kids in class, ask them about it. It could be they have limited access to technology, which is very valuable information for us to have in order to better meet their needs. These are the kids that might need hardcopies and print-outs of grade reports. Others students may have simply forgotten their passwords. It that’s the case, there are several faculty members who can look it up for them. Our librarians, Connie M. and Lisa B., our receptionist, the marvelous Mo J., and of course me, your friendly ITRT. Encourage them to come see one of us to help them out.

There are, of course, a few students who may be suffering from that tragic state of mind – the state of unmotivation – that inevitably impedes their success. All we can do is our best for these kids and hope that they will one day realize what they are missing. It may be that all children CAN learn, but that doesn’t mean that they all want to, at least not all the time, anyway.

Internet4Classrooms.com is about “helping you use the Internet effectively…” and is chocked full of tons for resources for parents, students, and teachers. There’s also a really nice section on technology tutorials. There is something here for everyone, in every subject! Happy surfing!

Every day every staff member is receiving a daily activity email of all the events on their personal SchoolFusion calendar. These events are pulled from all the groups you are associated with – the Faculty Calendar, Instructional Technology, as well as all of your classroom webpages.

SchoolFusion also offers a “Daily Digest” where you can receive email reminders about ALL of Hylton’s events. This is especially nice for any of you who need to attend our athletic events (like our admin team).

Unlike the Daily Activity Emails which come to you automatically, you have to subscribe to the Daily Digest. To subscribe:

1. Click My Personal Settings
2. Click the Notifications tab.
3. Click Setup Daily Digests.
4. Select either one of the first two option at the top.

Happy Friday!

I LOVE anything done by the Muppets. Hope it brings a smile to your face, too, on this Feel Good Friday!

There is quite a buzz in the Ed Tech community about this online tool. I saw it demonstrated at the VSTE conference I attended last month. Imagine assigning students to do a poster for a project, only this kind of poster can have text, pictures, audio, AND video. This is not the poster of your parents’ generation!

http://edu.glogster.com/

The tool is free, but be sure to sign up for the education version as the main site is blocked by the district. I’ve been playing with it a bit to learn how to do it. Let me know if you are interested in learning, too!

The memorial for our “Queen of Attendance”, Margie Childers, was this past weekend. Below is the photostory that was done in remembrance.

Over the Winter Break there were numerous upgrades to our Learning Management System, SchoolFusion. The one that was most obvious was the change in location of the link to your class webpages. I’m happy to say everyone noticed that one right away which means teachers are really using the system to it’s full potential! The new location of that link eliminates a few clicks in the process of updating your class webpages.

Another change is the addition of some really cool reports that we didn’t have before. These reports give you very detailed information on your students’ participation as well as the analytics (number of  “hits”) for your class pages. If you haven’t checked them out, the information there can provide some real insight into who is accessing your pages and how they are using them.

A dear friend of mine, Margie Childers, lost her battle with cancer last week. Margie was our school’s Queen of Attendance (aka, the attendance secretary). I think she knew the name and face of every single one of the over 2200 students we serve, although there were a few that she knew better than others. I’ll never forget her proclaiming in triumph, “Caught another one, by golly!”, whenever she discovered one misguided teenager or another doing the things teenagers sometimes choose to do instead of go to class. She worried about each one of the students as if they were her own and wanted to make sure they were safe and sound either in school or at home (as long as their parents knew that’s where they were!). Each year she usually had a few “favorites” – kids she took a special interest in and worked extra hard to make sure they knew someone cared about them. These were kids that might not have made it without Margie’s support. But they did make it–the graduation photos that adorned her office walls were a testament to their successes.

Margie’s office was THE place to be. I referred to it as my oasis of sanity, and I’m not the only staff member who sought refuge there. That’s not to say that life in the attendance office wasn’t crazy. There was very little “down time” for Margie or any of her student or teacher helpers. Pep Rally days were always the worst. The ocean of green early dismissal passes that had to be managed on those days would rise to tidal wave proportions until you felt like you were drowning in them. On those days her friends, including myself, would pop in to help out whenever they could. At the end of one especially trying episode, I saw Margie’s eyes welling up with tears. I said to her, “Margie, what’s wrong? We survived! The worst is over!”, and she replied, “It’s just that everyone was so kind.” She was overwhelmed that so many folks had come by to pitch in and help out. But the reality is, that’s the kind of behavior Margie inspired in others. Margie was always there for the ones that she loved. We weren’t doing anything that Margie wouldn’t do for us.

In spite of the craziness that inevitably accompanies managing the attendance of over 2200 students, Margie was always quick with a smile or to share a laugh. She also shared her candy and her pretzels, and she would joyfully tell you stories about the latest exploits of her grandchildren, the “tri-people” (they are triplets). The walls of her office spoke of Margie’s love of life – from the pictures of her #1 boyfriend, Johnny Depp, to the Penn State memorabilia, to the dozens of photos of students, friends, and family. The pride that she took in her three children-Roger, Jenny, and Becky-was apparent everywhere you looked. There was barely one square foot of wall space left unadorned. In spite of the whirlwind of activity that might be going on in her office, visiting with Margie could make what had been a crappy day suddenly brighter. She had a special talent. I’m not sure how she did it, but I inevitably left her office feeling better. Frankly, I’m not sure how I’m going to manage to get through the tougher days without her.

With the New Year’s festivities, I found myself listening to the song “Auld Lang Syne”, and I wondered just what the heck “Auld Lang Syne” meant. It turns out that roughly translated it means “For old times’ sake,” or “to the (good) old days,” or “To days(or times) gone by”. Basically, the song is a reminder to remember, and raise a cup to, old friends and old times.

So, I raise my cup to you, sweet Margie. It was an honor and a privilege to call you my friend. With your wonderful sense of humor, you brought joy to everyone around you. Your laughter and your smile will always live on in the memories of the many people whose lives you touched.

I’m sure you will all be doing your snow dance tonight. However, before you run out and try catching snowflakes on your tongue….

Ok, so I’m a LITTLE early with the Feel Good Friday, but I just couldn’t resist! Although, since this IS a website, I guess it can still count as a Website Wednesday post, too! Friday…Wednesday….Monday…..is it November 23, yet?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Happy cutting!

http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/index.html

I’ve posted this before around the holiday season, but it always makes me smile. Hope it does the same for you!

The song is done by an a capella group called "Straight, no Chaser". For more information (and videos!) about them, click here.

I was reminded in a meeting today just how important it is that we keep our workstations secure. This applies to everyone – teachers, administrators, secretaries – yes, even YOU. Never walk away from a computer without logging out or locking up. If you are only going to be away a few minutes and don’t want to log completely out, that’s fine. Just press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete] at the same time and then click the appropriate button to lock your workstation.

Now some of you might be thinking, “But it locks up automatically after 10 minutes. Why do I need to worry about this?”. Because that’s 10 whole minutes! C’mon, we work with teenagers. You already KNOW how much mischief they can get in to in much less time.

Why do you want to do this? Well, it’s because horrible things can happen to our network and to the files on our network if someone with malicious intent sits down at the computer where you are logged in and decides to start “exploring”. For example, most staff members have access to the drive where ALL our gradebooks reside. With just a few clicks, ALL of them could be deleted*. If this happens at a computer where you are logged in, you are responsible.

So, log out or lock it up!

*Don’t panic. I keep backups. But, it’s still bad if it happens.

Little Johnny watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her face.

‘Why do you do that, mommy?’ he asked. ‘To make myself beautiful,’ said his mother, who then began removing the cream with a tissue.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Little Johnny. ‘Giving up?’

________________________________

The math teacher saw that little Johnny wasn’t paying attention in class.. She called on him and said, ’Johnny! What are 2 and 4 and 28 and 44?’ Little Johnny quickly replied, ‘NBC, FOX, ESPN and the Cartoon Network!’

________________________________

A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses.

She started her class by saying, ‘Everyone who thinks they’re stupid, stand up!’

After a few seconds, Little Johnny stood up. The teacher said, ‘Do you think you’re stupid, Little Johnny?’

‘No, ma’am, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself!’

________________________________

Little Johnny’s kindergarten class was on a field trip to their local police station where they saw pictures tacked to a bulletin board of the 10 most wanted criminals.

One of the youngsters pointed to a picture and asked if it really was the photo of a wanted person.

‘Yes,’ said the policeman. ‘The detectives want very badly to capture him..

Little Johnny asked,  ‘Why didn’t you keep him when you took his picture ?’

_________________________________

Have a wonderful weekend!

10 Ways DE Streaming will change the way you teach!

Presenter:  Matt Monjan – Discovery Education

Presentation is at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/matt.monjan/the-bird-house-your-source-for-geekybird-stuff/ (have to log in to DE Streaming to get to – see IT Webpage for access code and instructions on how to create an account)

There’s WAY more to Discovery Education than just the videos! – there are more tools that you can add to your package (but they cost additional $$)

Content can be assigned to students – We DO have all students imported into the system – but the kids don’t know about it, yet – still very new – I need to provide info/training

Use it for videos (what we are all most familiar with)

• Can stream or download
• Different types – windows media, flash, and quicktime – works with all – default is flash because that’s the smallest file
• You can also download clips and modify to meet your instructional needs

Audio

• Nice resources – songs can help teach the English language(!)

Images

• Tons of images out there – don’t need to worry about copyright – we have rights to use since we own the package
• Show portion of an image and have kids guess what it is – attention-grabber – used shark as an example (shout out to Cathy L!) and lesson about shark teeth

Multimedia Presentations

• They don’t have to be linear – for self-directed student learning
• And also can embed media players into powerpoint – for video – use Control Toolbox in PowerPoint – Hammer and Wrench Icon – different from how I’ve done it in the past – interesting – for detailed instructions, see Monjan’s presentation at Geekybird – this way gives you the controls on the player – NICE

Calendar

• In teacher center
• What happened this day in history….for multiple subjects – again, another interesting way to grab attention
• Get kids to class on time – show it only at the beginning of class
• Can also correlate with student birthdays – nice way to personalize instruction

My Builder Tools

• Writing Prompt Builder – lots of chatter about the potential for this tool, especially for Lang. Arts

Using Closed Captions

• Nice for ESOL kids
• Also improves reading comprehension
• Can use freeze frame to draw attention to certain vocabulary
• Search by “Closed Captioning” on left
• To download for PC – Save Target As – then also download the “CC” file, too – have to download, too – and best if you put both files into the same folder (Ginette C. – this might answer the question you had for me regarding cc for these videos)
• In Windows Media Player – have to set some rules to play cc – Tools/Options/Security and “check” run script commands and show local captions (1st and 4th) – need to be checked for cc to work
• Play/Captions and Subtitles – make sure it’s on
• Windows Media Player will remember these settings from here on out
• To change font size of cc – right-click cc file and open with notepad – change code – change font size from 10 to 20 and change color from white to yellow (statistically proven to be easier to read)
• AND can change cc text to another language – using the open in notepad, again – this could be a project for World Language kids

Digital Storytelling

• Use DE content to tell a story

Quiz Builder

• My Builder Tools

Green Screen Possibilities

• Put yourself, or your students (!), into the videos – adobe premier

Assignment Builder

• My Builder Tools

Atlas Interactive Map

• In Teacher Center – nice resource!
• Very powerful
• Great for Social Studies and World Language classes

Discovery Student Adventures – http://discoverystudentadventures.com/

Share button on all Discovery materials, now, can share links to all resources

There are many Professional Development opportunities through Discovery – can become a DEN STAR educator!

Presenter:  Heather Blanton – Wise County Public Schools – Mathematics Coach

Presentation at – http://www.slideshare.net/hblanton/twitter-me-this – Tools to create your Personal Learning Network

Idea of PLNs – not new – technology just makes them easier – and you can spend as much or as little time as you want

What is a PLN?

• PLNs are about what YOU are interested in
• Group of folks you can collaborate with
• Where is your network? – With technology comes from all over the world! Can tap in to the knowledge from everywhere and any time – limitless
• There’s a lot of variety in how to build your PLN
• Opportunity for differentiated Professional Development – interesting thought – Your PLN IS tailored to YOUR needs

Vide0 – A Brave New World Wide Web (Find Teachertube version so it will open in school)

Twitter

• “The dumbest tool you’ll ever love…”
• In last year’s conference – pulled FIVE(!) pages of resources from people in Twitter PLN
• Sometimes the best professional development does not occur in the sessions, but in the “backchannels” on Twitter and over lunch/dinner
• Twitter has transformed how news is being reported

How do you build your network? – Who do you follow?

• Twitter4Teachers – to learn how to use and find people to follow – http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/
• Follow folks from the conference
• Follow VSTE folks
• K3 Teachers Guide to Twitter – http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/teachers-guide-to-twitter.html
• Twellow – http://www.twellow.com/ – yellow pages of Twitter

Ning

• “Swiss army knife social media…” – it will do just about everything
• Great for social networks for educators  – more “professional” than “personal” (as opposed to facebook which is personal)
• VSTE Ning – http://vsteonline.ning.com/
• Classroom 2.0 – http://www.classroom20.com/
• ISTE Ning – http://www.iste-community.org/

Blogs

• “Sharing stories one teacher at a time….”
• Coolcat Teacher Blog – http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
• Teacherlingo – VERY cool – directory of teacher bloggers – http://teacherlingo.com/

Social Bookmarking

• “This is the coolest link, everyone should know about it!”
• Simplybox – http://simplybox.com/ – Box it and save it for later – “librarians love this”
• Stumbleupon – http://www.stumbleupon.com/
• 7 Things you should know about social bookmarking – good article – http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

Second Life

• MUVE – multi-user virtual environment
• VSTE Island in SL has a Jamestown simulation! Very cool – Avatar (in life digital persona) can actually visit and explore! – http://vsteonline.ning.com/group/secondlifevstemembers
• http://vsteonline.ning.com/video/vste-jamestown-settlement – video about Jamestown settlement in SL
• There ARE teen islands in Teen SL where different schools are running different projects – creation of civilization/society experiments and projects – good for government and life skills?
• VSTE members who are running VSTE Island in SL – very active and helpful!

Webinars

• “Connecting Learners the world over…”
• VSTE Webinar Series – not free, but not too expensive, and they are good
• Classroom 2.0 Live
• ISTE Webinar Series

Social Aggregators

• Friendfeed – http://friendfeed.com/

Additional resources on last slide in presentation (see above link)

You’re just using the wrong tools!

Presenter – Tim Stahmer – FFX Office of Instructional Technology – www.assortedstuff.com/vste09-tmi - on Twitter – http://twitter.com/timstahmer

Use tools to organize the information – there’s a lot of information out there – how do you handle it?

Today, organization of information is controlled by us – WE have all the responsibility

Three tools that can be used to organize information:

RSS and Google Reader

• Way for info to be sent to us, rather than us having to go get it
• Look for the RSS symbol
• RSS Aggregators – find the RSS feeds for you – PULL technology (as opposed to email which is PUSH technology)
• Google Reader – https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en&nui=1&service=reader&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Freader
• Can SHARE your RSS aggregator with others – tool for collaboration? – I’m not seeing the share feature in Bloglines, but it IS in Google Reader
• I user Bloglines – http://www.bloglines.com/
• Scan the RSS feed – can “star” articles of interest – another level of organization
• Can post Flickr in RSS feed, too – nice for photos – http://www.flickr.com/
• Collect Feeds, Scan Them, Mark the ones of Interest, Share some of them – 4 things to do with Google Reader to manage the information

Social Bookmarking and Delicious (Hylton’s Delicious is at http://delicious.com/hyltonhs)

• Delicious is simple and easy
• Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/)gives you even more tools, but it’s not as simple as Delicious
• Collect, tag, find, share – 4 key things to do with Delicious
• Bookmark and annotate – explain WHY you bookmarked it in the first place (for those of us who can’t always remember) – and tag it – to organize it
• Can also SEND links with explanation
• Use tags to organize and search – “tag, tag, and tag so more”
• You can also add people to your network and then be able to see their bookmarks, too
• AND you can include your Delicious links in your RSS feed
• Teachers will keep a Delicious account for work at school – add links for what they want students to use
• There are plugins you can install in your browser that makes bookmarking in Delicious easier – just click a button on your toolbar
• Tagging is the key to Delicious

Evernote – Notes in a cloud

• Too many notes – become hard to find
• Create, store, find in Evernote – http://www.evernote.com/
• A way to organize your files and notes, etc.
• Not for collaboration – for personal organization
• Free up to a certain amount of storage (40 megabytes) – but .pdf s can be saved and they are smaller in size
• You can share evernote notebooks – send URL – they only have access to the notes associated with that URL – do not have to have Evernote installed to read them
• There is a PAID account, too, that allows you to add other types of documents – 500 megabytes of storage
• Also has tags for organization

Search boxes in these tools are very important – help you keep everything organized, even if things start to get disorganized, you can always search for it

Final notes

• Let it go!
• Depend on the kindness of others
• Give as good as you get
• Learn to sample the flow
• Make it a habit

Presenters: Michelle Wallace and Annah Bowen – Nottoway Schools

http://www.nottowayschools.org/teachers/Index01.html

NCPSInstruction on Twitter – http://twitter.com/NCPSInstruction

NCPSTech on Twitter – http://twitter.com/ncpstech

Nottoway has Facebook, Skype, and Twitter UNBLOCKED – wow! They say it was a big deal at first but now it’s just part of everyday processes – unblocked for everyone, including students – they haven’t had anything bad happen with students because of that and they actually have low number of hits to Facebook during the school day – hard to believe that – AUP provides guidelines and has been signed off on by their legal department

Skype – http://www.skype.com/ – most of their teachers are on – nice alternative to email and aids in collaboration – they will actually skype when admin intervention is needed in a classroom – admins are using it! – used mostly for collaboration – also for professional development – screensharing

• Setting preferences for Internet Safety – see handout – make sure that only folks on your contact list to access you through Skype – if they do get through, then you can block them
• Privacy settings under general and notifications, too
• Skype has easy away messages so that others can tell if you are online – makes it good to know if they are receiving messages
• Can you use it to communicate with kids at home? and yes, you can
• Did a video call with a History teacher back in Nottoway – likes for classroom management – calling admins in when needed – also useful for students who are absent
• If having students on it, make sure it’s ok with parents
• Also make sure use of Skype is ok with administration
• Inter-classroom collaboration
• It is NOT a bandwidth issue – free, simple, download
• “We don’t know what we would do without Skype” – it’s just an everyday part of the instructional work day

Twitter – http://twitter.com/

• Use it to follow hot education topics
• It’s all about who you follow!
• “Protect” your tweets – so that only your friends can see your posts
• Good for collaboration
• Screen your followers – block anyone you don’t want to have follow you
• Lists – create to send a tweet out to specific groups – this is a new feature
• Within a school system – can use as an IM system

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/

• PWCPS is on Facebook and Twitter now – but it’s blocked within the schools
• Important to protect your Facebook settings so that you are not sharing your personal life with the rest of the world
• More and more organizations are using Facebook to communicate – but be sure you are “friending” the real ones – folks create fake identities
• Teachers have lost jobs over what they’ve posted on facebook – have to be careful – privacy settings high, but also use common sense – nothing online is ever truly private – important for new teachers who might have some things on Facebook/MySpace that are potentially compromising – clean it up!
• Encourage teachers not to friend students
• However, after graduation is a nice way to follow up with students and track their career/college paths
• Can also be used for collaboration
• Trust in professionalism – unblocking Facebook tells teachers that you trust them and expect them to be professional

Another mention of Wolframalpha.com – http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Use social network as educational network