Retired Tech Specialist Thoughts and Projects: 2008

Monday, December 15, 2008

SMART Board Lesson Resources

Every now and then I search the web for resources that I think might be helpful for our teachers. The list below has the sites from this morning's search. Check out the last one on the list. It's an on-line generator for Jeopardy style classroom games.

Monday, December 8, 2008

More Bloggers at PESD

Monday, November 3, 2008

Olympics Research Project

The 3rd grade ALPS students at Monterey Park School have been using their research skills to learn all about the Olympic Games and Olympians. On Monday, they presented their Power Point Presentations and then participated in their own Olympic events. Enjoy the video of their activities below.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Newly Discovered Resources

Can you believe November is almost here and the first Trimester ends next week. While looking for a Microsoft Excel template recently, I stumbled on a really cool area for teachers on the Microsoft web site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/school/FX102781641033.aspx. I also want to remind everyone that Microsoft provides many really helpful template downloads at this URL: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033.

Noreen found and passed along a web link that I find to be very interesting. The speaker talks about the "real" 21st Century skills that our children need to have. Here's the link: http://www.schoolchange.org/videos/the_global_achievement_gap_video.html. When you open the site, the video will begin. The video is fairly long and extremely interesting.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Final Mini Camp Day

Monday, October 6, 2008

Beginning Blogging Part 2

This is my second post today. The afternoon class is learning to use blogger.

Learning to Blog

This is an example of the photo composite that we created with Power Point this morning.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Our Final Days at Sea

After Stockholm, the ship docked in Helsinki, Finland where we explored the city. We visited Senate Square where we saw the Lutheran Cathedral. We continued on past the Olympic Stadium where the 1952 Olympic Games were held.

From Helsinki, we sailed on to St. Petersburg, Russia. In St. Petersburg, we started with a canal boat tour of the city ending at the Cathedral on Spilled Blood. Later the first day we were in St. Petersburg, we enjoyed an evening of opera at the Sheremetyev Palace. The Palace is now a museum of Russian Music. On our second day in St Petersburg, we traveled outside of the city to tour Peterhof, the town of palaces, fountains, and parks that was built by Peter the Great.

Our final stop was Tallinn, Estonia. The network of medieval streets, churches, and dwelling houses has been preserved practically intact. The town has been identified as a World Heritage site by Unesco. Finally, we had a sunny day in Tallinn. It has been cloudy and rainy on our other stops.

Now we are on our way back to Dover, England and then one more day in London before heading home to Phoenix. I’ll see everyone at school on Monday.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Adventure Continues

It’s 8:30 p.m. on Thursday evening on August 28. Since my last post we’ve spent two days at sea and visited three ports. Our first port was Copenhagen, Denmark. We took a canal cruise and walking tour around the city. Our tour included the site of the famous “Little Mermaid” statue.

Our next stop was Warnemϋnde, Germany. From Warnemϋnde we traveled to Guestrow where we visited a Renaissance castle and had lunch at a country farm house. After lunch we shopped along the pier.

Today we spent the day in Stockholm, Sweden. We toured the medieval “Old Town” and the Vasa Museum. At the Vasa, we saw the restored 17^th century warship that sank in Stockholm’s inner harbor in 1628.

Tomorrow we will be in Helsinki, Finland and after that St. Petersburg, Russia. Check back for more photos.

It’s tomorrow when I’m finally getting this posted at 7:50 a.m. on the 29^th (it’s 5:50 p.m. on the 28^th your time). We could not get on the Internet last night.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Visiting Baltic Capitols

Today’s blog is for the students at Monterey Park School who are checking in to see pictures of England and the Baltic capitols that I am visiting. We left Phoenix at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 21 and traveled to Washington D.C. From Washington we traveled to London, England. We arrived at 6:00 a.m. on Friday morning London time. (Can you figure out how many hours it took for us to get to London?)

On Friday we toured Buckingham Palace and the Queen’s garden that is pictured above along with “Big Ben. On Saturday we traveled by bus through London--where we saw “Big Ben” and other famous sites—on our way to Dover. We sailed from Dover.

Today we were at sea and tomorrow we will visit Copenhagen. Watch the blog for pictures of Copenhagen.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Welcome New PESD Teachers

The new year is about to begin. It's always a treat to welcome the new teachers to the district. Here's the information for new teachers to the district that I promised to post:

Services Available from the Instructional Technology Department
• Blogging, Web Posting Policies
• Professional Development
• Media Services
• Classroom Technology Coaching and Technology Integration Activities
• Classroom Demonstration and Model Lessons
• One-on-One Technology Help
• Internet Resources
• Troubleshooting Problems with Interactive White Boards, Projectors, and Other Hardware and Software

How To Get Service
• E-mail:
• Describe the problem
• Provide us with your name, school, room number and phone number
Or Call:
• John Kain at 2899
• Linda Cooper at 2879
• Noreen Strehlow at 3786

On-line Help and Information
• http://www.phxelem.k12.az.us/technology_and_learning/index.html
• http://www.phxelem.k12.az.us/technology_and_learning/on-line_learning/index.html
• http://pesdtech.wikispaces.com/Smartboard+FAQs
• http://pesdinstructionaltech.blogspot.com/
• http://pesdtechnostuff.blogspot.com/

What is Acceptable Use
• Use district’s computer network & Internet to meet district goals & objectives
• Network and Internet to be used only in support of education and work-related research or projects
• Support teaching and learning
• Explore Internet for sites of educational value
• Use network resources to support curriculum goals, student achievement or work-related projects

What is not Acceptable Use?
• No personal use
• No political campaigning
• No product advertising or sales
• No profanity or obscene material
• No network tampering
• No chain letters

Acceptable Use and E-mail
• District E-mail is not private
• E-mail should be used to further district goals
• Be aware of Student’s rights to privacy when using their names in an e-mail
• Chain letters and jokes should not be forwarded
• Be careful what mail or attachments are forwarded. Ask yourself, “Does it have an educational purpose.”
• Mail from outside the district may be monitored and stopped by the district SPAM filter.
• No flaming
• No spamming
• Use Netiquette guidelines

The E-mail Rule . . .
• “Don’t write anything in e-mail that you don’t want to see on the front page of the Arizona Republic or on the 5 o’clock news.”

Staff Responsibilities
• Sign Acceptable Use Policy
• Acquire skills to use computer resources & Internet appropriately
• Supervise & educate students when using computers
• Work-related projects
• Read and follow the Internet Policy

Keeping Children Safe—Blogging and Web Posting Policies
• When posting photos of children, use their first name only.
• When posting student work, use their first name only.
• Blogs and web pages that are attached to the district web site must be error free and must use accepted formats including using capital letters and appropriate punctuation.

What to do when . . .
• Inappropriate material is found:
• Turn OFF computer monitor or close the laptop
• Remove students from area
• Turn monitor/laptop ON & write down the URL
• Notify Supervisor who will contact MIS to block inappropriate site

Have a great year!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

PESD Blogs & Wikis

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

School's Out--School's In

Today is just the second day of "summer vacation" for our PESD students. For teachers it is a different story. There are several professional development activities going on in the district--some of them have already begun. Our office is providing a "Technology Boot Camp" for teachers. It's always interesting to work with adult learners.

To provide our teachers with information about the Camp, a Boot Camp blog has been created at this url: http://techcamp08.blogspot.com.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Have you heard a tall tale lately?

I know a good place to read some really great tall tales. Ms. Dhaliwal's students at Emerson Elementary School wrote tall tales. Now they are using SMART Notebook to illustrate their stories. I'm looking forward to printing and reading all of their stories. The little bits and pieces that I have seen so far show that they have good writing skills and very vivid imaginations. SMART Notebook is a great tool for this type of lesson. The graphic resources and tools give kids lots of options to be creative with their stories.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Catastrophic Events

What does a scientist do with all of their research data??? The sixth grade scientists in Andrea Shores class at Dunbar Elementary are presenting their information to the class using the SMART Board and SMART Notebook. After completing their research, each team is reporting on a specific event. Their reports include photos and video clips.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

In Mrs. Eckhardt's 2nd grade class, the students are using Microsoft Power Point to illustrate the life cycle of a butterfly. They started the project by watching as their butterflies developed in the classroom. Then they used the Internet to find pictures to illustrate their life cycle Power Point presentations. They found some really great web sites with butterfly art and information including the ones listed below:

http://butterflywebsite.com/clipart/constructtable.cfm

http://www.webstarwest.com/Butterfly/index.html

http://bsi.montana.edu/web/kidsbutterfly/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/

http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/insects-butterfly.shtml

Rulers and Measurement

Last week students in Ms. Dhaliwal's class at Emerson Elementary started learning how to use rulers and other measuring tools. They took rulers and yard sticks and measured everything in and out of the classroom. To integrate technology into the lesson, we used the laptop computers and a SMART Board to practice. The students opened a SMART Notebook file from flash drives and proceeded to measure the objects on the screen using a ruler that can be manipulated to measure how tall and how wide each object is.

When they are finished measuring and recording each object, they will go to the following URL's to practice in a game like format:

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

50 Computer Activities from Scholastic

While searching for lesson materials today, I spent some time on the Scholastic web site. I found that Scholastic provides 50 quick, compelling one-session activities that can be used to incorporate interactive learning and technology into lesson plans. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes. You can find these activities at: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/index.htm.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

PESD Classroom and Technology Blogs

Speaking of Dinosaurs . . .

Here's another great site for teachers and children engaging in the study of dinosaurs:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/dinosaurs/

Check out the "Research Starters" link to find a list of other web pages with lots of good information for teachers and kids.

Friday, January 25, 2008

My Favorite Dinosaur

Third grade students at Dunbar Elementary are having their first adventure using laptop computers. They are using the laptops to do Internet research on the dinosaur of their choice. After they find the required information, they are creating a presentation using SMART Notebook which they will present to the class using a SMART Board.

While planning for this activity, I found some great web sites for the students to use for their research:

The children will work on the project for about 90 minutes one day a week through the end of February. At first, the set-up each day is a little slow. As the students get better starting up the computers and logging in, they have more and more time to do the "fun stuff"--Internet research and creating their presentation.

I like this project because it gives us the opportunity to teach some important (and really boring) technology skills as we work to teach science and language objectives.