Retired Tech Specialist Thoughts and Projects

Monday, October 6, 2008

Learning to Blog

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

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

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.