I am linking you, today, to a guest blog post that I did on the Promethean Planet website. For those who may not know, Promethean Planet is the site that teachers are able to access in order to find lessons and resources for their Promethean ActivBoard.
Follow the link to see my posting: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/blog/?p=1386
Enjoy!!
Susan
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Some Resources I Have Recently Discovered
These are some resources that have been shared with me by various colleagues on my Twitter PLN. Great resources that I will definitely find a use for this coming new school year!
Promethean ActivStudio and ActiveInspire Training flip charts.
FREE -- Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government
More than 1600 federal teaching and learning resources organized by subject: art, history, language arts, math, science, and others -- from FREE, the website that makes federal teaching and learning resources easy to find.
This is a list of Ning Sites for collaboration in various content areas.
Top 50 iPhone Apps for Educators OEDb
Top 50 iPhone Apps for Educators
Bullitt Co. Public Schools Technology TIPS
Training and Reference information for Bullitt County Teachers.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Tech Integration: From a Child's Point of View
I am home from my wonderful trip to Washington, DC and had a great time. I met many great people of which I will speak about in various upcoming posts. I want to start with one of the sessions that stood out the most to me that I hope when I take it back to my colleagues they will feel the same way!
At NECC this past week I had the awesome opportunity meet an eleven year old teacher. Yes, I said eleven year old. Her name is Adora Svitak and she is a very talented writer at this young age. Yes, she is gifted in this area, but she has been totally encouraged by her parents and tutors to pursue this interest and grow in her passion. As I sat and listened to Adora speak about writing and integrating technology, her vocabulary blew me away. Not like some "nerdy" kid trying to show off with big words, but just like listening to another colleague speaking to me in a PD or PLC meeting. Adora travels the country conducting writing workshops for teachers and students. What could be more motivating to kids than hearing it straight from someone their own age?
Adora's grasp of technology use both in her day to day writing and in her presentation skills was also amazing to watch. She was brought to NECC this year by Promethean, one of the premiere Interactive White Board manufacturers. Just watching her use the ActivBoard and student response system in her presentation to us again blew me away. I hope her message from the child's point of view can be heard by teachers and administrators. She talked about the wonderful engagement and defferentiating opportunities that are available through the use of these interactive tools.
Her goal in life is to inspire kids to love reading as much as she does, and to let them know it is the basis for whatever they may be interested in. Through her writing workshops kids and teachers alike are able to hear from a child's perspective the importance of engaging instruction.
Take a look at Adora's books that are listed on her website http://www.adorasvitak.com/ when you get a chance. If you have not seen or heard her speak search YouTube for Adora Svitak.
I've included an interview that was done this week with Adora by one of the local DC TV stations. Toward the end of the interview she references that she will be speaking to a group of teachers at 3:45 that day. I was fortunate enough to be in that session and was given a copy of one of Adora's books and got to meet her briefly!
More NECC posts to come soon!
Susan
At NECC this past week I had the awesome opportunity meet an eleven year old teacher. Yes, I said eleven year old. Her name is Adora Svitak and she is a very talented writer at this young age. Yes, she is gifted in this area, but she has been totally encouraged by her parents and tutors to pursue this interest and grow in her passion. As I sat and listened to Adora speak about writing and integrating technology, her vocabulary blew me away. Not like some "nerdy" kid trying to show off with big words, but just like listening to another colleague speaking to me in a PD or PLC meeting. Adora travels the country conducting writing workshops for teachers and students. What could be more motivating to kids than hearing it straight from someone their own age?
Adora's grasp of technology use both in her day to day writing and in her presentation skills was also amazing to watch. She was brought to NECC this year by Promethean, one of the premiere Interactive White Board manufacturers. Just watching her use the ActivBoard and student response system in her presentation to us again blew me away. I hope her message from the child's point of view can be heard by teachers and administrators. She talked about the wonderful engagement and defferentiating opportunities that are available through the use of these interactive tools.
Her goal in life is to inspire kids to love reading as much as she does, and to let them know it is the basis for whatever they may be interested in. Through her writing workshops kids and teachers alike are able to hear from a child's perspective the importance of engaging instruction.
Take a look at Adora's books that are listed on her website http://www.adorasvitak.com/ when you get a chance. If you have not seen or heard her speak search YouTube for Adora Svitak.
I've included an interview that was done this week with Adora by one of the local DC TV stations. Toward the end of the interview she references that she will be speaking to a group of teachers at 3:45 that day. I was fortunate enough to be in that session and was given a copy of one of Adora's books and got to meet her briefly!
More NECC posts to come soon!
Susan
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Packed and Ready to Go!
Well as I sit here on Saturday afternoon I think I am packed and have remembered everything for my big trip to Washington, DC for NECC (National Education Computing Conference). This is a great opportunity to meet colleagues (educators and other technology users) from across the country to talk and share what is going on in other school districts. I am looking forward to bringing back some new knowledge to my co-workers and the the teachers I work with here in Bullitt County.
My goal is to try to blog my experiences each day either in the afternoon/evening or during a particular session I may be attending. I'll do my very best to update as much as possible. However, if I don't get a chance to blog I will defintely be "tweeting" my experience on Twitter. You can follow me there: @ssjenk6. My Twitter updates are also synced to my Facebook at www.facebook.com/ssjenk6!
Everyone enjoy the weekend!
Susan
Friday, June 19, 2009
KYSTE Wrap-Up
Okay, I got a little lazy last night. Seeing as how I didn't get home until almost 11 p.m. after a night at the Louisville Bats game with the KYSTE group, I hope I will be excused from updating my postings for KYSTE Day 2!
Another wonderful KYSTE conference is in the books. As I have said over and over: What a pleasure it was to be able to host it here in Bullitt County. A lot of work but a pleasure to host! It was eye opening seeing the behind the scenes action and duties that go into planning a conference such as this and Kudos goes out to the KYSTE Board for their hard work. It was a pleasure meeting and working with all of these great Technology Educators.
I attended several great sessions. One, in particular, that I enjoyed was one on on collaborative tools, especially Twitter. Many of you know, and some have their great fun with it, that I have become quite addicted to Twitter. What a wonderful way to share resources in a professional learning network format. @ujdmc, @techyomy, and @sburton along with @jdscio via Skype presented this session and what a wonderful job they did. Each of them spoke about how they have incorporated Twitter into their day to day job duties as CIO's and tech administrators, etc. These guys also showed the organizational benefits of Google Reader which I didn't know a great deal about. Many other collaborative tools were presented also.
I also had the opportunity to sit in a newly formed user group meeting with some people from Meade County and Madison County to talk about and share ideas about the V-Brick Ethernet TV system that we have recently installed and plan to get more fully off the ground with teachers this August. More about this in another post.
There is so much I could write about here and will probably end up taking each topic one by one and doing a separate post about it throughout the next several days. Much easier that way. So, readers, keep an eye out for future posts on some new resources I have from KYSTE including the collaborative tools, V-Brick Information, and some Microsoft Teacher Resources.
I am looking forward to another week off upcoming and then Sunday the 28th I am off to our Nation's Capital to NECC!
More to come soon!
Susan
Another wonderful KYSTE conference is in the books. As I have said over and over: What a pleasure it was to be able to host it here in Bullitt County. A lot of work but a pleasure to host! It was eye opening seeing the behind the scenes action and duties that go into planning a conference such as this and Kudos goes out to the KYSTE Board for their hard work. It was a pleasure meeting and working with all of these great Technology Educators.
I attended several great sessions. One, in particular, that I enjoyed was one on on collaborative tools, especially Twitter. Many of you know, and some have their great fun with it, that I have become quite addicted to Twitter. What a wonderful way to share resources in a professional learning network format. @ujdmc, @techyomy, and @sburton along with @jdscio via Skype presented this session and what a wonderful job they did. Each of them spoke about how they have incorporated Twitter into their day to day job duties as CIO's and tech administrators, etc. These guys also showed the organizational benefits of Google Reader which I didn't know a great deal about. Many other collaborative tools were presented also.
I also had the opportunity to sit in a newly formed user group meeting with some people from Meade County and Madison County to talk about and share ideas about the V-Brick Ethernet TV system that we have recently installed and plan to get more fully off the ground with teachers this August. More about this in another post.
There is so much I could write about here and will probably end up taking each topic one by one and doing a separate post about it throughout the next several days. Much easier that way. So, readers, keep an eye out for future posts on some new resources I have from KYSTE including the collaborative tools, V-Brick Information, and some Microsoft Teacher Resources.
I am looking forward to another week off upcoming and then Sunday the 28th I am off to our Nation's Capital to NECC!
More to come soon!
Susan
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
KYSTE Day 1
The Kentucky Society for Technology in Education Conference (KYSTE) is in full swing! We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to host this gathering here in Bullitt County this year. Monday and Tuesday consisted of a lot of room set up and preparing and it all came together today at 11:00 when everyone started rolling in, visiting the vendor floor, and having lunch. The first activity of the day consisted of lunch and a Keynote Address by a representative from the Kentucky Secreatary of State's Office. He reminded us of what is out there that our students face online each and everyday. Teaching them to be responsible citizens online is just as important as teaching them to be responsible citizens in all aspects of life. Trey Grayson's office is willing to come into schools in Kentucky and conduct assemblies for students on the Prevention of Cyberbullying.
After the lunch and the keynote, the sessions began. My co-worker and I presented our presentation on the use of the eInstruction clickers in various formats. I talked about this in a post a few days ago. The session went wonderfully with good participation and discussion of the uses of these in various aspects in different schools and districts. Our Kentucky eInstruction reps, Keith Frank and Matt Wheeler supported our session so for the last session of the day we went to support their presentation. Click Here for a PDF version of our presentation. We used this PPT to guide us through the various sites as we demonstrated the various uses of the clickers.
In the last session for today Matt and Keith stepped out of salesman mode and just conducted a wonderful discussion with group about the basic aspects of equipping a room to connect students and teachers to the outside world to enhance instruction and learning. Great job to these guys.
We ended the day with a luau in spite of the storm. The food had to be moved outside but the skies finally cleared and we were able to go outside and enjoy some music and karaoke.
Looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow!
Have a great evening!
Susan
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wordle
Yesterday I talked about our upcoming state KYSTE conference (www.kyste.org/conference) and shared the description of the session that my co-worker and I are presenting on the use of the eInstruction clickers for day to day instruction.
Today I am playing around with a cool site called Wordle (www.wordle.net). Wordle allows you to take a passage of text and arrange the words randomly with the keywords being highlighted. A wordle is a nice introduction to a lesson or an ending to a lesson in order to summarize key points. Very visually engaging for students.
Here is the Wordle I created for my KYSTE presentation: (Click on the small image to see larger version.)
Give Wordle a try for something that you might be planning whether it be a lesson for your students or a presentation for your peers.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Susan
Today I am playing around with a cool site called Wordle (www.wordle.net). Wordle allows you to take a passage of text and arrange the words randomly with the keywords being highlighted. A wordle is a nice introduction to a lesson or an ending to a lesson in order to summarize key points. Very visually engaging for students.
Here is the Wordle I created for my KYSTE presentation: (Click on the small image to see larger version.)
Give Wordle a try for something that you might be planning whether it be a lesson for your students or a presentation for your peers.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Susan
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