Friday, September 18, 2015

Catching you UP (pun intended)

Here are a few things to put on your radar.

1. Please continue to use Ms. Smith & her Jr. Techs as your first contact for technical needs.

2. Student IAM will be rolled out in earnest Wednesday the 23rd. I will have multiple DIF's on campus to facilitate if needed. The process is finalized and has worked at multiple schools. The only error encountered to this point are students with unusual names that will require a reset. The rate of error is below 2% so I'm not worried. If you have students that want to attempt access before the 23rd you may give them the following link to a How To video https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw2y_YjbQCZxVWlGZEdsZFZ0aUk/view?usp=sharing

3. My calendar on this blog is pretty well updated. Please email, call or use the form here to get me to come plan with you.

4. PLC's arent' just internal. If you are interested in talking/planning/sharing resources with peers at PCHS and/or NMHS please let me know and I'll make it happen.

5. Mr. McCormick has said that he is seeking out the funds to send more teachers this year to the NCTIES conference. A. Parsons, J. Blake, & K. Faw attended last year and can give you an idea of whether or not it is something that interests you. I will let you know if and when funding is secured as well as how we will determine who gets to go this year.
*If you want to seize the reigns and guarantee your spot:  
NCTIES offers free registration to anyone selected to present at the conference. Don't underestimate your teaching, many of you do awesome things that other teachers would love to know. Go to the website and fill out a session proposal. All they can do is say no.

6. Find and apply to a NCATT session that appeals to you. It's a free vacation from your career that you get CEU's for. Once you apply, CALL them a couple of days' later "to double check you submitted correctly" and see if they won't go ahead and grant your admission.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Google Classroom UPDates

Google Classroom gains collaboration, class management features http://www.pcworld.com/article/2975071/google-adds-tools-to-its-education-software-for-teachers-and-students.html via @pcworld

https://mrwaldronbsk.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/google-classroom-logo1.png

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Today I bring you some integration ideas I learned from Joshua Cassellius, a spanish teacher at Union Pines High School. Mr. Cassellius has been doing an exceptional job, smoothly incorporating technology into his daily instruction. He was an early adopter of Google Classroom to manage workflow and now runs a largely paper free classroom. Mr. Cassellius understands well that Chromebooks are a teacher’s tool for instruction that doesn’t fit every instructional situation. Accordingly, students move their devices back and forth from desktop to backpack efficiently several times in a class period.
Mr Cassellius has been particularly good at using Chromebooks this year to 1) increase student-teacher communication and 2) increasing the rigor of student mastery assignment through creation, collaboration, and publication.
In a recent training session we discussed Today’s Meet. Mr. Cassellius volunteered to his colleagues that he uses it with great success. He make one “room” per course, sets the time limit for 1 year, and posts the entrance code on the “About” tab of the course’s Google Classroom page. Before tests and quizzes he asks students to post any questions they have to the wall. He credits the anonymity afforded by Today’s Meet for the increased increase in student requests for help and as a result better student performance on the quizzes. Similarly he solicits student responses in spanish to verbal questions and as responses are collected peers critique the grammar and word choice without the fear of judgement by peers.
todays_meet2.jpg
http://blogs.nvcc.edu/kriddick/files/2013/10/todays_meet2.jpg
Mr. Cassellius has also asked that students work in groups to create video presentations with cell phones and WeVideo to demonstrate their mastery of elementary spanish. This one activity allows Mr. Cassellius to reach all 4 of the central components of spanish skill instruction: speak, writing, listening, and presentation. The task is made challenging and relevant because these students have to collaborate with each other to produce mastery work while navigating the non-native language.  


Here are a few sample products by Mr. Cassellius’ students


Learn more about Mr. Cassellius’ tools featured above by clicking the icons below
Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 2.42.03 PM.png Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 2.44.27 PM.png Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 2.46.01 PM.png

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Good morning UPHSTomorrow is one of our last Tech 20's for the 2014-2015 school year. Tough to believe but the end is near.Here is a preview of our play list for tomorrow.

We'll start up tomorrow AM at 8:00 and then have our normal sessions 30 minutes after the beginning of each block
MEDIA CENTER CONFERENCE ROOM

Tool
Description
Classroom Ideas
Create your own comic strip.
Summarize information, practice new vocabulary, work on conversation / collaboration skills
Helps read more, understand more and learn more words.  
Free SAT and ACT prep work.  
Share with students to help them prepare them for these tests.  

Example Video:

Alternative to posting videos to YouTube.  Free account allows you to host 50 videos of unlimited length for free.  
Teachers/Students can upload videos with free accounts and share while YouTube is blocked.  

Monday, March 9, 2015

UPcoming PD March 11th

Hey everybody!
I'm back on campus for the foreseeable future. We have some training still on the schedule and some to make up so we'll go ahead and start this Wednesday during all planning periods; start time is 30 minutes into each block (ex. 1st Class begins @ 8:30 so training at 9:00). In addition to those session I will also be coming in to do an early bird special from 8:00 to 8:20. 

Our agenda includes a countywide survey that I need everyone to take and I'll do sort of a wrap up of the things we saw at the NCTIES conference in Raleigh last week. I look forward to seeing you all there!
Have a great day


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

HelpDesk is UP and Running!



I wanted to make you aware of a new resource available to you and the students this semester; the IT Help Desk. This is a group of tech-savvy UP students available every block of the day to respond to any and all of your classroom technology needs. They will be trained by the county's IT staff, the media center staff, and myself on how to do most everything between plugging you your smart board to helping Mitzi & Cyndi conduct asset inventory, to building a website for you, to videoing a lesson for you, to assisting you with troubleshooting when you try a new lesson. What they are not able to do they will quickly forward to Mitzi and Cyndi to determine a resolution. 

If you or a student need help, emailcbhelpdesk@ncmcs.netor fill out the Help Form located on theStudent & Staff tabs of the Union Pines website. 

Monday, January 5, 2015

PD January 14th

All sessions in room 102.
ThingLink Session: 30 min into each block >> ex. 1st block session begins @ 9
Collaboration Sessions: 1 Hr into each block >> ex. 1st block session begins @ 9:30

ThingLink

ThingLink sessions will start 30 minutes into each block.

ThingLink is a great new tool that we can start using today in our 1:1 classrooms! Essentially ThingLink  allows users to import a still image and annotate that image with “hot spots” that hold either static photo, text, or video (one caveat here is that YouTube is currently not available to our students as it is for teachers) and present them to the viewer as pop-ups.

The ease of use is GREAT. I was first shown ThingLink by an elementary student here in Moore County that was building one while he was presenting during the county-wide PD we held here at UPHS. Teachers and students get free accounts by 1-click login using their .net MCS Google ID. Then you’re ready to start creating.
Here is on I created in roughly 5-10 minutes:
CLICK THE IMAGE TO GO TO THE ACTUAL PROJECT

Muir&Roosevelt.jpg

Applications?


I: Make terms/definitions/identify activities more interesting and memorable for your students. Definitions than contain visuals are much more likely to be retained and recalled by our students.

II: Have students identify various parts of an image; like bones in the hand, trough and peak of a business cycle / soundwave,

III. Items within a spreadsheet / table that give specific insights to the reader; ex. cotton production in 1820 v cotton production 1830 indicates the widespread application of the cotton gin, the point at which diminishing marginal return occurs in production, etc..

IV. Take a screenshot of their work and use ThingLink to explain the choices they made during their work.



Calling Techy Teachers!

Collaboration sessions will start 1 hour into each block

Are you a talker? Do you learn more from a conversation than a “sit and get” session? Are you interested in getting feedback or support for what you are already doing in your courses?I piloted this a few months ago in first and 3rd blocks and the teachers really enjoyed helping each other come up with ideas for more engaging lessons with tech integration. If you are new to tech or a well versed tech vet you will take away ideas that will make your work more interesting and enjoyable.