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

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. 

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

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.

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Spring Trainings Dates in 2015!

Hey gang. I hope you had a great Christmas and wonderful New Year. I am looking for one or more students to contribute to the Moore County School’s Chromebooks in Education blog. 

This is a great opportunity to have your students' work seen by educators from across the country and their opinions heard by decision makers in Moore County. 

Excerpt from announcement: 

"Blog entries could range from describing a product you created in class, describing a teacher or teaching styles you think really work in the 1 to 1 classroom, or your reflections on how your school or classes have changed in the past 12 months since Chromebooks were handed out. If you are interested, email Mr. Herring at wherring@ncmcs.net with your idea and he will send you some examples from other students and help you develop your idea."

Thanks in advance for helping me spread the word about how great of a job you are all doing for Union Pines High School students

Postponing December Training

Good morning and happy Friday

Item 1:
I wanted to reiterate an email I sent out the other day informing you all that I am postponing the trainings scheduled for Wednesday the 17th. Many of you are busy with senior exams or tying up lose ends before the break. I will be helping to run the Chromeboook help desk since Mitzi will be temporarily ousted from the Media Center. 

Item 2:
If your students have trouble with their chromebooks next week please send them to the future home of the help desk outside the attendance office. Mitzi will be using that nice set up Ms. Lea built to offer the help. Mitzi has sent an email to everyone asking you to tell kids to turn in their laptops with bad mice now so we don't have issues that compromise testing after break. 

Item 3: 
You will likely encounter students soon that will only have limited access to the internet. These students were flagged by the county as abusing some or several aspects of our acceptable use guidelines. Students will have access to Google Apps (Docs, Movenote, Picktochart, Lucid, etc..) and some site predetermined to be educational by IT. This is NOT a tech issue that should be sent to the help desk. This is a sentence they are serving for a period to be determined by Ms. Lea and the administrative team. If you need a certain site opened to one of these students let me know a day or two (preferred) ahead of time and I can request it be allowed for the student.

Item 4:
As you have seen, it has taken some time but the district and our school are serious about providing powerful tools to our students but also that they use them in productive and appropriate ways. We (I) need to do a better of preaching and teaching digital citizenship to our students. If there is a day that I can talk to one or more of your courses to (give you a little extra planning time?) talk to them about behavior in digital spaces please shoot me an email and we'll get it on the calendar.


Image attribution
http://www.agbusinessmail.com/Images/Holly-Banner.jpg

Hey friends,

I hope you had a great and restful holiday weekend. Wednesday of this week is our next training during planning periods. I have some really neat tools to show you this time.

First up is Zaption. Do you ever wonder if kids are getting anything out of an assigned video? Zaption will make sure they are. Zaption allows you to to 1) embed questions, illustrations, etc… into YouTube videos, 2) it gives detailed diagnostics for each student that completes your video.

The second round of Flubaroo (2nd and 4th). Flubaroo will grade, analyze and report your students' work on any M/C, T/F, Scale, Matrix, etc... question (sorry, no essays or short answer). Participants will leave with knowledge (and a handout) of how to design a test/quiz in Forms, add the Flubaroo script to a spreadsheet, and grade student responses.

The introduction to Zaption will be 30 minutes into each block. Flubaroo will be the last 30 minutes of 2nd and 4th only.

Have a great day & let me know how I can help you teach or plan this month.