Thursday, December 18, 2008

Twas the Night Before Break

I had started to create an FR rendition of this traditional Christmas story however I realized that I am not a writer so I stopped in the middle. I just wanted to take time to thank the teachers for all their hard work during my first few months as the Tech Coach. I would also like to thank administration for their support. I hope that I have been helpful. I have alot of ideas and plans for the future. I just hope that we continue to get more time to really change how education looks here at FR.
When we get back from break I will continue with my classroom walkthroughs and plans for each department. I have enjoyed my visits so far in the Social Studies Department and I can't wait to visit with the other departments.
I am working dilligently to find other ways to get time for teachers who want to use technology and to find ways of getting resources to teachers.
We will have a late start in February to work on our embedded courses. It looks like most of you are moving right along with these.
Thanks again for your efforts and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Featured Site!

Thinkfinity
Is a great resource. If you like nettrekker you will love this site. You can search for tons of resources from lessons to interactives to media to assessments to worksheets. There are over 55,000 resources all for FREE!
Subjects include, art, economics, foreign language, geography, history, literatue, math, philosophy, language arts, science and social studies.
You can sign up for a free account so that you can collect resources under your login or you can just use the site without setting up an account.
There are resources for teachers, parents and students.
This site is well done.
Don't miss this one!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Weekly Byte 12.9.08

Good day CFFers

Holiday Break is almost here! I can't wait to spend time with family and friends.

This week I have begun my walk-throughs of the Social Studies classrooms. I am learning alot about Sociology, Civics, History and International Studies. I am learning alot about our teachers' teaching styles and I have alot of ideas to help better engage students, extend the learning beyond the school day and allow students to work collaboratively. I will be putting together my suggestions for next week and help this department implement anything that they choose.

Visitors
Frank Ansell the Technology Coach from Yough High School will be visiting a few classrooms this Thursday to see our FR tech teachers in action. Kristin, Trap and Pam have graciously agreed to welcome him to their classes to share some ideas.

Resources
As always I have been updating the CFF Place Moodle page with resources, the blog is here, I am working on a training wiki to give teachers a place to find step by step instructions, and I will continue to do individual as well as small group trainings.
Today will be nettrekker training and when we come back the January trainings will be on Google.

Site of the week
My special CFF friend passed this one along to me. http://www.tizmos.com
This site allows you to quickly create a page that will create thumbnails of your most used websites. It will update them automatically and all you have to do is click and go to the site. Great tool!

Have a great week!
Coach Roger

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Weekly Byte 12.3.08

Things have been going smoothly. All classrooms have finally been connected! Phil and Julie were the last ones and they were connected over break. Promethean board usage has been increasing and I have been meeting with several people helping them set up lessons and use technology tools to enhance their classroom experiences.

TEACHER TECHIES
Gaye has been busy implementing Moodle discussion boards in her English classes and she has begun to look into creating a classroom wiki for her students. Kristin has been creating flipcharts like mad! I recommend that all English teachers use her as a resource for content specific technology integration.

REMINDER!!!!
Thursday December 4th we will be having a late start. CFF teachers will be working on Embedded Learning coursework. I have made discussion board posts to each course. I will be on tomorrow during the morning to discuss course topics with you. Check out mine and other colleagues' posts. (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)

TRAINING
Next week we will have a training on Tuesday before and after school for nettrekker. Nettrekker is a tool that allows you and your students to search for educationally approved websites. This tool is great for helping you plan lessons.

Next week I will begin to do my classroom walkthroughs. I will email departments to inform you which rooms I will be visiting.

Have a great week!