Weekly Byte 2.3.09

Well after an awesome SuperBowl win by the number one team of all time, I am lucky enough to be at a two day training in Beaver. After braving the hour plus drive for two days I thought it would be good to give some feedback about what I learned at this training.

1. I was reminded how easy it is to create a mulitmedia presentation using Photo Story (this is loaded on the CFF COWS and teacher laptops.
2. What a great graphic organizer Inspiration is (on CFF laptops) and that you can access an online version of this program, Webspiration. Good tool to teach students how to organize thoughts.
3. www.podbean.com is a great tool to post audio and video files to allow student access. (more on this later)

I will be attending the Pennsylvania State Technology Conference next week. Stay tuned for updates from the conference (Feb 7-11). Check my blog for daily updates. I will also be bringing back to FR alot of new resources and ideas to share with you.

Important Dates:
February 24, late start for embedded learning. (make sure that login to your account before this day to make sure that you don't have any issues. i would like to solve any problems before this day so you can get 3 hours of good work)

February 27, Flip the Switch event. There will be local politicians, central administration, school board members in the senior high school for the morning. I will be asking some of you to be feature teachers, we will schedule a period where you will be using technology in your lesson.

thanks and have a great week! (the first person who emails me the phrase "i cant believe its not butter" wins a prize

Weekly Byte 1.14.09

Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable break. I know i needed it and I enjoyed the long break. But all good things come to an end eventually so now its back to work.
I have already had a busy month as more and more teachers need my assistance.
Dept Meetings
I attended the English Dept Meeting last week to inform them that Kristin and I will be working on developing resources for the entire dept. Teachers were asked to submit lessons/units etc to Kristin and we will work to bring them into the 21st Century.
This week i will be meeting with the Social Studies Dept to discuss my suggestions after i have observed the teachers from that department.
It is my plan to begin the English Department walkthroughs next week (Jan 19-23rd)
My Services
I am currently looking for one person per department to work with me on creating 21st century activities for their departments. Tina has approved one teacher from each dept to get one release day to begin building dept resources. Let me know if you are interested.
Please dont hesitate to get lessons/units/activities to me and i will help to update them with technology. I will even help you co-teach the course to help with the technology.
Site of the Week
Google Alerts, mentioned in the previous post, is a handy web research tool. If there is topic that you or your students frequently search for, consider creating a Google Alert for that topic. You can create a Google Alert using any combination of search terms. Each time new content matching those search terms is indexed, the content or link (depending on your selection), is delivered to your choice of email or RSS reader.

Awesome stuff!
The first person to email me the passcode "Wookelar" will win a prize!

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!

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!

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

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!

Weekly Byte 11.26.08

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember that we will be having a late start for technology and DI on December 4th from 6:45-9:45. I have made posts to all of the courses so I look forward to discussing topics on that date.

Web 2.0 Terminology
Ning- is a social networking tool that allows you to create a place to share information, discuss in online forums, share pictures and videos, chat in the built in chat room and really just collaborate with colleagues or with your students. It is really like an academic facebook. Many educational uses. Example: http://frsdpantherden.ning.com

Wiki- is a simple way to create a webpage for you classes where you can share resources, discuss topics, and collaborate. This is a simple collaboration tool that allows you to really collaborate in your classrooms and extend the learning beyond the school day.
Example: http://frinduction2008.wetpaint.com
Wiki sites: Wetpaint, Wikispaces, Wiggio

Blog- a great educational tool that allows you to create weblogs for your classes. Students greatly benefit by creating their own blogs to use as journals for your classes. Students also benefit by responding to your blog discussing anything that you are working on in your classes.
Example: this is a blog
Blog sites: Blogger, Edublog

Social Bookmarking: You can bookmark sites on your browser, or put them in your favorites. To share these sites with others, you have to find them in your browser and then send them to people via email or another means. Social Bookmarking allows you to put your bookmarks online. You get an account with a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us, upload your bookmarks, and tag them (see "Social tagging") with keywords. You can only fit so many folders on your browser before it gets too cluttered, so you're always having to choose what you really want to add to them or not. Online, with tagging, things don't get as cluttered, plus you already have everything in a public place where it's easy to share it with others.
Examples: Diigo, Delicious

Podcasting: Like blogging, but with audio clips. You record yourself talking, or an interview or a reading of a book, and put it in a place where others can access the sound file.
Examples: iTunes, Podcast Alley

There are many more but this is enough for now. Please don't hesitate to ask for help with any of these.

Weekly Byte 11.19.08

Good day CFFers!

I am sure everyone is getting ready for their Thanksgiving Break!. I personally cannot wait to have a few days to kick back with Jack and Monica and relax. We have a few things coming up in the next few weeks for CFF.

November 25 (Tuesday) 6:50 or 2:30- Nettrekker training (Don't Miss this One!)
December 2 (Tuesday) 6:50 or 2:30- Google Docs Rocs!
December 4 (Thursday) 6:45-9:45- Late start, Online Coursework time

I will be trying to get into more classrooms over the next few weeks and see the great things that you are doing.

Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Coach Roger

Weekly Byte 11.11.08

Here is a Wordle that I created from the Franklin Regional Strategic Plan. The words that appear largest are the ones that appear in the document most often. Which words are we using the most?

Weekly Byte 11.4.08

Good day CFFers!

It has been a busy week for all of us with grades being do, dashboard issues, power outages, etc. I have been working on updating the CFF Moodle page to include more resources for you. (http://eschool.franklinregional.k12.pa.us) This week, Wednesday-Friday, Promethean will be here upgrading cabling and drivers. This means that people who have bluetooth will now be hardwired, people who have been having board connectivity problems will no longer (hopefully), and teachers who have had no problems will have a more user-friendly board. I am trying to create a schedule so that you know when your room will be completed.

This Friday we have in-service. In the afternoon we will be given 3 hours to work on technology initiatives. I will be available to help you create lessons that integrate technologies, try new tools, check out resources, whatever. Just let me know what you need help with. The last hour of the day 2-3 pm, Tina has approved Promethean Board training for everyone! The Math Dept. will report to 240, LangArts to 225, Science to 101, and Social Studies to 210. Your colleagues will be providing content specific trainings.

As always please ask me for help in your classrooms, planning, team teaching, whatever you need.

Site of the Week: http://www.showdocument.com. ShowDocument.com is a free application that we have made available to users to use for their own needs to meet and discuss document in a real time fully synchronized fashion. The platform requires no download and / or installation. This tool is awesome! Students can collaborate on math problems, peer edit, or just create something in small groups. If you need me to show this to you just ask and we will set up a time to plan how to use this in your classroom.