A new year offers a flurry of activities. Like a book, the pages begin anew ready for anything you place upon it. For those of you who have a New Year’s resolution, plans go into full swing to make it happen. You might broadcast it to your family or quietly commit to take those first steps….
Tag: collaboration
Where the Intersection between Talk and Courage Meet
Created with Tagul.com We’ve been working and editing our Digital Citizenship (curriculum dare I say) for a bit now (squeezed in between all the other projects). And I’ve returned to the same conclusion I had at the beginning of this journey. The only thing that is really different is that we access an online environment…
Engage in the Experience – Professional Learning
As we organize our teaching/learning environments, it is important to hold time to learn ourselves – to challenge ourselves to engage with new ideas, to seek out new opportunities in professional learning, and to reflect how they relate with personal beliefs. This is about connecting to what is important. Only then can we bring powerful…
Blending Environments – Digital Citizenship is Participation
“Stop at the curb. Take my hand. Look left, look right and look left again.” Remember this? I remember this as if it was yesterday. Many of you are recalling when you first started teaching your children the rules of the road. I don’t ever recall saying the streets are too full of danger so we…
An Audience of One is No Audience At All
“Students need an authentic audience.” You’ve heard this statement before. Given the vast array of opportunities, you would think that this is easy. But any number of bells are ringing in your head and you recognize it’s not that simple. Consider questions like “who will be the target audience – parents, peers, people across the…
iPad Apps that Enhance your Language Arts Program
Joined by a group of enthusiastic K-12 teachers and principals, we explored a number of apps at our District Pro-D session on February 21st. The feature story was Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. After listening to the story and the oh-so catchy song, we used a strategy called Milling…
Digital Learning Day – Feb 5
The days of January have been whizzing by, partly due to the start of another term and partly due to our wonderful west coast weather. Having some sun certainly invites a bit more energy in the steps as well as some hopeful signs of spring just around the corner. We are hearing about so many…
Digital Citizenship
Happy new year. Like all new years, it is a time of anticipation and new beginnings. Especially with all the technological changes that our students have at their fingertips. While they may be really comfortable at texting and bouncing from one interchange to another, there is a significant difference when using technologies for organized multiple purposes. Powerful…
It’s All in the Workflow
Maybe this post should have been called “Sanity is Everything”. You’ve decided on an inquiry project that injects elements of learning technologies. Besides knowing what software you’re going to use and booking the lab or equipment, you dive in. Not so fast! These next thinking steps will allow you to experience a successful project [aka…
Spring News
Spring is definitely in the air – the buds are on the trees and the daffodils have poked their heads above the ground. This also means that the latest newsletter is out. Check it out here!
iPad/iPod Apps ShootOut – Multisensory Blitz
District Pro-D arrived on February 22nd. Offered at two sites (Byrne Creek and Taylor Park) complete with video feed of our keynote to Taylor Park, it served as a reminder that connection, collaboration, ideas generation happen when we all come together. With over 110 sessions, it was an electrifying event. No small feat for a…
Power of the Many – Writers Writing
Thinking extends to greater possibilities when we’re together supporting and learning from each other. Our second session of dynamic writers took us through a series of activities to explore ideas of “writing, what it means to write in the digital age, identified the principles of writing workshop, … We had a bit of time to…
Celebrating Writers and Learners
Our final learning session of Writers Workshop using Google Docs turned out better than I could have ever imagined. We have such a wonderful group of imaginative and fearless educators! Here’s how the session unfolded. We started with a video from Ted that I discovered on spoken word poetry by Sarah Kay. This spoke to me about how important it is to offer…
“Nudging” Writers with Google Docs
There are times when I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s really happening. Two instances brought the power of writing using Google Docs “front and center”. Watching it unfold was thrilling to say the least. One instance was with a teacher in our workshop series – we’ve been working on using commenting as a way…
First Ever iPad Party
Get a group of administrators, teachers and district staff together – add food and boxes and more boxes of brand new iPads. What do you have? Excitement, anticipation, a bit of wonder, “eyes wide open”, tons of chatter and buzz… Last week, we spent the afternoon with a set of goals: introduce the iPad,…
Giving Voice to Your Story – Use an Online Tool
Capture that story (whether at school or home) with just a mic and a simple online recorder. Vocaroo (http://vocaroo.com) is a simple online audio tool just made for that purpose! Use it for audio recordings of class news, radio shows, as student assessments for oral readings or to increase skills in reading. You may even…
Growing Readers – Literature Circles Gone Digital – Part 1
I wasn’t quite sure how to title this, swinging back and forth from “Passionate Conversations” and “Growing Readers”, both of which I believe Lit Circles to be. I’ve been working with a fabulous teacher on engaging her class with Literature Circles. Oh not the process with all the jobs/roles (which I’ve done many times before), but the approach…
Purposeful Play
“To play on purpose is to take risks. To challenge what you know. To ride the edge between what is and what might be, what never was and what should’ve been..” — Bud Hunt Over a week ago we launched this year’s SCIT (Skills and Curriculum Integration of Technology), a district program to support teachers on their journey of integrating technologies in their classrooms. All…
What’s On Your Wall?
The wheels in my head started turning again after reading a post – Building a ‘Can Do’ Wall at Philly Teacher. What we choose to place on our walls reveal to the world what is important to us. I look at the walls in my home and I notice all sorts of family photos and paintings of things…
A Peek at February’s Learning Calendar
Here’s a snapshot of what’s coming just around the corner. You will find all details and registration on the Staff Development Calendar. Don’t forget that our district pro-d day is February 25th. *Please note that these are ‘learning series’ and attendance is necessary at all sessions. Reading/Writing with Kurzweil 3000 (Alternate Ed Group): Feb 2,…