Welcome Back for 2006-07

Greetings to all. Well, the tech. dept. has been working hard all week to prepare the county in-service for Thursday. I look forward to seeing old friends and new faces. Don't forget to sign up for SOW or try out the new Freebies section of Notes from ITRT.

Thanks to AES Staff

Thank you for sharing your time with me yesterday. I look forward to hearing from everyone about what you are using and what you would like to use in the future. Remember to e-mail me, and just so you know, I do schedule people at least a week in advance whenever possible.

FYI, I put up a crossword puzzle page linked off of the Projects page on Notes from ITRT. I look forward to getting some to upload and link.

Happy surfing!

Technology and Art Meet Once Again!

Well, after doing some updates with Ms. Watkins to the AES Art page, I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon painting our own version of Monet's Parliament piece. You can see it hanging in the AES front hall, and hopefully soon, you will see some pics on the Art page and my page here!

Hello to my AES VAAPers!

Well, things are finally winding down. Thanks again to all you ladies for letting technology integration be part of your routine for VAAP. I hope the kids and you enjoyed it as much as I did! Good luck with your reviews!!!

My Day @ the High School

Thanks to everyone @ KWHS for letting me spend my St. Patty's with you! I feel we got a lot accomplished, and hopefully you are still enjoying all the resources you saw. Keep posting to Nicenet -- it's great to hear from everyone. Remember, you can reach your day's page by going to Notes from ITRT off of Resources!

Presenting.... Van Researchers, Inc.

What a great Friday morning.... I got to spend it with soon-to-be famous publishing firm, Van Researchers, Inc. These kids really know how to buckle down and work hard to create a great product. They made fantastic brouchures using Microsoft Publisher to display all of their research on animals from around the world. I can't wait to see them in the hall in all their technological glory!!! They'll look great next to the Excel graphs the class did earlier this week. Thanks to Mrs. Van R, Mrs. Montgomery and all the students for trying out all my wonky ideas ~ you're the best!!!

Stuck in the WBIR -- Another Integration Success Story

Congrats to Mrs. Benitez for really utilizing the lab and the WBIR site to review Virginia Studies with her 5th graders. I was fortunate enough to get to pop in on one of her sessions, and she was comfortable with guiding her students through various review games and activities. She has also done me the great favor of spreading the word about my crazy little position! I look forward to our next endeavor - student-created web pages! Yikes! Get ready for a Famous Virginian invasion!!!

Schoolnotes.com

Stumbled across this the other day and made a little page for myself. Great for quick notes for staff, parents and students about upcoming tests or scheduled events. I am using mine to post conferences and other days I will be out of the office. Check it out by searching for the KWCPS zip code. I'd love to see some more up there. :)

SOL 2 Go - A delicious review!

Thanks to Mrs. VanR for testing out SOL 2 Go with her students this week. They are really excited about the program, and love the pizza topping characters. Little do they realize how much of a review it is. We teachers are so sneaky. We are looking forward to an upgrade which tracks results by SOL number -- I'll keep you posted.

TInSL - Make your classroom sparkle!

Hey. Just finished the final touches on this week's edition of TInSL - Technology Integrated Sample Lessons. The project is an ever-growing listing of ideas and resources for integrating some technology into standardized curriculum. Check out the Notes from ITRT homepage and click on Projects to learn more and see the first postings.

Success -- Art Department @ AES -- Integration Leader

So, great news from the AES Art Department. After being my first guinea pig for a department webpage, learning how to scan and edit student art projects, and suffering through many Dreamweaver instructions...the projector has been set up! Ms. Watkins is already using it on a regular basis to show examples of the art styles on which her students are working, as well as to research cultures and areas of the world who pioneered the aforementioned artistic styles/products! Check out her webpage, and look for new updates next week.

EdTech 2006

I was so happy to see fellow KWCPS staff @ the conference -- greetings ladies and gent!

Despite a bit of a hassle parking (worse than downtown Richmond on a Saturday night -- no garages), the conference was extremely enjoyable, and R-MC was a nice campus on which to spend time.

Anyway, since so few of us got to go, I decided I would post my notes and thoughts on the sessions I attended.

Wednesday - 1 Feb. 2006
9:00-9:50: No Computer Left Behind: Increasing Independence of Student Users

This session was given by Kimberly Lancaster, a speech pathologist from Hanover. She shared some great resources for helping those students who struggle with reading to be able to use their classroom computers more independently. The easiest was to use the Text Speech functions of Microsoft Office software. I will admit that this weekend I recorded myself reading a few PowerPoints I had designed. I think that this is a great tool, and hope to work with some of the staff on incorporating this.

10:05-10:55: Multiple Uses of the Matrix

This was my first of many Henrico sessions. Basically, the Matrix is a way of using simple hyperlinks in a word document to link together files, worksheets and tests without needing to create a webpage. I personally thought that this was a great idea. It's one of those simple things we all know how to do, but having it spelled out seemed to give it more validity. This is pretty much how it works -- you create one word document (your switchboard) that has links to all other related documents on your hard drive or network drive. In Henrico, they put class curriculum into a Matrix and then give copies of that folder to each student. I kept waiting for the option of taking the blue or red pill.

11:00-1:15: Keynote Speaker and Lunch

On a slight side-note, lunch was good, once I got through the half-hour line.

1:15-2:05: Vendors and Making the SOL Fun and Games

During this block, i visited the vendors as per the Scavenger Hunt requirements (on Thursday I got an adorable mousepad for my efforts) and went to the end of the SOL Fun session, run by Kidz Solutions. This was a group that operates the SOL2Go product line. It was an informative session. Please e-mail me if you want a free demo code for some of their online resources (KWCPS employees only).

2:20-3:10: Teaching Teachers: Connecting with the Adult Learner

Suffice it to say that Brenda Cowling is an amazing presenter and ITRT. It was a great session as far as getting some ideas about organizing/implementiung professional development and just connecting with other people in my career field.

Day 2 notes...

A large chunk of day 2 was spent visiting vendors -- you have seen the SOL2GO results in your rooms I hope :) I also learned a bit about Quia and that will be implemented in the high school in full force next year if all goes as planned. Mostly, it was a day of networking and seeing some stuff in action. The keynote was Chris O'Neal who also ran an ITRT Workshop I attended. I encourage anyone who has the chance to go hear him speak. That's about it from me. TTFN!