Thursday, August 23, 2012

First Week of School- Check!

Wow! What a great first week of school!

I am looking into doing some rotating with technology that we have access to already. There are a set of iPods already in one classroom to give a try, but there are five extras in my office, though, ready to go with many apps for the first taker! And I will gladly help you integrate them or add content, if you would like. 

There is a document projector and a set of 'clickers' that teachers are willing to share for a trial run too. Let's try something new and see what happens, if it doesn't work for you- that's ok! We can try something else. Also, I have two video cameras, a still frame digital camera and a microphone in my office to loan out at any time. 

Though reticent to even ask, those of you that have iPads, I would also like you to think about some sharing. I have found some great apps that I want to try in specific classrooms, but we need to loan out iPads for one or two class periods. It will take me a few minutes to load the apps (using layering- not changing ANYTHING on your iPad, just adding) before the teacher borrows them, but I will make sure they are returned that day. And I will be that contact point ensuring return. 

Again, this will be on my blog at:  http://teachertechweekly.blogspot.com/  

Friday, September 24th's Schedule: 
9:00 Meet with Elementary Staff on Webmail (handout attached, please print if you are interested in taking notes)

9:30 to 10:30 Meet in Mr. Gudmundson's Room on setting up Blogger (if you plan to attend, make sure you let me know today so that I can reset your Google ID ASAP!) 

11:00 Meet in Mrs. Boyd's Room to set up Google Site (again, if you plan to attend, make sure you let me know today so that I can reset your Google ID ASAP!)

Next Week: No Staff 

1) Texting Parents via http://www.textem.net or http://text4freeonline.com 
I know many of you have asked parents to give you the most preferred method of contact and many said text. Both of the above seem like viable options for texting parents and not using your personal cell phone to text. I have only texted my husband while trying the service and it does send anonymously, so make sure to preface your text with your name. 

2) Crazy Power Point! http://prezi.com/ 
Many have used this, but if you haven't... check this out! Create your own FREE account to make a Prezi, which is a very fun, zooming, interactive type of multimedia presentation. I suggest, rather than assigning a PowerPoint, assign the generic 'multimedia presentation' and add Prezi to the list for kids. It has recently gone through some great updates allowing for 3D Backgrounds and a feel more like Keynote or PPT. There is also a Prezi app for the iPad that allows some basic editing features and viewing. Also, despite Prezi being online and having synchronous/ asynchronous collaborative capabilities, online viewing capabilities you can save and download your Prezi to your iPad/ iPod or your computer's desktop for offline viewing. 

3) Audio Recording via http://soundation.com or http://soundcloud.com 
This could be a lot of fun to use making commercials, news recordings or podcasts as a way for students to present what they learned back to you and the rest of the class. I used Aviary in the past, but the sounds of it is that Aviary will soon be a paid service... so, I suggest the two above. 

4) Teaching History via http://teachinghistory.org 
You may already frequent this site, but when I was searching for some resources this week, I found this site. It is a great place for Elementary through High School Social Studies resources and ideas. 

5) Graphing Math Functions with Google Search  (Click title for link to original blog post) 
I will let the blog article speak for itself... It may be a way for students to check their work in the future or just something cool, too. 

".... the introduction of graphing functionality on Google. Now you can plot mathematical functions right on the search result page. Just type in a function and you’ll see an interactive graph on the top of the search results page.

You can zoom in and out and pan across the plane to explore the function in more detail. You can also draw multiple functions by separating them with commas. This feature covers an extensive range of single variable functions including trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic and their compositions, and is available in modern browsers."


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