Today we had our follow up session for our School 2.0 Project (School 2.0 Wiki).
This project started out small, with Melissa Higgs-Horwell (from SCOCA), Paul Carpenter (from the Ross Pike ESD) and I doing some real quick training sessions for OACHE and the regional State Support Team staff members. When we all got together to talk about how the internet is changing and how we should be helping our schools stay on top of these innovations, ideas started to take shape.
Over the summer (2007), we started feverishly planning some training that could span the upcoming school year (2007-2008). HSTW (High Schools That Work) came on board during the summer, and the plans took off. We had a total of 3 full day training sessions and put together a framework for implementing a project at each school. We hand picked the schools based on the greatest need – the SST helped us in that process.
Our first session was in September, with another one in October and a repeat session in December for other schools from HSTW. For most of the winter, we didn’t hear much from our participants. Then today, we had the final session. It was an informal sharing/presentation by each school – the teachers telling us about the successes they had with the new technologies this year, and also about the road blocks and hazards they encountered.
In this rural, mostly low-income area of Ohio, we often lack the basic needs for integrating technology. We heard about schools that only have 1 computer lab (and not all of the computers are operational – and few are up-to-date enough to run programs like Google Earth), teachers who have only dial-up at home (and students who don’t even have computers at home) because it is rare to find broadband in this region, and major issues with educational sites that are blocked at school. Several schools mentioned that they ran into the brick wall of filtering when trying to do social bookmarking with del.icio.us. All blogs and wiki sites were blocked.
You would think all this would put a damper on their enthusiasm for bringing these 21st century skills to their students. You would think that it would be easier to just give up. You would think….
But that is what is missing from this picture - the teachers. I took this picture this morning before any of them arrived. They are the key. They make the effort and sacrifice to make sure our students aren’t left behind. They go the extra mile to make things happen for kids. They genuinely care about education and our children.
I was so impressed with what our teachers accomplished this year in spite of all the obstacles, and they are still so hopeful and enthusiastic. Southern Ohio has the one essential ingredient that gives our area a bright future – wonderful teachers.
I can’t begin to recount all the projects, but there were web sites, podcasts, BlackBoard online classes, Google Earth and SketchUp activities, wikis and blogs. I wish you could have heard the presentations today – one story about a foreign language class brought tears to my eyes.
I was so proud to have been among them today.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
Babbel - social language learning
Babbel is a cool site for learning (and practicing) French, Spanish, Italian and German and it has several Web 2.0 social features. Users can contribute photos (upload or from Flickr) and also have a say in how well the pictures used (or supplied by other users) fit the intended vocabulary.
There is also a messaging system where you can make friends who speak the target language so you'll have a real person to practice with.
Firefox troubles = Piclens.... Aarrrgh.
It was really such a cool add-on for Firefox and seemed to work soooo well - what a cool way to view Flickr photos, etc. However, soon after installing Piclens, I started having major issues with Firefox. At first it wasn't apparent, Firefox just seemed slow. And then when I would visit a site that was graphics/flash intense, Firefox would completely hang up and my whole system would slow down forcing me to restart. Then, I figured out that the culprit was Piclens...
I uninstalled Piclens and now I really am back to normal with Firefox. I'll give them a while to perfect it and maybe I'll have a look at it again one day.
Monday, April 21, 2008
WorldCat - Citations made easy
WorldCat -great (and easy) way to create your next bibliography or do a citation.....
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Mother's Day Scrapbook
Wow - look what Stace made for me for Mother's Day... It is fabulous. Where does she find the time (or the inspiration) for the wonderful projects she makes...? I LOVE this - it got top spot on the mantle over the fireplace.
We had a great weekend, lots of time with "our boy Elroy." He's crawling now and oh, so cute. Also got to spend some quality time with Stace - I cherish those times. We did some digital scrappin' - she posted the results on her blog. I (as usual) didn't even get a page started - can't seem to get going. I think I am not that thrilled with my photography skills, or maybe I just get lost playing with all the cool stuff you can do with Photoshop.
We had a great weekend, lots of time with "our boy Elroy." He's crawling now and oh, so cute. Also got to spend some quality time with Stace - I cherish those times. We did some digital scrappin' - she posted the results on her blog. I (as usual) didn't even get a page started - can't seem to get going. I think I am not that thrilled with my photography skills, or maybe I just get lost playing with all the cool stuff you can do with Photoshop.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Gasp. Oh no.
(You may note that I didn’t use any exclamation points in the title of this post.)
One of the responses to our workshop evaluations that I've always been most proud of is “Peggy’s enthusiasm is infectious.” That’s my goal, to get other teachers excited about using technology in the classroom.
When I first started this blog, my ONE reader, “Brungrrl,” offered (lovingly) some constructive criticism. She said that I use too many exclamation points. When I thought about it, of course she's right. She’s quite an accomplished writer herself – I say that with pride – and she is known to be brutally honest. My writing skills are so rusty though that I need all the help I can get. I also noted that I use too many ellipses (that’s the dot dot dot thing).
Using the exclamation points was, I suppose, an effort to convey the enthusiasm I feel for the new technologies that I'm discovering every day. I can’t promise not to overuse exclamation points in the future, but I’m working on my addiction.
Using the ellipse is a totally different problem. I think it is because I’m lazy. I have a lot more thoughts and information running around in my head, but rather than type it in, I just use the ellipse and assume that my readers (if I have any) have the same thoughts running around in their heads. It saves me the time and effort of typing. I will try to work on this problem as well. I remember when we lived in Vinton county, the local newspaper had a reporter who used ellipses after every sentence. I always wanted to print and cut out a bunch of punctuation and send it to her, but I was nice instead.
The point of this post is some basic self-reflection that was triggered by John Rappold’s blog post yesterday - the section on "The GA Factor." OMG – I’m afraid that I’m a “glad ass” now. Paranoia has set in. Maybe I need to get a grip on my ”infectious enthusiasm” – what do you think? And don’t tell me that I just “need to get a life.” I love the geeky life I have.
(Whew. That was difficult. Not one exclamation point.)
One of the responses to our workshop evaluations that I've always been most proud of is “Peggy’s enthusiasm is infectious.” That’s my goal, to get other teachers excited about using technology in the classroom.
When I first started this blog, my ONE reader, “Brungrrl,” offered (lovingly) some constructive criticism. She said that I use too many exclamation points. When I thought about it, of course she's right. She’s quite an accomplished writer herself – I say that with pride – and she is known to be brutally honest. My writing skills are so rusty though that I need all the help I can get. I also noted that I use too many ellipses (that’s the dot dot dot thing).
Using the exclamation points was, I suppose, an effort to convey the enthusiasm I feel for the new technologies that I'm discovering every day. I can’t promise not to overuse exclamation points in the future, but I’m working on my addiction.
Using the ellipse is a totally different problem. I think it is because I’m lazy. I have a lot more thoughts and information running around in my head, but rather than type it in, I just use the ellipse and assume that my readers (if I have any) have the same thoughts running around in their heads. It saves me the time and effort of typing. I will try to work on this problem as well. I remember when we lived in Vinton county, the local newspaper had a reporter who used ellipses after every sentence. I always wanted to print and cut out a bunch of punctuation and send it to her, but I was nice instead.
The point of this post is some basic self-reflection that was triggered by John Rappold’s blog post yesterday - the section on "The GA Factor." OMG – I’m afraid that I’m a “glad ass” now. Paranoia has set in. Maybe I need to get a grip on my ”infectious enthusiasm” – what do you think? And don’t tell me that I just “need to get a life.” I love the geeky life I have.
(Whew. That was difficult. Not one exclamation point.)
Friday, April 04, 2008
Digital Scrapbooking
Create this cool effect easily using a tutorial from Digital Scrapbook Place and some great freebies from Shabby Princess. It's easy to design fabulous looking scrapbook pages (even if you don't have any artistic skills like me!), when you find great free stuff like this!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Firefox slowdown
Firefox had been giving me fits because all of a sudden, it was VERY slow. I thought I would just switch to Flock, but I really missed Firefox so I researched the issue. It appears that if you have been using Firefox for a long time, it gets all clogged up and needs to be cleared out to get you back to peak performance. If you have a slow browser, just go to Tools on the menu and choose "Clear private data." You will be given a choice of what to clear so you can keep passwords, etc.
My Firefox is now "hoppin'" again!
Little Sir Cantstopdrooling
Spent Saturday with my favorite little red haired boy...
Not crawling yet, but he learned to get up off his tummy (after ALMOST crawling!) to a sitting position again. Oh the contortions it takes! Can't imagine being flexible enough to go from face down on the floor to a perfect spiit to sitting upright. Of course he needs a little leverage since all his ambulation ends up going in reverse. He just backs into a piece of furniture and then he can get up. Too funny.
Still fighting the naps during the day - he's a little tired in this photo. I need to spend more time with him - I am missing so much!
Not crawling yet, but he learned to get up off his tummy (after ALMOST crawling!) to a sitting position again. Oh the contortions it takes! Can't imagine being flexible enough to go from face down on the floor to a perfect spiit to sitting upright. Of course he needs a little leverage since all his ambulation ends up going in reverse. He just backs into a piece of furniture and then he can get up. Too funny.
Still fighting the naps during the day - he's a little tired in this photo. I need to spend more time with him - I am missing so much!
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