Sketch-up Projects

Students in Ms. Randolph’s Early Childhood Education class have been designing their dream kindergarten classes. I have been working with a few of her students to create 3D models using Google Sketch-up. The students are applying what they have learned about early childhood development to optimize their designs. Everything from the color of the floor tiles to the arrangement of the furniture and the objects included is carefully planned. Here is the sample classroom I created for the  students.

Scratch

Over the past few weeks I’ve helped with a Scratch project with Mrs. Beatty’s 5th graders at Byrd Elementary School. In our introduction, the students created an atom with rotating electrons. When the different parts were clicked, the name popped up in a think bubble. our latest project is creating a model of a plant cell. When the different organelles are clicked, the name appears and a voice describes the function.

ISTE NETS-T

After several years of hard work, I have been awarded the ISTE National Education Technology Standards certification. My name is not spelled right, but it is still mine.

I will scan the certificate at school.

EdTech 2008

This past week I attended EdTech 2008 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. I was impressed by how far ahead Goochland is from the rest of the surrounding counties. Yes, there are small pockets of good ideas in some schools of the larger divisions around us, but as a whole, we are ahead.

I presented two sessions showcasing lesson plans and ideas implemented in our schools. Jessica Yoakum-Doerr, Liz Kuhns, Lisa Jones, Jillian Edwards, and Leona Barnes either presented or provided materials for the sessions.

I will scan the certificate when I get to school.

Recertification Paperwork

Along with all new teachers for the 2007-08 school year, I attended several courses. Here is the document with the points.

Moodle Course and Wiki

I have created a new Moodle course to help teachers use primary sources in the classroom. There is an associated page with resources on the school Wiki as well.

Teacher Projects

Over the past couple of months I’ve worked with several teachers on projects focusing on collaboration, creativity, and communication using web 2.0 tools.

Mrs. Ray’s interactive, collaborative cookbook project allows students to hone their narrative skills by sharing family stories and recipes. For this we have used PBWiki. Unfortunately, we decided to keep the wiki cookbook private and only Mrs. Ray and her students have the password. You won’t be able to get past the log-in screen, and I’m respecting their privacy by not posting a screen shot here.

Mrs. Edwards students created TV commercials using iMovie. The results are posted on YouTube for everyone to see, rate, and comment.

Screen-capture Videos

I have started using the IShowU application to create brief instructional videos for teachers. The videos are posted to my school blog.

Conferences

I am very excited about my conference schedule this year. In February I’ll be presenting at EdTech in Ashland with several teachers from the middle school and high school. We will be highlighting real-life, already-implemented lesson plans that develop many 21st Century Skills. At the end of June, John Hendron and I will travel to San Antonio for NECC. There we are conducting a session on effective staff development and a workshop on Google Sketch-up. John will also have his own conference where he will discuss his newly published book.

Scheduled Classes

I will be teaching a variety of courses throughout the year to interested teachers to help them meet their annual technology goals. I will post updates periodically as to the number of teachers who attend and the feedback I receive after the classes.

The schedule is posted on our Wiki.