Connections

Getting to know the following people was like vitamins for my teaching soul.



Hall Davidson: I have been following Hall's Media Matters Blog all year. I have also seen him as a keynote speaker in the past. I had the opportunity to sit by him at a dinner hosted by Discovery Education. We visited several times throughout the conference. We even exchanged videos with our flash drives....:)

Jannita Demain: Jannita is another member of the Discovery Education team. I enjoyed getting to know her at the dinner at Mead School District and then also going Geocaching with her. We have communicated several times by e-mail in the past. It was great to meet her in person. We are talkng about setting up a Washington State Leadership Council.

Jennifer Gingerich : Another member of the Discovery Team whom I have been in contact with by e-mail. She was kind enough to mention my session in her blog and she even attended. It was great to get to know her as well.

Tim Chase : Tim is another Star Educator from Oregon. He sat nearby at the Discovery dinner. He has lots of great ideas and questions. It was so nice to be in the company of like minded educators. Class Blog

3-6-07 DEN Workshop Mead School Dist.

I was invited to attend a Discovery Educator's Network workshop on Tuesday night. I got to meet lots of neat people from the Mead School district and also Discovery Education. We went through Google Earth, PhotoStory and podcasts. We talked about Discovery Science Connection which really looks great. I can't wait to use it with my students. Janitta told about a really neat project called Rock Our World. I am hoping to get involved in this project where classrooms from around the world collaborate and learn together. Fits right in with our grant. I learned some good tips about improving sound when making movies and podcasts. I got some great ideas for podcasting. Jennifer shared about a teacher who got a grant to target struggling reading students. This group recorded stories to be played on an iPod Shuffle. The teacher edited their recordings so that they could hear themselves reading fluenty. Then they took the iPod shuffles home and practiced reading their stories. The student in this program actually passed the other students in thier class. Many of the parents were ELL and they reported learning English by listening to these stories. Children who had not had someone to read with them at home, now could listen to themselves read. I can see a lot of neat connections for this type of activity.

Podcasting

I had a lot of fun podcasting to my students while I was at the conference. I used a site called gcast.com. I called in my messages on the cell phone and then posted them to our blog. Each day I shared what I was learning and I posed a question for them to ponder. The one that got the most response was "how many songs do I need to load on my iPod to have music all the way to Spokane?" .

3-7-07 Discovery Ed and Geocache Dinner

I was invited to go out to dinner with the folks from Discovery Education. I am a STAR Discovery Educator. I had a WONDERFUL time talking about education, technology, media and more with these very innovative thinkers. These people are my teachers. I read and interact with their blogs and discussion boards daily. It was great to talk with them in person. In addition to just having fun and enjoying the conversation I also made some really nice connections. I am really excited about the possible opportunity to go to a Discovery Educators Workshop this summer. The application will be coming out in a few weeks. I would love that opportunity. It was funny during the dinner, we were passing around a video iPod to look at a video, playing songs and taking pictures on telephones and swaping files with flash drives. I was in my element in the company of a bunch of cool technogeeks...:)

3-07-07 Qwest Grant!

http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/QwestAwardees.aspx

I had no idea that they were announcing the Qwest Grant winners at the conference. I was just getting settled in for the opening key note speaker and not really listening to all of the announcements when I realized the lady speaking was announcing the Qwest Grant recipients. I was so excited to hear our names. I wanted to jump up and go call the school. But, I waited patiently through the keynote before going out and calling the school with the great news. This is 3 times our school FTE budget for technology this year so this is very exciting. I am already planning how we will implement the project.

3-8-07 Geocaching

http://ncce007.wikispaces.com/

I learned to Geocache at NCCE 3 years ago and now it is my favorite hobby. So I enjoyed going out and finding the caches hidden around the area. They had about 70 units to check out. (I brought my own.) I did a geocaching activity kind of like this with my kids last year. (I borrowed units from the ESD) I got some great ideas for improving my activity. We each had a booklet with a write up about each cache. In the cache there was a sticker for you to place your book. You had to find all 8 caches in order to be entered into a drawing for a GPS. They also had waypoints where you went to a sight and gathered information to answer questions. (This would be another neat thing to do with kids.)

3-07-07 Keynote Governor Angus King

One to One Computing

Former Maine Governor Angus S. King, Jr. was born in Alexandria, Virginia. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he received his LLB from the University of Virginia Law School in 1969.
King served as a legislative assistant to Senator William Hathaway before entering into private practice in Brunswick. From there, he became Vice President of the Swift River-Hafslund Company which developed alternative energy (hydro and biomass) projects in New England. He then founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc. which designed, installed, and operated large-scale electrical energy conservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities throughout south-central Maine.
Angus King was elected Governor of the State of Maine as an Independent in 1994, where he served for 8 years. During his tenure as governor, King focused on economic development and job creation, education, mental health services, corrections, land conservation and environmental protection, and improvements in service delivery by state government. As governor, he led the nationally recognized project to provide all Maine middle school students and teachers with laptop computers with a goal of making Maine people the best educated and most digitally literate society on earth.
Since leaving office, King has been employed as a Distinguished Lecturer at Bowdoin College and as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He continues his vocation as a lawyer with Bernstein, Shur of Portland, Maine and also works with Leaders, LLC, a Portland-based mergers and acquisitions firm. He serves on a variety of corporate and non-profit boards, including The Nature Conservancy, The Maine Learning Technology Foundation, Lee Auto Group, W.P. Stewart & Co., and Hancock Lumber/Hancock Land Companies.

One to One computers seems like an impossible dream. But I think that it did in Maine too. Governor King did a nice job of telling not just the things that went well, but the things that didn't quite worked as planned. I think that the biggest benefit was the equalizing effect among students.

3-08-07 Radio For Kids by Kids Tony Vincent

Radio for Kids, by KidsTony Vincent, Educational Consultant & Author,

The real power of podcasting comes from the creation of the audio programs that are posted online for a global audience. Learn about the making of two amazing podcasts: Radio Willow Web and Our City. Gain valuable instructional strategies, recording tips, and useful

http://www.learninginhand.com/
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/index.html

Tony Vincent does a podcast called Radio WillowWeb with students of all ages at an elementary school. Their podcast have become quite famous. He provided lots of great tips about how to organize it and how to make it sound good. I learned a lot about getting better sound from him. He uses a program called Levelator to level out the sound. He also suggests using a USB headset for recording. I liked his Our City podcast where schools from around the country make a podcast about their city following a certain format. These are then all linked together.

3-08-07 GPS Devices and Place Based Learning: Annette Lamb

GPS Devices and Place-based LearningAnnette Lamb, Professor, Indiana University

Explores ways GPS devices are integrated into classroom and community activities. Also, provides endless activity ideas and curriculum connections. http://eduscapes.com/omrp/gps.htm

I'm a geocaher AND we will be getting a class set of GPS units with our grant. Annette had lots of great activities for place based learning. One neat thing was a collaborative project where students all over the U.S. planted daffodils and then they recorded when the daffodils bloomed in their area. Another neat idea was to have a GPS journaling/art activity. Where students follow GPS directions to a place where they receive a writing or drawing prompt. They complete the activity and leave what they did to share with the next person and then they go to another point. She talked about kids creating interactive maps with points of interest in their community. Lots more cool ideas.

3-8-07 Keeping Up With the Googlebots: Patrick Crispin

Keeping Up With the Googlebots: What's New at GooglePatrick Crispen, Academic Technology Consultant, California State University, Long Beach

Hardly a week goes by that the evil scientists at Google's secret labs don't release some new or completely redesigned tool upon the unsuspecting public. In this one-hour session we'll attempt the impossible: We're going to try to catch up with all of -- or at least most of -- Google's latest inventions.

http://crispen.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/index.html
http://netsquirrel.com/
http://netsquirrel.com/powerpoint/complete.html

Patrick Crispin is always a lot of fun. He showed lots of neat things that you can find and do on google.

Here are some google prompts;

calculator = calc:
dictionary = define:
weather report= weather:zip code
movie times and reviews= movie:zipcode
Stocks= stocks:

at labs.google.com you can find lots of products that they are testing.
google.com/mars
moon.google.com
searchmash.com
notebook is a very neat way to compile research at google.com.gn
now on google maps you can get real time traffic reports for major cities like Seattle

3-08-07 Poetry in Motion: Jennifer Gingerich

Poetry in MotionJennifer Gingerich, Educational Technology Consultant & Trainer , Discovery Education

Use photos, sounds, music, and of course text, to express poetry with iMovie or Photo Story. Learn all the key elements of movie making by using a digital kit. Get tips for managing student projects. Then begin collecting media to create your own kit to match your next unit of instruction.

Handouts: http://web.mac.com/jennifergingerich

This was a hands on workshop with a simple idea of using media kits, poetry and PhotoStory to make digital poetry. I will definitely do this with my class.

Digitalkies

Our class has worked a lot with video this year. But this was our BIG project. The students were so excited when I called to tell them that they had won the elementary PSA category. We created the video to show at Heifer Night during the play. We have already decided that we will make this a tradition.

Exhibit Hall

http://www.prometheanworld.com/us/server/show/nav.2210

As usual, there were a lot of cool things to see in the vendor area. My husband always worries when I go to NCCE because he knows that I will come back with an idea of some tech tool that I just have to have. Well, this year I was really interested in the interactive whiteboards. I can see great applications for that. Another thing that I have been watching for years is the response systems. A few years ago, one of the venders let my try a set out for a month. The kids really loved it. At that time, I felt like it didn't fit my teaching style that well, but with new features, and the emphasis on data collection, these tools are pretty tempting. Unfortunately they all come with a pretty big price tag.

3-9-07 Claymation

Claymation Fascination, Across the Nation!Leslie Mcgoey, Technology Trainer, Tool Factory, Inc.


Using only a ball of clay and a digital camera, we'll show you how to make a clay character come to life. Shoot a sequence of digital photos to create frames of a mini clay-animated sprite. Free copy of MultiMedia Lab V (worth $99), plus a subscription to Elementary Zone.
http://www.toolfactory.com/

I wasn't very impressed with this presentation. They were mainly just selling a product. The presenters were disorganized and often stumped with questions. I did receive a copy of the software. My students will enjoy using it for clay animation. One interesting thing was the Olympus cameras they used. I guess they are about $200 and you can drop them, step on them, drop them in the water and they just keep ticking. This would be something to keep in mind when purchasing cameras for school.

3-9-07 Mixing Google Earth and Media: Hall Davidson

Staggeringly Good Things Mixing Google Earth and MediaHall Davidson, Director; Discovery Education


Make the real terrain of the earth an interactive tool. Embed it with videos, images, sounds, podcasts, and more! From Internet or hard drive files create fantastic trips through neighborhoods, history, science or literature. Insert student images. Create shareable projects with GoogleEarth user communities. Use special layers. Make and save small files or videos of your projects, too

http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/media_matters/2007/03/staggeringly_gr.html

Hall did a quick tour through Google Earth. Again, I was somewhat familiar with this since I had watched his presentation on Discovery Educator's Network. He did throw in some new neat things that I look forward to trying with my class. We just recently did a Google Earth tour but I would like to expand that even further. One idea is to attach sound files and the students have to guess what the sound is and when you click on it takes you to the location the sound came from and a photo and explanation. ex. a tree frog in the rain forest in Costa Rica. Another neat idea was to do a quiz. You ask a question and give them choices of destinations. When they choose a destination, it takes you there and tells you whether you got it right or not. Lots of neat ideas about using overlay maps and such as well.

3-9-07 Blogs, The Next Generation: Will Richardson

Blogs: The Next GenerationWill Richardson, Senior Partner, Connective Learning

A growing number of educators have been implementing Weblogs in their classrooms and schools, and that means that the uses and potentials of blogs are evolving and growing. We'll take a look at how blogs are changing, talk about how the technology of blogging is changing as well, and try to envision where blogs are going next.

http://weblogged.wikispaces.com/The+Future+of+Blogs

Will talked about all the new social networking applications on the web and the importance of schools teaching students how to use these tools wisely and safely.

3-9-07 Learning Legacy: Me

Creating a Learning Legacy: Incorporating Kid Created Multimedia Into Standards Based LessonsMartha Thornburgh, 5th Grade Teacher , Lincoln Elementary

Students show what they know by creating multimedia lessons on standards based content. These whiteboard movies, podcasts, videos and slide shows can be archived to use as teaching tools for future classes. Students learn while creating a learning legacy for others.

Learning Legacy Blog

My presentation was the last session on the last day. I was afraid no one would come, but there was a good group of teachers who attended. Teachers seemed to enjoy seeing samples of student media. Teachers had lots of good questions and comments. One teacher commented that he could see why I was awarded the Qwest Grant. That was very encouraging. I made a blog with my PowerPoint and a list of links and teachers followed along as I shared.

3-9-07 Closing Keynote: Will Richardson

A Shifting Notion of What it Means to Teach
Will Richardson is an internationally known "evangelist" for the use of Weblogs, RSS and related Internet technologies in classrooms and schools.
He is the author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom (Corwin Press, 2006), and over the past three years has spoken to thousands of educators on the merits of "The Read/Write Web."
A classroom teacher for over 20 years, he integrated these technologies into his curricula and his school over the past four years. In various Weblog projects, his students have collaborated with best-selling authors, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and with students in classrooms from around the world.
One of the first educator bloggers, his own Weblog at http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Syllabus and others, and it is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level.
His articles have appeared in Educational Leadership, English Journal and Principal Leadership, among others, and he has presented and given workshops about Weblogs and RSS and other technologies at national conventions such as the NECC, ASCD, Journalism Education Association and many others.
He is also a featured blogger at Ed Tech Insider (http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti) and is a regular on the bi-weekly "Ed Tech Coast to Coast Podcast" (http://www.edtechcoasttocoast.com/).


I follow Will Richardsons blog weblogg-ed so it was great to hear him speak. Actually, I had heard his speech before when I participated in a Webinar from Discovery Educators. It was still great to hear him speak. His ideas were part of my inspiration for our grant proposal. He talked about learning with wings. With the ReadWrite Web, students are able to participate and contribute to the knowledge base. They are the information age.

What Next

This has really been a great experience for me. It was so difficult finding the time to get my presentation together and get sub plans together for most of the week. But the experience was well worth it. I have learned so much and it has been great to be around so many innovative and creative people. It really energizes me to keep going that extra mile to be creative and do what I love. Will Richardson said that it is important for students to know how their teachers learn. I think that my students get to see me learning each day. I love teaching because I love children and I love learning.

So, what's next? Well, now I have a $10,000 grant to hold me to pushing the envelope and engaging my students in creative ways. I am already thinking about what I will present next year at NCCE.

I am hoping that I will be accepted to go to a Discovery Educators Summer Workshop this summer. This sounds like an incredible opportunity. The application will be coming out soon. I think that they said that there are 30 spots at each of of the workshops. We will see.