CTKTech Teach

What a thrill it has been to introduce Grades 4-8 to Google Apps for Education. Both teachers and students have been learning the ins and outs of online collaboration and benefiting from the ease of "cloud computing". Each teacher has used the tools differently, but all are seeing the great advantage of commenting on student work in progress. What a great way to give guidance and encouragement. It goes without saying that Miss McMillan and her seventh grade class have been the shining stars of this implementation. They are indeed the school's experts, and we have decided to take advantage of that expertise. The seventh grade students have worked hard to create a few tutorials to help you design your sites and use your Google tools. They are awesome! Thank you Seventh Grade!!

Learn how to embed questions using the question wizard.

Creative Writing flipchart

Check Promethean Planet for additional information and resources for Activexpresions and Activotes.

When using streamed video in the classroom you can run into bandwidth problems, so it is always a good idea to download your movie ahead of time. Saving a lot of movies on you computer can also create issues since desktop and documents folders get synced to the network. A good way to organize and archive your video is to create DVD's that you will have from year to year. Here is a step by step tutorial that shows how easy it is.

This week we have been exploring all the positive uses of Google Apps with our seventh graders. They have created sites (being used as e-portfolios), docs, and become responsible users of email. I can't praise these students enough for the awesome job they are doing with their Google Apps for Education accounts. Kudos to their teacher, Miss McMillan for her creativity, organization, and love of Web 2.0+!

Today I spent a great afternoon with a wonderful group of teachers at St. Martin dePorres in Oakland. We spent an afternoon looking at the tools of Activinspire, but the real excitement was to see two of the school's students take over the teaching.

Thank you Quante and Somto for sharing your enthusiasm.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting St. Joachim School. I was there to share my enthusiasm for the new Inspire software. I thank the principal for inviting me and the teachers for staying so late to learn the new tools and see some of the power of this engaging software. Here are some additional links and the flipchart we used. I look forward to returning soon.

Download these PDF files to follow along with today's presentation

Feel free to contact me with any questions

amassi@csdo.org

Area Events

Training Flipchart

Download the session flipchart

Download the magic eraser resource pack from Promethean Planet.

More tutorials can be found at Educator's Tool Kit a great site put together by Kim Imrie

I have waited several years for an OS X version of HyperStudio to be released. It is finally here and better than ever. With HyperStudio, students (and teachers) can create interactive presentations, podcasts, animations, and movies. It has been completely modernized for todays tech savvy students. To learn more go to the Mackiev site.

At the request of the K-2 teachers, we have added a keyboarding program appropriate for the primary grades, Type To Learn, Jr. It is our goal to have the students learn the keyboard by typing words and short sentences in a game like setting. Visit the Sunburst site for a complete description.

Also new this year is Stationery Studio. "It includes an easy-to-use word processor and library of inspirational designs to make writing fun and foster the ability to write about any subject." This program is sure to add pizzaz to student writing projects. Use it on the computer, or print the templates for handwritten lessons. View some samples at FableVision.

I'm Inspired! I spent four days last week in an intense workshop with Promethean Activinspire trainers and experts. I learned so much about the new Inspire software, I am ready to help develop flipcharts with teachers and am excited to begin teaching the basics to anyone ready to switch over to the new software.

At the end of June, all teacher computers were up to date with the newest software and resources. I hope you had some time to become familiar with the new interface. While the software still has some kinks, it has many great improvements. For some quick tips and tricks download this guide.

This film was created as the Keynote for  Net Generation Education Project. When kids at the Suffern Middle School were asked to talk about education and their future here's what they had to say.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink

DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Storiesby Bernajean Porter

Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age by Suzie Ross and Jane Krauss

Introduction

A brief introduction to using and finding your school blog pages.

This tutorial shows how to edit the content and settings on your page.