Friday, November 03, 2006

No EXPLORATORY Left Behind

The picture shows PE equipment designed to teach character education. The role of exploratory was addressed in this session by allowing each exploratory domain to break into a small group and share ideas using discussion questions. I met an innovative group of about 25 tech teachers and we all shared resources, lessons, & strategies. We will follow up by forming an email listserv! Went to session expecting to find info for my exploratory team but left deep in techno-innovation. Very good & interactive presentation!

Online predators

Very eye opening presentation on all of the tricks predators use to lure middle school kids. Just something as simple as accepting a file can provide a predator a map to your home via savvy IP tracking tools. I learned how to look at profiles to learn a kids true age no matter the age they claim. This is information our kids & parents need!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

School wide technology integration

The pictures you see here are attempts to share with you the amazing work at Keith Valley Middle School at Horsham, Pennsylvania.

Three years ago they decided to change from technology as a pull out skills based class to technology support labs for each content area. The way this works is each of their 3 tech teachers works with one grade level and schedules the lab for the content areas throughout the year. The tech teachers work with the content area teachers to plan & coteach an in depth tech infused activity. Every student then does a project using technology for each of their classes during the year.

I could literally go on for an hour describing the benefits of this approach. This school is maximizing tech resources to affect all content areas. The content area teachers are able to approach the lessons without stress of tech problems and the tech teachers can maximize student and access in a way which supports content learning.

The examples of student work created in this program are what really get you thinking (links to come soon). Full rigor and higher level thinking are very explicit in their interactive timelines, virtual museums and podcasts. So very cool.
I have so much more to say about this but my Palm keyboard needs a driver update so i'm thumbing this....

Don't worry...I will surely bring this up again.

Home away from home

Practice room at the Gibson guitar outlet provides a Cruces girl all she needs to cure the homesick Nashville blues. Thank you!

Frank Baker on Film

Just came from the session on ML with creator of the ML Clearinghouse, Frank W. Baker. I really connected with his message of using film to advance our curriculum goals and engage students in 21st learners. He offered a thorough overview of film as a vehicle for media literacy with dozens of resources @ http://www.frankwbaker.com

Now I'm off to learn about a schoolwide tech integration project!

NMSA Registration!

We are at the amazing Gaylord Convention Center. Huge...lots of people...about to start a session on media literacy. Can't wait!