Betty’s Bytes

Do not let the word “podcasting” be intimidating. Podcasting can be as simple as recording a daily lesson as it is presented and posting it somewhere for others to access; how nice would that be for a student who missed a lecture or explanation of an assignment or theory! There is little work at all on the part of the teacher — and how appealing is that?

Podcasting has been a topic of Betty’s Bytes on several occasions; click here to read some of the previous posts. ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) has recently published a new book on podcasting Educator’s Podcast Guide, which can be ordered; but, I do have Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms available for checkout. There are many articles online to assist you in preparing for podcasting; ones from educational sites such as this one from THE Journal will be the most beneficial.

In our school, the library has a room with a computer that will provide a quiet place for recording; so while some students are working on preparing for their podcasts, others can be recording and editing. Students take ownership of the products that they create, so you will find that students do much more analyzing, editing, and revising that they have ever done with the written assignment; you will want to allow extra time for this process.

Although we have PC’s at work, I am an Apple person at home. My latest discovery is a drawing program for my Mac called Seashore, available as a free download from SourceForge. No artist am I, but I have had such fun exploring the program and making my first drawing.

scenic view

The PC’s at school have drawing programs such as Paint and FireWorks, for which we have a site license. Imagine the creativity you can unleash in your students by allowing them to use the technology available to enhance their assignments.

Outstanding educators

The new Renaissance Academy has many outstanding educators including Mrs. Amanda Ash, the Virginia Beach City Public Schools Teacher of the Year, Mr. Gabriel Wetmore, Virginia Beach Central Academy Teacher of the year, and many former teachers of the year from their respective schools.

Resources for teachers

The Teacher Forum Leadership Council in partnership with Virginia Beach City Public Schools has announced the continuation of the National Speaker Series open to teachers and administrators. 

The first event for the 2009-2010 National Speaker Series features Dr. Tim Tyson speaking on ”An Irresistible Vision of Global Contribution” on Thursday, October 8, 2009, from 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m., at Landstown High School. Having participated in a Tim Tyson workshop, I recommend that you try to attend this event. His presentation will emphasize leveraging meaningfulness, significance, and the gift of contribution with the tools available to us; he will include a generous number of powerful, student-made examples. Dr. Tyson’s students have designed their digital media to be deeply moving and to convey a substantive message in a compelling way that calls for thought and action from everyone who experiences their work. They beg us all to rethink a mindset that underestimates the capacity in our children to have an international voice that can make our world a better place!

This exciting event is open to all VBCPS Teachers and Administrators.  Register online at http://www.vbcps.com/ for the National Speaker Series: Tim Tyson (PROF 0083-09-001).  Participants will earn 2 PDP points.  Seats are limited; don’t miss your opportunity to see Dr. Tyson discuss his impressive work with students.  

A little overwhelmed, but excited…

Most ITRT’s (Computer Resource Specialists in our district) are overwhelmed at the beginning of a school year, especially one in which almost all software has been updated — from Office 2003 to Office 2007, SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007, an old version of Pinnacle to Pinnacle 7 online and live for parental viewing, Read180 and SchoolNet with Outreach teacher Web pages, no more LANDesk and a new SCCM. In addition, we Renaissance Academy CRS’s are discovering something almost daily that needs to be installed, updated, created, or fixed as a result of combining schools to become the Renaissance Academy. Although overwhelming at times, it is an exciting endeavor; we are excited about our new school and are looking forward to the physical move at the end of 2009 to a new, innovative, green school. Come January, we look forward to welcoming all to our new facility at 5100 Cleveland Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23462.

Blogging has become so common that it is nearly impossible to keep up with the blogs that may pique your interest. I subscribe to RSS feeds of some of those that interest me, and yet I still have difficulty reading all the few subscriptions. On the whole, I try to keep up with ITRT blogs and news feeds, but that is impossible. There are just too many sources of information to begin to read them all, so I just pick and choose and few, occasionally adding a new source.

This week I am presenting blogging to the Library Media Specialists in Virginia Beach. My goal is to cover the basics in 2 hours and have each participant leave with a “work in progress.” As I reviewed the procedure for establishing a blog, I was reminded that it takes very little to actually have a blog up and running; other technical people have done most of the work. Basically, you need to sign up, sign in, make a title and post your first article. VOILA! You have a blog!

Reviewing the procedure over the course of the last two weeks, I am reminded that there are many links on a blog that seem very similar and some that you really do not need to use or even visit on a regular basis. It is, however, fun to make the blog your own – adding pictures, backgrounds, Voki’s, and widgets. With time, we’ll explore some of what makes each blog unique.

As a parent and an educator, I am outraged at the lack of common sense exhibited by the Virginia Department of Education in its refusal to grant a waiver to the SOL requirements to Ms. Lauren Cootes at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach. Please read the following article if you are unaware of the situation involving her illness and inability to take an SOL test. “Give the girl her diploma.” Does anyone at VDOE have any common sense? Is there no compassion in Richmond? What in the world is wrong with educated people in power that they have no ability to use common sense in an exceptional situation?

Congratulations to Kerry Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot for shedding light on this travesty. SOL standards have been established to ensure that our graduating seniors have a minimum amount of knowledge as they leave our high schools; certainly this is not the case here. I have asked the governor to please “use [his] influence to overturn the decision made by some idiot in the Virginia Department of Education. Failure to graduate Lauren Cootes from Frank W. Cox High School would be a mockery of what we in education expect of our students.”