Twittering, podcasting, blogging, posting, reading, researching, keeping up with the news and sports, finding and communicating with friends, making new friends, buying and selling, comparing, writing, mashing, googling, binging, banking, investing, learning, sharing…. While reading my tweets today, I was reminded how much is available to us through technology. Take a few minutes to view a few of these links:

• Videos for using SMART boards in the classroom
• Videoconferencing to bring the world to students
• Marco Torres engaging students through digital media
• Essential tools for collaboration with students
• Teach literacy across the curriculum, fast and free
• Visual Bloom’s with 21st Century tools
• 15 things all classrooms should have
• Top 100 tools for learning by category
• 50 best inventions of 2009 – Time
• 24 things to do when launching a  new blog
• 60 second recap – 60 seconds to learn about a book or contribute a recap of your own
• 10 Gadgets to make Google Wave more productive and fun
• Google Wave reading list
• Students speak their minds through digital media

How long as it been since you have read Goethe’s Faust or another classic? There is no need to leave the comfort of your home; just visit one of the sites to read it online or download it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Developing the Web site reminded me of ways to integrate technology. The new Web site has an embedded Animoto short video of pictures taken with my Blackberry Storm after a tour of the new building under construction; free technology online is engaging — capture the attention of your students with a short Animoto video to introduce a lesson! One of the treasures here is the ability to integrate technology with little work or time involved on your part; or better yet, have your students take the pictures and create the video! I also worked with the new Renaissance Academy logo in FireWorks 8, a powerful program for editing graphics; our school has a site license of an older version, which is still very powerful.

Now, educators, imagine the impact on your students who live miles apart but are working on the same collaborative team on a group project for your class! Changes are made in real time; I watched as my colleague changed entries, figures, etc., and the spreadsheet updated for me as quickly as for her. Even students in the same classroom can work collaboratively on their own laptops or desktops  to create and edit. There is no need to make changes, wait, email, then wait, update changes and make more, then email, then wait… Work together in real time online! Does it get any better than this? Certainly it will, and Google or someone will find a way to do it and do it even better!

In addition, the final issue of the Connected Newsletter had an informative article on differentiated instruction, connecting technology, pre-assessment, and student interest. I was unable to locate the actual article, but in my search, I came across a site on differentiated instruction that you will want to read by Internet4Classrooms.

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One criticism of Wikipedia has been that it contains many articles and submissions that have not been verified. Now there is Wikipedia for Schools, an authenticated version of Wikipedia ; as expected, the articles have been checked for accuracy, suitability for school use, and may be viewed online or downloaded as a complete volume.