I have just come across the best online spelling site ever called Spelling City.  As a teacher you can create an account (for free), create your spelling lists, and have students practice their spelling words, play spelling games with the words, listen to the words being spoken, and actually take a spelling test.  The test is then scored and the results can be printed out showing the incorrect spelling - corrected spelling and the score in a percentage.

Actually one teacher at a grade level can enter the word list and all the students at that grade level can then use the list.  Students do not need an account, they just find the list by teacher name or list name.  You can also vary the number of words on a list.  

What a unique way to address spelling in the classroom.  Oh, and by the way, students can also access this from home to practice!

Check it out:

[Click to view link] 

Another great video from Thacher Digital Classroom in Ojai this summer.

 

Through the last year I have been asked about additional training for teachers on the Smart Board.  In most cases teachers have received the initial training when the boards are set up as to how to connect, troubleshoot, and use the tools.  There usually isn't additional integration training for teachers which is probably the most important part of developing lessons and improving student achievement.

Many teachers think that the boards come equipped with lessons, which they don't.  They do have interactive activities, but it's the teachers who must develop the lessons aligned to the curriculum they are teaching.  More ...

We just finished our video assignment for our Trainer of Trainers class. Guess we're over achievers as we are the first finished.  Our goal was to make a video as a training example for when we conduct training sessions.  The video we created was to show teachers how easy it would be to integrate technology into their curriculum lessons.

Here it is.

 

I've been spending this week up at The Thacher School in Ojai, CA.  It's about an hour and a half from Saugus over the hill from Santa Paula off the 126.  We started on Sunday afternoon and have barely stopped except for meals.  

Some of the training has been repetitive for me, but a lot is a new exciting experience.  I've learned how to use the Goggle apps, Google pages (website), and Moodle. today is Multi-Media day.  One of the great things is that soon all teachers in Saugus will have access to California Streaming, with California standards based content to use in their classrooms.  More on that in coming months.

Saugus is so lucky to have 16 teachers attending, with 3 of us in the trainer workshops and 13 in the Digital Classroom workshops.  Everyone seems to be having a great time.

Today classes let out at 3:15 and those who wish can take the bus in to downtown Ojai. I'm hanging around the campus to work on both training projects and Saugus projects.

Maybe I'll even try to catch up on some sleep. 

Now that NECC is over and I've had a little time to absorb and reflect on some of the sessions I was able to attend, I've been following up with some  of the information I gathered. 

One of the sessions was about 21st Century Learners by Ian Jukes.  Jukes has a great website called the Committed Sardine.  If you want to know more about that, I'll let you do the search, it's not difficult to find.  He is a powerful, interesting and energetic speaker to say the least.  I must thank Jim for the recommendation.

Through his website I came across the following video that I think, without a question, is worth a  view.  A reminder that if we need our students to WANT to attend school, we have to make some changes in how we teach.  And that alone can make a huge difference in their learning.

 

 

 

In some ways today was a little disappointing as 2 of the sessions I wanted to attend were full way before the session was supposed to start.  I guess with 18,000 people it's difficult to know what to expect in room sizes for sessions.  

Moodle and "bring your own laptop" sessions seem to be at the top of the list.  As an optimist, I hope tomorrow will bring better luck.  Our presentation is at 11am, the first for the day after the second keynote.  Unfortuniatly I have to pass on the keynote to get set up for the session.  

I did attend a couple of good sessions (got some great classroom activities using PowerPoint in unique ways) and met some more new friends from Indiana.  I'm trying to absorb all that I am learning from others as this is also my training ground.

One new tidbit I picked up today emphasizing how fast technology is moving is that the Internet as we know browsers (Firefox, Explorer) has only been in existence for 17 years.  The first browser being Mosaic.  

I haven't mentioned the exhibit hall.  I did spend about an hour there today in two different segments.  Way overwhelmming.  Not sure I want to go back.

Today it's my head that hurts.

This year the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) is in San Antonio.  For me it's both a little work and vacation as I've never been to San Antonio before.  If you can ignore the heat and humidity, along with thunderstorms expected any time now, it's a beautiful town.  

We've walked to the Alamo, the Riverwalk, Mission San Fernando and already been to events at the Convention Center.  Yesterday afternoon in front of the Alamo there was a bull riding event.  Interesting being close up to a real Brahma bull.

 

As far as tech events yesterday I participated in a unique "unconference" called the edubloggercon. More ...

For any of you who have followed our 2 "blogging" communities, you will have noticed the explosion in the use of the Student Community.  If you haven't, please take a look.  

The two Saugus learning landscapes provide teachers and students a place to connect, collaborate and, especially for students, provide them with a place to post their creative works for an authentic audience. 

We have students posting from first to sixth grade, and David Lindsay's sixth graders have recently been very creative with posting essays, classroom designs, and Roman mosaics.

The one huge incentive for all these posts has been the comment area.  Just think how great it is to have your work reviewed and commented on.  For Saugus teachers, if you are interested in having your students participate in the Student Community, let me know, I'd be glad to help.  If you are outside the Saugus USD, let me know anyway.  I can always direct you to a resource to get you started.  We love to collaborate here.  

A few of us were fortunate to have the opportunity  to attend a one day conference in Long Beach created by Technology and Learning, called Tech Forum.  The highlight of the forum for me was the chance to hear Alan November, an educational consultant,  believed to be the first major educator to embrace modern web technologies commonly referred to as Web 2.0 in elementary, middle, and high schools.(Wikipedia)  My post title is a quote from his presentation on Friday.

Among many things that he covered were giving students the "courage to have a global voice".  Amazingly enough, that is just what Saugus USD has done with its Student Community.  More ...

I've been playing around with the recording process on the Interwrite Pad.  This can also be done with any interactive white board.  Jim and I have been working on compressing the size of the files and converting them to Quicktime for easy access and posting on websites, wikis, and in the Communities. 

So here is my lesson on Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor.

 

I've also found that without any of the classroom tools, you can use Sketchcast to record your lesson.  More ...

There are constantly new tools available for teachers and students.  With teachers moving away from the front of the room with the use of slates - Interwrite Pads, Wacom Pads and Airliners, one of the newer tools being piloted in various school districts across the United States is the eeePC.  This Ultra Mobile Device (UMD) looks like a shrunken laptop.  It is Linux based, boots in 20 seconds, is wireless and contains all the Internet access and productivity tools a student needs in a one to one computing environment.  One of the great things is that with no moving parts (example: CD drive) it is very durable.  A good thing around students.

They are even selling them at Costco.  The more memory, the higher the cost, but the basic version, which is quite sufficient is $300. 

Below is a picture. 

 

 

Some of our teachers have found it motivating for students to post or read their writing and poetry.  This give the students an authentic audience to comment on what they have done.  The only problem here is the lack of comments on the Student Community.  

If you have a little time to take a look at what our students are doing on the Student Community, please take a moment and comment on a student's work.  You can even have your students comment on their work.  There is no need for an account or log in, jut click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the student post and scroll down to the comment area.  We do ask that you do identify yourself in at least a general way, like "A Saugus 4th grade teacher", "an interested parent", or "a North Park student".

Don't expect the comment to show up immediately as all comments have to be cleared by the students' teacher first.  

It's amazing what a few words of encouragement can do.

Here's the link to the Student Community

[Click to view link] 

Thanks,

Arlene 

At the moment Desiree Spang and I are at the TRLD 2008 conference in a very rainy San Francisco.  This conference focuses on how technology is used to assist struggling students.  One of the big topics here is RTI which is on all our minds.

There have been some very interesting and helpful sessions with lots of ideas.  Then again,  as at all conferences, there are some presentations that can definitely use a little more focus. Desiree and I presented on her Spang Gang, but I'll leave it to her to post and tell you how it went.  My new tech innovation that I am learning about is Voice Thread.  More on that later.

Arlene 

Recently I've been asked about varying websites for teachers who wanted to integrate technology into their lessons.  Even places to have students use in the classroom during group rotations.  I've decided to periodically list a few that I come across that can easily be bookmarked for students and teachers to use.

First is the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives.  This site is great.  It's broken down by standard strand and grouped by grade level.  Students can use these activities on a stand alone computer, with an interactive whiteboard, or a wireless mouse pad like the iPen, Airliner or Interwrite pad.  

Try out the Money activity in the 3rd grade  number sense section. 

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

 

Next is not so much a website, but a newsletter with links to multiple themed websites.  Eduhound is part of T.H.E. Journal (Technology Horizons in Education) and focuses on the classroom. You will receive a weekly newsletter with information on the current theme.  The link below is the current edition with a calendar theme.  Check it out.

http://www.thejournal.com/the/newsletters/eduhound/currentissue/ 

 

Heres' one more that is a great Literature one.  It's called Lit2Go.  The University of South Florida has created hundreds of grade level mp3s that can be downloaded or just listened to on the web.  Everything from classics to poetry like Three Blind Mice. A great listening center.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Literature/Poetry/Lit2Go-Audio-Files-for-4th-Graders/23885

 

I hope these websites are helpful.  Please feel free to post information about great websites you know about.  I'll be posting more later.

Arlene 

There have been many conversations of late about Smartboards, and other new hardware to add to classes.  It’s great to have all these things in the classroom, but it’s also very unfortunate to see the initial enthusiasm wane after teachers realize that most of the hardware requires curricular input to align to our texts and to design lessons to communicate the curriculum.  And this takes time, a very precious commodity in a teacher’s life.

 

I want to be perfectly clear here that I have nothing against Smartboards.  In the hands of a teacher who puts in the time to access lessons aligned to the curriculum, and allows their students the opportunity to interact with the board, I think they are great.  But too often the interactive part of the board (and this applies to all brands) is done only by the teacher without any student involvement except to watch.  How does this change what we are already doing by standing up in front of the class?  And “canned” lessons do not always stress standards as needed.More ...

I've been thinking about this for several days after reading Jim's posted questions about the effect, or lack of effect, of the various student improvement software that is used.  I know that here in Saugus we have Reading Counts, Read 180, Read Naturally, Study Island, and several other programs used both in the classroom and in Intervention sessions.

At the moment I think the results are still out.  Mostly because there is more to improving student achievement than just providing software programs that taunt their expertise.  Don't get me wrong, I do believe that these programs can definitely make a difference in student achievement, but there is more to just providing software for students to use.

 We have become so entrenched in teaching the curriculum we often don't look at the assessment data that should drive our curriculum and intervention.  Do we need a reading program that emphasizes comprehension when what some students need is word analysis and vocabulary?  Do we need a math program that works on application  when students don't know their basic math facts?   Unless we take the time to determine what each child needs in our classrooms - using just the STAR data, or using Edusoft - and following up with regular benchmarks to determine that the students have mastered the standard, we will never be able to provide in class, or out of class, intervention to improve student achievement.   

There are plenty of software programs out there that provide the necessary skills for students to improve as long as we know what a student needs.  For those students who have participated in consistent intervention directed at their individual needs and where benchmarks have been taken, it would not surprise me that their scores have improved.

 

For those of you posting podcasts in either the Teacher Community or the Student Community I recently came across a bug that sometimes prevents the playing of podcasts from the "View All Posts" area.  Jim has told me that it happened several weeks ago with the latest update of Firefox.  I haven't tried yet, but if someone is using IE (Internet Explorer) it may not be a problem.

When a person goes to listen to a podcast in the "View All Posts" listing, it won't play.  If they click on the post icon, and go to the actual post area for that person, they can play the podcast just fine.  If you are notifying anyone of the web address to find yours or your students' podcasts, make sure you give them the address of the actual post.  Click on the Podcast title to get there.

Hope this helps.

Arlene 

For any who use the Teacher Community you may at times need to add a hyperlink to your blog to share with others.  I noticed when I went to do this the other day that the hyperlink icon is shaded out.  On my query Jim explained that to activate the hyperlink all you need to do is to highlight  the item you wish to hyperllink and the icon becomes active.  Once active you can create the hyperlink.

 I hope this provides helpful to you.

Arlene 

For those of you who make use of this great source, I wanted to let you know that it has changed names.  Marco Polo is now Thinkfinity.  Verison, who ownes and manages the site, has left the main portion of the site as it always has been with the various subjects and curriculum  links, but plans to expand the site even further.  If you have never checked out this site, please do.  There is everything from interactive lesson plans to great downloadable maps. 

Here's the link:
www.thinkfinity.org

Skyblue Mesa students and their teacher Shannon King presented their video work on Ancient Egypt at the Computer Using Educator's Student Showcase in Palm Springs this last weekend, March 3rd.  The student Showcase is one of the popular events at the conference.
I've included a picture of their booth.

For those who recently attended my session at the CUE Conference in Palm Springs, March 1-3, or the session at theTech Ed Conference in Ontario, March 28th, and want to access the documents that are available to assist with implementation of podcasting in your classroom, I have assembled them here.
Arlene

Avatars application/msword
Ideas for Podcasting application/msword
permission slip application/msword
Info on Open Technologies application/pdf
Hosting Podcasts application/msword
Editing Podcasts and blogs application/msword
Where in the World application/pdf
Using Audacity application/msword

For those interested in the Karl Fisch PowerPoint that I played at the beginning of my presentation, here is the link:
http://scottmcleod.typepad.com/dangerouslyirrelevant/2007/01/go

Teachers,
I've been receiving the Eduhound online ezine for a while.  There are times that it has been tremendously helpful with unique resources.  This month it features some great museum resources.  Here's the link:

Arlene

http://www.eduhound.com/ewarchives/011107ew.html

So the day is over and I'm about to crash and burn.  I was able to visit each of the hosting sites and at least one session at each site, and I must say the response has been very positive.  A big thank you to all the trainers who took their time to share each of their expertise areas with those who attended the sessions. 
There have already been requests for additonal Incentive workshops for Teacher Websites lead by Randy Weber, and Kidspiration lead by Sharon Wagner.  If you are interested in this or something else, please email me.

With only minor technology glitches, the day went smoothly, and our Teacher Community has grown from 220 teachers at the beginning of the day to around 280 or more at the end of the day with teachers blogging and podcasting. 

I wanted to add to this a little about the counts for the day.  There were 6 sites participating at 8 locations around the District, 210 computers in use, 165 teachers, 13 exceptional trainers  and 27 sessions offered.

Along with all this fabulous pre Academy IT support and help from the Curriculum Office in preparing much of the training materials and support.  A big thank you to all involved.

The goal of the day was to assist teachers with ideas to integrate technology into their curriculum and expand knowledge in new technology experiences. I do think that goal was met.
I hope you enjoyed your experience.
Arlene

I have to say that it doesn't surprise me that Saugus  was recognized as a 2006 Enterprise All-Star in Network World magazine.  This all had to do with the expanding use of our Teacher Community.  As a matter of fact Saugus has been recognized several times this year for the technology innovations that have been implemented. 
When you take the time to look around we have some amazing things going on in our District.  If you haven't yet explored the Student Community Beta version to listen to student created podcasts, or read original student writing, please take a minute to do so.  The students will also love to have comments made on their projects.  There is everything from lesson reviews to 2nd grade story reading being created in podcasts.
Students are taking the time to read each other's work and listen to what their peers have to say.  All this helps to build fluency, comprehension, self-confidence, and listening skills.  Just what we want to see.
Arlene