Entries Tagged 'PISD' ↓

 Cross posted at Thoughts have Wings

Race Into Production
Jodi Andoe and Abby Rogers PISD
http://t4.jordandistirct.org/payattention
www whatever whenever wherever
teachers moving from dog and pony show to full fledged three ring circus with the teacher - not as the main act, but as the ringmaster
kids love to be center stage
ipods cameras phones
friend or foe?
combining what students have and what teachers have and making it work in the classroom
combine student interests and content for curriculum
provide students with info on available tools for multimedia
student engagement
reflection for deep learning
project based learning
effective integration of technology into instruction
differentiated instruction
centers, tiered lesson plans
advances photography and multimedia all the way down to basic ppt
works with all levels
critical thinking skills
technology TEKS
engages students
their minds wrapped around out content in a way they want to think about it
improved test scores
letting the students touch the learning
gather ideas - don’t re-invent the wheel
take tried and true projects and add a multimedia option to it
determine student needs and find their resources and skills
set timetable for completion
gather resources and hardware
what do you get when you mix CSCOPE Performance indicator’
students had a psp player, iPod, science closet, audacity, photostory movie maker and wax - made a rap video on global warming

used rubric that was in cscope and applied to multimedia project
what is the concept you want them to learn
rubric attributes
point of view
content
resources
curriculum alignment
organization
student cooperation
camera and images
titles and credits
sound
language
pacing and narrative
transitions and effects

make sure criteria is set beforehand and use the ribric
should be expressed in terms of observable product characteristics
scoring rubrics should be written in specific and clear language
statement of criteria must be fair and free from bias

green screen - green sheet from walmart taped to classroom wall
let kids teach you

audacity, wax 2.0 blender freeplaymusic photostory animoto
wax works with moviemaker and others
freeplaymusic - if burned to dvd becomes a copyright issue
animoto free 30 second video creation - can subscribe 19.00 year and get longer time and more options
handout includes cheatsheet of useful web 2.0 sites and free or opensource software

handouts will be available later on the TCEA site - I will post the link when it becomes available

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have Wings

writing safari TCEA09
Paula Alsup and Missi Downs
PISD

journey through the development of ten narrative compositions
all 4th grade students divided into groups circulate through the stations reviewing traits of well written writing compositions
technology used to record and save the group responses, select possible topics, survey attitudes about writing and extend writing activities
ten compositions well written goal

prep survey
groups
itinerary
teachers and assistants
lunch and recess
logistics
survey monkey
list of prompts students enjoy writing about
students take survey while rotating

eg imagine you were invisible for one day - write a story about that day

gives them some ownership

also survey of student attitudes - do they think they are a good writer
most difficult part
how they feel when asked to write a story
anonymous except for by homeroom - collects data

redo survey after TAKS to see if attitude changed

Import student and teacher names from winschool - number off student into random groups

use find and replace to convert numbers to team names (eg Galloping Gazelles)
have teachers check for discipline problems that fell together (head off possible problems)
inclusion students in one group so assistant can go with them (without grouping together they found it was problematic for the assistants to jump from group to group

Printed itinerary - group names, times, destinations
printed out badges and the groups even eat lunch together

pulled in volunteers from other grades and some parents
assistants can be anybody to run a document camera, type and save to the network

teachers use a powerpoint to review traits
assistants manage the technology
homeroom teachers distribute the group assignments
campus tech - ensure all technology in place and working

tshirts and pith helmets from oriental trading for teachers and assistants
principal does a kick off so the kids know this is important enough to the principal to give up a day of instruction

1 laptop connects to doc camera and data projector
word ppt and thinking map software
may use poster for prewriting
extension cords and powerstrips
folders on network for each group and folder with writing components ppt so all can access
copy of ppt on desktop of teacher computer for faster access

homeroom teachers have a 1 hour block to do lunch and recess
students attend rotation during regular time
may need to adjust time for lunch for available cafeteria space

writing ppt
written by writing teachers and tech specialist
include district curriculum terminology and thinking maps
saved to the server

The Elephant Walk - Planning
reading prompt
brainstorm real imaginary pretend
use a bubble map
prompt in the middle
magnify
Intro and beginnings
who when where
the teachers get to move through the different pieces with each new group instead of having to teach the same thing over and over all day

Organization and transitions (Zebra Zone)

transitions phases

a couple of paragraphs of story

Voice - what is it?
fingerprint of the paper
create a movie in the readers mind
students are getting to hear things from other teachers
dead words

A cheetah conclusion
ending - draws all the story together, resolves conflicts
what did you learn from story
what do you hope or wish for because of events in the story
Lets write!
the last group - the teachers will have worked with the students writing 5 stories

all ten stories are printed out and each student will have a copy, students journal or blog about their experience
survey monkey
students use rubric to score each groups compositions, identify strengths and areas that need improvement
students write an independent narrative using strategies and ideas they have learned during safari

Everything is on their webpage - all handouts, ppts
http://paulaalsup.blogspot.com/

The building that I work in has come together and become a community. The yearly Homecoming Door Decoration Contest became the “Whole Hall” decorating contest for our building.  The kids had a great time and instead of just decorating doors, there were records hanging from the ceiling, streamers on the walls, posters and of course the winning door (Mrs. Davis jukebox and 2nd place her neighbor, Mr. Johnson). All became more than just decorating.  Our kids bonded and became a community within the larger community of the school.

It just goes to show you - we are all big kids who still like to color, cut, and paste and win contests.   This might seem like a small thing, but this sense of community may set the tone for us for the rest of the year and while it is not the answer to everything it will certainly help.  Our students had fun and were proud of the results and there are already juniors who are asking what they will get to do next year.

The teachers are feeling positive and are already talking about the next “hall project”.  That positive attitude and the sense of community will spill over into the rest of the school and while the decorations are nice, I am most proud of our teachers for the non-tangible thing that was created here.  I “heart” you guys!

Click this link to access a form.  Fill out the form to tell me what your issue is and where you are!

PHS Support

The 406 lab is open until 5:00 every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and some Wednesday’s til 6:00.  May 16th is the deadline for you to get your hours in and have a nice four day weekend including May 23!

We have access to wonderful web-based tutorials and I can sign you up for an account.  Bring your headphones if you have them and finish up your credits - we would all rather be home having a BBQ than sitting here in a computer class!

I’ll be sending out emails to you to let you know where you stand so come see me and lets get this done!!

How do I get to the internet using my Mac?The Mac comes with it’s own internet browser called Safari. Look for the icon that looks like a compass. Things will look very similar to any other time you have gone to the internet. Whether you have used Internet Explorer or Firefox you will see the webpage, a box that contains the URL or web address, and buttons for maneuvering around. Here is a screenshot that is typical of what you will see:

On the left you see the three little round buttons that let you close/minimize, or maximize. Just below them you will see arrows for going backwards or forwards. A button to refresh the page (looks like a circular arrow) and a plus sign which lets you add the current website to your bookmarks (favorites)

Down on the right bottom corner there is a little triangle with lines across it. You will notice that when you click the maximize button in Safari it doesn’t fill the entire screen. You can drag that triangle to make the window even larger.

If you are like me and even the bi-focals are not quite enough anymore there are a couple of key shortcuts that you will love. Command (apple) key and the plus sign makes the text on a webpage bigger. You can press the key combination several times to get things large enough to read. To go back to the normal size just press command (apple) key and the minus or dash sign. If you don’t like keyboard shortcuts you can do the same thing by going to view on the toolbar and clicking make text bigger or smaller.
There is another way to make things easier to see. First practice scrolling by using two fingers on your trackpad. You can drag two fingers towards you or away from you on the trackpad to scroll. If you do this (or use your mouse scroll wheel) while holding down ctrl you will be able to zoom in to particular areas of the screen. Just move the wheel or scroll with two fingers, away from you.
To go back to normal just scroll towards you.

This zooming technique works on everything - not just Safari.

As in everything on the Mac - you can always click help on the toolbar and find answers to your questions there.

There is a box to the right of the URL where you can type words to search for.

If you decide Safari is not your cup of tea you can install Firefox for the Mac. Next time I will talk about how to install an application so you can do just that!

I will be posting on using the Mac for the next few weeks and if you have a question I will be glad to try to find answers for you.

I didn’t get to attend this presentation - it was one of those time-slots when I needed a few clones to attend several sessions at the same time. Through the magic of technology I can still hear and “see” the presentation! After “attending” online I am very excited about the real event!

If you will go to Mrs. Alsup’s web presence there is a link on the sidebar to 2008 TCEA Presentation which will let you download the entire PowerPoint. You can view the PowerPoint and listen to the presentation at the same time -there is also a Podcast online - just click this link and put on your headphones - the Podcast lasts about 40 minutes. Writing Safari Podcast

There were only five presentations up at Conference Connections from TCEA so kudos to some of our own for being up there!

• Double click in the box where the student’s name appears and using the back arrow, move to the tilde and delete it

• * This makes the student “active” again

• Now you can highlight the student(s) you have just made active and go to report/individual report

• Print out report(s) to give the teacher they have transferred to

• Close gradebook and re-open and the tilde’s should be back making the student “inactive” in your gradebook

• You can give those reports to the new teacher so they will have a copy of the student’s grades - when a student transfers from one teacher to another their information moves with them but not their grades.

Thanks to Mrs. McCuen for the steps to do this!

Next week I am planning on attending TCEA 2008 in Austin. Dale is doing well and I will be a cell phone call away. I am looking forward to learning some new things and meeting some folks that I have till now known only through blogging.

I plan, as I did last year, to blog my notes. If you do not blog and are going to be attending this year from PISD, I would love to have you as a “guest blogger”! Just let me know if you are interested and we can arrange for your notes/reflections on the conference to appear as a guest post by you to share with the rest of the district.

If you are a blogger I have a few tips for you. Take good notes making sure you have the session name, presenter name, and school district if applicable. Check out HitchHikr - a site that will aggregate posts that are tagged for specific conferences. There is no tag yet so you might want to check back - it will be something like TCEA08. If you tag our post with the HitchHikr tag it will make it easier for people who didn’t attend the same sessions to find your notes. As conference attendees start posting and tagging, the posts will show up on the HitchHikr site and there will be an RSS link so you can subscribe if you like and read other posts. This is a great way for all of us to get the most out of the conference and share the information with folks in the district who couldn’t attend.

There is a great post at Lunch Over IP on tips for conference blogging with links to other articles if you are interested in reading more about this. They have even created a PDF booklet you can download. There are two versions and I have included one here.

conferenceblogging_zuckerman-giussani_a4_color_booklet.pdf

Stop by Lunch Over IP blog and leave a thank you comment if you find this useful. I’m excited about the conference and can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Also posted at Thoughts Have Wings

If you have plugged in your flash drive and opened My Computer and found that it is not in the list of drives then chances are I can help!

Right click on My Computer - Click manage

Double click Disk Management

Right click the flash drive and click Change Drive letter and paths

Make sure the drive letter you assign it is not one that is mapped to something like your gradebook drive or your documents on the server.

Done!