Putting It All Out There with Technology

Rock Creek teachers have been very busy integrating technology and taking risks in the way communication with parents is implemented. No longer are Friday mornings filled with wait time at the copier to send home the newsletter. Instead, teachers are going green and choosing to e-mail the newsletters home each week. In lieu of the typical newsletter, teachers such as Amy Cassady are updating a blog with important information. This allows parents to “follow” the site, get real-time updates on what happens in the classroom and a peek into the real world of their students in class.

Other updates in lieu of the classroom newsletter? Twitter has been a solution for Melissa Flatt to have the real time update with a quick one or two sentences to celebrate, remind, inform, or clarify.

A few other tech highlights for Rock Creek include the new Yearbook Staff. This is the first year that 3rd and 4th graders have the opportunity to lead the school utilizing cameras, computers to upload the pictures, format and meet the deadline! It is exciting to not only give younger students a chance to participate in something with a definitive, end-result product, but also to own that responsibility and support the use of technology to create a life-long memory while promoting leadership in the building. This also extends to the student-led Rock Creek News Network with student driven stories and reports to build community and share information within our building for students and staff. The boys and girls learn how to use the video camera and cut, edit, and produce a video to share with the school highlighting school events.

Rock Creek, like other schools in our district, is starting to put it all out there and utilize the different avenues of technology, whether it is teacher-driven with blogs, student-driven with equipment, or a combination of both!

Geek Squad at Cedar River Middle School

Several seventh graders at Cedar River Middle School are part of the school’s one-year-old “Geek Squad." This small group of creative students began to learn the art of video production last year. These same students have continued their work this year - writing storylines, videotaping, creating original music and editing video footage using the iLife suite on the school’s iMacs and MacBooks. They enjoy being in front of the camera as well as the behind-the-scene process. Under the supervision of teachers Amy Hulme and Jennifer Yegge the club meets two times a week after school. These fun loving, talented and cool kids have redefined the meaning of being “a geek."

Managing Your Online Privacy

This post comes to you courtesy of Crystal Hess, teacher at Tahoma High School. It was originally posted on her blog Maybecrystal and is reproduced her with her permission. Thanks, Crystal!

Recently I added a Facebook fan box to our school web site that spotlights our district's Facebook page. The box shows 4 members at random inside the box. Someone at the district level pointed out that by clicking on one of the featured members you are taken to that person's profile page and teachers might not appreciate being found so easily... so we should take down the box. I counterpointed by saying this is a teaching point for people using Facebook (or other social networking sites) and we should be informing teachers that this is happening and how to prevent it instead of "protecting" the teachers by removing the box.


So here's my attempt at explaining some privacy issues and some ways that you should protect yourself.

Be aware of the privacy policies of sites you are using.

On Facebook specifically, here are a few things I hope you're aware of and utilize.

A) Check your privacy settings and set most of your information to "only friends." Did you realize that if your information is set to "everyone" that when you "fan"/"like" a page then the administrator of that group can add a fan box (as I described above) to a web site and your profile can be featured and clicked on and your information will be public for all to see?

B) Learn how to utilize friend lists to give different groups of people different access rights to your information. For example, my students are all on their own "students" list and I block personal information such as web site, phone number, and address from them.

C) Decide if you want to be publicly searchable by search engines. I don't, but I do allow people to search for me within Facebook so that they can add me as a friend.

Did you know that the Library of Congress is archiving public tweets?


Take a look at your Twitter settings too. I let people search for me by my e-mail address so they can request to follow me, but I don't keep my tweets public or add location to them. (I'm actually much more selective about who I follow/allow to follow me on Twitter than I am with Facebook--in general only people in Seattle or family I connect to via Twitter.)

I show my students this ACLU Pizza Palace video in class and we discuss privacy issues and how to check these settings. I suggest you check your own settings and maybe even Google yourself and see what you discover.

Technology is awesome, but make sure you're protecting your privacy.

If you're in my school district and would like some coaching on protecting your privacy I'd be glad to set up a one-on-one with you sometime in June or over the summer to help you out.

Note: Another learning opportunity about this important issue is the 10Tech Summer Conference. Rob Morrow, Jr., teacher at Tahoma High School, will be teaching a class on managing your digital privacy during session 4D on Wednesday, June 23.

A New Outlook on Planning

Earlier this year, Tina Newbrey and Melissa Morlock at Lake Wilderness started to use an Outlook calendar for planning and keeping track of lessons. Each teacher created a new calendar that has the job of storing their lessons for each week. Both teachers state that their favorite thing about using this instead of a paper plan book is that they have access to the calendar anywhere. This came in handy earlier this winter when Melissa was sick and had to plan from home. Other benefits of using the Outlook calendar include the ability to color code different subject areas, you can set reminders for different lessons, and re-scheduling lesson plans is less complicated.

If you need help setting up a new calendar in Outlook, see a 10Tech Teacher Leader in your building.

Advertised Programs: Google Earth and Picasa Have Arrived

Just this week both Google Earth and Picasa (a photo editing program) were added to the growing number of programs offered to certificated staff laptops through Advertised Programs. We are particulalry excited to offer staff Picasa because it works with the integrated camera in your laptop. Yes, now you can take your picture and capture video with your laptop! If you're likely to install Picasa, visit the Advertised Programs page of this blog to find out more.

What's an Advertised Program?

“Advertising programs” is how we are providing optional programs (e.g. iTunes, Google Earth, etc.) for certificated staff laptops. Individual users determine whether or not to download and install these programs based on their particular needs. To find your advertised programs follow this path: Start→Control Panel→Programs→Run Advertised Programs. Then, select and run the programs you’d like to install. (This 3-minute video shows you how it’s done: http://vimeo.com/9865333)

Why advertise programs? Why not just push them out to everyone?
With each new application you add to your laptop, you add another layer of complexity. How well does Google Earth behave with Adobe Premiere Elements? Does Picasa play well with iTunes? Truth be told, we don't know. All advertised programs are downloaded and tested before being advertised to staff, but there's no way to test every possible combination before advertisement. So, think of it this way: When you get a newly imaged laptop, you're getting the base model. No air conditioning, no sun roof, no GPS, no custom speakers. The base model is solid and should include everything that is essential, but it doesn't have some of perks people want. Those you can add later, but when you do, you might encounter unanticipated problems. Let's say you take your base model and have a fancy new radio installed. After that installation, you notice that your heat won't turn off. You take the car in to be fixed. Is it a problem with the base model? Probably not--it's probably a problem that occured because of the new radio installation. How can we be sure? Let's remove the radio. Ah, now the heat turns off--problem solved. Advertised programs works the same way. If your laptops starts encountering problems after you install something we can just uninstall it and see if that fixes the problem. Or, in some cases, we can return you to the base model (reimage your laptop) knowing it will work just fine. If the image included ALL the optional programs, we'd have to spend countless hours problem-solving and perhaps rebuilding the image.

Important Details about Advertised Programs
• After re-imaging, you will need to re-install any optional programs you had previously downloaded. They will be waiting for you in Run Advertised Programs.

• If you have recently been reimaged and are running Windows 7, you will notice that the Adobe Digital School Collection, as well asWindows Movie Maker have been moved to Advertised Programs.

• In the future, as new programs are added to Advertised Programs, we’ll let you know about it here.

Netbook Excitement at Shadow Lake

Shadow Lake received two class sets of netbooks in February. Fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Hofferber was excited enough to have her class use them for two weeks in many different subject areas.

For the first netbook activity, students used kid-friendly search engines that Stephanie posted on her Web page to explore information about space. To start, the class brainstormed a list of search terms and Stephanie recorded them using the document camera. This ensured that the words (soon to be search terms) were spelled correctly. After students finished their exploration, they proceeded to generate questions about space. This activity culminated in astronomy PowerPoint projects.

Since every student had a netbook, each created their own astronomy PowerPoint. Each slide contained a fact and a picture that related to their fact. Students were required to have a minimum of five facts but many students were excited enough to include many more.

neptune[1]

See more presentations by 10Tech | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

To see more finished products, visit Stephanie’s SWIFT site.

Students also used the netbooks to publish their writing. Before they could publish they needed to edit with a friend and conference with Stephanie. Previously, with only four computers in the classroom, this was a difficult task as students would sign up to publish and then have to wait for their turn. With the netbooks, the excitement level never dropped as the students didn’t have to wait to publish.

Finally, Stephanie’s students used the netbooks to work on keyboarding skills, reading, and math. For instance, in math the students went to Stephanie’s SWIFT site and played specific fraction games that she had posted. This extra practice with fractions increased the number of students that mastered sometimes daunting fraction concepts.

“We haven’t had the net books for two days now and students are constantly asking for them," Stephanie said. "They truly stimulate the learning process and motivate kids to go beyond the basics. We definitely need more sets of netbooks because they are booked all this week and now we have to wait until next week to use them again. My students are very disappointed. Netbooks are a powerful learning tool!”

Time to Make Those Summer (Learning) Plans

Believe it or not, we’re already starting to plan for this summer’s 10Tech Summer Conference, June 22-24 at Tahoma High School. This is the third year we’ve offered this opportunity to ALL staff of the Tahoma School District, and this year we’re planning on opening our doors to our colleagues in a few other districts as well. The conference is free for Tahoma District staff; it will cost $30 a day or $75 for all three days for those who join us from other districts. If you know someone outside our system who might like to be invited, let Kimberly Allison know and she will make sure they get registration information when it is ready.

This year’s conference will follow the same format as previous years—90-minute concurrent sessions (each with approximately 5 different choices) followed by two hours of the very popular Collaborative Implementation Planning time—time for learners to review, practice, and explore their learning from the day in a supportive and fun environment. (Yes, there will of course be afternoon snacks and prizes!)

These classes are the best. At first I worried that I would not be able to do any of these skills and now I can’t think of a day I don’t use what they taught me. Tech 10 classes are fun, enlightening, and rewarding. Plus, they feed you, give out cool door prizes and you get free clock hours to boot!—Marie Page, Teacher, THS

The classes help rejuvenate me. They make me want to go out and try new things, start something I have already learned about but never tried or try something I currently do in a new way. The work time at the end of the day with knowledgeable staff available for questions is priceless! –Christine Thurston, Teacher, SLES

June 22 may seem a long way away, but here are three ways you can get involved now:

1. Tell us what you want to learn! To suggest sessions you’d like to see offered at the conference, go to http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/10Tech  
2. Teach for us! To propose a session you’d like to teach, fill out the Summer Conference Session Proposal Form and submit your proposal. Proposals are due March 31. If you are chosen to present, you will be paid the presenter rate of $75 per hour of instruction. (Each 90-minute session you teach=$112.50.)
3. Mark your calendar and plan to attend the 3rd Annual 10Tech Summer Conference, June 22-24, 2010, 8:00-4:00, Tahoma High School. Registration will open sometime in late April.

Active ActivBoard Use at Cedar River

This is Patty Stillmaker’s second year teaching math with an ActivBoard in her classroom. Now that she has become more familiar and comfortable with it, her goal is to incorporate more active learning strategies to get her students working at the board regularly. In fact, she is one of the district TTTLs, designing the professional development classes for the newest ActivBoard software.

Students are frequent users of the ActivBoard in Patty’s classroom. Anytime she can put active learning strategies into her lessons she does. At first, letting go of control over her ActivBoard was scary for Patty. But moving toward a more student-centered classroom has been very rewarding. Not only does it free her up to work with students individually, but it helps to get students excited about math. She has seen her students’ engagement level rise as they jockey to “show off” at the board.

Patty and other Cedar River math teachers went even further and had the Activboard software installed onto the computers in the labs at Cedar River. Now students are able to create simple flip charts to review, teach math concepts to others, and demonstrate their learning. This integration of technology has given Patty a chance to teach math concepts in new ways.

The ActivBoard is but one of many ways that we can amplify our teaching through technology. Patty's experience is a great example of why we are all very thankful to the voters and the school district for investing in our students by acquiring classroom technology tools.

Tahoma Teachers Embrace Online Learning Opportunity

If you haven’t already, you should check out the posts and teacher comments over at the 10Tech Learn and Earn class blogs. Approximately a quarter of our certificated staff has tuned in for this online learning opportunity. Each week Brandon Betlach (elementary) and Kimberly Allison (secondary) post a topic for teachers to consider and explore. In response, teachers share ideas, questions, and comments related to a prompt. Brandon and Kimberly have been thrilled with the level of thinking, risk-taking, and engagement teachers are showing in their comments. Recently Brandon reflected on his experience as the “presenter” for the elementary section of the class: “I can’t believe how much I’m learning from the teachers!” “It’s true!” Kimberly agrees, “Each week I see teachers post ideas I would have never thought of myself.”

You don’t have to be an “official” member of either class to participate. Anyone can read, learn, and comment. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out now!

Elementary Learn and Earn Class

Secondary Learn and Earn Class

Social Networking: Another Solution to the "To Friend, or Not to Friend" Dilemma

Over at his blog, The Thinking Stick, Jeff Utech recently shared his solution for "friending" students on Facebook. He set up a separate page that he shares with students which allows them to become "fans" rather than friends. Your can read about his rationale for doing so and get some tips here. This would be a nice solution for those of you who have to face the friending dilemma with parents as well.

Speaking of fan pages on Facebook, did you know you could become a fan of the Tahoma School District? Why, yes you can thanks to Kevin Patterson, Public Information Officer Extraordinarre. Have a suggestion for our fan page? Send it to Kevin. Want to become a fan? Tahoma School District on Facebook

Did you miss the Social Networking Guidelines for Educators that came out last fall? Don't fret, you can find them and other social networking resources (including the award-winning Madge and Steve video) over at the Social Networking page on SharePoint. (NOTE: As with all other things on SharePoint, you'll have to be in the district to access that link.)

Finally, in other matters Facebook related, did you hear? "Unfriend" was Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2009.

New News Team at Cedar River, Virtual Bookshelf on Your Laptop, and a Glimpse of Tech at TJH

This just in: The River Beat News Team is hard at work on its next story at Cedar River Middle School.

The news team, created this school year, is responsible for assembling a monthly news show. Team members completed an application packet that lists their “tech savvy” skills, desired learning goals and activities. Each month the team meets to brainstorm news stories, develop feature items (including highlighted events, staff or students), and practice putting together a show using known technology. This process often leads to becoming creative problem solvers and innovative designers as students seek to increase their skills in creating, developing and broadcasting their program.

Did You Know?
Your laptop is loaded with the VitalSource Bookshelf, e-book software that comes stocked with hundreds of titles. You can highlight and take notes as you read The Hounds of the Baskervilles, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, or Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. But books aren't the only things you'll find here--there's sheet music, art, sound recordings, links to resources, etc. Take a look and and see for yourself. From your Start menu, select "All Programs" then scroll through to find VitalSource Bookshelf (on my laptop, I found it toward the top of the list). Why not read a classic this weekend? Enjoy!

Technology Enhances Learning at Tahoma Junior High

The ActivBoard is used for many purposes in Ms. Lindgren’s SAILS program at TJH. It’s a daily part of individualized instruction and students enjoy the interactive features. Here you can see how a student has modified her screen so she can better follow along as the class uses images and text to record steps of a science experiment. Ms. Lindgren and her students use the interactive board to build vocabulary and writing, visualize reading passages, and engage in many other learning activities.

Down the hall, eighth-grade students use a variety of technology for their Design a President unit in U.S. History and Government. After researching the Constitutional requirements (and political “requirements”) and differing views on major issues facing the country, students create an eligible candidate. By the end of the project students have created a table with the candidate's position on a variety of issues, a chart showing breakdowns of their candidate's priorities for the federal budget, and either scan in a drawing or create a computer-generated image of their candidate. Teachers also use Flip video cameras to record candidate endorsements that the students have created. Students then review each other’s PowerPoint shows, which incorporate all elements, and vote on which candidate they would like for president.

Sweet Tweets from the Classroom

Teachers in our district have started using social media, such as blogs and Twitter, to provide families with a better picture of what goes on during a typical day at school. Twitter is a social networking/micro-blogging platform that allows users to post short (up to 140 characters) updates (called tweets) about any topic they want. Before Rock Creek fifth grade teacher Melissa Flatt started using Twitter, she surveyed her parents. “. . . only 10 percent of parents indicated their child provided them a clear picture about their learning.” Now Melissa tries to “tweet” two or times a day, which, she explains, “over the course of a month provides parents a lot of information about our classroom happenings. For me, Twitter takes less time than a newsletter. The greatest challenge is getting reluctant parents to check out Twitter.”

Nonetheless, Melissa gets confirmation that parents are appreciating her efforts. One email she received gets to the real power of using social media like Twitter to connect with parents: “Honestly, I had mixed feelings about the Twitter page at first. But since I have seen your postings, I think it is fantastic! It is great to have a starting point to talk to [my son] about his day. Instead of asking the old question, 'What did you do in school today?' and getting the same old response, ‘Nothing’ or ‘I don't know,’ nowI have something specific to refer to when posing the same old question!”

Brandon Betlach, fifth grade teacher at Glacier Park, has had a similar experience. Brandon was excited to hear that some of his students liked that he was using Twitter because “it reminds them what they did so they can talk with their parents later!” Like Melissa, Brandon and his students “tweet” two or three times a day. Both teachers enjoy having the students help them craft the message that will go out to parents.

To learn more about how teachers can use Twitter in education, view this slideshow http://www.slideshare.net/hopkinsdavid/twitter-in-education and/or listen to this NPR story featuring a Seattle area teacher who uses Twitter: KPLU: Twitter in the Classroom (2009-05-26)


ActiVotes: All in Favor Say Yea!

ActiVotes are great tools for engaging students in learning. They can be used to activate students’ prior knowledge, assess student learning, check for understanding, poll students’ opinions, as well as a variety of other things. ActiVotes provide students and teachers with instant feedback. Traditionally when teachers want to know if their students understand variables, multiplication or division, vocabulary word meanings or the theme of a story, they have students respond using paper and pencil. But thanks to the generosity of Glacier Park’s PTA, teachers are using a device that is engaging for students and creates an atmosphere that aligns with 21st century learning. At the beginning of the year, Tim Talmage’s class at GPES was focusing on classroom expectations. For the students to take ownership in the expectations, they created a list of expectations they felt were necessary to follow in the classroom. Students then used the ActiVotes to determine which expectations the class would adopt and follow for the entire year.

Last year, Rock Creek purchased two sets of ActivExpression voting devices. These are the newer version of the ActiVotes that allow for more than just A-F multiple-choice responses. The devices look similar to a cell phone, with a screen and a key pad. They allow for a variety of different responses, such as true/false, yes/no, multiple-choice, sort in order, Likert scale rating, numeric responses, and text responses. These devices can work in conjunction with an ActivBoard, but teachers don’t need a board to use them. They are actually tied to a USB hub that can be used with a special version of the software that doesn’t need an ActivBoard.

Teachers who are using ActiVote and ActivExpression devices report that they are enhancing instruction, providing a quick way to monitor and assess understanding, and making a very positive impact on student learning! Have you tried the ActiVotes at your school? Every school has at least one set (some schools have several) that can be checked out and used by any teacher. Check with a 10Tech Teacher Leader in your building to find out how ActiVotes are handled in your building.

Windows 7 Coming Soon to a Laptop Near You

Yes, it’s true, Windows 7 will soon replace Vista as the operating system on staff laptops. For most staff members the transition will be barely noticeable. Windows 7 retains much of the look and feel of Vista, but offers better battery life, faster processing, and improved organization. The most significant change is how you connect to a projector—in Windows 7, you do so through the Start menu. The change will not affect the Office 2007 products.

When can you expect to see this change? Beginning sometime in February, any laptop that needs to be reimaged will be reimaged with Windows 7. Then, later this year we’ll launch a reimaging campaign to get all staff laptops converted to Windows 7. If reimaging scares you, fear not; User State Migration is on its way! User State Migration allows your personal settings (like your Outlook signature and other personal preferences) to reappear after reimaging. Yes! This means the future of reimaging looks far less painful. This feature is still in development but will be ready to use when we move all staff over to Windows7 later this year.

Excited? To learn more about Windows 7, visit http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/getting-started .

Authors from Ohio and New York Visit Tahoma Classroom

Global Academy students at Tahoma High School have been studying sustainability issues and systems thinking, both topics that the novel Vapor Trails explores against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina. On December 15, the students spoke with the authors, Bob Siegel and Roger Salient, via video conference. Sailant joined the class from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Siegel tuned in from Rochester, NY. The connection with the authors was made through http://www.tokbox.com/, a free video conferencing service. Students gathered in the lecture hall to speak with the authors, who were projected on the large screen. All that was necessary to create this successful and meaningful activity for students was a teacher laptop, an inexpensive external microphone (which allowed us to turn off our microphone when the authors were talking to reduce feedback), and a little testing to make sure everything would work BEFORE trying it in front of 86 students. If you are interested in connecting your students with the world outside your classroom via video conference, let Kimberly Allison know; she can help you set things up.

E-Mail Safety: Be Cyber Smart!

Doug Eash, Technology Supervisor, recently alerted staff members to a particularly deceptive email. We thought we'd follow up with some information about email safety.

Our spam filter does a great job of blocking most spam. In fact, according to Ben Hyatt, Technology System Engineer, this week alone we have received over 156,000 e-mail messages. Of those, only about 1/5 of them were deemed clean and delivered to the user. Of the 4/5 that were rejected as spam, nearly 100 of them included viruses. Sure, occassionally spam makes its way into our inbox, but thanks to our spam filter, staff members don't have to deal with the majority of it. However, when spam does makes its way to our inbox, it's important that we act appropriately by not clicking links, not opening attachments, and deleting the message. In the case of the spam that Doug alterted us to today, the spammers ingeniously made it seem like the e-mail was coming from someone connected to our tech department. No way, Jose! Our tech department will never send e-mails like this. (Same for your bank--never click on links to reset your password that appear to come from a reputable source unless you've requested to have your password reset.) Clinking on links in spam e-mail can have a range of negative effects from increasing the spam you receive in the future to more nefarious consequences such as viruses and identity theft. If you'd like to learn more, read about e-mail safety here.

10Tech Learn and Earn (Clock Hours) On-line Class

What? Both an elementary and a secondary version of this class are being offered.
When? Begins February 2, ends in May
How? 15 minutes a week for 12 weeks = 3 clock hours
Where? You decide. Your living room? School? Starbucks? Wherever you can carve out 15 minutes to read and respond to a weekly prompt/activity.

In an effort to introduce teachers to the wide array of technology tools and resources that they can take advantage of and how blogging can be used as a method of communication, we will be hosting an online conversation for Tahoma School District educators beginning in February. To participate, simply send Kimberly Allison and email telling her to sign you up and indicate whether you want the elementary or secondary version of this class. Each week we will be exploring a tech tool with potential for classroom use. We hope this experience will give you an opportunity not only to learn more about educational technology and blogging, but also to share your thoughts and ideas in a public forum.