March 20th Technology Day

Here are the questions and discussion we had during our TTL Day!

Differentiated Instruction based on Expertise Level for the March Professional Development Day:

• Beginner/ Intermediate


• Awareness of tools available/ hands-on Activities

Offerings of courses:

• wireless labs


• projectors


• document cameras


• laptops


• Google Docs


• Wikispaces


• Blogger


• Basic Skills

We should allow people into our classrooms to see it in action, before March!!

We need to create a survey for the staff to complete to find areas of interest.

We discussed getting the TTL names out so that everyone knows who we are as well as David starting the Teacher Center Technology Series!!!!

Some stuff...

Here are a few books that I have recently read, or am currently reading that I highly recommend.

Free Lunch (Johnston) – a book which chronicles the waste of hundreds of billions of taxpayers dollars (...depressing).

Energy Victory (Zubrin) – a comprehensive plan for breaking the “oil monopoly’s” power while bringing jobs and dignity to the masses (...encouraging).

Lee-The last Years (Flood) – A narrative of Robert E Lee’s life after Appomattox. Lee became the President of a college: Washington College became Washington and Lee. He did amazing things to heal the wounds of war from this position (brilliant and well written).

Other-than-that... Time flys! Our jobs become more important/demanding every day, and I continue to be impressed with the talent of our staff in their efforts to prepare our studednts.

Only semi-related to anything...

It's National Metric Week! This is the week that contains the tenth day of the tenth month -- 10/10 -- to honor the simplicity and whimsy of the metric system. The way I see it, we're supposed to be mavericks (can I even use that word with dignity anymore?) of technology and heralds of the future of education, right? Seems to me, then, that the metric system is the wave of the future, so get on your surfboard. Need ideas on how to metric-ify any class? Check out the links below!

Metric Week Activities

www.metric.org -- the United States Metric Association. Are you a member? Not to judge...but if you're not, you're just not cool. You get a newsletter and all sorts of dork....er...cool things.

New Screen Capture Software

Hey folks I recently came across a new image and video capture program that allows you to copy everything you do on your screen. It is called Jing!! I have not been able to load it on my computer a school but it is working well at home. I will let you know when it becomes available for the TTL laptops. YEE Haaaaa!!!!

"Word Cloud" Generator

Here is a new program called Wordle which generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. I created the one above by entering the URL of this blog and tweaking the color, font and layout. I am thinking of ways to use it in class and would love to here what others have to say.

Useful Web Application

The Clustermap application is great for blogs and wikis. It gives students (and you) an idea of who out there is viewing your website. I refer to it when I warn the kids to use only first names on the blog so "Samir from Islamabad" can't hack into their personal information. I'm sure that there are others out there but this is the one I and a few others use.

Nettleton's Work Station

Here it is! I used an easy-pro cart. It's a little small and there are a lot of wires. I have to move it out of the way when I'm not using it. This projector might be a little smaller than the one I'll be getting so I may have to change it a bit. I'll have to use a separate cart when I get the document camera. I have not ever posted to a blog before but this was pretty easy to figure out!

I ran the ethernet cable above my drop ceiling to a station centrally located in my room. I had Drew make me a shelf for a desk that I had to give me two levels of storage. An extension cord is duck taped to the floor from the front of the room to a power strip in front of this station. Ta daaa!

Syracuse a la carte!

Here it is! Not glamorous, I know, but it works. I teach in three different classrooms, so I get to move my setup around. I have a longer VGA cord (about 5m) that I use to put my projector on a student desk or on my cart, and just point it at the screen. I put my laptop on the front desk. I've ordered another set of speakers so I don't have so much to move, and to get a little better sound quality. The other picture shows how I usually have to set up the projector. I have 23 students, so I run out of desks doing it this way, but its the only way that I can get it to work.

Wiech's Technology Palace

Here it is folks the desk that makes technology possible. I have a lot of room to the left of my desk which is where I expect to place my document camera. The desk allows me to centralize my technology while the remote mouse gives me freedom to move about the room. My speakers, not as nice as Chad's, produce more than enough sound and definitely enhance any visuals or videos that I use in class.

DeVoe Workstation

Well here is my setup that I've had for the past 3 years. I'm a little nervous about my room being redesigned for next year because I love this. The picture was taken from a student's view at my "L" shaped tables. The projector sits in front of my laptop and projects to the white side wall. I have a hole in my table that allows for a cable plug into my stereo system for audio. I never have to worry about cords or students sticking their hands in the projector stream and no extra money was required for a screen or mounting bracket. Next year I plan to project onto a whiteboard. Anyone have luck with that?

So much technology!

Video Reactions

What did you see that interested, intrigued, or provoked you?

What implications do you see for teaching and learning?

Prime Issues

What will today's students need to know and be able to do when they hit their prime, say in the year 2038?

Groton TTLs

This is a place for discussion and learning by Technology Teacher Leaders in Groton.

Here are some guiding questions for use of technology to enhance learning:

1. What do you want students to know and be able to do? How will technology enhance this?
2. What will students need to know and be able to do with the technology so they can meet the established learning outcomes?
3. How will you assess student learning and use of the technology?
4. How are students actively engaged, constructing meaning, sharing their thinking, and reflecting on what they are learning both during the process and at the end?