Staff and Technology

 I thought I would take a moment to share a couple ways our staff has been experiencing and embracing technology new to them.

In January, Jon and I did a wiki training for our staff. The week before, our staff meeting was dedicated to differentiation in our instruction. We discussed collaboration and sharing our materials and differentiation tools. Jon and I suggested that the Kemp Shares Wiki would be a great place for that. So we were given a staff meeting to train the staff on how to use the Kemp Shares Wiki, specifically how to upload and download files.

Also in January, the latest batch of SmartBoards arrived and now all classrooms K-5 have SmartBoards. Our principal had Dave in to do a SmartBoard training for our staff meeting and then hands on trainings at each grade level team meeting the rest of the days. All the teachers I talked to were excited to have Dave come in and even more excited get their fingers and hands on their new boards. I've been having a lot of fun sharing some of my enthusiasm and favorite parts of the Notebook software.

As Global Learners we share 21st century learning with our students as well as other teachers. I applaud the willingness of my colleagues to jump right into using new technology and new methods.

Classroom 2.0 Live Webinars

I'd like to point out some really cool webinars that I sometimes attend over at Classroom 2.0. It's very educational but it is also a lot of fun and a good way to get to know other educators around the globe. They have a show just about every Saturday (not sure about this next week because of the EduCon).
What's more, they archive all their webinars. There are some great courses in the Beginner Series such as "Connecting via Blogging", "RSS tagging, and feedreaders", and "Go Wild with Wikis". I encourage grisled veterans and newbies alike to check it out.

Many Irons in the Fire

This semester has been great with all the collaborative projects

and fun things I've been trying. Right now it seems like I have a lot of irons in the fire. (photo courtesy of iansand at flickr).

I've wrapped up the Fall Project with Tita Martinez at Haskin Elementary. I'll let her tell you all about it. My students have completed their Monster stories, drawings, and recreations for my project with Esmunda Talamantes at Hanson. I've got a voicethread project going with Sara Zaleski and another just among the students I have for English Language. I'm building a multimedia database to accompany StoryTown stories for second grade for a Star teacher project. I'm as busy as ever but really having a good time. I'll post links later.

On another note. I encourage everyone to nominate the Global Learner Blog as the Best Group Blog for the 2009 Edublog Awards. Follow the rules here and make the nomination from your personal blog. You can see my nomination here.

Edublog Awards 2007 Finalists Announced!

Lots of Blogs and Wikis from around the world have been nominated in several categories. It is interesting to see the work of teachers as they embrace the collaborative aspects of Web 2.0. Check them out and cast a vote for your favorites. Will the Global Learners group have any nominees in 2008?