Continuation of Self-Directed Pro D

This past month of everything going on in our school we also had a professional development day of self-directed learning.  In September the staff set some goals of learning, that they wished to accomplish over the school year.  These goals were to be attainable, and something of passion to the teacher (see entry "Making your Own Professional Development Day"), with many teachers spending much time, considering what they would like to do.  Some changed their initial goals, saying it was too much or the goal was not what they thought they wanted to do.  But like any inquiry you can change it, or it can fail, as long as you keep on trying.  

The thought is your action research inquiry question (your goal) will in some way, shape or form, change the manner in which student learning happens, be it positive or maybe negative.  But in the changing world today, we too as teachers need to change our teaching practises.  This can be through technology, or through assessment or through changing your teaching philosophy.  Mostly, this is through enhancing your passion for teaching.  Thus the need to own your own professional development.

The day went smoothly and with excitement and people demanding more time to work on their goals.  See below for an itinerary of the day:  

Pro D Day – 26^st Growing with your Goal

Date:               September 26^th, 2011

Time:             8:30 – 9:00 am. – In Library

Activity -       Breakfast – getting to know more about your colleagues

Morning Session:

Time:             9:00 – 9:15 am. – In Library

Activity -       15 minute Movie   Growth in this World

The movie is there to get you thinking about the changing world and the changes to our students.

Time:             9:15 – 9:45 am. – In your department’s chosen classroom

Activity -       Department Discussion about individual goals, and where your department is going as a group.  At least one person (or more)per department needs to share their goal in the afternoon session.  Lets be proud of what we want to learn ;)

Time:             9:45 – 11:30 – in respective classrooms.  NOTE:  Lab B110 is open for your convenience if need be.

Activity:         Working on your Goal

Remember if you need help, the people listed below are experts in our school. You go to them with your questions.  Please ask questions of them in the morning but give them their time in the afternoon to concentrate on their goals.

Anyone can change their goals at any time, but what we ask is that you share with the Pro D committee any goals so that we may aide you in your journey to learning.  Some people have not handed in their goals.  Could you please do so for planning purposes.

Ryan Neufeld:  Twitter, Wikis

Robert Dewinetz:  Fakebook, Timer online, and more.

Roger Haywood – Learning 360, Discover Ed, and CBC News Online

Jewell Thai – Glogster

Jacqueline Alvarado Cruz –  ToonDoo, Glogster

Jennifer Spain – Voice Thread, iTunes, Twitter Assignment, Storybird and Glogster

Sarah Garr - Webnode

Bryan Bucci – Webnode

Alyssa Becker – Blogging

Warren Edwards  Gizmos

Time:             11:30 – 12:00 – in the Library

Activity:         Sharing what you are doing.  At this point, could at least one person in a department share what he/she is working on or what they have learned.

Lunch:           From 12:00 – 1:00 – on your own.

                       

Time:             1:00 – 1:30 – in Library

Activity:         Another movie – this time about our students. To help you with your goal setting and changes in you’re professional learning.  Also, hopefully this video will help you to learn more about our students.

Time:             1:30 – 2:30 – in respective classrooms.

Activity:         Working on your Goals (You can work in groups with common interests or individually)

Time:             2:30 – 3:00 – in Library

Activity:         Discussion of plans to move forward (announcements)  - Jennifer Spain

Comments from Staff:

Many staff members stated they needed more time.  That it would be best to have no after lunch meeting, to just get back to work and then come back at the end to sum up.  I agree.    In the end we gave a list of web sites that may be of interested to people reading this blog but were of interest to staff.

Sites of Interest:

·      History Conflict - http://www.conflicthistory.com/  See Mustafa Gocmen

·      Portfolio and E-portfolio worksheets, self-assessments, etc – by Minister of Education of BC, Alberta, and Val Lees, Teachers in Surrey School District - http://painchaudopinion.webnode.com/portfolio-info/

·      Graphic Organizers - http://painchaudopinion.webnode.com/barrie-bennett/

·      Analysis of Web 2.0 tools of use in the Surrey School District.  Some instruction sheets and Rubrics - http://painchaud2.webnode.com/

·      Authentic Instruction - http://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session6/6.AuthenticInstruction.pdf  or http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/diffinstr/el199304_newmann.html

·      Constructivism http://members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/constructivism.html

·      Inquiry based learning - http://members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/inquiry.html

·      Current Trends in Education - http://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/

College WiFi - Finally in....

For the past week and a half IMS has been working in our school to install College WiFi.  According to the Campus Computing Project, that studies IT in higher education, WiFi has been put into many high schools from New York to LA, making laptops a common school supply needed when starting school.  This addition is common in universities but will it be just as common now in high schools?  

Surrey School District tested their college WiFi on a number of elementary schools and high schools the past two years.  The result was students with IPhones, Ipads, and personal computers could come into the school, use their equipment for their work, and go home, continuing what was started in the school.  Although students at Sullivan Heights have done this previously, the exploding demand for wireless connectivity from the laptops and smartphones and the insufficient capacity of our wireless network could not satisfy the demand of students.   A personal computer would come onto the system, and one of the computers from the cart (COW - computers on wheels) being used by a teacher would be kicked off.  For a year we had two wings of our schools that could not even get any access to the wireless at all.  Teachers trying to tweet their homework to students could not get on.  What the hope is now, is that the demand for the wireless connectivity can be handed from the capacity of our network.  On the 2nd day of the connectivity of our WiFi we had over 200 connections already.  This was without any teacher laptop connected to the system as well as no school labs connected.  We're hoping to top over 600 connections.

So what was required?  Two weeks previously, while classes were going on people entered our school and replaced connection points that were previously installed, shutting down wireless completely in our school.  Before this one wing was operational (out of three wings).  This was no hardship, many teachers had given up on integrating technology through the computers in carts - they were not functioning last year, why would they start functioning now?    Teachers were told about this activity and with the promise of College WiFi they welcomed the workers with open arms, understanding this would improve their practises.  

Last week both the company putting in the wiring and IMS was back, setting up the extra access points and hooking up the entire system.  This practise took five days.  The first day, the entire school system - all computers including standup computers - was down.  We shut every down so that the server, the closet, everything was changed.  This took an afternoon, and with forewarning to all staff in the school, did not cause problems.  Office staff worked off of memory sticks, putting all documents they believed they would need on the sticks the day before and worked offline during the day.  We were all up and running by the late afternoon.  

The next two day the work was the continuation of putting in new wiring, the cleaning of the routers and more.  We cleared out (closed) the library to give space to the two teams working on this project, they needed to spread out their equipment.  By Friday the teams did not need the room, and they were moved to a smaller area. 

On Monday all laptops had to be reconfigured for the new WiFi, both PCs and Mac laptops were brought to a room, and a team from IMS worked on every one.  This process took two days due to a number of unforeseen problems, but the professionalism of IMS was evident, working through each problem easily, being courteous  to staff, and  making the change as simple as possible.  They are to be commended for their hard work and I thank them sincerely for their help.

The work was hard, harder due to the fact that  I am a teacher and was teaching half the day during this entire process.  This entire process was exhausting because while the project was going on so was the school day.  With job action, there was no release time and as the computer facilitator I knew where were all the computer laptops, who's laptop was who's, where the teachers were to give them back their laptops as soon as possible so they were not inconvenience, and answering any questions that IMS had.  I was extremely happy that we got this college WiFi but thank goodness it's over!!!  Now let the learning begin!!!

Some of the moments that stood out over this period of time were comments made by staff members, saying "You've pushed us to use technology so much, and here we are feeling withdrawal from not using it for half a day" and "I can't believe how much I miss using my computer, when do I get it back?"  It's nice that staff recognize the change of their teaching style because of computers and how technology enhances learning.  Welcome Sullivan Heights to the 21st Century of teaching and learning!    

Continuing on with E-Portfolios

It's been a while now since I've blogged for a number of reasons. I would like to blog on each reason this week.  But tonight one of the reasons is the research and development I am currently involved in with my electronic portfolios for my Grade 11/12 Information Technology Class. It has exploded on me!!

For the past month and a half, I have been teaching a differentiated classroom of students in the areas of Photoshop, Illustrator, computer programming (using Scratch from MIT - a great intro to programming in my humble opinion), and Flash.  My classroom consist of 31 students in grades eleven and twelve, some first timers in computers, others experts in some fields, novices in others.  The scope of knowledge and talent is a vast chasm.  In Information Technology you have all types of students, many want specifically to be taught a certain topic (it's been C++, Visual Basic, App programming, Effects, Virtual Reality to name a few requests).  To keep the interest of the students, I use varieties of subject matters, giving ownership of learning to students to choose a field of study, work on lessons I've developed or found for them, and when done students post to Facebook so I can follow their development.  I've set up a Facebook account that is ONLY for teaching, my students have done the same.  We have “friended” each other so that I can see the images of their work that they put on their wall.  Students critique their own work, I add my comments to theirs and I grade them out of a 5.  We have talked about grading and how to earn a 5 out of 5.  A 1 = you can do better then that and we both know it so stop fooling around.  A 3 = that's not bad, how about trying this.....  and this.....  A 5/5 = great work, can't believe how well you've done!!!  Great growth.  

If the student has less then a 5 they have the opportunity to change or revise their work and resubmit it whereas I'll critique it again.  This seems to be the selection of most students, to review, revise and continue to work.    But the work, the constructive commentary on the work of peers, and the revisions seem to go beyond what they are asked to do.  Just examine  the advance work of a student who started Photoshop this year...  I've moved this student out of Photoshop now to Illustrator to give her the challenge to make her own sketches/designs.  The object is for students to go beyond their comfort zone, to push them further.  Bernice can easily learn Photoshop on her own now.  She is now a self-learner in Photoshop.  What I want is for her to start in a new area, become passionate in learning in this area and continue to grow.  What's next?!!

Here is another example of a student going beyond the line set in the sand....  He blew away the sand and made his own sandcastle.  I laughed at his facial expression when I told him that he's surpass me in this program and lets try something new so he could continue to learn in a different field.  I had to explain that I couldn't be good in everything in computers, and neither will he be, but he should learn to explore all areas, to see what he wants to learn.  He is now working on Flash, learning to animate at a basic level.  His imagination will challenge his learning curve and his passion will make sure the two will curve upwards only.

Another group of students had the task to create a a game with three levels, use conditionals and variables in the program, using the color feature to track gains or losses in the game and just to have fun.  Click here to play his game.  I am a little unnearved and where I can take him next to challenge his abilities.  He is starting an online course in JavaScripting to continue to develop his programming skills.  The object is to make sure he understands the basics of programming, and it's application in  different programming languages like visual basic, C++, and Java.

On average Photoshop students do 20 - 29 assignments (photos on their Facebook), programming students do 12 programs (linked in their Facebook), and Illustrator students can create 18 - 20 projects by the end of the term.  With 31 students, that a lot of correcting, with an explosion of critical thinking, and development.  Now you know why I have not posted.

I need to focus the portfolios to match my goal for students.  The portfolio to not just a display portfolio but a assessment portfolio as well.  I need the students to do more self-assessment, understanding that this portfolio is to show their growth - a growth portfolio.  These portfolios have many purposes, but there is a need of training for the students for them to understand their importance.  Students are still making inappropriate comments on a professional portfolio.  To stop this I am getting students to fix up the portfolios, and parents will be invited to assess their child's work, making critical observations of growth.

Wish me luck.

Starting E-Portfolios with Grade 11/12 Students in Information Technology Classes.

One of my studies (learning goals) this year is study the use of portfolios in a tech class and look at the  the advantages and disadvantages of this method of assessment.  I have differentiated my Grade 11/12 Information Technology classroom to the point that 3 people will work on Illustrator, 2 students are in an advance course on InDesign, 10 will be doing Photoshop, some are learning an animation program, and a number of them want to learn programming.  

To accommodate this large and diverse amount of assessment (both formative and summative) I want to use Facebook.  I've set up a facebook account for my school work only, asked the students to set up a new Facebook account themselves, where they will only post their school work in my class (no personal information), and they can friend people in the classroom to make comments on their page (peer assessment).  Setting up the accounts, getting students to "friend me" and their friends took two days, and now I need to assess their first posting of a critical thinking comment in regards to their learning of a Web 2.0 program they learned called EasyBib.  I asked them to tell me what they think about EasyBib?  How does it help them?  What they like about it or what they dislike about it?  I asked them to tell me something original and I gave them examples and we talked about them for approximately 10 minutes.

Some answers were great and students got the idea right away.

Easy bib is a great program to use to make bibliographies. If you type in the name of the book,newspaper,webiste and enclyclopedia this website helps you make the bibliographies. I learned from this website that it saves you a lot of time. Also you need the dates you accessed you entered the website. This website shows you the proper format of making bibliographies and I learned how to do so. I will continue to use this website in the future I learned it was very useful.

Some were not bad....
I like easybib because it makes writing bibliographies so easy. it is very easy to use and does a great job with creating bibliographies. its great with all sorts of things such as newspapers, journals, books, and websites


And some need work:
I found easy bib to be very helpfull. It made everything as easy as possible, especially since you can print off the bibliography directly from the website.

Now at  this point I have a couple of matters to take care of right away.  I need to teaching the students how to analyze their own work, how to show critical thinking.  The questions below will help them to go deeper in their thinking.  

Questions to Enhance Critical Thinking 

1. What is your definition of … ?  Or, What do you mean by …?

2. Why…?  Or, Explain why….

3. What causes …?  Or, How does x affect …? 

4. What is an example of …?  Or, Is … an example?

5. What is the evidence for this statement?  Or, How do we know this is true?  Or, Why do you think that? 

6. Which is best?   Or, What do I think about …?  Or, Do I agree or disagree with … ?

The other thing I need to work on is the understanding that this portfolio is exactly that, an educational portfolio that I will see and others as well.  Students cannot play games on it, or make inappropriate comments on each others wall.  Any time they just click on the hands up sign, thats the only comment that gets made.  I need more then that for peer assessment.

That's the third thing I need to consider - the peer assessment but at a later date.  For now, I need the students to go back to their Facebook walls and either accept what they have or add another comment that will improve what they have said.  I'll put up some other questions for them to consider and any new comments will appear again on my wall at the top (easier to correct).  This helps me assess quickly and effectively.  Feedback has been in one day, quick, with comments of "I need more", or "what was so helpful", comments to get the students to do deeper, meaningful comments.  I have given them a mark.  Marks are 1, 3, or 5, and students have had examples of each. I have told them they can up their marks at any time.  I have also told them that in the end we discuss the portfolios, show how much learning was done, and together we give a mark for the learning.  This manner helps me to mark where the students are and how much growth they have done over the months, a better assessment then just grades.

This project is covering a number of areas, maybe too many.  But it's covering e-portfolios, formative assessment, soon no marks with formative assessment, self-directed learning, peer assessment at one point, and finally, team grading.  I understand this may be too much, but I started last year with just the e-portfolios, and now I'm ready to move on.

Wish me luck... And please feel free to make comments about this project.  Thanks again

Start of a new Learning Path in your new school year

While I read about other teachers' new school year start I consider mine, and I realize, I don't want to talk about this.  As usual, it was stressful with new students, new courses, new rooms, new colleagues and a million of other new things.  This event did not inspire a passion for teaching; rather it exhausted me and continues to do so (the first two weeks are always stressful when you are in charge of computers and still teaching).  You need to learn about new students, understand where each student is at and where you and they want to be at the end of the semester, build relationships with the students,  learning their learning profiles, their strengths, weaknesses, etc.  You need to create a working relationship with new parents, get current contact information, get emails, tell them what you hope they will help you with and what you hope you can do for them. Most of this is done (or try to do) in only an hour and a bit each day, until the next group comes in and you start over again with 30 some new kids.  I can go on and on and I think I'll stop now!!

So what does inspire me to start this year with a strike on, parents, students and colleagues all upset?  My passion is the continuation of learning, both with the students and for the students.  During our professional development session, teachers were asked to create one goal for the year, only one so they could focus on this passion.  This idea came forward from some readings through Twitter on self-directed learning and self-directed managing.  

So what is your goal?  Perhaps Chris Lehmann can help teachers start with their goal.  He recently wrote the following:

You have to be one school. You cannot want one thing for students and another for teachers…If we want classrooms to be active places, so must our faculty meetings be.   If we want to feel cared for by teachers, then we must care for teachers. If we want students to be able to engage in powerful inquiry, so must teachers.

You want your students to become 21^st Century Learners, then so must we.  So we too must set goals to make ourselves a better teacher.   

While thinking of your goal of your teaching year you need to consider where you will learn from, your sources, who may help you, is their mentoring available, and what sources of social support and accountability you have built into your learning plan.   Consider the following:

1.  Who has already learnt from this and what can you get from their learning.  There are a number of books already available from a number of sources.  Find them. 
2. Use the Social networks out there.   Tweet out to others, asking if someone else has been working in this area.  Consider where you tweet - Use hash tags of your district (#sd36) or open it up to all.  Someone is also passionate about the area you are interested in, and can help.  When doing something for the first time (learning something new), it's nice to have a friend along for the ride so both of you can bounce ideas off each other.  Most teachers are natural sharers at heart, and the media of social networking is a great place to share.
3. If you are continuing an area you've already started, this can still be your goal, to go further in this area and you can help mentor someone else just starting.  To teach someone a new skill only reinforces your skills more, and helps you see further into the area you are teaching, by seeing through new eyes.
4. Consider the evidence of your goal and how you will know you have reached this goal.  What will tell you that you have accomplished what you have set out to do?  Sometimes you never do, but make the goal attainable, or maybe smaller goals to reach your main goal.  Remember that when you teach students you break up the task to smaller steps, which are attainable for success.  Sometimes your goal will take more then one year, but that too is fine.  Go step by step.  As the old saying goes “Rome was not built in a day”.  Well I don’t believe the educational system will change in a day, but a number of people in a school changing the way they educate students will make a difference, even if it’s one child at time.  Always remember, you as a teacher make a difference to the world of a child.

This is a video of the Closing Keynotes speaker from Chris Lehmann from the ISTE 2011 Conference.  Take the few minutes to watch this video, to be moved, motivated, to be passionate, to change your way of thinking of education, and to set your goal to help our students, our kids.  The passion is there, the passion can grow, grow your mind, grow your passion, let your passion inspire the passion of learning in your students, and pass on the feeling...  This is my goal this year, to help others (both teachers and students) to be as passionate as I am about becoming a lifetime learner.  Help them to enjoy learning again.

Always remember that all of our goals should consider the following."The most important thing that we do is to teach the child in front of us  to become a fully realized person...  If you take nothing else, make sure you realize that these tools, these amazing things we have learned, all that we have done this week has done serves nothing else but to help us all become better people.   So therefore when people ask you what you teach do not say I teach Math, I teach English, I teach Second Grade, say simply I teach children.  That is your job, that is all we endeavor to do...  I want four things for our children.  I want them to grow up thoughtful (full of thought), wise, passionate and kind "

I want teachers to be the same, to model these characteristics in their goals.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Resources

The following is a list of different resources for teachers to understand Bloom's digital Taxonomy clearer.  This list was created for the Professional Development Day scheduled for Thursday, September 1st of this year.

• The first is from Colorado Community Colleges Online with an interactive diagram that gives teachers a listing of directions or instructions to get students to show the levels of Bloom's learning.
• Bloom's Taxonomy Overview
• A web site to help you design activities with Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Bloom's Digital Taxonomy PDF file.
• Also available on a Wiki
• Bloom's Taxonomy on Math.
• Revising Bloom's Taxonomy. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), Autumn 2002. 212-264.
• Bloom et al.'s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain by W. Huitt
• The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom's Taxonomy In The Classroom (Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...) 
• Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains By Donald CLark

I hope this helps my colleagues with learning more about Bloom's Taxonomy.

Below is an outline of the Individual Professional Development Plan that the Professional Development Committee would like for teachers to fill in so we may match them with others with the same goals, and  help the teacher with resources to achieve their goals.  Another reason we hope to do this is to recognize achievements of all teachers in our school.  With writing their goal, coming up with a plan, showing how it can be measured and sharing successes we hope that the entire school (colleagues, administrations, even students) can celebrate their success of learning.

As stated before, it's best to do one goal at a time (and like the clip - maybe for 30 days because one failure does not mean you cannot do it).  Thank you.

Teacher Initiative for Professional Success

One Step at a Time

Name	Date
A brief list of my current strengths and assets:
Based on your self-assessment, a mentor’s  or friend’s input, and/or any school or district initiatives you are interested in, what goal have you identified?  What is an area of knowledge or skill that you would like to strengthen?
Describe the connection between this goal and your teaching assignment.
What would success on this goal look like?  How will you know when you have achieved it?  What would count as evidence of success?
Describe the activities you will do to work towards your goal and their timeline.
Activity	Timeline
What resources will you need to better achieve your goal? (aide from colleague, helping teacher, books, materials, technology equipment
What will happen to show you that you have achieved your goal.
What evidence of growth will you share with a friend, a colleague, your department, you admin, or the entire staff (if it your choice of who you share it with).

Designed by Nicole Painchaud, Sullivan Heights.

More apps to look at...

Thanks to Viki Windman from Tech & Learning for developing a list of apps (their prices and an outline) to try for our students at Sullivan Heights.  Here they are:


History: Maps of the World  Free - A fun and educational collection of high-resolution historical maps.
Science 360 Free - fantastic visuals! The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science360 for iPad provides easy access to engaging science and engineering images and video from around the globe.
Musee du Louvre Free - the next best way to see the Louvre without going there.
Shake a Phrase   $1.99  A fun interactive app to learn the parts of speech with 1700+ age appropriate vocabulary words. Three modes- Shake It: creates a new random sentence every time you shake - great for discovering new words. Not sure what a word means? Just tap for definitions! Story Starter: shake up the beginning of a story and let your imagination take over. Quiz Me: test your skills with adjectives, verbs and nouns. Tap on the right words to get points.
SpaceTime for the iPad $9.99 SpaceTime 4.0 is the most powerful mathematics app and graphing calculator ever developed for the iPad. This app has the ability to graph in 2D and 3D with beautiful and colorful graphics.
Monster.com Free -  great for teaching students how to look for a job a skill all High School and College students need to know.
Resume Writing Secrets $.99 All High School students need to learn how to write a resume.  This app gives you the hidden rules and secrets.

SkyORB - free - Collection of 7 tools including a 3d star map, 3D planetarium, ephemeris, search engine, sun clock, weather and more.  It's an updated astronomy engine that helps students learn about the stars.


For Autism
Social Skills Sampler HD Free -  This company the Conover Company has a wide variety of “Life Skill” videos  This particular one Is designed to teach and reinforce basic social skills critical for independent living.
EPIC WIN $2.99 It’s a streamlined to-do list, to quickly note down all your everyday tasks, but with a role-playing spin. So rather than just ticking off your chores and reminders, completing each one earns you XP to improve and develop your character.
IDIOM Dictionary $1.99 Can be used in all areas of curriculum but this concept is particularly difficult for children on the Spectrum.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shake-a-phrase/id436414534?mt=8

Try it for 30 Days

There have been a number of blogs on motivation lately, mostly due to getting motivated for a new school year, and mostly looking at something new for our Professional Development Day (I like starting with something motivational for our staff).  This year's starting Pro D day is on the 21st Century Teacher (not the learner), with the idea of teachers looking at how different students are compared to a couple of years ago, and how learning has changed with students, so teaching needs to changed.  We need to start training for the 21st Century skills needed in todays world (critical thinking and team working a huge part of this).

With this in mind I want to ask our staff to set one learning goal (only one mind you) to do this year.  When you set one goal you can acclaim it.  The idea is also for the teachers to list the goal and then the Professional Development team will pair them up with others with the same goal, or the same interest, so we can start networking in our school.

So what does that have to do with "Try it for 30 Days"?  It's a TED video speech that was really quite motivational.  See below.

This clip is very observant. It's true about 30 days making your action a habit.  It is also true that you need to do one thing at a time, and to make it attainable, and not crazy.  So that starts with goal setting.  Use the SMART goal setting.

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Always remember to make the goal measurable and realistic so you know when you reach your goal.  

That brings me to a web site called "43 Things".  It's a site that helps you list and share 43 things you want to do, and you can update the changes that happen in your life because of these changes.  So make your list, choose one at a time, do it for a month, and make a note of how it's changing you. 

Best of all this is a site that helps you connect with other enthusiasts interested in everything from sky diving to writing a book. So the next time someone asks you, “what do you do?” you can answer with confidence, “I am doing 43 things!”.  Cool answer right?!

Relationships in the School

In an Aug. 22 keynote address to more than 2,000 educators from across the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Todd Whitaker (professor of educational leadership at Indiana State University and author of the best-selling, “What Great Teachers do Differently.”) talked about what makes great teachers – and people – different from others. He challenged  educators to consider a number of issues, how to to treat everyone as if they were good — even the so-called “crummy” kids, teachers or parents.  His speech makes you consider how approachable you are for your students, colleagues, even the admin. It also makes you consider other in the school, and why they are the way they are.  The principal who says my door is always open, but he/she has their door closed because they have so much work to do.  The teacher who say to the kids after a lecture - come ask me questions if you don't understand, but then they sit behind their desk looking busy, so kids feel they can't come up.  
This speech is thought provocative, innovative, humorous, and best of all, it makes you consider your actions, not just the actions of others..  "There is nothing wrong with being afraid, there is only something wrong with being not afraid"  There is a difference in action.  Enjoy and thanks to George P. Matysek Jr. at https://reviewmatysek.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/treat-everyone-as-if-they-were-good/ 

Todd Whitaker addresses Convocation of Catholic Schools by George Matysek

Apps Review for this Summer

My administration was very kind in giving me an IPad (version 1) to play with and discover what was useful and what was not.  I needed to train myself on how to set up a new IPad, how to change the settings, see what problems could occur, and what apps would be useful.
In the process of doing this I crashed the IPad twice, had to redo 4 apps (remove and then add them back) and investigated 49 apps.  Not bad for playing part time.
And for those of you that are curious, yes I do have Angry Birds (it did help when the IPad crashed.).  So here they are, the apps, a summary, and a pricing.  At the end, just to satisfy my curiousity, I did a total pricing of all these apps I think we will need on all our IPads.  That was when I got scared.  Check it out.

Name of App	Price	Needed	Explanation
Keynotes -	$9.99	$9.99	like powerpoint
Garage band -	$4.99	$4.99	music
Draw pad	$0.99		for drawing.
IMovie –	$4.99	$4.99	for IPad2 only
Strip design –	$2.99		for making comics & you can draw in drawing pad – put in web pictures and use that. by Vivid Apps
Toontastic	$1.99	$1.99	student favorite.  Explort moving cartoons to strip design.  Easy to use.  Reviews story elements with students as you create.  For describing investigation.  Easy to export to ToonTube for viewing anywhere.
Noteshelf -	$4.99		Writing utility.  Take notes.  Can edit, customize as well.  Can do it by handwriting.  Has zoom.  does grouping notebooks (folders), passcode protected, landscape mode,
ShowMe	$0.00	$0.00	It helps you draw on what ever is up.  Can load to IPad and IPad 2 - This virtual white board app allows you to contribute lessons drawn on your tablet device to an online community where anyone can teach or learn topics from basic algebra to atomic theory. Educators use ShowMe to publish lessons for students to review at their own pace so that face-to-face class time can be used for group projects and discussions. This inverted classroom maximizes collaboration and encourages a more self-directed student learning environment.
Idea Sketch –	$0.00	$0.00	concept map – free 0 can export it to keynote or for your lectures.
Mental Case Class	$4.99		lashcards to get  - can change font, have words and definitions- you can have students read definitions.  Studens can import pictures from web or you can draw from drawing Ipad.
Solar system Journey	$0.00	$0.00	kids love it. – great resource for Earth & space Science .  Great videos, a lot of reading, but images are great and you can increase font for easier reading.
Speak it –	$1.99		text to speech - the most advanced text to speech solution in the App Store! Speak it is now redesigned and fully compatible with the iPad. Introductory pricing for iPad launch, download today!
WritePad for IPad -	$9.99		lets you take notes in your own handwriting with an iPad stylus pen or even your finger. The state-of-the-art handwriting recognition software will adapt and learn your style of writing. You can use simple gestures to select text, cut, copy, paste, and insert special characters.
Microsoft word 2010 – cookbook	$19.99		just like word.  Easy to follow stops and screenshots can be done.  Can do letters to reports, format text, create tables, apply themes and styles, print documents, envelops and labels.  Share you work with others and keep track of changes.
Microsoft Excel 2010	$19.99		Make professional quality documents that can do documents.
Note Taker HD	$4.99	$4.99	In addition to the major features added in version 5.0/5.0.5, version 5.1 has a few new features and some bug fixes: New Move to Front and Move to Back buttons, over 20 new shapes including many commonly used for flow chart diagrams, extra support for the iPad 2 camera and the Digital AV HDMI adapter, and a fix to the rotated EXIF image bug that affected the iPad 2.
Evernote -	$0.00	$0.00	Thinking of ways to lighten your schoolbag? Your tablet device can replace both your textbook and your notebook. Download the Evernote app and take notes on it during class. The app can be integrated on all your mobile devices, allowing you to save and search your content index from your laptop, tablet, smartphone or whichever device you're using at the moment.
Evernote Peek	$0.00		only works on the IPad 2 Smart Cover.  Evernote peek is the first app designed to let you peek under the cover to prepare for a zuie, practise a language or strenghtne your memory.  Here is how it works.  Chose a notebook to stury.  Close the Smart Cover.  Peekunder the cover to see a clue, lieft the cover more to see the answer.  Repeat.  Close the Smart Cover advances the app to the next clue.  If you get one wrong, tap the box marked incorrect – you’ll be able to re-test the incorrect ones.  This creates your own study notebook.  In Evernote, either choose an existing notebook or make a new one to use with Peek.  The note title will become the clue and the note body.
Calculator Pro for IPad	$0.00	$0.00	everyone needs a calculator
IBooks	$0.00		to read EBooks – from Apple so you know they’ll update it
Adobe Photoshop Express	$0.00	$0.00	lets you use simple gestures to quickl edit and share photos from your modile device.  Engjoy having your photo and video library right at your hand.  Works better with IPad2 that captures photos using the camera in the IPad but there is a limit of space (size) of photos you download.  There are some great effects and cropping to upload to the Blog.
Camera for IPad	$0.99		this app connects your IPad (touch) to your IPad.  You open it up on both your IPad and your IPod and they find each other.  Your IPad is showing what your IPod is seeing.  It’s cool.  But you need WIFI and Bluetooth on both devices.
PrintMagic -	$4.99		Print directly from your iPad. Redesigned UI for the iPad, additional functionality, including use of the full iPad screen for higher resolution printing. Print "Copied" material from Pages & Numbers.  Works only with WIFI printers like Epson and HP.  None in our school.
Idea Boards -	$1.99	$1.99	A simple easy way to put your ideas somewhere. This is an introductory price of $1.99 for the 1.0 release of Idea Boards. Idea Boards right now offers 4 unique drawing surfaces.
IM+ -	$9.88		iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch app. IM+ will keep you connected all-in-one to Twitter, Skype Chat, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo, MSN/Live Messenger, AIM/iChat, ICQ, MySpace and Jabber.
Brower Duo -	$0.99		Designed specifically for the iPad, Browser Duo takes advantage of the iPad's amazing screen size to enable multi-tasking in the browser. Users will are able to serf two web pages at the same time, side-by-side. http://www.geardiary.com/2010/04/04/browser-duo-ipad-app-review/
Toontastics -	$1.99		Parents and K-12 teachers enthusiastically endorse the Toontastic story app. With Toontastic, young authors can either choose from characters and story settings or draw their own. Kids develop plots as the app leads them through the introduction, conflict and resolution of their story, which they can then animate and upload to ToonTube so that others can watch and vote on their creations.
GoodReader -	$4.99		Within moments of downloading GoodReader, you'll be transferring files directly from your computer over a Wi-Fi connection, from the Internet or from email attachments. It also easily integrates with MobileMe iDisk, Google Docs, Dropbox, box.net, and other popular servers.  GoodReader is the super-robust PDF reader for iPad - the #1 selling non-Apple app for iPad in USA in 2010! Mashable describes it as “a Swiss Army knife of awesome!” Reviews worldwide hail it as “essential,” “the best,” “magnificent” and “the killer app”. With GoodReader on your iPad, you can read virtually anything, anywhere: books, movies, maps, pictures. Use it once and you’ll be hooked. Soon you'll be wondering how you ever managed to use your iPad without GoodReader. GoodReader has earned its accolades by the way it handles huge PDF and TXT files, manuals, large books, magazines, and renderings of 100 mb and more with great speed. The ability to mark-up PDFs opens up new doors to GoodReader users who can now use typewriter text boxes, sticky notes, lines, arrows, and freehand drawings on top of a PDF file.
TanZen Lite -	$0.00	$0.00	tanagrams for math.
BlogPress -	$0.00	$0.00	for updating blogs from eblog.
Wunderlist	$0.00	$0.00	makes lists for kids to think about.
Hootsuite	$0.00	$0.00	for your twitter account]
Google earth	$0.00	$0.00	for mapping
Google Search	$0.00	$0.00	for searching
Whiteboard	$0.00	$0.00	for writing notes and drawing collaborately
Whitenote -	$3.99		for writing notes to client – supports free hand drawing as well as images and sound and text
Fileapp	$0.00		up to easy to copy files to your device for quick look on the road  and does all the others.
Twitter	$0.00	$0.00	No explanation needed but if you have hootsuite do you need Twitter.
Tangram free	$0.00	$0.00	for math to learn about  placement
Adobe Idea	$5.99		digital sketchbook, letting you capture and explore ideas.  Simple vector-based drawing tool, that lets you room, erase, move, scale, rotate, control layers.  Save as photos for IPad album and IPhone.  Can email ideas as PDF files for editing in adobe illustrator and photoshop.
Box.net	$0.00	$0.00	gives you 5 GB free to easily view and share files on your IPad to your IPhone. Can use for projecting projects. And files.
VLC	$0.00	$0.00	streams movies from your computer to your IDevice.  Need to watch movies.
Timer	$0.00	$0.00	simple countdown timer that runs multiple timers from a list of presets.  It lets you pause and resume timers and set timers with seconds. It alerts you even when it’s running in the backround.  Updated in June 30.
	$128.67	$28.94
All machines (34 of them)		$983.96