Entries from September 2008 ↓

Every Monday, I will post tech websites, software, and/or news articles that I think are fun, interesting, or something I think the you will enjoy. These finds are for anyone, not just the teachers here at Escobedo. However, because our purpose is to make the curriculum come alive with technology, where appropriate, I will add notes for teachers on how they could incorporate the finds into their classrooms.

If you have a tech find, please visit my Submit a Tech Find page and submit your find. You could win a prize!

Tech Finds for the week of September 29, 2008:

http://www.wordle.net - This is a really cool site that allows you to enter a list of words which are then arranged to create a picture…like this:

This could be a fun way to have students present a list of words compiled from a lesson. Whether it be what the student feels are key words from a chapter or story, vocabulary terms, or a great icebreaker for students to describe themselves with the words they used.

Due to the popularity of blogging and its interactve quality, many teachers are joining in. Providing students with the opportunity to be producers of information on the web instead of just being consumers is a powerful teaching tool. Today, I am conducting a training on blogging for the staff of Escobedo MS.

The goal for today’s training is to allow teachers the time to explore edublogs.org and other blogging tools, determine how they see blogs fitting into theri curriculum, and get started blogging!

Teachers = your tasks today are to:

1. Visit the blogs of teachers on campus and through edublogs.org. Determing how you see blogging fitting into your curriculum. 

Samples:

http://integratingtechnology.edublogs.org/

http://lgeslibrary.edublogs.org/

http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/

http://africacolony.wordpress.com/

2. Log into your edublogs.org account. Set up your theme (Desigh tab). And create a post  (Write>Post).

get help if you need it: http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/getting-started-with-edublogs/

3.  Enter my forum and post an answer to the question I have provided.

Advanced users:

Visit the following sites and add one of the tools to your blog. Make it meaningful!

Add a picutre or video to your blog.

Add surveys and polls : http://polldaddy.com

Creaet a form : http://wufoo.com/

Create a quiz: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/create-a-quiz.php

The Escobedo campus houses 4 full time computer labs, 3 full time mobile laptop carts, one laptop cart dedicated to a grant project, and one part-time mini mobile lab. That is over 250 computers available for class use througout the day!

The beginning of the year is always a little slow going when it comes to teachers taking students in the lab. Most teacehrs are laying the foundation of their classess the first month or so. I am starting to see the lab checkouts pick up, and in no time, teachers will have to plan one to two weeks in advance to ensure that they can get their students into a computer lab.

Having said that, I have created a survey for the teachers on my staff:

Welcome to the Escobedo Technology News blog. I am Jolene Anzalone, the Educational Computing Strategist here at Escobedo MS. I am basically the technology strategist for our school. I provide professional development to the teachers to keep them up to date on the newest ways to integrate technology into their curriculum, I consult with the administration to help determine the software and other technology purchased for the school, I maintain the over 250 computers and 120 laptops on campus, and sometimes even get into a computer lab to model lessons for the kids.

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with information and examples ot the creative ways teachers are integrating technology on our campus. I also will give the reader some insight into what I do for the eight hours I am on campus, along with any great tech finds i stumble upon.

Hopefully you find my blog informative and interesting.