May 27, 2009

I taught a group of 4th graders interent safety today, and I thought it went well. I was surprised at how little they knew when it came to the internet, but they did know enough, I feel, to find some problems like all people do. I know this is a strange comment, but I find that most people can venture out into cyberspace and have no idea what can happen. I feel that people need to make themselves aware of some of things out there. I thought it went well, and I thought that I communicated well with them with a lot of reiteration. I came back here to mostly a quiet day so that is good. Tomorrow, I am off to the land of CFF at the IU. I need to have a cart ready for an interesting project which I will miss. We will be working with one of the most recalcitrant groups of innovators. Man, that is a mouthful. I will inform my loyal readers [sarcasm] about the results. tomiglio...........flick

May 26, 2009

A day after a vacation; ya gotta love it. I spent most of the day working on various matters that needed my attention. I also worked on the presentation to the 4th graders on internet safety; I will let you know how that went tomorrow. I am making rounds with teachers trying to solidify plans, etc. on what they want and need. I am looking already to next school year. I am still amazed at how well some people catch on to things. I am anxious to see what the stim money will bring in the form of technology. I do know that some of the wish lists were quite extensive, and I will see what Santa has granted. The activotes were quite popular on the lists. I am looking to garner a new lappy for my use. We will see about that one. Hey, I will be back tomorrow...toots.............flick

May 22, 2009

Spent most of the day catching up on a variety of items that needed what I call housekeeping. Wow, they sure do amass after a hectic week, and I will be out tomorrow attending a wedding out of town. I do believe that I am prepared for the Internet safety next week and the following. I am sure that I will be doing some tweaking after the initial presentation. I am also working on the logistics with graduation feed. I do hope that things work out well with that. There are a lot of things to think about and have contingencies in place in case of's. I think you all know what I mean. All of you have a great holiday weekend. There is not much left of this school year. See you after the holiday.............flick

May 20, 2009

Man, getting those Activotes working took awhile, but in the end it was worth it. I am so glad that we got them working. There is no manual for them, and the material I have found on line did not deal with all of the nuances. It became a trial and error, but they are working. It will save a lot of time for the next batch. Really became busy the rest of the day, although I did not have too much time. All in all quite good............flick

May 19, 2009

Well, I got to work with Activotes today, and I do think we go it set up really well. It is an experience, and I will troubleshoot it tomorrow. Oh, yesterday was my 200th blog entry. I forgot to mention that. Happy blog to me, Happy blog to me. Okay, I got that out of my system. I also helped with the senior class meeting and supplied some of the tech and music for it. I also tried to solve a problem with activstudio, but to no avail. I do think there is a puter problem there. I will call on the big guns to solve it. I am just busy working on end of the year things. I have to get it all done, and I will. See ya tomorrow for 202...............flick

May 18, 2009

I set up a teacher on Skype today. She was thrilled to be able to Skype teachers and others to join in on class discussions. I also had a long meeting with the Lit coach. We discussed our collaborative efforts for the rest of this year and next. It will work out well. I also have been tagged to teach Internet safety to elementary students. I find this topic quite interesting am looking forward to preparing for the topic. My first one is next week. I have some work to do to get all of this done. I have been meeting with teachers to wrap up the year and look at things for next year. Some of their plans are big, but I believe doable. Well, back to getting things done. I was out for most of the morning working with seniors.............adieu......mes amis..........flick

May 15, 2009

I took a group of middle school students to the solar car competition at PSU. It was great. I did enjoy the time, and the kids were great. We did have a winner for our first competition, and we also had a second place group. I really have to thank the B's for their time and efforts to help with everything. They were wonderful, and it is great to have parents of this caliber helping. I do hope that it will continue in the years to come.......have a great weekend..........flick

May 14, 2009

It seems like there has to be a day to celebrate Murphy's Law and today was the day. If anything could go wrong, it did. About the only thing that went correctly was the meeting with the principal. We talked about all sorts of things including the solar car competition tomorrow, which I am attending. I got most of the problems solved. AHHHHHHHHHHHH, just one of those days.....tomorrow........flick

May 13, 2009

We had a debriefing session with the JANUS group from PSU. It lasted an hour, and I think it will lead to a very productive liaison between PV and PSU--more productive for PV. I like the idea that we will be able to produce something that they can use. It is so important to have authenticity and relevancy when doing projects because it adds an important concept to its completion. I know that it will lead to some great productive projects. We are also having trouble completing the CFF survey with PSU. We and PSU have no idea what the heck is wrong, and someone needs to find a solution. I feel that it has something to do with our student profile. I am not sure, though. I also met with teachers today. We are starting to wind down with things. I am helping them with last minute details and budgetary concerns. Other than that I have nothing to report.................flick

May 12, 2009

I had an interesting meeting with a coach, and I had to admit that I was amazed at some of the information she told me about a student who questioned the practice of collaboration among the various disciplines. I have thought about this one, and I do see the student's point. I have been worried about the teachers, and I also feel that we need to address the why to the students. It does follow the learning focused model that we are touting, and whenever I go into a classroom to teach or team teach, I will explain the collaboration to them. What an eye opening experience! I also have been trying to get the solar car competitors together. It is so neat to see what they have created. I hope that they have the foresight to test their vehicles and solve problems. I also have to prepare a kit for them to do repairs. Could be an interesting day Friday! Holy smokes, two exclamation marks in the same blog entry. With all of this, I still met with five teachers today and attended the district track and field meet in Altoona. So, I will be back tomorrow....flick

May 11, 2009

I started this over two hours ago so you know what kind of day it has been. Meeting with several teachers has gone really well. I am more and more amazed at some of the things they are doing. It is really coming around full circle. I would say that we are reaching over 60% of the teachers willing to come out of the box. Today was the first day of the cff survey, and their has been major problems connecting to the survey. PSU has to realize that the traffic is going to increase, and they need to be ready. I know it will get fixed, but the teachers are losing teaching time, and they and I do not like that. Be back tomorrow. I am coming up on my 200th anniversary...yeah....................flick

May 7, 2009

The morning began with chaos as we had a electrical interruption which caused many computer problems, including mine. The problems were solved and the day continued. I taught photostory to two classes today, or I should say co-taught. Teachers are adopting this program quite well because of its ease and interface. I like it, also. As teachers move outside the comfort zone, I am finding my work load and collaborating with them also increasing. I teach this by having them work on a project as I am talking and help them with any problem. It is a lot of facilitating, and it does to see to work out well. I have also done moviemaker with her classes. Tomorrow, the school has an Act 80 day for senior project presentations. I am anxious to see them and the integration of technology............flick

May 6, 2009

My calendar this week is looking more like a teacher repository of names, but the one name that is prominent, and I have to pay special attention to is my TIMS man. We met concerning the state of CFF. The meeting went quite well, and we able to talk on a variety of subjects. The visit went well, and we are well within compliance. The TIMS does a great job. We also set up our first classroom wiki, and we are ironing out the bugs with it. I am anxious to see how it works. I also have been doing some research on some Web 2.0 apps. One of the concepts that worries me about a lot of it is the age restrictions being placed on them by the developers. We will get by this. Well, back again tomorrow..............flick

May 5, 2009

As the Canadians would say, "oot and aboot" (I mean no disrespect--love Canada). Little time to sit today because the conference last week and its subsequent collaboration has generated a plethora of requests about various subjects. I can not even describe how many times I was stopped and asked various questions about everything from Web 2.0 items to just software questions. Yep, you got it; I like it. It does get a little disconcerting with the firing of questions from all over the dartboard, but I did have most of the answers. Those I do not know; I will find them and get back. I have begun preparation for the TIMS for tomorrow and worked on other projects for the rest of the week. I will let you know how it all goes........austinlavista--I can fracture any language.......LOL...........flick

May 4, 2009

Ah, May...it is so hard to believe that it is this time of the year. The school year has flown, and I hear the older one gets, the faster the time. It is a good thing that I am so young: chortle (always loved that word). I got a lot of odds and ends and networking done today with quite a lot of people. I still have to commend J on the strides she is making....wow!! I have told others about it, and I am hoping that some take a good look at where she is headed. I do have to admit that I am somewhat peeved at wikispaces for not replying to an email I sent on Friday. I will do the things I have to do to prepare for a class. I would say something else about them, but a little inappropriate it be. My calendar is really getting booked for the week. I look at it on Monday and say to myself that it might be an easy one, but that never seems to happen. I like the hustle, and the more I get out there, the better it is. I am also getting some odd requests for jobs to help out in other areas--don't worry all tech except one. Well, off to a track meet and fame and fortune. For all of my French readers à bientôt................flick

April 29, 2009

The meeting went well today, and we have things finalized for the new image. It was busy dealing with all the consultations. I need to work with the solar car folks. I have to finalize some of that this week to get things ready. Next week I have to get my CFF group ready to do the survey. I know this will be lots of fun. There will be a million questions, but ya gots to do what you gots to do. I also have a meeting with the lit coach and the TIMS. I will let you know how it all goes.................flick

April 28, 2009

I had a meeting scheduled today with the regional TIMS, but with the incident here, I have rescheduled it for next week. It was a day to catch up on all of the problems, etc. There were a bunch of them. Getting to all of them and meeting with the literacy coach to set up a wiki was fun. We were able to do it all. I had some unique problems to overcome. I like the idea that some of the faculty is really stepping out of their comfort zones to tackle. I really must commend one J, who is really trying some new things. Tomorrow is a meeting with the IT wizard to talk about some tech things to get all puters ready for next year. We need to change our image to accommodate some new features, etc. Well, gotta get caught up..............flick

April 23-27, 2009

As you can see, I have lumped several days together because I have attended three different conferences during this time. I am conferenced (I know this is not a word, but in the Flick lexicon, it is perfectly acceptable). I am believer that if one walks away with one item, then it was worthwhile. Well, I must tell you that these were worthwhile. The one over the weekend (yes, I said over the weekend--I know this may surprise some of my loyal readers err, I meant reader) was at Hershey. I took one teacher with me to a conference about Promethean boards. It was quite good, and I feel the networking was fantastic. On Monday, I attended a CFF conference. This conference dealt with hands on concepts dealing with the different disciplines. I attended the math and social studies sessions.

Finally, the previous two days I attended the one-to-one computing conference held at PSU. Again it was very good, and I enjoyed most of it. I must admit that I did not enjoy PSU's lack of a viable internet connectivity. It was pathetic. It limited my multi-tasking...LOL. I especially thought the presentations were good, and I got more out of this than the PETE&C. I know everyone touts the aforementioned conference, but it has become too large and unwieldy. The neat part about the one-to-one was that we had a large contingent of teachers attend. This alone has stimulated some into areas, hitherto, unknown to them. Now it is back to the grind....flick