March 4, 2009

I do believe that someone opened Pandora's box today. Not that there were a plethora of problems, but I had answers to questions about Janus that have plagued me for awhile. Those answers created problems which I had to overcome, and I do believe that we are on course to solve those problems. Yes, we are going to San Antonio to deliver the film the students made to the NASA panel to fulfill the community component for the grant. I think the opportunity for these students is fantastic and a great learning experience. It will take a lot of work to bring it altogether, but I also know it will be something they will always remember. I will have a lot of people to thank for their intercessions on behalf of these students to make all of this happen--I will report on them later. Still getting into the classrooms a lot and integrating a lot things. I have meetings with several teachers. It is moving in the right direction. That is so great. I also dealing with teachers solving tech issues, but they are mostly just pointing them to the correct procedure. I am worried about jinxing myself by saying things are hectic but going well, but I believe in the honest approach. I will keep y'all updated......toots..........flick

February 26, 2009

I just have to tell you the interesting problem on of my CFF teachers posted to me. It dealt with creating layers in Activstudio. D and I spent an hour working with the problem. We got some of it working which led us into other possibilities. We could not solve all of the problems, but it went well. I also did an Indesign with K's class. That went well because the students were able to work independently and learn some of the intricacies of the program. It is nice that the onus is on the student and the teacher becomes the facilitator. They will also branch off into photoshop from here. The Janus project is coming together well, and we have a final meeting set up for next week where the students will present their video. The two girls did a great job, and I know they are looking forward to presenting in front of NASA. I have seen snippets of it, and I am anxious to view it. I am proud of the them--hey, hey (take me back to my old cheerleading days, yeah {yes, that is sarcasm at its finest with a little mixture of hyperbole}). The teachers got their lappys today, and I know I will have to do some tweaking on them, but I will await their calls. A very productive day!!! Tomorrow, I will talk about eportfolios to the seniors. This will be quite interesting, and I am looking forward to dealing with this topic. Well, I know you are awaiting the outcome...whoa, stop the presses. I just found out that one of our students did an HBO pilot when he was in 4th grade. It is wild. To view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=419kaKo0HUo I must warn you all that is is HBO so some of it is quite questionable, let's say. That may pique some curiosity in some of my loyal readers er..... I mean reader. Hey, be back tomorrow to end the month and the week.............flick

December 10, 2008

I spent most of the day working with resources and helping teachers with small problems. I do wish Promethean would have added automatic updates for their software. I am going to have to create a directive for the teachers to do this. Promethean is coming the 16th to do some presentations and answer questions for teachers. Also, I want the presentations to focus more on math and language arts. I am going to bring her back in to in-service the new teachers who are coming on board. The meeting with the Penns Valley Janus team went very well. The two students who are creating the project came well prepared and wowed the group. They are going to have their work cut out for them, but I know they will do well. The project involves three of the high schools in Centre County to create a five-minute video to aid Penn State in getting a NASA grant to build a satellite to pinpoint gamma ray bursts in hopes of finding more about the age and origins of the universe. There will be a lot of work in the coming days. Hey, I will meet up with you tomorrow.. Happy Wednesday!!!!! flick

Roman God Janus

May 8, 2008

I am now in another part of the state at a conference in Williamsport dealing with video conferencing, and here is another conference that made my socks go up and down. What a great technological aspect to add to a classroom! There were four that really enthralled me. The first was a conference with the National Archives. What a great place and conference! David Rosenbaum did a fantastic job of putting things together for us, and the best part is that it is free. The second dealt with the Cleveland Museum of Art. I did not think that this was going to be good, but the presenter Arielle Levine did a magnificent job with Greek gods and heroes. The NASA one and the WWII Museum also were quite good. The NASA one is also free. It gave me great ideas to share with my staff, and I am going to get the video conferencing equipment out of storage and put it together to make it work. I was amazed and happy with what I saw and have great ideas on integrating it into the classroom. I will have to digest it, but it was quite palatable. Tomorrow!!!!