Irish Principal Blog

Capzles by Brandon Petersen January 26, 2011

A creative solution for displaying online work and portfolios.

http://techieteachercorner.blogspot.com

www.capzles.com

What are capzles?

• Capzles is an online service that allows you to display pictures, videos, documents, and music which are organized into a moveable interactice interface.
• Social storytelling.
• Online timeline
• Digital Portfolio

Getting Started

You need:  e-mail account, internet access, media content that you want to display,

Go to capzles.com and join (free)

You then get a homepage:  you can put facebook links and create capzles

Create an untitled capzle

Students can invite each other as friends so that they can see each other’s work or they can e-mail their capzle.

Capzles can be een on the web page, be embedded onto another web page, facebook or blog, or through itunes.

How can these be used in the classroom?

• Life or historical timelines
• storybooks
• step by step problem solving
• classification systems
• digital scrapbooking
• digital fieldtrips
• excertps or acts from a play
• Band/Music videos
• Sky is the limit!!!

Data Warehouse Notes by Pete Kinnaman January 26, 2011

IBM Cognos

Over 200 reports.

Assessment data will be uploaded to the Data Warehouse

Will be available by fall.  Hoping to roll out pieces in the spring.

There will be a way to communicate to get questions answered or start a discussion group.

The programs and information will be stored in the district.  It is a web-based program that can be accessed from any computer.

Access for coaches of students not currently on their class roster, need access permission through Infinite Campus.

State assessment data and MAP data will be rolled in.  Individual classroom assessments such as Math pretests and protests can be entered in an electronic spreadsheet and that, possibly, can then be uploaded as an assessment.

ELMO & Brightlink presented by NPPSD Tech Department January 12, 2011

First turn on Elmo and then use remote to projector and set the screen to ‘full’.

Make a desktop shortcut for 2 drivers:  First- Easy interactive Board and then Easy interactive Tools (May want to rename ‘one’ and ‘two’.

If you have a red x you need to calibrate by right-clicking on the x and clicking ‘ok and hiting the 49 dots with the pen.

Open both drivers.

To take a picture of a screen you can click on the camera

Troubleshooting:

The tip on the pen will come loose. 

Low batteries:  Get in the habit of taking the batteries out on Friday afternoon and charging them over the weekend.

ELMO

Click on imagemate icon on desktop.

Has a light switch, zoom, takes picture by clicking on camera using the image mate software toolbar.  You can then write on the picture.

You can take live videos by clicking on the videocamera using the image mate software toolbar.  (not sound).

‘abc’ makes it a whiteboard

red x clears it.

click the pencil 2 times to get a pencel.  Once gives you an eraser.

click on the floppy disk to save and to open saved files.

Math Manipulatives Websites presented by Alan Furlong January 12, 2011

Math Manipulatives Websites presented by Alan Furlong

www.furlong01.wordpress.com

national library of virtual manipulatives

KS2 Bitesize:  really neat bar graphing website

interactivate

    arithmetic four:  connect 4 where students have to answer math problems and can play against another student or team in the classroom

World of teaching:  powerpoint games;  good simile and metaphor powerpoint games

edheads:  simulations (one on simple machines)

mrnussbaum.com:  cash out for counting back change

sheppard software:  fun learning games

Smartboards in elementary classrooms:  magno games:  magnetic poetry, comic creator, community builder activities, collaborative drawing site

www.furlong10.wordpress.com  Allen Furlong’s student work

Conferring September 21, 2010

I am beginning an in-depth study of conferring.  Patrick Allen states, “Conferring is a keystone of effective instruction.  Without conferring, my reader’s workshop flounders.”  To increase my understanding of conferring I’m reading Patrick Allen’s book, ‘Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop’, I’m collaborating with colleagues and I’m practicing conferring with students.  While reading this week I found a passage that states some benefits of conferring..

“… conferring can and should be considered a nonnegotiable routine in our classrooms.  Conferring provides an opportunity for my students and me to discuss and explore ideas together — everything from word-level strategies used to uncover the meaning of unfamiliar words to understanding how sensory images can deepen a reader’s understanding of text.  Conferring helps me uncover a reader’s learning in a managebale, thoughtful way while leading to documentable data…  conferring helps me find out new things about the reader and provides an intimate opporutnity for a shared “coming to know”— everything from the variety of texts a student chooses to his or her burgeoning understanding of how the life cycle works during a read of nonfiction.  Conferring naturally becomes a thinking routine that is valued and appreciated by both my students and me.”  Patrick Allen — ‘Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop’ (Chapter 2)

Professional Reading-June 10, 2010 June 11, 2010

“Every one of your students has a main interest, or passion… Knowing what those individual passions are, not just one the surface but in some depth and detail, is extremely important for partnering teachers.  The reason is that students’ passions are the routes and filters through which partnering teachers create individualized learning – learning that will stick in student’ minds, be valuable in their lives, and make them want more.”  Marc Prensky- ‘Teaching Digital Natives’

Professional Reading-June 4, 2010 June 4, 2010

This week our book club discussed Ch. 2 – Sensory Images.  This passage was easy for me to understand because of Husker football from the 20th Century- when a game on television only happened a few times a year.  Most games were radio classics.  “If you can create that motion picture while listening to the radio, you dan do it while reading a book.  Sensory images are the cinema unfolding in your mind that make reading three-dimensional.  They are critically important to children, because they make reading vivid and fun… “In books, it’s like the author is the writer and the reader is the illustrator.”" -Zimmerman- ’7 Keys to Comprehension’

Professional Reading- Classroom Libraries May 27, 2010

“If children are not reading engaging, interesting, thought-provoking text, why bother? A steady diet of textbooks and worksheets would be enough to turn anyone off to reading. So we surround kids with text that includes a variety of perspectives, opinions, ideas, issues, and concepts to read about, write about, and talk about. When students read and respond to text that provokes thinking, they are much more likely to become active, engaged readers. We flood our classrooms with text of all different types and on tons of topics, so we have a better shot at reaching all of our kids. How we choose text and how kids choose their own makes a difference in their literate lives.” Stephanie Harvey- ‘Strategies That Work’

Professional Reading-May 15, 2010 May 16, 2010

This excerpt can give us a lot to think about as we all begin preparing schedules and activities for a new schoolyear. 

“…We give the false impression that once control is in place, learning will follow.  Instead, we need to make sure that teachers are aware of how all of the routines they employ work together to helop establish a learning environmnet, that without strong thinking and learning routines classrooms can be orderly but lifeless places.”  Ron Ritchhart-’Intellectual Character’

Professional Reading- Cinco de Mayo May 6, 2010

“To promote thinking in students, teachers need to be students of thinking themselves.  Teachers do not have to be great thinkers or brilliant intellectuals, but they do need to constantly strive to develop their understanding of thinking, their awareness of thinking opportunities, and their inclination and motivation toward thinking.  If teachers do not know what good and productive thinking looks like within the domain of their teaching, they will have trouble fostering it in their students.  If teachers cannot recognize occasions for thinking, they will have trouble making the best of thinking opportunities as they arise.  If teachers are not primarily inclined and motivated toward promoting thinking, they may find themselves trying to manage competing agendas.” Ron Ritchart- ’Intellectual  Character’