They're Here! #CoMoiPad

Have you ever wondered what a delivery of 430 iPad would look like? If so, then feast your eyes on this shot.

Our district is pushing out these iPads as part of a pilot program for teachers in grades 9-12. All high school teachers will be receiving their iPads starting a few hours ago. The goal is to determine the possibilites of the device in teaching and learning.

Our department is gearing up for pushing out all these devices to teachers. We've scheduled 1,674 training sessions starting tomorrow. Actually, it's more like a few dozen, but both numbers seem equally daunting. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the excited faces of the teachers as they begin to learn about the possibilities that iPad has to offer. For the next few weeks though, I'll probably talking iPad in my sleep!

We hope you follow us on this journey. We've helped deploy a lot of iPads this past school year, but nothing like this. To help keep you up to date, I've created a new hashtag: #CoMoiPad. Look for it on Twitter to find out what's going on in CPS iPads.

Summer 2012 Learning Opportunities!

Happy Last Day of School CPSers!

Once you have  a few days of relaxation under your belt you might want to learn something this summer.  See the list below for a few ideas .. ..

Technology Summer Learning Opportunities 2012

Summer Technology Learning Opportunities:

This is our working list of technology PD for the summer:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o5o84ua6Z3AuOvsmIL_cLh_Ijrpr0Dk4J8p9piBZRiI/edit  or http://instructionaltech.cpsdigital.org/pd-schedule You can register for these sessions on PDExpress. 

Atomic Learning:

Lots of new tutorials, workshops, and unit suggestions are added daily.  iPad is now a platform choice . . . .

www.atomiclearning.com  Username:  cpsmedia / Password:  atomic

CPS Teachers as Readers:

Register on PDExpress.. ..

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones for Tuesday, June 12 at 6:30 pm at Coley's downtown

Body and Soul by Frank Conroy for Tuesday, July 10th at 6:30 pm at Coley's downtown

DBRL OneRead:  The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

EconFest 2012:

http://www.stlouisfed.org/newsroom/events/?trk=0&id=341

A few resources I found at MASL you might want to explore:

AASL Lesson Plan Database:

http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/lessonplandatabase/lessonplandb

Checking out Kindles and Nooks to Students (Lindbergh School District School Librarians)

http://masl2012ereaders.pbworks.com/w/page/51107314/FrontPage

Tools to Build a School Librarian’s PLN (Linda Dougherty:  MASL 2012)

https://sites.google.com/site/lindajdougherty/home/masl-2012

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:  http://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/

FRASER Economic Library and Archives:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/

Page One Economics (data behind today’s economic headlines):

http://research.stlouisfed.org/pageone-economics/

National Library of Medicine

http://www.nlm.nih.gov

Medline Plus:  Trusted Health Information

www.medlineplus.gov (Mobile version:  http://m.medlineplus.gov )

Help!! We're being invaded!

I came across this great project through Twitter. If you read my posts, you might recognize Miss Tripp's class. If you're looking for an example of how students can create authentic work, then look no further.

First off, it's really hard not to click a link that's entitled, "Help! We're under attack by invasive species!" Great example of a catchy lead! Then once you get to the blog post, you see a wonderful digital book showing the hard work of the students.

Enough from me. Check out this post!! Miss Tripp's Class Projects

Communicating with Twitter

I've spent some time this week working on a training session to help teachers implement Twitter in the classroom. Just like a lot of things, I've found Twitter to be one more thing that I wish I had utilized as a classroom teacher last year. So now my goal (since I have no classroom) is to get my teachers to see its benefits as a communication and collaboration tool.

I decided to troll online for awhile (my son calls it the World Wide Web, and since it sounds so cute, I don't offer other names) and I came across some great examples of how teachers are using Twitter to communicate to parents. Perhaps more importantly, I found some excellent examples of how students use Twitter to share and question. So if you have a Twitter account, try following these feeds. And if you don't have an account, what are you waiting for??

@MsMagiera - Awesome example of a stellar teacher using technology to enhance learning. This is her personal Twitter handle

@NTAStudents1 - This handle is by Ms. Magiera's students. I especially like how she manages their tweets. You should see the types of questions and insights her students offer. A must see!

@HighfillCrew - 5th graders blending iPhones in their learning. I really love their use of Instagram to show what they are doing in class. What a cool way to show your learning by sharing digital images of your year.

@APUSHTweets - An AP History class account. Mrs. Cunningham uses her account to share valuable information for students and parents.

@MissTrippsClass - A class of 4/5 math and science students. Miss Tripp looks to share the learning and discovery of her students beyond the walls of the classroom.

Evernote Emailing

Wow!  Such a great use of Evernote:  http://blog.evernote.com/2012/04/20/quick-tip-friday-emailing-into-your-evernote-account/  My Evernote love grows more deeply every day. . ...

Kerry

SMART Notebook 11

The long wait is over! Actually, I'm not sure if there was a long wait or not, but I thought it would sound good. At any rate, SMART has released its new Notebook version 11. If you are a SMART enthusiast, and I know there are a lot of us out there, then you should be pretty excited. Here are some of the new features:

Embedded web browser - I think this might be the coolest new feature. You don't have to use the funky transparent screen anymore. A browser will open inside you notebook to search for information. You will also be able to annotate on top of the browser. Then you can capture information from there. I think secondary teachers (many of whom have yet to reap the benefits of SN) will love this!

Audio recording - now you can record sound directly into your notebook file

Contextual toolbar - changes with each tool you select. It also has two rows of tools, so now you'll be able to add all the tools you want to use.

Free hand fill - you can now use the paint bucket to fill in any free-hand drawing. Simple, but nice.

Reset page - reverts the page to the last saved version.

So that's a sampling of what to expect. Most likely, you will see the version 11 on the district's image for next year. Look for trainings over the summer to learn how to use this newer SMART Notebook!

Angel Login Issues

Here's a very common mistake that teachers all over the district are making. When you log in to Angel from your web browser, you have to enter the full URL in the address bar: angel.columbia.k12.mo.us. The problem that is occurring is that teachers have been entering just "angel". This process, when done inside the district, will get you to a login page. However, once you log in, you aren't going to get the access you need to get to all your files and groups. It looks like the real thing, but it's not.

Several years ago, the Angel folks told us that you could access Angel this way. After several trainings with teachers, the problem was found and corrected in future sessions. However, many teachers still log in this way. I wish my memory was that good.

So if you are having issues and getting "access denied" messages, make sure you log in with the full URL next time!