"I'd like to thank all the little people..."

In an effort to include you all in the process of incorporating technology into your classrooms we had what we hope is the first of many Student Response Systems available by application. A lot of you stopped by Tech Mountain (aka 318) to learn about the systems and several of you did an amazing job of describing how you would use an SRS and how you would identify its impact on your students. The administration was so impressed that more were purchased before the winners could even be announced! If you didn't make one of our Show and Tells--keep an eye out for an upcoming opportunity to slurp cofee and learn!

Here's the winners:
Tom Vacanti
Mary Mahoney
Nicole Mitchell
Kristina Shakow
Tracy Battles/Kelly Micare
Ellen Mall-John
Kara McLoughlin/Colleen Burke
Dan McCarthy
Larry Bizzarro
Mike Elliott/Brian Harrington
Wayne Jones
Earl Davis
Troy Gayle
Jen McCormack/Diana Hagan

Smart Response

     Realizing that all of you couldn't make it to our smart response demo this week I wanted to post a little something to keep you in the loop.  The following video is basically a commercial by Smart Technologies for their response system.  It won't provide you with comic relief, candy, or Emer's ridiculously strong coffee but it will give you information about the Smart Response System.  There will be an application process for getting a response system of your own in the near future.  Stop up to the mountain (room 318) to learn more.

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up!

     Do you recognize the name Dewey Bozella?  He's the man who was wrongly accused of killing someone and spent 26 years in a NY prison before being exonerated.  He also won his professional boxing debut this weekend at the age of 52.  "It was a dream come true", a dream that he never gave up on.
     This weekend many people took time to support the fight against breast cancer by participating in various community events.  Survivors were celebrated, those who passed away were remembered, and those who are currently fighting were encouraged.   Never give up.
     Perhaps it is a combination of this weekend's events and our challenging work as educators in a "school under revision" that has made me want to share Jimmy Valvano's 1993 ESPY speech on this blog.  It's not ed tech, however it is worth the watch even if you've seen it before.  My next post will be more "techy" I promise :)

   

Skate to Where the Puck is Going to Be

Below is a screen capture of Apple's website as it currently appears: 

          Much has been and will continue to be said about the significance of Steve Jobs and his contributions to life in our technology rich world.  One thing that I remember is when he quoted Wayne Gretsky at one of his product releases saying "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been".  He conducted business with that philosophy and clearly it worked.
           

Student Engagement in the 21st Century

     If your idea of the perfect way to end the work week doesn't include an after school meeting on Friday then we know we agree on something.  Although we may agree on that, I still sat in a meeting this afternoon as many of you headed out for some much needed pd at the local watering holes.  I'm not jealous, because I know you deserve it.  Just try not to be jealous of those of us who were left behind in our meeting.  Deal?  Great.

     I mention all of this to you because there was a discussion about engagement during the meeting.  We discussed what specific examples and evidence of student engagement would and wouldn't look like.  The discussion reminded me of a video that I came across several years ago that helped me shift my thinking about what student engagement could look like in the 21st Century.  I've embedded the video below.  There are newer versions, but this one spoke to me.   I hope you enjoy it.  

Powerschool Gradebook

Are you familiar with this?

No worries at all if you're not.  We have linked the .pdf that was used at our training right HERE.  We've also linked it right HERE and way over there-----------------------------------------------------> HERE.
It's also on our wiki. 

We're going to update this blog weekly at a minimum and as we learn about new things, have ideas, or take in suggestions that may be helpful to you, we'll be blogging about it all here.  We also want to use this blog to showcase you and your students.  For these and many other reasons which we are currently not at liberty to speak about (I mean, we could tell you but...) we encourage you to subscribe to this blog.  Please take a moment to do so.

Lastly, we have two days of embedded smartboard training this week in room 318.  Stop in and spend some time with us on Tuesday and/or Wednesday.  Keep up the great work and hopefully we'll see you soon!

Hello and Thank you!

We're thrilled to be working with you and would like to thank you for welcoming us to Albany High. We held our first day of embedded pd on smartboards and it was full of "ah ha" moments and good times. Period after period people walked away being able to do things they didn't know how to do when they entered and that's a big part of what it's about for us. Have no fear, we're friendly and here to help.