Franklin County is offering summer Technology training again, but a little differently this time. Instead of offering it all during one week of the summer, they’ve spread sessions out across the summer. It’s an excellent way of gaining some new technology skills, and for free. To learn more about these sessions, please visit their site: Franklin County Teacher Training
For Salem Employees, you can earn five re-certification points for any full day workshop and five points for two half-day workshops.
Have you seen the Nicoles’ new Carver library webpage? Or Victoria Salvat’s Kindergarten page? If not, check them out! You will notice they are using a really cool service called Glogster. Glogster allows you to make interactive poster-like creatives that include links, pictures, and videos all with a really slick looking design. You can allow these posters to stand alone as wepbages, or embed them in webpage, wiki, or blog. It works especially well for the homepage of a website. This is what Victoria and Nicole did to add that extra touch to their websites. Pam and I also used this for the Trek2India wiki!
So, want to make interactive posters with your kids? Here’s a tutorial that shows you how!
Always remember to stay on the educational gloster site (http://www.glogster.com/edu) with your students. Otherwise, they may access inappropriate material on the regular Glogster site.
This article is mainly for teachers at East Salem Elementary, and any new teachers at G.W. Carver. It will give you suggested resources for setting up a web presence for your classroom. Once you set-up your site, please let me know the address so I can link it to our schools’ homepage!
Options Tried by Other Elementary Teachers in Salem
Setup a Webpage
See me for software and initial setup. Most of our staff in Salem is using this type of web presence. It’s really not hard, and it looks very professional!
Create a class blog with separate blogs for your students too. This is my favorite way to do student blogging. Let me know if you decide on this option–I’ll send you our school set-up code.
Last weekend, the Big Lick Geobug was sent on it’s way to Ms. Deyenberg’s Class in Alberta, Canada! If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, then read this article on geocaching.
Sending the Big Lick Geobug on its way…. on PhotoPeach (Pictures by Meg Swecker)
Basically, the idea is that our Big Lick Geobug will travel from cache to cache with geocachers…all the way to Canada. It will be a slow process, possibly, since some caches aren’t found for weeks at a time….but hopefully some geocachers can take it long distances. Meanwhile, classes in Salem and Roanoke County (with Meg Swecker) will track it’s movements!
Ms. Deyenberg is doing the same thing too. Her 5th Grade class is sending Flop the Other Dorothy Dalgliesh Dolphin to us! You can read about the geobugs below (and follow them too)!
It’s a long way to Alberta, Canada, so they might not make it, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!! Following the geobugs as they travel will help our students practice map skills….and Math (as they calculate how far each bug has traveled). Here’s a map with their starting and ending points:
These bugs have the summer to travel, and hopefully will have moved some by the time we come back in the Fall. If you would like to follow along next year, let me know. I can come show your class how to geocache (even tie it with a topic you are teaching), and make sure you receive updates anytime one of the geobugs moves! I think we have some 2nd grade teachers already who will be following along!
Want to connect for free (or cheaply) with people all over the world? Want to make video phone calls? Skpye is a free way to do that! All you need is your computer, a web cam (and East and GWC each have one you can borrow), and a free download!
How do you use this in the classroom, you ask? Lots of ways!
call another class in a different area of the world to find out about their home
call an “expert” on a topic you are studying
have someone dress up as a famous person or book character and call your class
play a game with another classroom at a different school
write riddles for other classes to guess
share writing
Can you think of other ways?
A few of our classes have been using Skype to connect with classrooms in different areas. Mrs. Barnett’s Fourth Grade at East talked with students in Virginia Beach to learn more about the Tidewater Region of VA.