Jan
29
Keeping Quiet About Voice Recordings
January 29, 2008 | 1 Comment
At times I have to remind myself that technology integration often happens on this campus without the Tech Coordinators’ direct involvement. Such is the case with one of our 6th Grade Spanish teachers, a self-defined technology resistant teacher, who inquired in the Fall about how to use GarageBand to record a Spanish dialogue. Imagine my [...]
Oct
29
I May Be Nuts, But…
October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments
..some 6th Grade boys approached me last month with the idea of starting a lunchtime blogging and podcasting club. After procrastinating as long as humanly possible, I finally agreed.
We had our first meeting today, and while I was thrilled to see that 12 kids showed up, I was somewhat disappointed that none of them were [...]
Oct
27
It’s Elementary Kids, Working Web 2.0 With Grade 3-4
October 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Here’s a link to another terrific presentation from the K12 Online Conference, given by John Pearce of Geelong, Victoria, Australia:
http://k12online.wm.edu/its_elementary/player.html
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Aug
18
Blogging & Podcasting Presentation: Hello World!
August 18, 2007 | 10 Comments
I recently presented a session at the CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools) Northern Regional Meeting in Atherton, CA. The session was entitled “Hello World! Blogging and Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom.”
If you attended today’s session, please be sure to leave a comment letting us all know how you’re intending to use blogs & podcasts [...]
Feb
16
The Trout Blog is Here!
February 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
OK…so if 2005-06 was the year of the Duck Blog, 2006-07 is the year of the Trout Blog! To see our latest endeavor, go to:
http://www.mcdsblogs.org/trout
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Feb
16
The Duck Blog Won an Award!
February 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It appears that Duck Diaries has been awarded the special Edublog Star Award (Convenors choice) as part of the Annual 2006 Edublog Awards! To check out all of the winners and nominees, go to http://www.incsub.org/awards/
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May
31
4th Grade Mission iMovies
May 31, 2006 | 1 Comment
My tech department colleague and one of our 4th grade teachers took the “blog as final project publishing tool” model one step further this week. Using the identical setup to the one I used for the audiobooks and the duck blog, these wonderful teachers have created a repository for all of the 4th grade student [...]
May
12
The 1st Graders are a Hit!
May 12, 2006 | 3 Comments
The 3 first grade audiobook blogs are now finished and posted. Hooray! The most exciting thing has been the response from the students’ friends and family. More comments and kudos keep pouring in from around the country. Talk about early writers writing for an authentic audience! I am so proud of this project and I [...]
Apr
29
1st Grade Podcasts - Almost Halfway There!
April 29, 2006 | 2 Comments
Who’s brilliant idea was it to try to upload 56 1st graders’ stories as podcasts before the end of school?! Oh yeah…mine… I’ve been trying to wrestle with a combination of Audacity, GarageBand, archive.org and edublogs to make the whole thing work for free (excluding the price of GarageBand and my time…)
To give a [...]
Mar
30
Podcasting 1st Grade Stories
March 30, 2006 | 1 Comment
Each Spring, the MCDS 1st Graders host the First Grade Library as a culminating project to celebrate their collective growth as readers and writers. Students hand write a series of stories, edit the stories, type them into a PowerPoint template I’ve created for the project, print the stories out, illustrate each page and bind them. [...]
Mar
16
March 2006 BAISNet Meeting Notes: Web 2.0
March 16, 2006 | 1 Comment
Overview:
MCDS hosted a BAISNet meeting this afternoon, which was attended by over 40 teachers, tech department members and administrators from Bay Area public and independent schools. Folks drove from as far away as Monterey, Oakland, San Jose and Sonoma to attend the meeting. The topic was, of course, how we are implementing Web 2.0 technologies [...]
Feb
18
Vendors as a Professional Development Resource
February 18, 2006 | Comments Off
As a long-time teacher trainer, I’ve recently been asking myself a question I thought I would never ask: can vendors provide my faculty with some of our technology professional development?
I always had a basic aversion to this concept, holding tight to the idea that teacher training is highly customized and personal, and is best performed [...]
Jan
30
Using Technology to Show the Process, Not Just the Product
January 30, 2006 | Comments Off
This coming Wednesday, Debra Jarjoura and I will be giving a presentation to the MCDS Lower School faculty about how to use technology to document classroom activities and to create simple student portfolios. Debra, a preschool teacher at The Phillips Brooks School and a true Reggio Emilia aficionado, would definitely not describe herself as a [...]
Jan
23
Service Learning and Shallow Standards
January 23, 2006 | 2 Comments
On Wednesday, MCDS welcomed Cathryn Berger Kaye to the school for an all-day visit. Kaye is a nationally known Service Learning consultant who works with schools to generate meaningful conversations about ways to connect students to community service projects. Throughout the day, individual teachers and teams had the opportunity to meet and brainstorm with Cathy [...]
