STC Blog

Hey All STC’s

 How are you doing your Logs?

I cannot remember to fill mine out and I don’t have the time?

Janie

We purchased Renaissance Classroom Responders at the end of last year. I am practicing with a fifth grade class in my computer lab. The students love them. Does anyone else have the responders?  How are you using them?

We have always used Yahooligans as our home page. Now, however, it has changed to Yahoo Kids and requires more downloads than I care to do on 60+ computers in order to view in its entirety. Does anyone have a recommendation for a home page for 4th and 5th graders?

Does anyone have surround sound connected to their LDC Projectors?

I am looking at a system for about $149.00 that will connect to my LCD projector that has 5 speakers that will be placed around the room.

 Any suggestions?

Janie

How are your STM’s distributing the ETI CD’s?

And how is everyone doing the training?

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Mike Johnson visited Spanish Fort Elementary School and taught blogging to my 4th grade class.  They are hooked on it!!  They can not wait until I get things posted on the blog. I told them it would take time.  Does anyone have any easy blog assignments? Right now, I plan on  posting a script and having students respond. Thanks for doing a great job Mike! You are greatly appreciated!

We are interested in purchasing keyboarding software for our lab.  Do any of you know of a good software program for 4th and 5th grades?

On behalf of someone out in the schools, Keith Kanne posts this question:
 Are there any elementary schools that you know of using any test prep sites or programs for SAT10 or ARMT?

 If you know of any such use of web sites or software in use in the system, please email Keith to let him know.

This semester my two eighth grade classes took on a digital photography project. They worked in pairs to cover the ten fourth and fifth grade classes. Each pair “adopted” a class. They had each child fill out a short “student profile” questionnaire. The team went to the class and took digital pictures of each of the students, the whole class together, and the teacher. The teams created a PPT of their class. They used the student profiles for information. Each student was featured on a slide. The class picture was the opening slide. The teams then burned the PPT to a CD. Each team presented the homeroom teacher with the CD. These slideshows were used by the classroom teachers at our first PTSO meeting-Open House. It was a good way to let parents “meet” the whole class.

Just a tidbit for those that are using United Streaming. My teachers love United Streaming! We have a TV connected to a classroom computer via a TVAtor and they can view the videos on the TV. However, they complained that they could not turn up  the speakers loud enough for the whole class to hear. I picked up some audio cables (cheap) and now they can run a cable from their speakers to the audio in on the TV. Easy fix!!! It works great. �

Your teachers that have Interenet Explorer 7 at home should be able to view their ETI CDs now. I have downloaded and tested the latest version of IE and everything seems to be working fine. At school your teachers should still have IE 6 so there should be no problem there.

Here’s an interesting article about what a day might be like in a Web 2.0 school.  I assume the names of teachers have been hidden to protect the innocent. 

Most of the technologies mentioned in this article are available to BCBE teachers:  blogs, wikis and online courses  Ready to start using them with your students?  Let me know

One of our teachers had a problem in his classroom of not being able to hear students read because of noise from the air vents. Other students couldn’t hear either and they were not able to keep their place in the book. The teacher asked for advice and chose a cordless microphone and speaker set for his classroom. It works great. The kids just pass the microphone (which is on a small stand) down to the next person to read. The speaker is a little smaller than a shoe box and can be plugged in or battery powered. It can be put anywhere. It sounds great and really keeps everyone’s attention because the class can actually hear what is being read.

The system is shown below. It was purchased from Long’s Electronics n Birmingham. http://www.longselectronics.com/product.jsp?path=-1|12395|12414&id=15966

Fleco 20 Watt Wireless PA System

I.N. FLEFPA22

Julie Gerstenschlager, Orange Beach Elementary

The activation code for the ETI project is: eti2935387

This is only needed the first time a teacher uses the cd. Teachers should click on the Log In Now button in the window that opens after inserting the CD.  This takes them to the login page on the ETI website.

The first time on this site, use the activation link on the right to create an account. Future visits to the site will only require teachers to login with the username and password they create during the activation process.

The 2006-07 versions of the STC and STM check lists are now posted on the district website.

I’ve applied a new theme to the STC blog.  What do you think?

Our principal, Mrs. Hamilton, ordered new LCD projectors for all the homeroom teachers. They are very excited!

Gulf Shores Elem. School has 6 teachers that have been piloting a new technology endevore using the Promethean Boards. Many of the STC’c may remember last years meeting where these boards were presented to us in a meeting. We are very excited about our new equipment and are eager to share our knowledge with others that may have questions. Our activboards also have responders that give live feed back to the teachers and excite the students while testing what they have learned.

Do you have information or lesson plans on Cyber Searches?

Here’s one strategy that students can use to get better results when searching:  7 Steps Ttoward Better Searching  It looks like it’s been updated to: 4 NETS for Better Searching

Share your strategies and lisson plans in the comments