Learning, Teaching & Technology

These are the professional development courses and workshops I have participated in since 2005:

Professional Development Activity, Date, Credits/Hours, Documentation
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 06, 8 hours, Certificate
NECC Conference, Atlanta, June 2007, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 07, 8 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference, October 08, 8 hours, Certificate
USM Course: The Read/Write Web, July 07, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
K-12 Online Conference07, 10/07-8/08, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
Yarmouth Writing Course, 07-08, 3 credits, Certificate
NH Tech. Education Conference, 12-08, 20 hours, Certificate

I plan to attend:

NECC Conference, Washington, D.C.,  June 2009, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 09, 8 hours, Certificate

Also, courses I taught each summer at USM and in the Yarmouth School District.

Today is the last session of our 1.5 credit course for six Yarmouth teachers who have been exploring blogs, wikis, photo sharing, voicethreads and expanding current teacher web pages and presentations into new directions. This is a subgroup of a class of 14 teachers who have made a commitment to participate in 19 hours of professional development focused on using technology to support learning and teaching. The morning has been time to work together, ask questions and prepare for sharing progress toward individual goals with the rest of the group in the afternoon.

The sharing among the six participants today seemed to flow from one project and set of ideas neatly into the next as we worked on qualities of design, engagement by students, facilitation of student work with coaching from teachers, rubrics, quality indicators and the fun that can be part of exploring and creating in new ways. We recorded the sharing to the class wiki at http://yarmouthspring08.wikispaces.com/Final+Day+Sharing.

I will be developing a feedback query for course participants in the coming week and I will put it out in draft form on email.

I leave this day warmed by the collaboration between and among the teachers involved, regardless of grade level or subject matter. Each teacher exceeded her/his goal set at the beginning of this course and I know the learning and questioning will continue.

Cathy

Tomorrow is the first day of our 1.5 credit technology course in Yarmouth for K-12 educators learning to do “New Things in New Ways”. The Web 2.0 tools for communicating and collaborating are changing the boundaries of school and learning at every level. I’ve spent the last few days wandering to nings, blogs, podcasts and even live webcasts gathering resources for this group of teachers. Their goals will direct each of them on the path toward their own next learning. We’ll see what collaboration develops within the class and out into the realm of edubloggers and connecting teachers. Alice Barr and I are teaching together, our course wiki is at http://yarmouthspring08.wikispaces.com.

My S(M)ART Goal for Writing Class – Winter/Spring 2007-08

I took this course so that I would have more interaction with teachers who are looking to improve writing instruction in their classrooms. In particular, I want to know more about writing instruction in the K-4 classroom so that I can offer students the most appropriate technology tools to support writing for various purposes.

My goal for my students is to see an increased interest and productivity when students are writing in the computer lab. This will look like:
•    2nd graders writing stories in the Clicker program with voice feedback.
•    4th graders doing quickwrites in Clicker with voice feedback.
•    2nd and 3rd graders using Classroom Blogmeister blogs
•    All grades recording voice narration on voicethread.com
•    All grades comfortable with font, size, color and alignment for text.
•    All grades learning to add a Drawing to a Word Processing page for illustration
•    3rd & 4th graders learning to add images from the Internet to writing.
•    3rd & 4th graders designing ezedia projects combining text and images.

The podcasts and vodcasts are up and the sessions for the K-12 Online Conference are available. I’ve been authorized to take the course for credit and have started listening and participating along with Mike and Alice. Some of the participants in the Yarmouth Teaching and Learning with Technology summer course are doing sessions that are connected to their goals. This is a revolution in online learning anywhere, anytime.

Where has the time gone this week? I’ve learned many new things and the adventure toward more draws me forward. What are some new learnings?

Active use of Twitter by adding more people to follow, writing and checking it; Widgets on the sidebars of my blog; Connecting my web pages, blogs & wikis in one space; Exploring and viewing video podcasts from NECC, National Geographic, etc.; Adding slideshows of photos to my school index page; Avatars from Lego blocks; entering Second Life; Connect2.0 ning; WebCasting Academy; Slideshare; MindMeister; the networking aspects of del.icio.us and on & on…

Whenever I finish a class I always have a bag full of readings and reflections I want to get back to and connect to the real work of school. Unfortunately they usually stay in the bag and I have every expectation that this blog will stay present and alive.

Thanks to all participants and most of all to Alice for all the preparation and enthusiasm that made for an outstanding week!!