SOITA Conference and Sketchup Surprise!

I had the BEST time at the Ohio SOITA Conference! I am very appreciative that Larry invited me to Keynote the first day and my friend Meg followed up on Day Two..just wish we (Meg and I) could have had some time together besides the 30 second Video Skype call!

So, during a break in my presentations, I wandered over to the student area because I wanted to see what they were up to..and these guys with the big smiles, proceeded to share with me their sketchups they have been doing the past week and loving it!

I spoke with their Teacher and it turns out, they were all set to show another project, when one of them found out about Sketchup and asked for it to be put on his computer. The Tech at the school "didn't know how" and this fourth grader figured it out and downloaded it on all the laptops they had brought to the conference. The Teacher "wasn't sure" exactly how or what they were doing, but they would show her they were making models of their school and I have to agree --self taught, a week into using Sketchup...what a surprise, they were rockin!

The real story behind GCT/CUE Dinner Club Webinar series.

Long, long ago, back in the summer of 08 the FOURTH official class of Google Certified Teachers were notified they were heading to Mountain View, California for their training. (Little history here, the previous three classes had been open to the California Teachers twice and the New York State Teachers once.) So, this was going to be the first class of "students" coming from around the world, and they did! Dorothy showed up from New Zealand, Paul came in from Canada...well, you get the point.

Everyone jumped on Twitter and in a matter of minutes a SITE was designed for all of us to plug in our winning videos and information about ourselves. The original 12 that posted decided to get together for dinner prior to the BIG DAY. When I walked in, after spending time on the SITE, I knew every one's name, thanks to the pictures posted and the conversations began. .

After our wonderful day of training, and meeting soooo many interesting educators, we converged on a restaurant and did a podcast retelling our "aha" moments. After the podcast we started to realize we would never have the chance to see each other face to face like this again and maybe we would see each other at a conference down the road....but, we would never have these great google conversations again.

Thus the monthly webinar series was born..The first Wednesday of every month during the school year is devoted to Google Certified Teachers getting together thru Elluminate to listen to other outstanding GCT's to learn, lament, and be challenged, there is EVEN MORE out there to listen and share!

If you would like to "present" at an upcoming webinar...Please let me know, we'd love to hear from you all!

If I had a million dollars...*start singing!

The more classrooms I see, the more money I see spent on "technology"...I'm just gonna throw it out there...

All you need is:

Showerboard on the wall, Document Camera, Laptop and projector..

Sure it would be nice to have more bells and whistles (flip cameras, etc..) but you can successfully educate the students using these tools.

Discover Kansas!

Kansas Professional Development invaded by Discovery Education!

Great time working with the Teachers of Junction City, Kansas at the all day conference!

We learned that there is a great group of teachers and administrators helping to make the lifes of the students enriching, by using Discovery Education streaming!

MIKE!!

My time in West Virginia was filled with innovative teachers, instructional technologists, one great principal and even engaging administrators....but, the main dude that impressed me the most...sigh...MIKE!! Love this guy! Not exactly sure I would like to do his job every day, but I'm happy knowing we both work for DISCOVERY!!

New and Improved and TIME SAVING!

Thanks Veronica, You are so kind! Discovery Education certainly DOES have audio to support your curriculum..

You don't have to stay up till 2:00 in the morning to find that audio clip you are displaying in the picture.

By the way, I'm just in awe.. You STILL have cassette tapes? Really? You found it? (I'd still be looking!!)

Welcome to the 21st century, Veronica! Its a great place to be!

CONVERGE MAGAZINE SPOTLIGHT!

Google Custom Search Refines Research Skills
Posted by Tanya Roscorla
on August 10, 2009 Ed Tech

The GOOGLE CUSTOM search engines do keep students from finding inappropriate sites on the whole Web, said Cindy Lane, an adjunct professor, Google Certified Teacher and instructional technology specialist from St. Louis. One of her students looked up “black holes” in a regular search, and you can just imagine what that child found, she said. She designed and taught a four-week class this summer at Southwest Baptist University for K-12 educators on Google applications, and she focused on searching during one of those weeks. All of the students created custom search engines, but many of them said they had never heard about it before.“You would think teachers would know about all of the applications that make their lives easier in their classrooms, but unless they take classes or they go to technology conferences or they have some really good PD [professional development] already imbedded in their schools, it’s a hit and miss kind of thing,” Lane said, “which is unfortunate.”