I feel like I’m home when names like these show up on our Saturday workshop rosters.
And you find these names less and less often among the faculty pages on school district websites.
You see, attending these workshops says our guests are giving up a Saturday morning to spend it with us learning about technology.
A Saturday morning during the school year…
A Saturday free of grading, lesson plans, and “all things school” to spend it doing “more things school”…
They belong to my generation…and they are still excited and willing to learn new ways to teach and to make their teaching relevant for their students.
Shannon and I just returned from the 2009 NECC Conference in Washington, DC. One session we sat in on was “Teaching Math Using SMART Technology”.
The session was excellent in that it was presented as a math lesson on plotting coordinates on a quadratic plane.
The demonstration was led by Michelle Meehan, a young 7th grade math teacher from Virginia with teachers pulled from the audience who had volunteered to be her students. It was fun to watch someone else present and to see the excitement that was generated by a Notebook 10 lesson and the “How did you do that?” questions that followed. A facilitator walked around and answered the questions, and several times she made comments that began, “If a 50+ person like me can do it, so can you!”
Anytime we have participants who are reluctant or afraid to use the technology, and use their age as an excuse, we, also, try to reassure them that one of their teachers is older than they are,
(and I always am.)
Often these people are not “old” at all; just afraid.
We recently presented at a school where the curriculum director had spent some time doing research on the connection between the age of teachers and their willingness to use technology in the classroom.
I was very interested in hearing the results of her research and was quick to inquire.
She found that the connection had nothing to do with age,
but had everything to do with the willingness of the teacher to step out of their comfort zone, (a.k.a. “The Box”) and to try to do whatever was necessary to get their kids to learn.
I was not surprised.
This summer we were fortunate to have a vistor to one of our sessions. My mother attended a beginning SMARTBoard workshop, and she was totally engaged by what she saw. Her comment to me was that, “This is so fascinating! If I were a young teacher, I would be at every one of these classes!”
Again, I was not surprised.
My mom just turned 80.
She was one of the first her age to use email.
She has been IM’ing ever since it was introduced and she “Skypes” and is on Facebook.
Thanks, Mom, for passing those genes down to Shannon and me…
Wow! It has been a crazy past three weeks for Recess TEC. A good kind of crazy. We have visited quite a few different school districts as well as hosted our first “summer series” of technology workshops at EIASE….and now it is time to reflect. It is very important for us to share anything new that we learn while hosting professional development sessions so I think I will start there. During our first day on location at Lake Land College where we were privileged to train high school teachers on the implementation of SMARTBoards within their classrooms, I was asked how to re-size a circle in Notebook software with perfect h/w ratios. Of course this question came from a high school math teacher where perfect circles are a MUST. The answer could not be “eyeball it”. I told her to be really careful while dragging the mouse while resizing and it shouldn’t be an issue. HOWEVER, one of our other participants was kind enough to share a tip that I had never seen. My mom knew about it, but I sure didn’t. Robin informed me that you could click on the little white circle on the bottom right corner of any shape, hold down the shift key, and then drag to keep the shape in proportion. I love it when I learn something new from our participants! Thanks Robin!
We were happy to be “On the Road, Again”…
and Jefferson School in Charleston was once again our point of destination yesterday morning.
“Advanced SMARTBoard” was the workshop for the morning, and we always look forward to working with Charleston teachers in a “hands-on” setting. It’s a special treat when Shannon’s “next-door neighbors”, The Pattenaudes, are our IT specialists, as well. They are very, very supportive and stay for the whole sessions.
We were in the middle of showing how to drag a slide from one Notebook file into another, when one of our participants showed us how to make the process easier!
But wait!
A picture, or three, is worth thousands of words… The “Old Way” was to “restore down” each Notebook file and to stack the “source file” on top of the destination file.
Then we would drag the slide from the source slide-sorter into the slide-sorter of the destination file behind it.
Now…
The “New Way”:
Right click on your bottom “Task Bar” and choose the “Show Windows Stacked” option.
Now your files are stacked on top of each other, and it is much easier to drag the slides from one file and place it where you want into the destination file.
Ok…I was curious. I have seen the YouTube video of Johnny Lee. I have had a SMARTBoard in my classroom for 4 years. I know about school budget crunches. All three of those reasons combined led Mom and me to attend a session at the East Central IL Tech Conference on Friday entitled “Interactive Whiteboard (aka “SMARTBoard”) for <$100″.
It seems like this $100 Wii IWB thing is really starting to become a reality. There are quite a few places online where you can purchase the light pens, as well as accessories for the Wii Remote to make it stand on a tripod as a functional piece of classroom equipment. Software is available as a free download to get your computer compatible with the hardware.
Any surface can be transformed into an IWB.
Even a table top.
And with Multi-touch capabilities if you have more than one light pen.
Wow…the opportunity to have a multi-touch table in my classroom in 2009?
Well…I have to admit. I was less than thrilled with the functionality of the Wii IWB as a suitable means within a classroom.
Sure, it would work….if you were using your IWB as a game board, or to write and wipe.
But I think there are many folks who are beyond the “glorified whiteboard” idea. At least we hope they are. And if they aren’t? Well, we can certainly help with that!
We have a multitude of ways that the SMARTBoard can be used within the educational setting from small individualized center activities, to whole group lessons, to alternative assessment tools, to differentiated instruction.
I could never go back to teaching without my board. Ever!
Today Recess Tec traveled to Charleston, Illinois to present a workshop on SMARTBoard Notebook 10 to a great group of teachers. We have done many of these sessions, and although we cover the same basic information, each session is different given the difference in teachers, their personalities, and the subjects and grade levels they teach.
This group provided a very pleasant morning. The lab at Jefferson School was clean, bright, and there were no “equipment malfunctions”. The participants had many questions, but “got it” quickly. The room was often very quiet as they worked and concentrated. This is one of the many things we enjoy very much about our training sessions… to see the different ways teachers use the SMARTBoard, and the lessons they begin to build or download.
Our session closed and Shannon, Ashton and I rewarded ourselves with lunch at one of our favorite restaurants…
Both the school and the restaurant are within blocks of my first “home” as a young married bride. My husband was attending Eastern Illinois University on the G.I. Scholarship,
and I was working at Eastern’s Booth House in the Office of Nonacademic Personnel.
I remember when we first moved into the house. It was old then, and divided into three rental apartments for students.
I drove by to see if it was still there. It was. And one of the apartments was for rent… and except for the addition of some vinyl siding, had changed very little.
I remember how excited I was to have a little place to “fix up”…
(And it required MUCH of that!) and how I looked forward to getting a phone hooked up, and to be able to call home from work.
One evening I arrived home and discovered that the telephone man had been there, and he hooked up “our phone”. My first disappointment… It was NOT the phone of my dreams. “Heavy” was not what I had dreamed of.
Black did not fit in with the pastel blue walls, and although pastel blue walls were important, color coordination was the dream.
It had a cloth covered cord… that did not stretch when you pulled on it. A “stretchie” cord was part of the dream.
Saturday was cold, snowy, and windy, windy, windy, windy, windy. (Did I mention it was windy?) Oh that’s right…we were in Tuscola.
So, it was a perfect day to host one of our SMARTBoard beginners’ workshops. We can’t tell you how much we enjoy our days together. Not only do Shannon and I enjoy one another’s company, but it is refreshing to work with teachers who are excited about technology.
Originally, when we began this blog, we thought we would share our traveling adventures. One of the things we stress in our workshops is to focus on TWO things that you want to take away with you. I have found this to work for me when I have felt overwhelmed by information, and sometimes defeated before I begin. So, with that in mind, I thought I would try to find one thing at each of our workshops that I have learned, either in preparing for the workshop, or from the participants themselves.
In this workshop, the second part is very “hands-on”. We “show”, they “do”. It is then that we are available for help and guidance.
We were going over basics on formatting the background, and one of the teachers had a tiled background. She did not know how she got it, and I had to look to see whether she had cloned a piece of clipart. Finally, looking at the “formatting tab”, I saw that she had selected a small piece of clipart to use for the “insert image” fill option. I had never seen that done, nor thought of doing it myself, and it had created a “tiled” background, much like your desktop might look if you choose to use a small picture for your background. This option, especially made more transparent, might be something someone can use, and it is nice to know that it is available. On the other hand, it was nice for me to know how it was done if it was an accident. After all, isn’t that what we tell our students? That those things we learn best are from our mistakes?
Yesterday we hosted our “Advanced SMARTBoard” workshop.It was a small group…only four.
As a reader of the Principalspage Blog, I felt compelled to write about the workshop, but didn’t really know what to say.Principalspage tells us to just sit down and start typing and the words will come.
…but what to say?Five people registered for the workshop.Five people paid.Four people showed up.
Today Principalspage wrote that the secret to life is to “just show up…”.One person did not show up.
Throughout the workshop I thought about the fact that we had prepared and worked to teach only four people.And was it worth it…?
I have to say, “Yes, absolutely!”
The day before my mother (Shannon’s grandmother) had emailed me a link to a video. Mom is a big fan of the “Forwards”.She has become more selective and now sends only the very best of Maxine.
This video, however, was special.It told the story of “Johnny the Bag Boy”.It tells how one person, through a commitment to make each customer feel special, touches people’s lives.
So…with our four attendees, I thought of that lesson.We were so fortunate to spend our day with our “friends”.Each of them was there working hard to learn how to make their lessons more meaningful for their students.Each of them were giving up their Saturday. And it was a beautiful Saturday…the first light at the end of the tunnel…the tunnel being a very long, cold winter.
There is a lot of buzz about SMART’s new Touch Recognition feature. Being able to write, move and erase without having to replace the pen seems like a great new addition to the excellent features of the SMARTBoard. I just have one concern. Will my students no longer be able to write with their finger? They LOVE to do this and I am wondering if it will still be an option for those students who have a hard time holding the pen. I am also wondering if I will be able to write with a capped pen. You see, I often wander around my classroom with my SMARTBoard pen in my hand. (I’ll bet you can see where I am going with this….) I can not tell you how many times I have placed the pen on my desk or the back counter and then proceeded to need it as I make my way back to the board to continue with my lesson. I usually do one of two things. Pick up a capped dry erase marker or ink pen and use it…or simply switch the pens that are still in the tray around to get the desired color.
Here is a quick video to show you what all of the hype is about. I can’t wait to try it out to see its effects on how the kids currently use the board.
What do you think? Are you going to like this new feature?
That is the question I was asking at precisely 7:55 Saturday morning as Mom and I rolled into a town that I thought was Raymond, IL. As it turns out, we were in Taylorville. I found out this little piece of information as I pulled into a BP and asked “What town is this?”. (I don’t EVER hesitate to stop and ask for directions…EVER!) The nice lady behind the counter smiled and said, “Taylorville”. After I explained that I was supposed to be in Raymond at 8:00. She informed me that I was going to be late. It was about 15 miles away.
I’m “Mom”…and yes… When the question came up, “Where are we?”, it was shortly after I observed, “Shannon, that building says, ‘Taylorville First National Bank?” Then after her question, I suggested, “Taylorville Senior Citizen Center?”
If there is one thing you should know about me…I hate to be late. HATE IT. I had a boss while I was in high school who did not tolerate being late for work…so I never was…except once. And yes I got fired. Don’t worry, I was rehired later, but that is a whole different blog entry.
“Mom”: Back then she told me it was because “business was down, and they had to ‘cut back’…for now…”
So as I drove a little (OK..a lot) over the speed limit, we found ourselves in Raymond at 8:25. Humiliated over the fact that we were late. The workshop wasn’t scheduled to begin until 9:00…but still. I told the facilitators that we would be there at 8:00 to set up. That doesn’t mean arrive at 8:25.
“Mom”: guess what…it was all good…and our participants could not have been nicer. They even drew a map for us to help find our way back…taking the “Black Diamond Road”. (“Black Diamond”?! Have we mentioned how FLAT central Illinois is?) It wason this road upon leaving the school, she turned left, instead of right. “Where IS that map? Here it is…OK…U-turn it…we need to head back in the opposite direction.” Note: It is necessary to know, that when traveling from “Point A” to “Point B” in this part of the country, you must
understand terms like “black top” and grain bins, and
that all directions are given in cardinal directions, (thanks to the Land Ordinance of 1785), and
keep in mind that people will seldom tell you to turn “left” or “right”…
The end result of this little mix-up? A corporate investment in a GPS. After all we DO specialize in technology integration!
“Mom”: That decision was made right after I asked, “Shannon, do you have a road map in here?” Actually, I am a BIG fan of the road map when there is a passenger in the car…and I am the passenger.
I must back up a little before going forward in this first entry. As we were driving through a small town on our way to Raymond, we came upon this grocery store.
I felt like I was teleported straight back into 1960. Seriously. It was odd. OK, so I wasn’t exactly born in 1960…or anywhere around that time.
“Mom: that would make me old enough to be enjoying the retirement I have always dreamed of…in a little cottage in a region of France that has a name that sounds like wine. (Without a husband, but possibly a “traveling companion”…it IS France…). Actually, I AM old enough to be retired somewhere in France… but I still have a husband.
But I asked Mom and she thought I was right on target. We stopped at this little grocery store to pick up some chocolate. We make it a common practice to provide a steady stream of chocolate throughout any type of training that we provide. It seems like a stress reliever for those who are not feeling as “pumped” as we feel about integrating technology within their classrooms on a daily basis.
As I was entering the store…I must have stood and stared at the “Out” sign on this door for 10 seconds before realizing that I was not going to get “In” the store through that door.
“Mom”: I was in the car laughing. I’m the one with the cell phone camera. I still capture those “precious moments” my little girl provides…
I realized that I had forgotten to throw the basket that we use into the car the night before when packing up all of our equipment. We carry quite a bit of stuff in order to keep our bases covered when we get to a school. You never know what you might find when getting ready to present technology related topics. I didn’t really want to be the tacky corporation that just throws candy at its participants…bowl, basket, box, whatever type of container will do. But we didn’t have one. I didn’t think there was probably a chance that the store would have anything like that for sale, but I decided to ask the kind produce man arranging the grapefruit if they had that sort of thing for sale.
“Mom”: He was laughing. I said, “Shannon, he is laughing at us,” and he, laughing, replied, “I am not laughing at you. I am laughing with you.”
As it turns out they didn’t. BUT…he went to the stockroom and dug around in some boxes and came up with a basket. I told him I would return it on our way back through. He smiled and said “Keep it in your car. You never know when you might need it again.”
Yes…I think I had stepped back into time.
By the way…this is the picture of our candy basket at the END of the day. Not too bad. We must not have been TOO stressful since there was actually candy left over.
“Mom”: We thought, in writing this blog, we would share things we learn on our “Excellent Adventures”. For this workshop, we were in the high school “media center”, and the librarian, (a.k.a. “media specialist”) had signs on the wall. We learned from one of the signs that the personal library of Thomas Jefferson was the start of the Library of Congress. While helping a participant with “math symbols”, I was asked where she could find another symbol for square root. We decided we would have to assemble it, but she wanted to “save it” for future use. We are often asked, “How do you know all this ‘stuff’?” We “play”. We are “geeks”. We don’t watch television…or at least very often. So with that said, a video of what I did to answer the question:
Finally, we would like to say thank you to the teachers from Panhandle school district for spending the day with us. We had fun and you were great participants!
Today 
Both the school and the restaurant are within blocks of my first “home” as a young married bride. My husband was attending Eastern Illinois University on the G.I. Scholarship,
