IETC 2014

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 11-9-2014

It’s time for IETC 2014, the Illinois Education & Technology Conference.
We are looking forward to once again seeing good friends and making new friends.
We’re always excited to share ways to collaborate, instruct, moderate, and expand the use of technology.

Our first IETC 2014 event will be this Wednesday, September 12th, when we will be presenting a Pre-Conference Workshop, “Google Magic: Captivate, Motivate, and Educate Your Students”, from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the Plaza D Meeting Room. Although registration for this workshop is closed, we always learn from our attendees.
We promise to share tips and ways to use Google Apps for Education each day as we attend IETC 2014. Follow us on our Facebook Page or on Twitter, @nbrach and @brachsmith.

We will host two sessions on Thursday:
Session II: 11:15-12:05 – “Digital Storytelling for All”
Digital storytelling? Uhhh, no thanks. I don’t teach Language Arts. We know, we know. We’ve heard it before. You might not realize what is involved in digital storytelling. Or maybe we can convince you to incorporate it into your classes no matter what subject or age you teach. Students want to create content. Attend this session to find out how! (CCSS will be addressed in this session.) (Audience: All grade levels).

Session III: 12:15-1:05 – “The Classics”
With all of the new technology introduced on a daily basis, sometimes you forget what you’ve already learned. Or, maybe you missed it the first time around. Join us for a technology integration “refresher.” We’ll talk about things that we’ve loved from the beginning of our technology adventures that we think have stood the test of time! (Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to point out all CCSS integration.) (Audience: All grade levels).

Yes, there is a walk for me before the end of the day.
But not until we work to finalize our presentations so that our friends can have workshops where they will learn and have a great time.
See you soon!

[Tweet “Looking forward to #IETC 2014 and our sessions on Wed. and Thurs.”]

Stop the Spinning!

by recesstec iPad2 tips workshops

Monday Morning Message ~ 5-9-2011

Shannon and I have recently each purchased an iPad2.

We are playing learning the benefits, down- loading apps, and are discovering the endless potential they have to motivate and engage our students to learn new things.

This summer we will host our first iPad workshops, and our biggest challenge will be to narrow it down to three hours!

This week’s tip is brought to you courtesy of my school’s librarian, Mrs. Muzzy. She is as excited about technology as we are, and when I brought the new iPad2 to school, she stopped by to take a look.

As I was showing her some of the apps I thought she might like, the screen began to rotate to as it does when you turn it from “portrait” to “landscape”.

She shared a tip that I have shared with several people, and it immediately made our lives easier.

If you double-click the “Home Button”, the viewing screen will lift upward to reveal your reccent apps.

If you push those to the right, you will find some setting options that will allow you to lock your orientation, dim or brighten the screen light, and if you are using multimedia, those controls are available to you, as well.

If you slide it back to the left, you will return to your most recent apps.

To return to the full screen, just simply tap above on the screen once.

Fun, yes?

We thought you would like that…

Thanks for the tips, Mrs. Muzzy!

Christmas in August

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

Cross-post from yesterday’s 365 Blog …

Shannon and I have been hitting it hard on the road for nine days straight.
And have we mentioned that it is hot?
And that tomorrow is my first day back to school?

So, this morning when we arrived in Fairfield for our second day
providing SMARTBoard training,
one of their wonderful teachers met us with a gift to welcome in the new
school year.
We have never received a gift from a participant before, and we were
delighted with her thoughtfulness and generosity.

We wanted to share her gift with the rest of you, and to let her know
how much it is appreciated.

To all of the teachers who have shared summer days with us,
from Shannon and me…

Thank YOU for your
attention,
enthusiasm,
patience,
willingness to learn,
willingness to share your ideas,
your love of children,
and your love of teaching.

Have a great year and make it fun…

8-12/365 ~Nancy

Summer… At Last

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

Memorial Day has come and gone and we have officially begun our summer series of workshops. Mom and I have already been pretty busy logging almost 1000 miles this week. I am looking forward to posting our experiences throughout the next three months and learning so much from other teachers in other districts. The funny thing about providing professional development is that if you allow yourself the opportunity to observe what is happening around you, there is a great chance the PD will be reciprocal for the presenter. I love it!

We have had the chance to travel to Olympia for a morning of “playing” on interactive whiteboards for a consultation. I definitely learned a ton that morning. I learned that an interactive whiteboard is an interactive whiteboard. 6 of one…1/2 dozen of the other. BUT…I also learned that the tool means nothing unless it is used efficiently and effectively in the classroom. Mom and I pride ourselves in making sure we do just that with all of the technology we incorporate in the classroom as well in our workshops. We decided that implementing a “best practices” session for any interactive whiteboard would be a great service we could provide teachers. But we also learned that if we didn’t feel like we could provide teachers with training that WE would be happy sitting through, then we would NOT take the consulting job.

Wednesday gave us an incredible opportunity to present to Chicago area administrators in an IASA Administrator’s Academy with Dr. Rich Voltz. Dr. Voltz contacted us and asked if we would co-present with him on the topic of Web 2.0. We were delighted to do just that. After all, we feel like the best avenue for change begins with administrators. It was a good day with a good mixture of discussion, hands-on application, and demonstration. Dr. Voltz shares our passion for technology integration and does a great job of sharing his experiences as an administrator with his fellow administrators. He also sees the value in asking other educators for assistance in providing their experiences during his workshops to create a well-rounded presentation. We were indeed lucky to be his assistants on Wednesday.

Thursday we headed to Palatine CCSD 15 to give SMARTBoard training to a fantastic group of elementary and middle school teachers.

They were fun, engaged, and super enthusiastic about the possibilities of implementing SMARTBoards within their classrooms. We were thrilled with the amount of questions and discussion that took place during the demonstration portion of the workshop. These teachers are definitely going to be changing the way they teach next year. I could feel the mind-shift happening all around me. In a word…exciting!

We are looking forward to heading back to Camp Point Central on Monday and Tuesday to work with new teachers as well as follow up with some advanced SMARTBoard training for teachers we trained this past school year.

We will keep you posted!

~Shannon

Everything I Know I Learned From My Mom…

by recesstec tips workshops

…ok…well, not EVERYTHING. But today during our afternoon session, Mom did teach me something. It is definitely a short cut that I will be showing my 4th graders this year while in the computer lab. When I have students go online to gather pictures for a multimedia project, I always send them to the Microsoft Clip Art site. This site has high quality stock images that have no copyright restrictions for student work. It is also SAFE. I have never seen any inappropriate images on this site.

Once the students find the image they want to use, I have them copy and paste, or drag and drop the image into a powerpoint slide. The students then right click on the image and “save picture as…” to the desktop or some other easy to find location. Today, while demonstrating Animoto, I showed this method of gathering images to our group. Mom asked, “Why don’t you just drag it into a folder?” My response was something like…awkward pause…”Uhhhh….I didn’t know you could do that.”

What you heard next was a rambling mixture of my mom saying, “Try it,” and me sighing and making remarks like…cool…and duh!

So there you have it folks. Another useful tip learned during a workshop with my mom! Here are the screen captures of the exact picture I “tried” during our session.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

If I am the late to the game in using this new method of downloading images…well…better late than never. If you didn’t know about this, you have my mom to thank!

Thanks Mom.

Oh…I almost forgot. She also shared a new online timer with me today. I know there are many available, but I hadn’t seen this one. Egg Timer Check it out for yourself.

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