21st Century Classroom

This spring, I have been working with one of our Title I principals as she completes an Electronic Portfolio for the West Virginia Institute for 21st Century Leadership. One of the challenges in developing the portfolio is to showcase 21st Century Learning in our schools. This little slide show was made on PhotoBucket, which we later found was not friendly to post on the Google Site that she is using to develop her portfolio. Rather than chuck the project I decided to post it here. These are just a few of the ways that Cabell County's Title I schools have embraced 21st Century Teaching and Learning.

Letters to the North Pole

Mrs. Claus visited seven of Cabell County's Title I schools this holiday season. Since it's such a hectic time of year in the North Pole, she put the powers of technology to good use. Using our newly implemented Polycom videoconferencing system, Claus was able to talk with children across the county without leaving the warmth of her North Pole fireplace.

I designed this project to address Reading/ Language Arts Curriculum Standards and Objectives in writing, listening, speaking, and reading comprehension. PreK- Grade 3 classrooms were invited to participate. The work began in the classrooms with students writing their annual Letter to Santa. Teachers composed a Nice List to forward to the North Pole so that students would know that their good deeds and behavior does not go unnoticed. We also incorporated Science and Social Studies by making a connection between the wildlife in West Virginia and that found at the North Pole.

During her high-tech visits to the schools, Mrs. Claus shared a lesson in good character and kindness with the children by reading Silver Packages, written by West Virginia author Cynthia Rylant. This story shares a lesson about the value of personal relationships and the importance of giving of ourselves every day. We hope to run the project again next year, reaching even more classrooms in our Title I schools.

To view our collaborative project space, visit http://letterstothenorthpole.pbworks.com.

Polycom Video Conferencing

At the end of April, I was hired as a TIS for Cabell County Schools. One of the first initiatives that they have assigned to me is to attend a series of Polycom training. I will be responsible for coming up with a plan to integrate this equipment in the schools. In January, seven HDX Media Centers were placed in the schools, one in each of the Title I funded schools. The county also purchased several for the Central Office and three server-mounted units that will record or stream conferences, manage student/ teacher access, and assist with scheduling. Needless to say, I was a little anxious about traveling to Andover, MA alone to attend what I anticipated to be a training that was far beyond my technical ability, let alone comprehension. I met with Dennis one afternoon for a quick run-down of the RSS 2000. He left me with some words of encouragement, "Don't let those engineers intimidate you!" Those few words and a black pin-striped suit gave me the confidence that I needed to step in to my new position. I am scheduled to be in Atlanta the first week of June for training on the SE 200. I hope I'm ready!

• RSS 2000 Technical Course Certificate
  

SHE Students Visit Capitol

When the bus pulled away from 1901 Hall Avenue on a rainy, Thursday morning fourth grade students from Spring Hill Elementary had no idea that they were about to have one of the most exciting adventures of the 2007-08 school year. We arrived in Charleston, unloaded the bus of excited ten-year-olds and reported to a tour docent at the Cultural Center. Although we knew that Senator Clinton was scheduled to speak on the capitol lawn that day, we had no idea that it would be possible for us to get up close and personal. Because of the turn in weather, Senator Clinton was asked to move her appearance inside the capitol building. Our tour, therefore was given from the marble foyer of the Cultural Center. I was determined that these students would not return to school disappointed that they had not seen the inside of the capitol building. Down the long halls we bypassed propaganda flyers, button-sellers, Clean Coal protesters, security, metal detectors and entered the rotunda crowded with children and adults alike. Music blared with John Denver's Country Roads, Dolly Parton's Nine to Five, and many other lively mountain tunes. After a long, hot wait Senator Clinton arrived on stage with West Virginia's First Lady, Gail Manchin. I handed out the digital cameras and sent the students to the front lines. Check out this amazing photo by one of our most talented journalists. His response to the experience was, "She gave me a pity hug!"

Get Set for the WESTEST!

The students of Spring Hill Elementary registered to attend a conference hosted by the teachers and staff of Spring Hill Elementary. This conference, Get Set for the WESTEST was developed in response to low achievement scores on the 2007 WESTEST. The students arrived at SHE on Saturday, April 26 at 8:30 am, were provided with breakfast, attended an assembly with the principal, and then broke into small teams where they were scheduled to attend sessions until 3:30 pm. These sessions focused on Content Standards and Objectives that were identified as weaknesses according to the 2007 WESTEST results. Our goal was to provide targeted instruction to the students of SHE so that they would have every opportunity to be successful in 2008.

I got the idea for this project during the CTB McGraw-Hill Writing Roadmap study which took place in October. Because this study provided payment for each student essay completed, we had a nice sum to work with. The principal, teachers and I decided that it would be beneficial to offer the students a conference, one that would allow them to understand the importance of their success on the WESTEST. The project was a tremendous success, and we hope that it will be an annual event at Spring Hill Elementary. Visit the page link located in the Web Index for more detailed information.

Parent Partner

Title I funding provides for a Parent Partner position at SHE. This position acts as a liaison between the community of parents and Spring Hill Elementary. Our own Karin B. resigned from the position this year to pursue a career elsewhere. We wish her the best of luck; she will be missed. Together with Karin, her replacement Jake Boltz, and a number of parent volunteers I was able to work on a variety of projects. Much of what I was able to do with this team involved photographs, video, and graphics work. I enjoyed these projects as an opportunity to utilize my creativity. Additionally, I was able to offer technical assistance and mentor training to those working and volunteering in the Parent Room. Below are links to a couple of brochures that have been created in order to provide SHE parents a general overview of Adequate Yearly Progress and the No Child Left Behind Act and Title I Services and Programs. I hope to adapt these documents so that they might be made available to a wider audience of parents at other Title I schools in Cabell County.

• AYP and the No Child Left Behind Act
  
• Title I Services and Programs
  

WV Essentials

Early in March, Karen and I were invited to become Master Traines in the Intel Teach to the Future Essentials Course. Our good friend at the state department, Bodie Fulford recognized our interest in the Intel initiative when we worked with her to become Master Trainers in the Thinking with Technology course. The newly renovated Essentials course utilizes Web 2.0 resources as a method for classroom implementation of the Intel units. Instructor Dan Morris from Colorado, along with participants from Wyoming, New York, and from across West Virginia gathered together in a small room at the Marriott in Charleston. We had a truly great experience; and Bodie's lunch selections were the best ever! Feel free to visit the WV Essentials wiki to view all of the units created during this week. To read more about my Intel experiences, please access the link on this page under Web Index.

IC3

Because of the number of training hours required for TIS certification, the county enrolled both Karen and me in the Cabell County Tech Cadre. This team of ten professionals would become a "Task Force," eventually sent out to offer professional development sessions to the staff of Cabell County Schools. Being enrolled in the Tech Cadre also meant completing the IC3 course. Each of these courses were instructed by Steve Beckelhimer, STEM Science Coordinator at the June Harless Center, Marshall University. County support for the Cadre was coordinated by CCBOE Technology Director, Dennis Adkins.

According to Certiport, Inc. The Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³) program is the world's first validated, standards-based training and certification program for basic computing and Internet knowledge and skills. Successful completion of IC³ ensures you have the knowledge and skills required for basic use of computer hardware, software, networks, and the Internet.

After the Tech Cadre course was complete, the members were assigned to offer specific professional development. Together with Heather S. and Kathy W., I was assigned to develop a 2 hour session on Podcasting. The purpose of the course was to identify an interest in a longer course to be developed for the Fall, 2008. We chose to focus on a general overview of podcasting and possible integration in the K-12 classroom, resources available on the web (including implementation of those specifically available on iTunes), and a brief introduction to Audacity, open source software for recording and editing sounds. Course resources are posted on Wanted: Global Citizens, located in the Web Index.

• IC3 Certification
• Tech Cadre Agenda

Continent Studies

In October, SHE students are involved in a multi-cultural program that allows them to study people and traditions from across the globe. Fourth graders are assigned to study the continent of Asia. In Ms. James' class, students were introduced to the customs and language of South Korea. Ms. James has a friend who was born in South Korea, and was able to bring in some costumes, etc. to share with the students. Coincidentally, I had a friend who was teaching at Brighton Junior English School located in the city of Gwangju. The students at Brighton were assigned to write a letter to the students in Ms. James' class. After visiting the school website together, viewing a photo slideshow with images from South Korea and Gwangju, and examining some items that my friend had sent me as a gift the SHE students each drafted a return letter. We tied this opportunity together with Friendly Letter Writing, completing a series of mini-lessons which incorporated writing one's name in Korean, etc. At the end of the unit, the students' work was Air Mailed to the students of Brighton School, together with some information about Spring Hill Elementary and the state of West Virginia.

• Letter from young-hyun Ko (Betty)
• Letter from ga-hyun-Lee (Alicia)
• Letter from mi-ji-Park (Debbie)
  

Exploring Paint

I have always underestimated the Paint application which has come preloaded on nearly every PC with a Windows interface. In October, many of the teachers at Spring Hill Elementary were enrolled in an Adobe Photoshop course through CCBOE. Each was challenged to incorporate digital photography in their classroom instruction and to prepare a lesson plan that would outline this implementation. A fourth grade teacher, Ms. Dement had come across an idea that was posted in the October issue of Technology Times which utilized Paint for basic image manipulation. Gilda had been the one to post the idea for this project in an earlier issue of her technology newsletter. This was the perfect time to introduce the students to their unique drive space located on the SHE server. Ms. Dement and I uploaded all of the student photos to a Flickr account and tagged them so that they could be located easily during classroom instruction. Once the students pulled them down in a lower resolution and saved them to their folder on the server, we deleted the images from Flickr. Students were directed to save both the original image and the one that had been manipulated using Paint. Check out some of the results in the slideshow above!

Classroom Web Pages

An additional goal for creating an interactive classroom environment was to assist the teachers in developing a classroom web page. With the web folders already in place, the System's Operator and I came up with what we thought would be a fool-proof plan for every teacher at Spring Hill Elementary to begin creating an online classroom. The Technology Director at CCBOE asked that we use Word to create these pages. I don't know if you have ever tried to create a web page using Microsoft Word, but it is no easy task! First, I established a table format and developed a four-page template. Once distributed, the teachers could easily open the Word file to edit and make the page their own. Using a template allowed for the design to remain uniform, which is not only pleasing to the casual web surfer but also offers parents familiarity as they navigate the various classroom pages. The training for these web pages, particularly embedding hyperlinks, was challenging for some of the teachers. They hung right in there, and we made it! You can visit these pages by accessing the Classroom Pages Index located on the Spring Hill Elementary home page.

• Adobe Captivate: Adding a Table
  

Universal Design for Learning

At the TIS Training, Bridgeport Conference Center we received training with a multitude of tools and resources including Universal Design for Learning. Presenter John Ross offered a book study for the EETT TIS group to participate in. At the finish of the online course, TIS participants were challenged to write and implement a lesson plan in UDL format.

Numonics White Boards

One of the very first objectives that I established this year was to assist the teachers as they developed skills that would help them to bring their classrooms alive for their students. For nearly two years, Spring Hill Elementary had been slowly adopting the use of interactive white boards. Because these had been set in place with a laptop computer, projector, and ELMO visual presenter the boards were more often than not being used as an expensive screen. Very few teachers had been developing lessons that would utilize these Numonics boards and the Intelliboard software. In the summer, Cabell County Board of Education developed two-day training sessions to help expand the teachers' understanding of what these boards could offer. They also gave the teachers the support and time that they needed in order to create lessons that they could take back to their classrooms in the fall. By taking this experience one step further, I was able to offer the teachers at SHE a unique training day to familiarize themselves with the white boards and to present them with the idea of using interactive technology as a means of differentiated instruction. Check out some examples of VWB lessons below.

• Multiplication
• The link above is a complete WhiteBoard lesson file. You must have Intelliboard software, such as the Virtual Whiteboard Viewer to access this file. The links below are html files that are for showcase only. They do not have interactive features available.
  
• Multiplying Larger Numbers
  
• Bar Graphs
  
• Exploring Ecosystems
• Discovering the Americas

• Handout: Designing VWB Lessons
  

Technology Times

I met Gilda Haddox, TIS for Wood County during the Bridgeport Conference in July, 2008. She presented the EETT TIS members with a disc that contained files which would become most helpful as we dove headfirst into the 2007- 08 school year. With these files, Gilda planted the seed for a Technology Times newsletter. At this time, I had not even considered the smallest of responsibilities that would be on my shoulders as the year progressed.

• September, 2007
• October, 2007
• November, 2007
• December, 2007
• January, 2008
• February, 2008
• March/ April, 2008
  

Karen R. Dailey

Upon mentioning my partner in the post made for the State Technology Conference, I have decided that it would be appropriate to introduce my friend and colleague, Karen Dailey. She and I met when I was taking graduate courses at Marshall University to complete my degree in Special Education. On the day that I went in to interview with the Technology Director I asked, "Who got the other TIS position?" To which Dennis replied, "Karen Dailey; do you know her?" Well if I didn't know her well at that time it would not be long before we partnered up to embark on our journey as the Technology Integration Specialists of Cabell County. I am looking forward to attending NECC San Antonio with Karen in June. Puffy tacos, here we come!

WV Technology Conference

Just in time to kick off the challenges of the new school year, Cabell County Schools scheduled my partner and I to attend the West Virginia Technology Conference in Charleston, WV. In the closing luncheon, counties that had been awarded the national Enhancing Education Through Technology grant were recognized and presented with a plaque. The image above shows myself, Ms. P. L. Bailey, SHE Principal and D. A. Adkins, CCBOE Director of Technology. To view my attended schedule and reflections on some of the most influential sessions, visit my WV EETT TIS Blog.

Bridgeport, WV

In July, 2007 I was invited to attend the Foundation for all TIS Models at the Bridgeport Conference Center. This training was hosted by the West Virginia Department of Education as an introduction to the TIS role and overview of the EETT grant program. We were welcomed by Superintendent of West Virginia schools, Dr. Stephen Paine via web conference. His enthusiasm for 21st Century Learning was quite motivating; initiating an atmosphere where teaching and learning for all resonated as the days in Bridgeport advanced.

Upstart

I am exploring the idea of using a blog to create a professional online portfolio. What better way to showcase your digital projects and professional achievements? Using a forum that makes every entry available to the public will be challenging, but I believe appropriate for my intentions.

As the portfolio is composed, I will be forced to consider:

• Privacy
• Copyright
• Source
  
• Audience
• Voice
  

Think different.