January 2009

How May We Help You?

Welcome to a brand new year! With each new year, it seems that more and more gets asked of the classroom teacher. Technology integration really can help make a difference. Your students are more motivated when you integrate technology into your daily instruction. Technology integration needs to be more than showing a website to teach a skill. True integration happens when you allow the students to interpret content, create, and represent what they learn using the tech tools with which they are familiar. This is the essence of project based learning. It can be scary when first attempted and it takes time to plan in order to use it effectively. But the results are AMAZING! Ask Gail and I to help with the is. We have lots of ideas to help you with motivating your students.

Reflections on Research

We live in a digital age. Long gone are the days in which students typed reports and projects on typewriters. Computers and word processing programs have transformed the process, making it easier than ever to edit, rearrange and even proof papers before printing a single word. But these powerful programs are not always easy for students to use.

Keyboarding skills are no longer vocational in nature, but necessary to communicate, extract, and disseminate information. Poor or no keyboarding skills will severely hamper students in meeting requiremnts for future success whether it be as a college student or if they go immediately into the workforce. Thoughts use to be that keyboarding should not be taught until a student was at least ten years of age. However students are beginning to use desktop computers, laptops, cell phones and other tech tools as young as 3 years of age. Keyboarding should be taught as soon as students have the fine motor skills to manuever a mouse, and instruction should be a partnership of the classroom, lab and instructional technology teachers. Sufficient time should be devoted to initial keyboarding instruction, and the new skill should be reinforced throughout the school years.

In ACPS we are fortunate in that throughout their school experience, students have the opportunity to learn how to manipulate a word processing suite called Microsoft Office. In order to collaborate globally many businesses are moving to online word processing utilities such as Google Docs or other online software. These online collaborative tools, though, are built to mirror MS Office. Therefore if a student knows the basics of MS Office, they will be able to communicate and compete with the needed 21st century skills. The ITRTs would welcome the opportunity to help plan a quality instructional program that would combine SOL stantdards with needed word processing skills.

Davidson, L. and Kochmann, B. (1996, February). Integrating Technology Into the Elementary Curriculum. Business Education Forum, 50 (3), 26-29.Erthal, M. (1996).

Tech Tips

Do not let your students do google searches for project pictures. This provides students with many opportunities to come across disturbing images. If your ITRTs are provided a couple of days advance notice, we would love to do the image searches for you. We will download a variety of copyright free pictures to your shared folder. Or we could create a portaportal containg safe links to specific images they can include in their projects.You can refer your students to your folder or portal to find just the right image. You could then reinforce internet safety concepts by letting the students know that a trusted adult has previewed these sites and photos. However, if they were to ever come across something online that is upsetting they should immediately make an adult aware of what they saw.

Year of Science

If you haven’t yet caught onto the momentum that’s building for education in 2009, then the time is now. This year has not only been designated a “Year of Science“, but it’s also been earmarked as The International Year of Astronomy and The International Year of Planet Earth.

Each of these causes and sites provide structure and tools to explore, empower and engage students in science, and you have the opportunity to contribute through local participation, and to feed your learning back to a wider “grid” of global learning.

The Year of Science is based on themes that run from month to month, including process and nature of science, evolution, physics and technology, energy resources, sustainability and the environment, oceans and water, astronomy, weather and climate, biodiversity and conservation, geosciences, chemistry, and health.

Get involved - let’s look for interdisciplinary connections and ways to share! There are so many opportunities this year to get our students actively involved in, and excited about, the world of science. Don't forget, to ask your ITRT about the telescope that the VDOE has built in Australia for Virginia Teachers!

Downloadable Goodies

I hope you enjou these power point ressources:

Super Hero Game Templat e

Basketball Game Template

Readong Log Templage

Mini Book Template

“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions” Joey Adams