Tag: workshop

Aug 20 2013 August 20, 2013 November 22, 2013 NoComment by David

What’s New This Year?

Posted in Staff Development

Screen shot 2013-11-22 at 1.20.21 PMToday we had New Teacher Academy at Hermitage High School. We shared a quick summary of the technology resources available in Henrico and gave the new teachers some ideas for using technology in their classrooms. You can see our slideshow presentation here. Besides hiring many new teachers, there are several other changes in Henrico this year. Our ITRT team got three new trainers, Jim, Ryan, and Julie. They have fresh, exciting ideas, and I’ve linked to their blogs on the right. One of the newbies, Ryan, taught 4th grade last year, so we presented together today at New Teacher Academy since I also taught 4th grade (you can watch our intro video here). A cool thing we used for our presentation was a new app I discovered at last week’s technology conference called Nearpod (thanks Ms. Waggoner & Ms. Lizotte). It provides a way to make your presentation interactive. You can try it out here. Since our team has changed, we all have some new schools this year. My schools are Varina (Mondays), Holladay (Tuesdays), Laburnum (Wednesdays), and Davis (Thursdays). Fridays are a flexible day where we go wherever we are needed. I also have a new way to sign up for lessons. I am using Setmore. You are welcome to click the link and start signing up for lessons now, but I am also going to sign each teacher up for 4 lessons in advance. I found out too late about Calendly, but I’ll use that scheduling program next year since it is free and integrates with Google Calendar. I hope everyone has a great 2013-2014 school year!


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Aug 14 2013 August 14, 2013 November 22, 2013 NoComment by David

Animation Funkification

Posted in Staff Development

Screen shot 2013-11-22 at 1.39.41 PMToday the Elementary ITRTs (technology trainers) hosted a technology conference at Twin Hickory Elementary. Alfonso and I presented a session called “Animation Funkification” where we talked about ways to funkify your classroom with animations. And by “funky” we mean that fun is key to learning. We wore our waders because so often as teachers we get bogged down by all the tedious tasks we are required to do that we lose sight of what we really want to do, which is make learning fun for kids! Animation is not only fun, but it’s a powerful way to help children visualize and understand concepts. After animated Alfonso and David introduced the REAL Alfonso and David in this meta-animation, we shared some cool sites for making animations like ABCYa! Animate and Flipbook Maker as well as several examples of student-created projects. You can see them all on our website. We finished our session by letting the teachers make their own animations.


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Dec 04 2012 December 4, 2012 January 16, 2013 NoComment by David

VSTE Conference 2012

Posted in 5th Grade, Staff Development, Trekkers

Picture 8This weekend I attended the VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach. It was a great conference, and I learned lots of new ways to use technology in the classroom. I also presented a session with Alfonso Favale. The title of our presentation was “Make Meaningful Media with the Virginia Trekkers.” You can see our entire presentation here. The tool we used to create that website is actually one that you and your students could use too. It’s called Tackk and doesn’t require a login to use. It has lots of cool features like embedding videos and maps which I tried to include in our sample site. We started our presentation by sharing some of the latest updates to the Virginia Trekkers. This summer we traveled across the country thanks to a HEF grant. We went from Virginia to California, passing through seven other states along the way: Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. We added those videos to our USA Trekkers page to help 5th graders with their study of the United States regions. After telling about the updates, we wanted to show teachers how they could create videos with their students like the Trekkers do. So we gave them a variety of resources and web tools that you can find linked on our Tackk page. Try some of them out and let me know how I can help you. You might even consider entering one of your videos to our Video Contest. After our presentation, the Trekkers took a Polar Plunge into the ocean and we made a “pop-up video” using a cool web tool we learned about at VSTE called Popcorn Maker. Students can use it to add pop-ups to their videos including maps, twitter feeds, text, pictures and more. Check it out!


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Mar 24 2010 March 24, 2010 May 10, 2010 NoComment by David

Social Studies Workshop

Posted in Social Studies, Staff Development

This week my fellow ITRTs, Frank, Brad, and I have been teaching the social studies contacts and your principals about how to improve social studies performance using technology. Today’s students, called Millennials, are also known as the digital generation because they have grown up with technology. Some are even creating YouTube videos and keeping blogs of their own, like the girl in the cartoon. Using technology in your classroom is a great way to tap into their natural abilities and interests. I created a website in GoogleDocs that I’d like to share with you because it has links to many valuable resources. First there’s an online poll using a site called PollEverywhere that you might like to use in your classroom. It provides a live updated graph as your students vote or respond to whatever topic you post… and it’s free! After trying the poll, you can take the Millennials Quiz to see how well you relate to today’s generation of students. Next, get inspired by projects that students are working on in Henrico and across the country by clicking the video links. Finally, you can learn how to use some of the programs I’ve mentioned in this blog by clicking the tutorial links. I hope the site is helpful, and let me know if you have any questions.


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Mar 04 2010 March 4, 2010 September 22, 2010 1Comment by David

Using ActiVotes without a Board

Posted in Staff Development

Did you know that you can use the ActiVotes without a Promethean board? The ActiVotes are a great way to get all your students involved in review activities. They are usually stored in a grey box in your library (or maybe a classroom). Inside the box you will find 30-35 ActiVotes and an ActivHub. You plug the ActivHub into your USB port, pass out the ActiVotes to your students, and show some questions on your screen using the projector. The questions can be created with anything… Pages, Keynote, GoogleDocs, or you can even use Test Maker questions (just realize that the ActiVotes only have the letters A-F on them). To open the software look for expresspoll (Applications > Promethean > ActivInspire > expresspoll). You might even want to drag that to your dock for easy access. Once you open express poll, you will see a little question mark on your desktop. Roll your mouse over it, select the gear icon, and choose the ActiVote icon from the popup menu. Then a grid should appear on your desktop with numbers that correspond to each ActiVote. Students can start clicking their answers and watch as the grid lights up! When you press the red stop button, a graph will appear showing how many students chose each answer. It provides instant feedback so you will know what you need to review, and it keeps all the students engaged. I have a how-to video and handout on this website. Be sure to check out the Prezi explanation as well… it’s a cool new presentation program that you might like to try.

ActiVotes on Prezi


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Feb 04 2010 February 4, 2010 March 5, 2010 NoComment by David

EdTech Conference 2010

Posted in Staff Development

We’ve had off all week because of the snow, and today was our first day back! However, I was up in Ashland, Virginia, presenting at the EdTech conference hosted by Randolph-Macon College. My session was called “Frugal? Google!” and I explained how you can use Google Apps in your classroom. Did you know that with Google Apps you can create documents, spreadsheets, slideshows, forms, surveys, interactive maps, and calendars online for FREE? The great thing about doing it online is that you can work on it from any computer and more than one person can work on the same document. You can even embed some of them, like the slideshow, calendar, and forms, into your website. To see everything I shared click this link and this one. I’ve also had students create their own web pages using GoogleDocs which I described in this post.


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Jan 21 2010 January 21, 2010 March 5, 2010 NoComment by David

Technology Infusion for Principals

Posted in Staff Development

Today I presented a workshop on “Technology Infusion” for principals at Twin Hickory Elementary similar to the one I talked about on this post. I showed a couple of new YouTube videos produced by the Pearson Foundation that explained the importance of technology infusion in today’s classroom from both the administrators’ viewpoint and the students’ viewpoint. I also showed some websites of teachers who are infusing technology in their classrooms in amazing ways. Mr. Coley, a fifth grade teacher, has his students creating blogs and podcasts, and he creates flashcards for them to download and play on their ipods. You can see it all on his website. Mrs. Yollis, a third grade teacher, is the elementary winner for the EduBlog Awards 2009. Her site has incredible ideas for student-created technology projects such as tutorial videos and more. Check it out by clicking here. If you’d like to try some of their ideas, let me know and I’d be happy to help.


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Sep 28 2009 September 28, 2009 September 29, 2009 NoComment by David

Technology Infusion

Posted in Staff Development

InfusionFullToday was staff development day in Henrico County. My fellow ITRT, Jill Baedke and I presented a workshop on Technology Infusion. There are basically two definitions of infusion: (1) a drink prepared by soaking fruit or leaves in a liquid, and (2) slowly injecting medicine or fluids into a vein. So you can think of infusion as a slow process whereby something becomes one with something else. Anyway, the picture I drew was supposed to convey this in a grungy, graphic-design type of way, like the word “infusion” is becoming one with the person, but people have told me that it just looks like blood spurting out. Sorry about that, it was unintentional. Now getting back to main point of this whole thing, technology infusion would involve using technology throughout the learning process, not just as one distinct piece of the process (project-based learning vs a computer lesson). There are many examples and links on the website so check it out by clicking here.


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