Be kind to your projector!

We are fortunate to have so many innovative tools to use with our students!  I have even heard some teachers exclaim, “I couldn’t teach if they took away my board!”  As we learn to leverage these innovative and powerful tools, we see their potential for greatly impacting student learning.

Please take the time to turn off your projector when you are not using it. The bulb in your projector is VERY expensive.  It also has a limited number of hours to burn. The projector cannot tell if you are working through a flipchart or projecting blue, it just counts the hours.  Last year, some teachers were faced with the reality of not being able to use their boards because the bulb had burned out and there was no funding to replace bulbs.  Please don’t let this be your fate.

Consider assigning 2 students to be “Projector Captains”, train them to turn off the projector and show them the location of the remote. It will then be their jobs to make sure the projector is off every time the class leaves the room.

Updated AUP for HCPS Employees

As we go into the new school year, it is always good to refresh yourself with the latest changes in job requirements. The Acceptable Use Policy is not new, however in this fast paced, 21st Century world certain pertinent details have been added and modified to account for the quickly changing digital world. As a HCPS employee, it is your responsibility to be aware of the policies you are expected to adhere to each year. In an effort to make this process easier, I have made a pdf of newest version of the AUP for download. If you would like to read the document online, click the link below and you will be directed to the county page for Policies and Regulations. Click on 4) Personnel and scroll down to R4-06-013.

Download & print the AUP!

Dumbarton Teacher Awarded!

Dumbarton 5th grade teacher and DEN STAR Ann Marie Bishop was selected to participate in DEN National Institute in July of 2009 in San Francisco, California. As one of only 75 educators nominated to participate, Ann Marie will be meeting with other DEN members to collaborate about the best ways to utilize media in the classroom environment. She will also be sharing her expertise with her colleagues by presenting content at the Institute.

Hundreds of DEN STAR members from all over the country applied to be part of this amazing program, Henrico County is very fortunate to have such an exceptional teacher representing us at a national event. Click here for more information on the National Institute or to become a DEN STAR Educator.

Wildcats Are Wild About Reading

Dumbarton book club helps out their school- these students frequently stay after school with Mrs. Panter and Mrs. Kelley to read and discuss books of interest. More recently they put their GarageBand skills to good use writing and recording reviews of a variety of books. The book club at Dumbarton Elementary has worked very hard to publish reviews that all students can use when selecting reading materials for check-out.

Click here to listen to their work!

Gizmos!

Enhance and extend your student’s Math and Science skills! Gizmos is a wonderful, web-based program that provides online learning environments and activities to drive home Science and Math concepts. Not sold yet? They are also aligned with Virginia SOL’s to take the guess work out of finding the correct activity for the strand you are teaching. Need some differentiated activities, this site will do it– with activities that range from 3rd to 12th you are sure to find the right activity for each student. Activities, data, clip art, quick assessments- Gizmos can help. Just ask Judy Holzgrefe at Dumbarton! She just recently set up her free (yes I said FREE) 45 day trial and is now making Gizmos available to her students. Interested? Check it out or sign up for a consult, I’d love to help you make the most of this resource.

Pixie’s Perfect

pixie-1

Don’t forget that Pixie is a perfect platform to complete activities (from simple sorts to complex multimedia projects) for all curricular areas!  And now all 3rd grade classrooms will be getting Pixie installed on all classroom machines.  Remember 4th and 5th grades, you still have access to Pixie on all COWs!  Shoot me an email if you would like some ideas on how to incorporate Pixie into your instruction.

Warning!!!!!

harddrive

Even with the new hard drives, it is still crucial that you back up on a regular basis! How often?  Grades should be backed up on a daily basis.  Things you cannot live without should be backed up as often as you change them.  Email and documents should be backed up on a weekly basis to be certain you don’t loose anything. Need to know how?

Click here to get the How To handout.