I survived the Richland County School District OneTechnology Fair week. I am not sure if I have ever been so tired! The main event of the district technology fair was Wednesday night. We wanted a night to celebrate students in the district who are ‘Technology Stars’ in Richland One. It was also a night to highlight our featured guest, Tony Vincent and give parents and opportunity to talk with a panel on cyber safety.
I woke up Wednesday, excited because I was going to pick up Tony Vincent from the airport and go to lunch, finish prep for the evening event. Sure, that was the plan. Of course the airline didn’t realize I wanted to be on a non-stress schedule for the day. Thankfully I am in education and the motto for educators is modify and adjust. Tony’s plane didn’t arrive until 5:10PM and the district event started at 6:00PM. We made it and the night went well. It was a long day for me and even longer for Tony.
Thursday was a great day… despite some technical difficulties with our Distance Learning lab. Our goal was for Tony to work with all levels of students. Our district has 52 schools so it would be impossible for him go to all schools. I think the topics we chose were right on and Tony did an amazing job of engaging each group of students he worked with.
Students at all levels were engaged and receptive to Tony’s lessons and discussions.
As someone who conducts professional development and model teaches for teachers, seeing Tony work with students was a wonderful learning experience for myself. I hope the teachers in the room also picked up on his intuitive classroom management skills, lesson set up with clear objectives and directions, and engagement of the content through technology.
What a feeling to have a thought from last year come to fruition (District tech fair with Tony) … and it be successful. The first time I saw Tony Vincent was about three years ago at the first Handheld conference in Lexington 1 School District. I remember in his presentation he had a slide that said, “I Heart Handhelds.” Well after his visit to Richland One I have to say, “I heart Tony Vincent.” (Of course it is in a purely professional manner.)
Thank you, Tony for your professionalism, ideas, sharing, and inspiring a few of our students (and me) in Richland One…
This week is the District Technology Fair in Richland One. Its going to be a busy week. One thing I am really excited about is our special guest Wednesday and Thursday is Tony Vincent. If you aren’t familiar with Tony, he is a “pioneer in handheld learning.” His two specialties are PALMs and iPods.
Tony mainly works with adults but while he is visiting Richland One he will be working with students. I am really excited about this because it will give the educators in each school that he visits the opportunity to see/hear integration in action. His visit is focusing on iPods for more than music players (high school), podcasting (middle school), and PALM activities (elementary school). All of these activities are in the beginning steps in the district. I think he will add a different take on what the teachers/students are teaching/learning.
Schools around the district are doing some great things to show parents, community, and administration how they are incorporating technology in learning. The other day I helped at AC Moore elementary school. They integrated technology in to their International Day. I chose to Canada as my country of choice. The teachers were interested in why I chose Canada. The answer seemed simple to me… SMART Technologies the manufacturer of the SMART Interactive Whiteboard is in Canada. Students learned about Canada through a SMART Notebook lesson. In six hours, I met with 220 students to learn more about Canada!
This week is going to be busy… busy… busy… but fun… I will keep you posted on all of the events.
Have you seen this? Google has teamed up with Twitter and Twittervision to create a Super Tuesday Map that updates with the latest poll percentages and tweets from across the world about the primaries. This is incredible… take a look!
My blog isn’t a place for my political beliefs but I just wanted to express my excitement for the most powerful election in history. I like politics but I love this election season. The record numbers of people turning out to the primaries is incredible. This election we as Americans have the ability to vote for an African American Man, a woman, or a Mormon. Its a powerful statement about where we are.I came across this YouTube video tonight and no matter your political standing take a moment to watch. If you want to see what led Will.i.am to create this video check out dipdive.com and read his narrative.
Happy Super Tuesday! Its time to make history!
Get out and vote if your state is one of the states involved in primaries tomorrow.
This is probably an easy question to answer but what do you prefer TeacherTube or YouTube? For me, I have to say its YouTube. Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked in my district so I can’t use it to its full potential.
I like YouTube because the quality of videos I find seems to be higher. When I work with teachers its easier for me to find something to capture their attention or get them questioning aspects of technology in the classroom. Of course this means me planning at home (who doesn’t in education) and using a site like ZamZar (again blocked at work) to convert the video so I can show it in my workshops.
One thing that has turned me off to TeacherTube are the advertisements that show up on the bottom of the videos when you stream them online. The last thing I want to do is click off an ad. I see ads everywhere… this is the last place I want to see them. I know ads are all over web pages but they just seem so obtrusive here. A few months ago I was all over TeacherTube but it seems times have changed. Or just I am a woman and I am allowed to change my mind!
What do you think? How do you think I could get YouTube unblocked? What could be my rational?
I survived the Richland County School District One Technology Fair week. I am not sure if I have ever been so tired! The main event of the district technology fair was Wednesday night. We wanted a night to celebrate students in the district who are ‘Technology Stars’ in Richland One. It was also a night to highlight our featured guest, Tony Vincent and give parents and opportunity to talk with a panel on cyber safety.
work with all levels of students. Our district has 52 schools so it would be impossible for him go to all schools. I think the topics we chose were right on and Tony did an amazing job of engaging each group of students he worked with.
As someone who conducts professional development and model teaches for teachers, seeing Tony work with students was a wonderful learning experience for myself. I hope the teachers in the room also picked up on his intuitive classroom management skills, lesson set up with clear objectives and directions, and engagement of the content through technology.
VS. 
