Sunday, October 31, 2010

PWSD Twits

Anyone who has talked to me lately has probably heard my story about how Twitter is my #1, go to source for all things education

On Friday's district PD day the first thing the "Cultivating a Digital Classroom" session did was sign up for Twitter.  Now twitter misbehaved a little and didn't get us all in as quickly as we wanted, but most of us tweeted and followed and got our feet wet.


PWSD Twits
Right now I have 38 educators on my PWSD list. (Please let me know if I am missing you)  Click on this link to see who in PWSD tweets and start following along with some of your colleagues.

Hashtag #pwsd
When you tweet about something to do with PWSD, make sure to add #pwsd.  It will make it easy to search for tweets about PWSD and for those that are using Tweetdeck it will fall nicely into a column.


So what is going on in your classroom?  Do you have something to share?  A question that you want answered?  Hope to see you twittering soon!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Online Content to Support Student Learning

Joan Coy & myself did a short presentation to the Joint Parent Coucil meeting about online supports for student learning.  We outlined a couple of key places students could go to get some help.

During the presentation I used this Jog the Web and handout, please feel free to download and change them as you see fit.

1) E-community, students can find complete courses or use the content that was put up for them by their teachers.  Your may need your PWSD username and password to get into some of the courses.

2) Learn Alberta, you can search by keyword and subject or click on T4T to get complete courses.  You will need PWSD's password to get into some of the material.

3) YouTube and Teacher Tube are great resources.  Use the search engine and key terms to narrow down what you are looking for.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Monday Moodle: Collapsed Topics

I am kind of enjoying making these!  Here is a new addition to our Moodle servers.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

iPhone Setup for PWSD Email

I get asked from time to time to help with phone set ups, so here is some of the information required to make your phone talk to PWSD's webmail server.




Go into your settings for your iPhone.  Then click on "mail, contacts & calendars".



Add an account using Microsoft Exchange.




Then use the configuration settings below.  Your username will be the name that you use to log onto your computer with.  And yes the domain is pwsb33.ab.ca!



Now for all you iPhone, iPad, iPod peeps, what is your must have app?

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Monday Moodle: Lightbox Gallery with Roles Override

I had a request for a how-to video, so here is my first attempt. How did I do?

A lightbox gallery is a Moodle photo gallery.  With a roles override, students can upload pictures.  I love using this in connection with Big Huge Labs to allow students to see and comment on each others work.



I used Camtasia, which has a 30 day trial, and I will admit to liking the program.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Picasa for Image Editing

After downloading Picasa and playing around for a bit three things impressed me. First the ability to edit an image and publish it to your blogger blog or twitter. Since I have multiple blogger blogs this will save me a lot of time. Second was the collage feature which I have been looking for. It is as simple as my favourite app Strip Design for creating drag and drop collages. Now I don't have to do it on my phone. The third feature, which I need to spend more time exploring was the movie creation. Could this be a tool that is more stable than Windows Movie Maker? I will need to add this to my to-do list.

Editing online with Picnik
I will admit I was not expecting much with Picasa. I am instantly turned off by anything that requires a download and install, a result of my k-12 profession. We tend to rely on software that is supported and installed, Microsoft Picture Manager, or tools that are free online like Pixlr . However, I was impressed and ended up downloading it onto both my machines and looking for an app for my iPhone. Great new tool in my arsenal.

Collage using Picasa
When I started the photo editing I was online in my Picasa album, click on edit and it took me to Picnik . While this was not the assignment, I spent a fair amount of time playing around. It has some basic tools to crop, resize and editing as well as some funky additions like buttons and fangs that students would appreciate. I also liked how saving here brought the image back to your Picasa album. As our school division explores cloud computing options, the integration of Picasa and Picnik is a definite plus.


Overall I was impressed with Picasa as a photo editing tool, which surprise me! It was very intuitive and for those of us that already live in the google cloud, it adds to the seamlessness of my online life.

This is a cross post from my UBC blog for ETEC565 which I am taking this semester.

Monday, October 11, 2010

#daily5 October Chat

This group of educators continues to amaze me.  Organized on twitter, using the #daily5 hashtag this group got together for another informal conversation.  They shared successes, asked and answered questions, supported each other and then made plans to do it again in November!  An awesome example of how sharing and collaboration.

Here is the link to the session recording

And on holiday Monday no less!

Peace River PD Day

On September 27th five Peace Wapiti teachers made the trek to Peace River to present at their professional development day. Debbie Harris (HRS), Memorese Walter (HBS), Shelley Freisen (PAVE), Joan Coy (PAVE) and myself presented on a variety of topics.

The day started with a 10 minute keynote, over Elluminate, from the Honourable Minster of Education Dave Hancock.

Elluminate with Minister Hancock

Here is a list of sessions and the accompanying documents.


Using Gallery items in SMART Notebook for Div 3 Science
Deb's Science folks
Debbie Harris
You will be shown examples of how the Gallery items in SMART Notebook can be used to create interactive science lessons. You will have an opportunity to create some interactive lessons that you can use in class the next day, so come prepared to get lots done that you can take away with you. BRING A MEMORY STICK!!

Interactive Resources for Teaching Science using a SMARTBoard
Debbie Harris
If you are new to using a SMART Board and want to find some ready-made interactive resources for science this is the session for you! You will have the chance to explore websites such as LearnAlberta.ca and 2Learn.ca to find science resources that you can use in class the next day. BRING A MEMORY STICK TO SAVE WORK!

Let's Moodle in Science 9-12
Joan Coy
Using a blend of technology-rich on-line learning resources with traditional classroom teaching environments, we can improve the school experience and engage students in self directed learning. Teachers in our large rural division have created a Moodle site that hosts our Science courses and gives students access to high quality on-line courses on their Moodle site (24/7), in addition to classroom instruction. The Moodle site is being used to facilitate differentiation and inquiry learning (i.e. self-checks, self reflections, and project collaboration). Each teacher has their own way of doing this (that's the beauty of Moodle.) Come and see how the classroom has changed!

Advanced Moodle k-12
Joan Coy
This session is designed to extend and enhance the skills of a Moodle course creator. It includes a brief consideration of the pedagogy – Social Constructivism and how Moodle Activities are designed to support this social and interactive philosophy. It will also examine effective strategies for Resources & Blocks – how to provide information to students. The session will show participants, in a hands-on environment, how to use the relevant components of Moodle to support the learning needs of students. You will be able make creative progress in your Moodle course

Introduction to Moodle k-12

Intro to Moodle group
 Jen Clevette
Whether you have never moodled before or you want a refresher on the basics and time to work, this is the place for you. We will be covering some moodle basics like linking WebPages & files, embedding video, adding topics & pictures, glossaries & games and assignment basics. You must have a moodle course created to attend this session


SMART in JH Social Studies
Jen Clevette
Social Studies & SMART
What works and where can I find it? Pre-made materials for the new curriculum are hard to come by, so let's start making our own. We will go over some lesson basics, like title pages & themes, identify the interactives from the Lesson Activity Toolkit that work best and play with some Web 2.0 tools that will add some pizazz to your lessons. Put it all together and we will have lessons to share.
All lessons created will be added to this collaborative website http://tiny.cc/div3SS

Senior High English - Bring them in and start them off!
Shelly Friesen
This session will share some resources that high school English teachers can use for ‘Daily Starters’. Using your SMARTboard, you can establish structure, fill that change-of-class time and get your students thinking about the English language. There will be time to explore, share and collaborate.

Senior High English: How can I use technology to help me?
Shelly Friesen
Teach SMARTer using teacher tools on the web and in your classroom. In this afternoon session we will investigate how to use SMARTboards to help your students learn and help you professionally. In the first few minutes you will help to build the agenda and content direction for the afternoon.

“Playing” with your SmartBoard K/1
Memorese Walters

Mem's SMART session
Non- and beginning readers have special learning requirements that your SmartBoard can help provide. This session will leave you with lots of curriculum links and content that you can take back to your classroom and use immediately to meet their unique needs
2/3 SmartBoards – Curriculum First!
Memorese Walters
Want to know how to better incorporate your SmartBoard into your classroom instruction? This session will provide you with lots of curriculum links and content that you can take back to your classroom and use immediately. LA, Math, Science, and Social activities including pulling it all together on a daily basis and a little extra with the document camera's amazing abilities!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Monday Moodle: Themes

New Themes have been added to E-Community. To change your theme

1) Go to your course

2) Under the Admin Block, Settings
3) Find Force Theme and select the one you want

4) Save Changes