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The Connected Classroom

“Information on and from Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis' Learning Division”

Monthly Archives: June 2008

26/06/08 New Resolution: Learn Photoshop Elements 4.0

Editing Digital Images Using Photoshop Elements 4.0
Wednesday, July 9 @ 9 am-4pm | $125 CSD member

In this one day tele workshop, learn from METC 2008 presenter Mike Butler the easy steps to enhance your digital images. Mike more than 10 years experience helping schools successfully integrate technology into their classrooms. You’ll take away your fear of editing using Photoshop Elements 4.0 during the course of this fun and informative class!

Techniques that Mike will cover include: 

  • Resize & crop image areas
  • Select appropriate resolutions for different image & output types
  • Select images areas using the Lasso, Marquee, and Magic Wand Tool
  • Optimize image resolution for email and web pages
  • Modify, retouch and prepare images for the web
  • Remove unwanted subjects from photos, add someone to a photo

Interested? Sign up today at www.csd.org/tele. Spaces are limited!

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26/06/08 Movie-Making at CSD

   

Today was the final of three days in Movie-Making in the Classroom: Creating Digital Stories and Photo Essays (June 23, 24 & 26 in the tele). Martha & Stacey taught the class, and Karen Montgomery was on hand. Participants had their choice of using Windows MovieMaker (PC), iMovie (Mac), or PhotoStory 3 (PC) to create their movie.

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25/06/08 Lesser’s offering More in 2008-09

Here is the rest of Carolyn Lesser’s 2008-09 interactive videoconference offerings through New Links to New Learning. For pricing on programs, contact Rebecca Morrison at CSD.

Custom-designed writing videoconference for educators and/or students… This program is offered to give the most flexibility to planners and educators.  Embedded in this program is total control over the content, the number of presentations, the issues and concerns most important to your district or schools, making your enrichment dollars pinpoint accurate at addressing your needs.  Collaborative planning is one of the riches of this custom planning as it brings the element of support and professional development for the efforts of educators concerning writing.  It is a real collaboration between educators and an author.  To view some of the possibilities, visit Carolyn’s website for presentation options.  

Writing Nonfiction Prose or Poetry…#1
 Session #1…30 minute conference call from teachers to plan for students
Session #2…45 minute interactive presentation to students…assignment
Session #3…45 minute interactive reading/positive feedback to student work

  • Carolyn will choose writing topics appropriate for grade level
  • Students will participate in a professional nonfiction writing process
  • Teacher input is important…come to conference call with ideas
  • Carolyn engages students with enthusiasm for the nonfiction process

Writing Nonfiction Prose or Poetry…#2
 Session #1…45 minute conference/call from teachers to plan for students
Session #2…60 minute interactive presentation to students…assignment
Session #3…60 minute interactive reading/positive feedback to student work

  • Specific writing topics chosen by teachers/students
  • Professional nonfiction writing process tailored & relevant to curriculum, teacher requests, goals
  • Teacher input/requests/goals discussed in the conference call
  • Added time for student questions following our work together
  • Carolyn brings inspiration & enthusiasm to each session

Custom add-ons to any series bring depth and relevance to students & staff~

  • Student/teacher handouts available thru e-mail/fax…  Cost: $65
  • Additional teacher sessions (before/interspersed/after) for teacher writing PD (per session)… Cost: $625
  • Additional student session to present revision…       Cost: $625
  • Additional student session to read revised work…    Cost:  $625
  • To read/critique hard copies of student work…        Cost: $400

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25/06/08 test prep over v/c

Now that the school year is over, I think people are starting to this about next school year-  and for high school students and their parents-  about college prep. Cooperating School Districts’ New Links to New Learning offers both an ACT Prep Class and now a PSAT Prep Class, both over videoconference. Trained instructors from The Princeton Review conduct the course and CSD gets you connected to the course. For more info, contact Rebecca Morrison.

Here’s some info to think about:

  • Public Missouri high school students who completed The Princeton Review PSAT Clinic averaged of 12.1 pts higher on the PSAT, and the top 50% of student scoring 21.6  points higher, which is equivalent to an SAT scaled score increase of 216 points.
  • According to The Princeton Review, when students attend all of the sessions, take all of the practice tests, and complete all assigned homework, average ACT score improvement is three points. 

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19/06/08 where did you go today?

  

Today was the Boundless Learning in Videoconferencing tele class. Districts represented were Hazelwood, Ritenour, Francis Howell, Normandy, and Parkway. During the day, participants learned about videoconferencing- everything from the equipment to programs to funding. We connected the class to three content providers- across town, across state, and across the country! Saint Louis University (AIMS), The Discovery Center in Springfield, and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY all provided v/c demos, sharing what they bring into classrooms. In addition to learning about different kinds of content offered, participants learned where to find programs and the best ways to schedule them. 

We told participants where to find free videoconferences (government agencies like Library of Congress and NASA). Multipoint versus point-to-point were covered, as was “upon request” and set times- common buzzwords. Participating teachers happened to be in New Links to New Learning districts, so we also shared what membership means. Of course, we gave them time ask questions, to click around the Moodle, to check various v/c content provider databases, and to skim all those v/c blogs out there!

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19/06/08 Mental Health Check

Last year’s videoconferences on forgiveness & empathy were so popular that we’ve decided to do a series on forgiveness this upcoming school year! We’re working with Lynne Lang of BJC School Outreach & Youth Development to put together five or six professional development sessions together. These sessions will be part of New Links to New Learning’s Mental Health videoconference series. Our target audience is high school staff for the forgiveness series. We’re still working on dates, fees, etc., but once those are set, we’ll post them.

We are also doing three of our traditional one hour videoconferences. Those will start in January and run through March. The interactive videoconferences always run 4 to 5 o’clock central.  2009 topics include: dealing with the death of a classmate on January 8; media literacy and teen behavior on February 12; and peer versus sibling bullying on March 12. 

If you have questions about the Mental Health series or if you want to sign up for any of the videoconferences, contact me, Rebecca Morrison, at rmorrison@csd.org. 

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18/06/08 K12 Online Conference 2008: Amplifying Possibilities

K12 Online Conference is a free, collaborative, world-wide program- created by educators, for educators. If you click on the orange box above, you’ll go directly to the website where you will find a lot of information! 2008 is the third year for the October conference and presentations are still needed, according to the site: “this is our second call for proposals for the third annual “K12 Online Conference” for educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.” The deadline for submissions as been extended to July 11.

A little history: in 2006 and 2007, David Warlick was the keynote, presenting “Derailing Education: Taking Sidetrips for Learning” and “Inventing the New Boundaries”. On the website, you can click around and learn how to get professional development and graduate credit for participating in the K12 Online Conference. There’s a section for “first timers” and a link to the Ning set up by participants. Sounds interesting! All presentations will be archived online, and the conference has a Twitter account to update interested parties. You might want to take a few minutes and click around the website and see what they’ve done, and what they plan to do, and what you can do with Web 2.0.

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18/06/08 Tag, You’re It

Midwest Education Technology Conference
 Call for Presenters!
 Strands, Levels of Presentations & Tags

METC 2009 invites you to apply as a presenter for a breakout session or hands-on workshop. More than 1,500 attendees from across the nation are expected to participate including technology specialists, teachers, library media specialists, staff developers, administrators, instructional technology teachers, counselors, and information technology/network specialists. Preference of presenters will be given to those submitting proposals related to the program theme, Technology Tools of Engagement: R U There? or one of the program strands. While presentations may address several of these strands, please indicate the primary strand that best describes your proposal. Strands include:

Strands

 

 

 

 

 

 

For complete details on submitting a proposal to METC, visit this link: 
http://www2.csd.org/csdrpdc/metc2009/presenter.htm
. METC is a program of Cooperating School Districts: www.csd.org.

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18/06/08 Google for Educators

Google Certified Teacher In an earlier post, we congratulated Cindy Lane from the  Lindbergh School District on being accepted to the Google  Teacher Academy. She’ll be heading to California next week.  We wanted to learn more about it, so we visited Google (that’s  where we also found the icon to the left) and here’s what the website says:

“The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region. 

A Google Certified teacher is an educator attended a Google Teacher Academy and is now a Google Certified Teacher. Google Certified Teachers are:

  • Exceptional K-12 educators with a passion for using innovative tools to improve teaching and learning.
  • Creative leaders who understand their local needs and can spread innovation as a recognized expert.
  • Ambassadors for change who model high expectations, life-long learning, collaboration, equity & inclusion, and innovation.
  • Certified in Google technology and able to lend their knowledge to you through professional development.

Each Google Certified Teacher has:

  • Developed a “Personal Action Plan” to extend their learning to their community.
  • Actively participated in the Google Certified Teacher Online Community.
  • Shared the impact of their work with other Google Certified Teachers and will continue to do so through an end-of-year reflection.“
We’re excited to share that Cindy will be sharing her Google knowledge as a featured speaker at the Midwest Education Technology Conference in January 2009! Since we have some time between now and January, check out Google Earth 4.3. It is now available and Cindy says it is awesome.

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18/06/08 A Menu Sampling

Author and former teacher Carolyn Lesser has created a new menu of interactive videoconference programs for New Links to New Learning! Here are just a few of the new videoconference opportunities with Carolyn. The others will be up soon. Contact the Virtual Learning Center for costs and scheduling – all programs are upon request. Carolyn works with students second grade and up.

Writing Nature Prose or Poetry
Session #1… 45 minute conference/call from teachers to plan for students
Session #2… 50 minute interactive presentation & student assignment given
Session #3… 50 minute interactive reading/positive feedback to student-read work

  • Sessions will concentrate on nature writing specific to relevant curriculum
  • We will connect science with the writing/research process in prose or poetry
  • Research will be stressed for scientific accuracy for topics
  • Teacher input is very important…come to conference call with ideas
  • Carolyn will engage students with enthusiasm for her nonfiction process

Multigenre Nonfiction Writing
Session #1… 45 minute conference call from teachers to plan for students
Session #2… 60 minute interactive presentation & student assignment given
Session #3… 60 minute interactive reading/positive feedback to student-read work

  • Teacher input/requests/goals discussed in the conference call
  • Each nonfiction topic will be written in poetry, prose, letter, journal entry, dialogue, newspaper article, broadcast, report, etc.  
  • My professional nonfiction writing process tailored & relevant to specific curriculum, teacher requests, goals
  • Specific writing topics chosen by teachers/students
  • Time will be taken each session for student questions
  • Each session will be full of inspiration, enthusiasm, and positive feedback

Crafting a Play
 Session #1… 60 minute conference with teachers to plan for students
Session #2… 60 minute presentation & student assignment given
Session #3… 60 minute presentation of scenes from students’ plays… feedback to and from groups

  • Professional play-writing, techniques presented
  • Teacher input/requests/goals discussed in the teacher conference
  • Curriculum for the basis of the plays discussed with teachers
  • Topics chosen by teachers/students
  • Time for student questions in each session
  • All sessions interactive

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