May 7, 2008 03:40 PM
Jamie McKenzie Workshop - Smart Uses of New Technologies
Forest Grove School District is hosting Jamie McKenzie for a three-day workshop August 4-6, 2008. If you would like more information about the workshop, including the schedule of each day, go to the follwoing website: http://tinyurl.com/55fw3k. Contact information is included on the website should you wish to register for this event.
Posted by bhawkins on May 7, 2008 at 03:40 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 27, 2007 02:56 PM
Voicethread demo
http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=8281
Posted by rlagreid on September 27, 2007 at 02:56 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007 10:33 AM
Siuslaw End-of-Year Techn3/27/
Posted by dennisking on May 11, 2007 at 10:33 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
May 10, 2007 04:54 PM
Music Wands
Word is starting to spread that Lynn and Todd have a new noisemaker to get a group's attention. Well, the rumor is true. Check out the Tree Blocks website for information on how you can get your very own Music Wand.
Posted by Todd on May 10, 2007 at 04:54 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
March 13, 2007 12:38 PM
HOT TIPS for PRESENTERS
- Arrive one hour before starting time.
- Be ready to greet participants as they arrive. (A handout is a good way to interact, introduce yourself and hand them the handout when they arrive.)
- Start on time by showing a movie, comic, powerpoint with famous, interesting, humorous and provocative quotes.
- Stick to the point by avoiding side-streets.
- Color coding can complement and enhance the points you make.
- A THIRTY-SECOND demonstration (video...) is more effective than thirty minutes of words.
- Everybody loves cartoons. Cartoons can emphasize or highlight a point.
- Give your audience something to look at before the show starts.
- When you say it again, say it differently.
- If needing to point, extend your hand with fingers together and palm up.
- People will believe anything if you whisper it.
- END ON TIME!
Posted by jena on March 13, 2007 at 12:38 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006 08:45 AM
Effective Staff Developme3/27/
Hi all and welcome to our Effective Staff Development session. Here's where we usually write some pithy commentary to set the stage. But it's early and we haven't had our coffee yet, so let's cut to the chase.
Activity Link: Principles of Adult Learning
Strategies List:
- Like Me (Warm-up)
- Charting Strategies (Visual Organizer)
- Background Knowledge Probe (Assessment/Reflection)
- 1-2-3-4 Fingers (Assessment)
- Eye Contact Buddies (Move/Group Management)
- Paired Reading (Process/Collaboration)
- Lazy Eights (Energizer)
- Focused Reading (Process)
- Talking Chips (Collaboration)
- Key Learning & Muddiest Point (Assessment/Reflection)
- Different Colored Cards (Move/Group Management)
- 13 Principals Wrap Up Activity (Wrap-up/Reflection)
Posted by Todd on September 26, 2006 at 08:45 AM| Permalink
Sharing resources
If we could share our staff development resources, such as handouts, movie files, and other media used to explain how to use an application or integrate an element of technology into the classroom, we could focus on the Best Practices part of staff development, not the skills-based parts.
It seems that a lot of us are spending time creating tutorials and other materials pertaining to new programs and forms of integration. If we share out our own resources and can pull from the resources created by others, we could use our time more effectively. I am game to help create a basic page where we can categorize our tutorials, organize them and make the materials downloadable.
Ideas? Thoughts?
Eva
Posted by eva.lamar on September 26, 2006 at 08:32 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 25, 2006 01:46 PM
Staff development
i am looking for information on best practices to work on staff development with no budget support from the district.
Posted by timothywelch on September 25, 2006 at 01:46 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 4, 2006 12:25 PM
Parking Lot Strategy
Overview
This activity is designed to deal with questions that pop up during meetings/trainings that need to be put "on hold" to be discussed at the end of the session.
Goal
To ensure questions aren't forgotten and can be put on hold to be dealt with later. To help focus the participant to the task at hand.
Procedure
- Get a clean sheet of flip chart paper or whiteboard and label it "Parking Lot".
- If there are any questions asked by participants that are relevant, or almost relevant, to the topic but which may take too long to answer, or derail the conversation, ask the questioner to put their question on the Parking Lot. (another strategy is to provide post it notes for the participants to write on at anytime they have a question, and stick it to the Parking Lot.) This will ensure that it won't be forgotten and can be addressed at the end.
- Have participants post questions to the Parking Lot.
- If questions are put on the Parking Lot, try to ensure there is enough time to deal with them at the end of the session, or that participants are directed to where answers can be found. (Ofton the question is answered later in the session).
Materials Required
Flip chart or whiteboard
Pens
Post-It Notes
Posted by jena on September 4, 2006 at 12:25 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005 08:47 AM
Elements of Staff Develop3/27/
-Group interaction
-Movement ? ?When the bum is numb, the brain is _______.? ?by Paul Weill
Posted by nnguyen on September 27, 2005 at 08:47 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective Staff Developme3/27/
(1)The staff development needs to be meaningful to the attendants. We have had some of our best staff development meetings when we are teaching the staff things they need to know and will use!!!!
(2) There needs to be time built into the training to allow the staff to explore and utilize what they have been shown. The sooner this happens, the more likely the staff will remember and use the instruction.
(3) Food is usually a good thing to have at the staff development.
Posted by conniebenham on September 27, 2005 at 08:37 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective Staff Developme3/27/
Making the information comprehensible and aplicable to the participants is a must. If possible, follow-up support for classroom use along with an accountability componant helps to encourage actual classroom implementation of the new information.
Posted by alanac on September 27, 2005 at 08:37 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective Staff Developme3/27/
On the average, adults are only able to pay attention for about fifteen minutes (and kids less!) at a time. Provide time to periodically process information that has been presented. This can be done in a variety of ways, including talking with a partner (e.g. "Turn to the person sitting next to you and share the 2 most important points we've covered."), small group discussions, reading, or editing notes independently.
Posted by llary on September 27, 2005 at 08:37 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective Staff Developme3/27/
Hands on and interactive. Don't overwhelm, let people go at their own pace.
Posted by natalie on September 27, 2005 at 08:37 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective Approaches to S3/27/
Effective staff development should smack with relevancy and balance. Participants should leave feeling they learned new ideas/approaches, tooled with resources, and backed by good research. The staff development experience can offer a chance to network with other professionals and to build relationships. The balance should include effective presentations and interactions; practical and theoretical; ready-to-use and the challenge to create. Participants should leave feeling energized by new ideas and connected to other professionals who are involved in the work.
Posted by tomsouter on September 27, 2005 at 08:37 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Professional Development 3/27/
Two of the things I think make staff development effective are 1) an understanding of the audience and their needs and 2) the ability to modify and adjust on the fly. A couple of other things that make staff development activities go well are 1) a good sense of humor and 2) chocolate!
Posted by lelandpa on September 27, 2005 at 08:36 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005 12:37 PM
Metiri Database
This data base should be a free resource! A great idea that needs further development to include more software to consider at affordable pricing. Administrators could take advantage of this data to help drive curriculum decisions.
Posted by on September 26, 2005 at 12:37 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005 09:57 AM
Top Ten Secrets for a Suc3/27/
1. Know your role.
The focus of a good workshop is building basic understandings, teaching key concepts, and allowing practice of some useful skills. Think of yourself as a workbook, not a textbook. The real genius of most workshops is the ability to take a complex topic and make it understandable and useful rather than to give in-depth "coverage" or to display one's commanding mastery of a topic. In writing, Stephen Jay Gould has done this with science � making difficult concepts understandable to the layperson. Take a good look at the strategies used by the For Dummies series lots of lists, lots of analogies, and an emphasis on the practical.....
You can and should build participants' confidence by being approachable and giving them respect not through overwhelming them with factoids, three-letter acronyms and long, detailed background information. Do not draw attention to small errors that you might make during the workshop �"Gee, I see I made a really stupid spelling error on this slide" or "I guess I forgot to include that in the handouts." Trust me, nobody notices these sorts of things until you point them out. People really do want presenters who know what they are doing - or at least appear to.
2. Limit your topic.
Although it is counterintuitive, your biggest problem will not be finding enough to talk about, but limiting what you will present. You have a topic � now take time to determine the 3-4 key understandings or skills you want people to leave feeling they have down cold. Remember, your goal is to empower, not overpower.
3. Be organized and communicate that organization.
Your key understandings or skills should be your presentation�s organizational road map, each understanding or skill building on the previous one. While it is important that you know where you are going, it is just as critical your participants know this as well. In your talk, slides and handouts, help both you and your participants stay focused. As you move from one understanding or skill to the next, take a moment to review the previous understandings.
4. Set out a problem or possibility then offer a solution or opportunity.
Obviously you think the information and skills you are teaching are important to the participants. Do they know that? Don�t assume so. One masterful way to develop both interest and attention, is to start with a seemingly insolvable problem or terrific opportunity, and then show how your workshop will help folks solve that problem or take advantage of that opportunity.
A short check at the beginning of your talk about the composition of your attendees will help you ingeniously �customize� your workshop on the fly. The examples you use might differ if your group is mostly librarians, mostly technologists, mostly classroom teachers, or mostly administrators � or the level of expertise the group my already have with a technology.
The short check can be as easy as simply asking at the beginning of the talk, �How many of you in here are classroom teachers? Librarians? Etc.? Another good way to get to know your group is by asking an open-ended question about your topic. �What is biggest difficulties your students face in doing good research?� or �Why don�t some students read voluntarily?� or �What problems do you encounter when trying to do digital photography?�
5. Be conversational and have fun.
You do not have to be a powerful orator to be a good workshop presenter. In fact, a formal speaking style will work against you. Instead, envision yourself in your living room visiting with a group of good friends and use the same conversation approach. Build a human connection between you and your group � whether it is five people or 500. Even if you have been given an introduction by a room host, take about three minutes (no longer) to let the participants know you are actually a human being � a brief summary of career, an experience that got you interested in the topic, etc. (Oh, the old advice to picture your audience naked does not work � depending on who is in the front row, you will either be so aroused or grossed out, you won�t be able to concentrate.)
Think about stories you can share that help you make your points clearly and effectively. All great teachers are basically effective storytellers. Not only do the concrete examples create interest and provide experiences to which the participants can relate, stories will build that human connection.
Finally, remember that if you are not having fun, probably nobody else is either. A good laugh, either intentional or unintentional, that comes as a result of either a comment by you or a participant is a very good thing. Humor helps create that vital affective bond between presenter and participant.
6. Good handouts and good slides that compliment rather than duplicate.
In Secret 1, I suggested that you should consider yourself the workbook, not the textbook. This is not to dismiss the fact that attendees may want detailed, complex materials for further study. Your handouts can provide that information through reprinted articles, annotated bibliographies, links to websites, or detailed charts and graphs.
When it comes to complex information, Edward Tufte in his short book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 2nd ed. Graphics Press, 2001) makes a great case for using handouts instead of PowerPoint. The other great material for handouts is as a guide to the activities that will be described in the next section.
My thoughts on good PowerPoint use are summed up in an old column Slideshow Safety so I won�t repeat them here. Succinctly, there should be a compelling reason for a slide to exist. It needs to contain a short key point, movie, graphic, discussion question, or activity prompt. Slides should not contain the entire text of your presentation so you can simply read them. I see too many presenters do just that and I just want to dope slap 'em. Less is more.
Do think about this: the visuals on your slides can be highly affective as well as cognitively informative. By association, your believability (and likeability) will increase if you use photographs of happy smiling students or teachers. For that artistic look, run them through a filter in an editing program. (The latest version of PowerPoint allows you to do this within the program itself.) As suggested earlier, a graphic �road map� helps organize your participants.
7. Less talk, more action.
I know without a doubt that I am never bored when I am doing the talking. I can't say the same for the folks in my workshops, so I try to give them every opportunity to do other things than simply listen. I once had a Bureau of Educational Research professional speech coach suggest to me that one never goes for more than 20 minutes without an activity that involves the participants. These activities can be as simple as "Share with your neighbor two ways" or "Jot down one way you might use this idea in your classroom" or "Everyone stand up and repeat after me." The id3/2
Posted by jena on July 28, 2005 at 09:57 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
December 10, 2004 01:33 PM
Cadre in Northeast Oregon3/27/
We have started an Instructional Technology Cadre in Northeast Oregon located out of Umatilla-Morrow ESD. Last month we had a very good sharing session of Internet resources for Educators, and I wanted to share some of these resources with everyone in this arena.
If you are interested in looking at the resources we've shared, agendas for our sessions, and other cadre information please feel free to login as a guest. The instructions are listed below:
Go to the site moodle.umesd.net
Login as a guest
Go into the UMESD organization
Go into the Instructional Technology Cadre course
If you would like to participate, let me know and I'll send you the enrollment key. If you have any general comments please send them my way at jbuglione@umesd.k12.or.us
Thanks, Joe
Joe Buglione
Umatilla Morrow ESD
541-966-3150
Posted by joe on December 10, 2004 at 01:33 PM| Permalink | Comments (0)
October 1, 2004 11:48 AM
2013....trying for 2004!
New to the cadre and missed the 2013 discussion, so I will share one really positive staff development model which seems to be successful in moving our teachers and staff forward in the integration of technology with the curriculum. We work together with a neighboring school district to sponsor a Summer Tech Camp for Staff and have just completed our third year. We experienced a 65% increase in registrations since the first year; 170 participants this summer! Classes begin the last week in June and continue through the first week of August. Each class is 12 hours and runs from 8:30-11:30 Monday through Thursday. There is no charge, and teachers who wish to obtain PSU credit pay a very reasonable fee to the university and are required to take two of the courses and attend an additional 6 hour class to produce a classroom unit infused with technology. Class offerings all focus on classroom instruction, management, and activities and include iPhoto, Video Production Boot Camp, iMovie, Web Design, Using the Internet, Spreadsheet/Database, Word Processing/Draw/Paint, Using Inspiration/Kidspiration, etc. Because the teachers and staff have the time to learn the skills, to practice them, and to reflect with colleagues, the evaluations for these courses are very positive. We will be surveying participants later this year to see if their instructional activities are including the learning they gained from the summer camp, and indeed, if their teaching practices are changing. In addition, the blending of teachers from two districts creates a wonderful atmosphere of sharing.
Posted by on October 1, 2004 at 11:48 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Planting Seeds
I have mostly planted seeds. In many workshops I mention resources that are available and encourage teachers to explore them on their own.
I have been requesting better presentation resources to use at our ESD and within our department. As a staff developer I find it challenging to model technology integration for a variety of reasons - lack of the technology, time to learn the technologies myself, and then the time to prepare quality presentations that integrate the technologies. I value being a part of this group because it keeps me connected.
Posted by linda on October 1, 2004 at 08:17 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
Changes in Stanfield
The staff at the Stanfield School district received an ed. tech. grant through the hard work of Tim Sprenger, Nancy Pratt, Gene Jorgenson, and Joe Buglione.
This past school year Stanfield experienced a little bit of a turn over in personnel. Tim has moved on to become the Principal/Superintendent in Long Creek. Gary Mounce has gone to Clatskanie to become the principal. I (Guy Post) have stepped up to take Tim?s position as the team coach. Steve Staniak, the new principal has become project director. Our new science teacher, Bill DeLong has come on board as the new science teacher.
With the grant we purchased two classroom sets of lap top computers, and a set of stand alones for the computer lab. We also purchased three classroom sets of TI-84 graphing calculators, along with some Vernier probe ware and sensors. These materials will be utilized by the science and math departments at the high school and middle school levels. We also have a teacher on board who will be working with ELL students during class and an after school program called Bench Builders.
With these materials we hope to see a rise in math scores and hopefully a significant rise in math and science scores with our ELL students.
We are excited about the opportunities that this material will afford us.
Posted by guy on October 1, 2004 at 08:09 AM| Permalink | Comments (0)
