PLN - Not Just My Initials

New Year's Resolution Project for Your Class

2012-01-02T17:30:00.012-06:00

Ally, aka as @FlyontheCWall, was on Twitter today asking for an idea of a great way to display her students' New Year's Resolutions.

I remember that I used to have my students write their resolutions on their silhouettes.

Here is how we did it. I would have the student sit on a stool with their shoulder touching the board. I would tape a piece of black construction paper to the board behind their shoulder. Then I would use my overhead projector to reflect their silhouette onto the piece of paper. I would quickly take a pencil and trace around the shadow they were casting unto the paper. Next, the student would carefully cut out his "head" and write his resolutions on it using white crayons or chalk.

Here is one I made using a silhouette clipart and the Paint program on my computer to give you a visual representation.

They look great on display on the windows, bulletin board, or lining your hallway.

Do you have a New Year's Resolution project you do with your students? Please share your ideas with a comment.

1/365Project

2012-01-01T22:05:00.004-06:00

Alright I've decided on a theme for my #365Project. Now let's see if I can keep it updated properly. I will try to add a picture of one tweet from the day that helped me learn and connect with the members of my PLN. Sounds easy enough. We'll see what happens. You can follow my progress on my #365Project by visiting my Posterous site.

Posted via email from Paula's posterous

#YouMatterDay

2012-01-01T20:50:00.006-06:00

I enjoyed another lazy day of my Christmas holiday. Finished reading Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy that I started reading on December 26, and watched the Saints earn a playoff berth by having a great game against the Panthers.

I cooked dinner, ate and then took a long early evening nap. Of course, when I woke up I picked up my computer to see what was happening of this first day of 2012 on Twitter. I read tweets that took me to several great blogposts, and I even left some comments.

A tweet from Joan Young led me to this post by Karen McMillan. After I read it, I tweeted #youmatter to various members of my PLN (personal learning network) and wished them a Happy #YouMatterDay.

Who matters in your life? Remember to tell them #youmatter and Happy #YouMatterDay to you.

My 2011 in Review

2011-12-31T12:32:00.016-06:00

Can you believe another year is about to begin? I am finding out that the older I get, the faster the years seem to go. Maybe by writing this post I can see what seemed to zoom by me as I traveled through 2011.

January

Started the 30 Day Blogger Challenge hosted by Edublogs (unfortunately I didn't complete it), but I learned how to add pages to my blog.

I presented a session for the Greater New Orleans Teachers of Mathematics called Being Better at Math.

February

My Skype buddy, Jan Wells, and I presented for Classroom 2.0 Live. We took our presentation Seeds to Success with Skype and had a wonderful time interacting with the live audience during this session. You can access the archive of the session here.

March

I was invited by Jeanne McQueen to be a moderator of #4thchat. I was thrilled to join the team of Jeanne, Nancy Carroll, and Justin Stortz on March 21 and have had a wonderful year of being a moderator for this lively chat each week. Check out the archives and get more information here.

Celebrated my 6oth birthday.

April

I presented virtually by using the screensharing feature of Skype to educators attending InnovatED in Memphis, Tennessee.

May

I was invited to write a guest blog post for BrainPOP. Then I was invited to do a webinar for BrainPOP based on my post. The archived webinar can be accessed here.

I started the #JJAProject with some of my Twitter friends.

June

Thanks to Ken Shelton, I was hired to present to the Tech Coordinators for Region 8 in Monroe, Louisiana. You can read all about this event here.

Made plans to help Newbies at ISTE11 with my friend, Beth Still.

Arrived in Philadelphia in time to attend EduBloggerCon. I love this unconference and I even facilitated a session on blogging with elementary students. I was stunned when I realized my students' best commenter was sitting there in front of me. I had to stop and give JoAnn Jacobs a huge hug. My roommate and fellow JPPSS educator, Tinashe Blanchet, and I had some great late night chats.

During my ISTE days I presented on a panel with Beth Still, George Couros, Josh Allen, and Jason Schrage entitled Get Ready, Get Set, Get Organized. I was approached by some of the METC organizers and invited to present for them in February of 2012.

July

Jan, Len Horn, Kristen Robertson, and I did a two hour presentation called More Seeds to Success with Skype for teachers in South Africa attending the INTEL ICT in the Classroom 2011 Conference.

I was an organizer of EdCamp Louisiana which took place on the campus of UNO on Saturday, July 9. It was a great day and I was thrilled that Dr. John Hadley Strange and some of his students from the University of South Alabama attended.

I flew to San Diego that same evening to attend the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute (DENSI). I couldn't believe that I was finally going to meet Jen Wagner, one of my first online mentors, face to face. She picked me up from the airport and got me to my dorm room that I shared with Jeannine Shields. It was a wonderful week of learning and bonding with other DEN members.

I was thrilled to present with William Chamberlain about the Power of the #comments4kids Hashtag for Reform Symposium 3. You can access the archive here.

August

Began the 2011-2012 school year by doing presentations for other teachers in my district at our inservice day. One of my presentations was called Using the 4C's in Math. I also presented to the 3-5 grade math teachers at my school on tools to help cover our GLEs (grade level expectations).

Began the year with an About Me lesson I shared with my PLN on Twitter.

I wrote about our great first week of school here.

September

My first attempt at flipping my classroom I shared here.

We celebrated Constitution Day with my friend, James Adams, being our guest speaker.

We connected and collaborated with my friend, David Craig's class. I wrote about it here.

October

I also got to connect with my friend, Joan Young, as we participated in our first Mystery Skype Call.

My students and I hosted a Blog Commenting Party for parents.

We celebrated anti-bullying month by having Joey King, the star of Ramona and Beezus, Skype into our classroom.

Returned to Monroe and did three presentations for LATM (Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics). Shared the ride and a room with Tinashe again. We had a great time.

I was very surprised to find out my blog was mentioned on page four in Open Book: A K-12 Tech Playbook for Teachers by Dell.com/Connected Classroom. I wrote about it here.

November

I presented three session at LaCUE, which was held in New Orleans this year. One of my presenting nightmares came true when I lost Internet connection for the last hour of an hour and a half hands-on session. Everyone of the participants applauded how well I handled the situation.

Erica Shepherd, another fourth grade teacher in my district, and I co-presented from Paper Blogs to the World at LaCUE. Read about it on Erica's blog.

December

Jan Wells and I presented for the K12 Online Conference again this year. Our presentation, Playing with the 4C's in an Elementary Classroom can be viewed here.

Found out I'll be presenting on a panel again at ISTE12 in San Diego in June and will be spending a week in a fantastic house with some great members of my PLN. WooHoo and thank you, Beth.

I was nominated for the EduBlog Award as Best Individual Tweeter.

I graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master's in Educational Technology Leadership. Here is my portfolio of the courses I took.

Wow, what a great year! What were the highlights of your 2011?

Nominated for Best Individual Tweeter - 2011 Edublog Awards

2011-12-05T21:22:00.011-06:00

How sweet it is! Thank you to Patti Grayson, who nominated me for the Edublog Awards of Best Individual Tweeter. I am humbled and honored to be included in this short list of 40+ tweeters. All I have to say is I'm in a win-win situation. If I don't win the category, and believe me, I truly believe there are more deserving people in the category, I still win because I get to reap all of the wonderful resources that these incredible tweeters share each day on Twitter.

If you are new to Twitter, blogging, or social media, the Edublog Award list is a great place to find wonderful blogs to read, innovative educators to follow on Twitter, great free web tools to use in your classroom, and more. If you have been doing this for a while, remember to share the links with your friends and PLN members. I just sent the link to the Best Administrator Blog nominations to my principal and assistant principal.

So head over to Edublog Awards 2011 home page and vote. Voting is open until 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, and the winners will be announced on December 14.

Christmas Countdown Ribbon

2011-11-13T10:58:00.008-06:00

I have done this craft activity with my students for years and just realized I have never blogged about it. Well, I'm fixing that today.

Each year at the end of November, I have my students bring in 24 Hershey's Kisses. They don't know ahead of time what we will be doing with the Kisses, so there is a lot of excitement in the air as they speculate about what project is looming in their future.

I supply the other materials needed for them to make a Christmas Countdown Ribbon.

Material Needed

1 piece of wired ribbon 30" long for each student

1 8" piece of small ribbon for each child (this is the hanger)

1 small bell for each student (purchased from Michael's)

24 Hershey's Kisses (or similar wrapped candy)

hot glue glues and glue sticks

1 cellophane gift bag for each student (purchased from Michael's)

card stock to print poem on

pinking shears (optional)

piece of poster board for each table

Step 1: Type up this poem in your favorite font using a word processing program. Click here for my Google doc version.

How many days till Christmas?

It's mighty hard to tell.

Take off a candy every night

When the Sandman casts his spell,

And Christmas Eve will be here

By the time you reach the bell.

Print it on the card stock and cut them apart with the pinking shears. (Using pinking shears is optional.)

Step 2: Review (or teach) hot glue gun safety.

Step 3: Plug in the glue guns.

Step 4: Explain how to lay the candies out on the ribbon. Space is needed at the top for the poem and at the bottom for the bell.

Step 5: Have one student demonstrate how to place everything on the ribbon.

Step 6: Put a piece of poster board on the tables being used before anyone starts gluing. This will protect the table tops from getting glue all over them.

Step 7: I set up 4 working stations. I have my four best listeners place everything on their ribbons and then start gluing everything in place as I closely monitor. They write their names on the back of the poem card which is glued to the top of their piece of ribbon. I glue on everyone's bell at the bottom of the ribbon because I find this difficult for my 4th graders to do without getting hot glue on their fingers. (Ouch!)

Step 8: I will glue the small piece of ribbon (used for hanging the Countdown Ribbon) on the back of the poem card. Again I find it easier for me to do this and I don't get kids with burned fingers. Use Plenty of glue to attach the ribbon hanger.

Step 9: Gently lift the ribbon off of the poster board. Yes, there will be some sticking. Just keep pulling and you will get the ribbon off the paper. If a candy pops off in this process, just glue it back on.

Step 10: Lay the ribbons somewhere safe to thoroughly dry.

Step 11: Now my four students become a monitor at each working station, as the rest of my students take their turn putting their countdown ribbon together. I continue with the rest of the class working on our regular lessons.

Step 12: Curl the countdown ribbon up carefully, place it in a cellophane gift bag, and send it home with the students on December 1.

We always make some extra ones for the office staff, lunchroom ladies, and custodial staff. Have fun with this craft and Happy Holidays.

My First Popplet

2011-11-06T10:56:00.006-06:00

I finally tried out Popplet after watching this video from HP Teacher Experience. Here is my first creation. Zoom in and scroll around. If you create a free account you too can start making Popplets.

If you have an account and are logged in, you can click on the blue gear at the top and scroll down to view, and then over to presentation mode and click it it. A pop-up appears in the lower left. Click on the blue Present arrow and then use the left and right arrows on your computer to go through my Popplet presentation.

I Feel Special

2011-10-23T22:21:00.009-05:00

I received an email from my friend, Joan Young, informing me that my blog was mentioned in a publication. I opened the PDF entitled Open Book A K-12 Tech Playbook for Teachers by Dell.com/Connected Classroom. It is a 12 page booklet explaining social media and tech resources to teachers. There on page four is a box titled Hot Blogs for Teachers and a list of 11 blogs to check out - and mine is one of them. I was blown away by that mention. My blog is included along with the likes of Steven Anderson, Tim Childers, Chad Lehman, and Richard Byrne, who are all good friends of mine.

I don't know who authored this publication, but I would like to thank them and Dell.com for mentioning my blog. I feel very special. Thanks Joan for letting me know about this.

Primary and Secondary Sources Using 9/11 Resources

2011-09-03T19:40:00.005-05:00

My students are learning about primary and secondary sources in social studies class. As a nation we are also approaching the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. When I found this YouTube video that is explaining primary and secondary sources by using speeches, pictures, artifacts, books etc. about 9/11, I thought it would be a perfect way to cover the two things. Unfortunately we can't watch YouTube videos at school, so I am requiring my students to watch this at home with their parents. I am putting the video in our Edmodo group. I wonder how many will watch it? I wonder how many will watch it with their parents? Well, I am asking them to respond to the video by posting a comment on Edmodo.

My Twitter Timeline Inographic

2011-08-03T08:22:00.003-05:00

I visited Paige Graiser's twitter stream after Nancy Blair tweeted that Paige was in New Orleans teaching teachers about Twitter. I found Paige's blog and was intrigued by this post. When I visited the site that creates the infographic and entered my Twitter handle here is what is created

Built by Cartridge Save, providers of Epson Stylus Photo ink

Calling All ISTE11 Newbies

2011-06-09T16:40:00.003-05:00

My friend, Beth Still, has been working with the ISTE organizers to make the convention experience less intimidating for first timers. Thanks in part to her efforts, this year for the first time there will be a Newbie Lounge. Beth is working to get veteran ISTE attendees from her personal learning network (PLN) to be there to help welcome the newbies.

There were almost 13,000 attendees at ISTE in Denver last year. That's more people than were in some of the towns I lived in as a kid. A number like that can be a staggering statistic to someone who is attending for the first time. So when you are feeling overwhelmed head to the Newbie Lounge for a breather.

I am one of the veteran ISTE goers who answered Beth's call. She and I tweeted back and forth and finally I came up with a plan. I am hosting a BYOB (bring your own breakfast) Monday morning, June 27 at 8:00 in the Newbie Lounge. I have already been contacted (mostly through Twitter) by over two dozen newbies who plan to attend. I sure hope if you will add this event to your conference planner.

In her usual helpful style, Beth created a video showing how to use Google Maps to locate donut shops close to the PACC (Pennsylvania Convention Center). Are you going to join us?

Enjoying #4thchat and #elemchat

2011-06-05T22:57:00.011-05:00

I have been helping to moderate #4thchat on Twitter since it debutted on Monday, March 21, 2011 with the topic Brain Breaks. If you don't understand how ed chats on Twitter work, check out this post where I explain it in more detail.

I would like to thank Jeanne McQueen (aka @jmplus2 ) for inviting me to help moderate #4thchats. The other moderators are Nancy Carroll (aka @ncarroll24) and Justin Stortz (aka @newfirewithin). Justin also created our #4thchat logo. I love working with this team and am glad that I have gotten to know them better through our interaction on Twitter.

Check out the archives of the #4thchats on our wiki. And remember to join us on Mondays at 7:00 Central (8:00 Eastern)

Another chat I am loving is #elemchat which is now taking place on Twitter on Saturdays at 5 Central (6 Eastern). This one is moderated by seven great educators. This chat was born on July 8, 2010. Check out their Archives and Summaries.

These two chats account for two hours of my time during each week. To some people who don't "get" Twitter that might seem like a waste of time. I can tell you that I love the learning, sharing, and interactions that occur during these chats. I anxiously await for them to start and hate when the hour is over. If you have never attended a chat try one of these out or check out this list by our good friend Cybraryman1.

Do you love #4thchat or #elemchat as much as I do? Is there another educational chat that you love? Please leave a comment explaining why you do.

Joining the Big Time

2011-06-05T22:53:00.003-05:00

I have spent the first week off putting together my first presentation that I am being paid to do. WooHoo!! I am excited but also very nervous. This is what I have been working toward for the last two years. Thanks to Ken Shelton for suggesting me as a replacement when a scheduling conflict didn't allow him to do this presentation. He sent me a direct message on Twitter asking if I would be interested. I immediately answered back that I was, but didn't think Region 8 would find me an acceptable replacement for him. When I was very surprised to receive an email from Margaret Henderson inviting my to present at the Region 8 Summer Institute.

It is Sunday night and I have put together a Google site that contains my presentation. I try to be as paperless as possible so everything from the agenda, to the presentation, to the handouts, and the evaluation are all a part of the site. I have tweeted to a few close friends to look it over and give me feedback. So far, so good. They think I have done well getting organized and think I have a great presentation. Their feedback makes me feel better but I'm still nervous!

I will leave Tuesday afternoon to drive to Monroe. The event in taking place on the campus of Louisiana University at Monroe on Wednesday form 9:30-3:00. I checked with Margaret to see if any sites I wanted to use were blocked. She assured me that everything from YouTube to Skype will work for me.

I have tried to make my workshop a nice mix of lecture, time for discovery, collaborative group work, and participatory. We are even going to have a Smackdown at the end of the day. Wish me luck.

Time Keeps on Slipping into the Future

2011-06-05T22:18:00.008-05:00

I am amazed that I spend so much time at my computer but don't seem able to find the time to update this blog on a regular basis. Maybe part of the reason is I spend quite a bit of time moderating my students' posts and the over 1,900 comments they received thanks to using the hashtag #comments4kids on Twitter.

I finished school for the 2010-2011 on Thursday, May 26. I walked out of school very happy that my classroom was finally packed up for the summer and knowing I would not have to return on Friday to finish.

I left New Orleans Friday afternoon and headed to Baton Rouge with one of my best friends to attend the Bayou Country SuperFest. The BCS was being held at the LSU stadium over the Memorial Day weekend. It was a great way to relax and unwind after a super busy school year. I slept late each day since we weren't going to the stadium until about 6:00 pm each day. We heard Trace Adkins, Sugarland, and Tim McGraw on Saturday and Billy Currington, The Zac Brown Band, and Kenny Chesney on Sunday. We left Baton Rouge on Monday and had lunch (needed a Swamp Burger) before getting back to our homes. It was a fantastic weekend - thank you so much, Janet.

May 1, 2011 - The Death of Osama bin Laden

2011-05-02T01:11:00.010-05:00

I am alone and in tears in a hotel room in Houston. I am confused by my feelings.

As I was responding to emails. I heard a story on Fox News that caught my attention. I stopped what I was doing and started watching the news report. I learned the President was about to address the nation. Then I heard that Osama bin Laden was dead. My first reaction was a fist pump and a loudly yell "YES!" Since it is late and I am hours from my home in New Orleans, I wanted to reach out to others and share the news.

Created by Dean Mantz on Wordle.net

I opened TweetDeck on my computer and started following the stream of tweets. Most were expressing a satisfaction that he was dead. But there were others who were critical of the outpouring of joy over the death of a man. Other shared links to breaking news reports, and still others shared pictures or videos of crowds celebrating the news that bin Laden was dead. Each new tweet had my emotions in a whirl. Should I be joyous? Should I be outraged by the celebrating by others?

I clearly remember September 11, 2001. Back then I got ready to go to work in a quiet house - no radio, no TV, and of course Twitter didn't exist yet. I liked my solitude in the mornings as I prepared for work. When I arrived at school on that brilliantly beautiful morning, another teacher asked me if I had heard the news about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York. I had been in New York the week before attending the U.S. Open and had gone to the World Trade Center twice while I was there.

I ran to my classroom and turned on the TV and started up a computer. I was trying to wrap my head around what was happening when I watched as the second plane flew into the other tower. I had to make a decision because my 4th graders were starting to arrive. I turned off the TV, and muted the sound on the computer and positioned it so my students couldn't see it. I was trying to decide if I should talk to them about what was happening or not. Well, that decision would not be mine to make. Our principal came rushing into my room and announced that the superintendent of our district had just announced we were not to talk about it or share any of the images of what was happening with our students. We were to protect them from the horrible events that were unfolding.

During the day the teachers took turns getting updates in the teacher's lounge and trying to comprehend this horrific event. Parents started arriving to check their children out early. The children were confused and a little bit frightened. I told them that an event had occurred in New York that their parents would tell them about when they got home. I left school early that day and spent the rest of it glued to the TV watching as the events of the day were replayed on all the channels. I cried and cried. I remember being scared as I wondered what would happen in the coming days. I wondered how our world would change.

We had the next day off from school mainly because our superintendent was worried. Our district has children from 88 countries including many from Iran and Iraq, so she wanted us to have another day to deal with our feelings in private before returning to school. The next days and weeks were kind of surreal. Everyone went through the routine, but we all had a numb feeling. Slowly things returned to normal. But I knew I would never forget.

So tonight I am struggling with all of the feelings that resurfaced from 9/11. I have vascillated between being joyous and being concerned that I am joyous. I am both grateful that a terrible man no longer exists, but confused because I am celebrating a death.

I read this post by Tom Whitby. I guess his last sentence sums up my feelings.

God Bless the USA.

What is a Twitter #chat?

2011-04-28T18:06:00.006-05:00

One of my new favorite activities on Twitter are joining in on some of the smaller Twitter chats that take place each week. I am good friends with Steven Anderson and Mary Beth Hertz, two of the founders of the granddaddy of all educational chats, #edchat. I was lucky enough to spend a few days with them and other members of my PLN in Estes Park before ISTE last summer. They showed me first hand how a chat happens on Twitter. (Correction: #edchat was founded by Shelly Terrell, Tom Whitby, and Steve. Mary Beth, who actively participates, was not a founder of #edchat . Thank you CybraryMan1 for helping me get the facts straight.)

First of all the organizers must decide on a hashtag. A hashtag is the # sign that is used in front of some letters (#edchat). Then they decide on what day of the week and hour of the day they what the chat to occur (#edchat occurs on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm EST in the US). By the way chats are usually scheduled to last an hour, but you don't have to arrive on time or stay the entire time.

The organizers will usually set up a poll listing four or five topics for the upcoming chat. They tweet out the poll information and interested people on Twitter can cast a vote for the topic of their choice. When the poll closes the winning topic is the one that the #edchat (or other chats) will focus on that week. Everyone who wants to be a part of the chat must put that hashtag somewhere in their update. There are usually several moderators for each chat who help keep everyone on track by stating the topic at the beginning of the hour, asking guiding questions during the chat, and generally keeping the conversation flowing.

Okay, now what? Well if you use a Twitter client like TweetDeck or TweetGrid you can set up a column which will search the Twitter stream for the hashtag you are following and put all those tweets in the column for you. It makes it easier to follow the discussion. Well, that's what Steve and MaryBeth told me and I tried it, but I was definitely overwhelmed. There can be tweets coming in from over 1,000 people during #edchat and I find it difficult to keep up.

That is why I like the smaller educational chats that are popping up. Two of my favorites are #elemchat and #4thchat. #elemchat occurs on Saturdays at 5:00 EST for elementary educators or interested parties, and #4thchat occurs on Mondays at 8:00 EST for primarily 4th grade teachers, but all are welcome. Again the moderators usually put out a poll to determine the topic for the upcoming week. I am one of the moderators for #4thchat along with Jeanne McQueen (the founder of #4thchat), Nancy Carroll, and Justin Stortz. Jeanne launched #4thchat on March 21, 2011 with the topic Brain Breaks. Archives of the chats can be found on the 4thchat wiki.

What Does That Mean?

2011-04-28T14:47:00.011-05:00

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time trying to keep up with all the acronyms being bantered about on Twitter. Most of us have learned about RT (retweet-send someone's tweet out again), DM (direct message-send a tweet to just one person), PLN (personal learning network) and ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education). Since I wasn't into texting when I joined Twitter, I remember when I didn't know what LOL (laughing out loud), IMHO (in my humble opinion) or TIA (thanks in advance) meant. I actually asked on Twitter what LOL meant. Well, I guess I made more than one person LOL and I think I made a couple even ROFL (roll on the floor laughing). But, hey, at least I learned.

Since that time I've always asked when I don't know what an acronym means. Yes, I might make someone else roll their eyes or snicker under their breath when they see my tweet asking, but at least I will know what is being said.

When I blog I always write out the words for things like personal learning network the first time I use it, followed by the letters in parentheses (PLN), so that my reader will know what I'm talking about. My good friend, Beth Still, wrote a great blog post reminding us to spell out what we mean if we want to be understood.

I remember last summer reading a tweet from a member of my PLN that said, "I'm going OTG to spend more time with DH and DD." I had to DM (direct message) her and ask what she meant. Translation: I'm going off the grid (Twitter and other social media sites) to spend more time with dear husband and dear daughter.

Here is one of the responses I got when I asked my PLN on Twitter for some acronyms to help newbies. Funny thing is, I didn't know any of them. (LOL)

Just last week I told a member of my PLN to DM me and I would share the code to our LMS with her. She quickly tweeted back asking what an LMS is? And so she should. I answered her by explaining that an LMS is a learning management system. This occurred during an #edchat (educational chat) on Twitter and it is easy to talk in acronyms because you only have 140 characters to deliver your message. (I'll talk more about #edchats next time.)

I'd love to hear about some of the times you were left scratching your head and saying, "What does that mean?"

Others tweeting answers about acronyms @katiechoudhary, @jdornberg, @derrallg, and @marsacat.

(Cross posted on Tweachers.)

Are You Ready for a Smackdown AzTEA WOW Participants

2011-04-27T00:35:00.008-05:00

On Saturday, April 30 I'll be presenting at the first AzTEA WOW Virtual Technology Conference, thanks to Peggy George. As part of the fun, Peggy is holding a smackdown. For those of you who are not familiar with that term let me explain. A smackdown is where participants have 2 or 3 minutes to demo a favorite tool or web-based app. It is fast and fun and you come away from one with new toys to try out. Here is my smackdown entry - AnswerGarden.

What is you favorite Web 2.0 tool?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

The reason I like this tool is its no fuss attitude - no sign up, no email, no complications. Just type in a question, share the link on your favorite social media site, or grab the embed code and put it on your blog or wiki, like I did here. As people type their answers, they show up in the box. The more times a particular answer is given the larger the word appears (sort of like in a Wordle). It's so easy that my fourth graders love to include them in their blog posts. See an example here and here.

If they have time for me to do a second one I'll demo Wondersaid

made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

Here is another one made by someone else.

made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

A New Kind of Awards Ceremony

2011-04-24T14:58:00.005-05:00

A tweet held me to this blog post by The Bearded Teacher (aka Timothy Patrick Monreal). I had never visited his bog before but found a strong connection as I read his post …But Awards Feel So Good. I left this comment for him and then decided to write my own post about award ceremonies.

"As I was reading your post an idea come to me. Why not have students create awards for themselves? Let each student reflect on who (s)he has been as a learner during the year and design an award that is suitable. Have each student write a short blurb about why the award is being given, collect all the awards and blurbs, and use them at the awards ceremony."

I had a flashback to high school and our National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. I remember sitting in one of the rows in my high school auditorium and hoping that I would be one of the inductees. The way it worked in our school was a student who was already a member would walk down a row and then stop and put the NHS collar on the newly inducted member. I can remember the feelings I felt on that day as clearly as if they were happening to me right now. And that was some 40 years ago. I was nervous. I had my fingers tightly crossed. I kept a silly smile plastered on my face. Twice a member from our NHS walked down my row and I was thinking, “Yes, I am going to be picked!”

Well, needless to say, I wasn’t picked and I was devastated. I silently shed tears as the rest of the induction ceremony took place. Funny thing is, while I truly believed I was worthy, my grades were not of the standard that would have let me be inducted into the National Honor Society at my school or any other.

Please understand I’m not totally against organizations like the NHS, I am just sharing how deeply I was impacted by an awards ceremony and how vividly I remember how I felt that day, forty years ago. I spent several weeks after that ceremony in a funk. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t study, and I kept telling myself I was not worthy. It was something I truly had wanted, and I had been denied.

Now suppose I had attended a school where every student received an award, but no one else decided on those awards. Each student had to figure out on his/her own what award should be bestowed on him/her.

Had I attended a high school where the awards process was handled like that, I would have had to take a very honest look at myself and think about my own learning. What was it that I truly excelled in? What had I done that would merit an award? I probably would have focused on one project I did in biology lab on fruit fly genetics, or maybe I would have given myself a “Stick to It Award” for completing a knitting project for my art class. But wait – should there be any award presented at all? Shouldn’t my intrinsic satisfaction will a job well done, have been enough? I wish I could say, “Yes, I know I did a good job, and that is the only award I need!” But unfortunately I was raised in a culture where … Awards Feel So Good.

As we approach the end of another school year and the end-of-the-year awards ceremonies, what are your thoughts on awards?

Am I Preparing My Students Properly?

2011-04-16T09:01:00.007-05:00

Today is the Saturday after my 4th graders completed LEAP testing week. It is my least favorite week of the year. I came home everyday totally exhausted and frustrated by what I observed happening during this high-stakes, high-stress testing week. I saw some of my students who are nervous, anxious, and sometimes just downright angry. Most did well and proceeded through the week with all the enthusiasm of facing a root canal. But I also saw several of my students who suffered a complete meltdown during testing. It seems inhuman to make 10 year olds go into "testing lockdown" for about four hours each day.

Well, it is now behind us and we have five weeks of school left in this school year. Now the fun begins! I have so many great projects planned from now till the end of school. Don't get me wrong, my students have participated in some great projects throughout this school year, but for the last several weeks we have concentrated on "test prep". I have been questioned by my students several times during these last few weeks as to when we will get back to doing "fun projects".

I am reflecting on how I've done in preparing my students for their future.

I discovered this Prezi from Ashley Azzopardi who is currently studying to be a primary teacher at ACU, in Sydney, Australia

Learning in the 21st Century & Beyond on Prezi

My goal this year was to teach my 21st century learners in a 21st century way. I teach in a school with an 85% free and reduce lunch population made up of about 1/3 white, 1/3 African-American, and 1/3 Hispanic students. Yes, I have a very extensive set of grade level expectations that I must cover in my social studies and math classes. I am responsible to collect a weekly assessment from each of my 75 students as well as a participation grade. My students have outperformed other 4th graders in our district on each of the five interval assessments we took during the year. But that's not how I'm measuring my success.

I'm reflecting on how well I met their needs as learners in the 21st century.

This year my students have blogged, made glogs, used Edmodo as their learning platform, and Skyped with classes across the country and in Canada. They have taught other classes about Marid Gras and backchanneled during a guest speaker presentation with our buddy class in Kansas. They have received over 1,500 comments from around the globe on their blogs thanks to my being introduced to the hashtag #comments4kids on Twitter. They have commented on the blogs of other students around the world. They begin most days chatting with each other on Edmodo. I post their assignments to Edmodo and they turn them in when they are completed. I have gotten to know them better as individuals as they post questions and responses to each other on Edmodo. They love being able to use a social media type website in the classroom. They share a netbook with another student and use websites I've bookmarked on a Symbaloo webmix each day to practice lessons they've been introduced to through the use of our IWB. They've collaborated with other students in online projects and one even won a Glogster challenge hosted by another student in another state.

But is it enough?

Presented Virtually at InnovatED

2011-04-10T16:41:00.004-05:00

Thursday evening marked a new milestone for me. I did two presentations via Skype for the InnoveatED conference held in Memphis, Tennessee. InnovatEd was a blended conference with both in person and virtual presenters. I heard about this opportunity from Cindy Brock on Twitter and quickly signed up to present. She accepted both of my proposals and added me to the wiki she and her co-workers put together for the event.

As fate would have it my laptop got a virus Wednesday night and I was scared that I wouldn't have it to do my presentations. I relaxed when I remembered that my presentations were on Google sites, so I could access them from any computer. So I brought my school laptop home with me. I felt so geeky because I had both computers running and was logged onto the uStream channels so I could watch the other presenters.

At actually 5:40 my Skype started ringing (I love that sound) and I went live to a room full of educators in Memphis and to anyone who happened to be on the uStream channel. During my first presentation I used the screen sharing feature on Skype to show my slideshow on lessons I've learned and best practices I've developed while using Web 2.0 tools with my 4th graders. Twenty minutes later I was done with the first one. Wow, that 20 minutes went fast, but I managed to get through the presentation right on time.

I presented again in the same room at 6:00 so I just stayed online. Education with Edmodo was what I presented next. I love using Edmodo with my students and I know I was bubbling over with excitement. I had set up an Edmoodo group for the educators attending InnovatED and invited them to set up a free account and join the group. Seven of them did immediately. I finished just in the nick of time again. Phew, how time flies when you are having fun.

Above is a photo Philip Cummings sent me via Twitter to show me what the room I was presenting to looked liked.

I even got to fill in for a virtual presenter who didn't answer her Skype call. When I saw that they were missing someone, I tweeted and IMed on Skype that I would gladly fill in if they wanted me to. Richard Cumminghan acknowledged my offer and I quickly pulled up Symbaloo and shared how I am using it both personally and with my students. I felt like such a seasoned presenter to be able to do a presentation on the spur on the moment like that.

I was excited to have had a great experience using Skype to present. I really handled the tech part of it with ease. Of course I was following the hashtag on Twitter and got some great feedback. Thanks to everyone who worked on putting this conference together. I appreciate being able to participant both as a presenter and an attendee.

Coming July 9th - edcampLouisiana

2011-03-20T21:43:00.002-05:00

On Saturday July 9th on the campus of UNO the first Louisiana unconference will take place. As one of the organizers, I proudly present edcampLouisiana. What, no thunderous applause? Oh, you don’t know what an unconference is and you’ve never heard of an edcamp. Well, not so no ago I stood right where you are standing now – with the same confused look on my face too.

Unconferences like edcamp and TeachMeet have been springing up all over the country. I had originally thought I would host a TeachMeet in New Orleans, but when Valerie Burton, another STAR in my district approached me and asked about organizing an edcamp I decided to join her efforts. The rest of our team includes: Brian Mull, Director of Innovation with November Learning; Tiffany Whitehead, Teacher Librarian in Baton Rouge; and Carl Gaines, a high school teacher from Violet.

I will be updating this blog as edcamp draws nearer, but today I just wanted to get your gears turning. I am starting out with a little history quiz. Do you know where the first edcamp was held? Do you know who the co-founders were? Better yet, do you follow any of them of Twitter? Oops, that’s not a history question. Well just head on over here to get the answers. (I cheated and had Dan Callahan, one of the co-founders, email me the answers. It pays to be connected on Twitter.)

Oh, and don’t forget we have a date. Mark your calendars for July 9th. It will be an experience like no other.

(I cross-posted this on the Louisiana DEN blog.)

A "Tweet" Surprise

2011-03-12T17:09:00.011-06:00

I love being able to participate in #elemchat on Saturday afternoons. This chat takes place on Saturdays from 4-5 CST.

Today we were discussing assessment and how we use it to guide our teaching. As I was participating in #elemchat on Twitter today this tweet popped into my Mention column on TweetDeck-

@metrychick, aka Celeste Haar, is a parent of a former student of mine. Several years ago Celeste and her daughters decided that homeschooling was the way for them to go. Celeste, I want you to know that it still saddens me that you are no longer a part of public education. It was so sweet of you to take the time to send out this validation of my teaching. Thank you, Celeste.

2nd Twitter Anniversary

2011-02-28T23:13:00.005-06:00

I meant to post this on my second anniversary but I missed it by three days. I joined Twitter on February 25, 2009. I reflected on my one year anniversary here and wanted to update what I've been doing with regards to Twitter this year.

I am following 926 people, I have 2,576 followers, I have tweeted 6,440, and I am included on 180 lists. I use TweetDeck on my computer and iPhone to keep up with my Twitter stream, mentions, direct messages, as well as certain hashtags. I currently have 12 columns tracking things like #comments4kids, #elemchat, #jppss(the district where I work), and #ISTE11 to name a few. I change columns to follow what is going on at conferences such as EduCon, ICE, Reform Synposium, K12Online Conference from time to time.

During the past year I got to spend time with some of my PLN (personal learning network) members at Estes Park, Colorado before we all headed over to Denver for ISTE10. I was able to get a ticket to attend TEDxDenver ED thanks to seeing tweets about it. While at that event I won a PolyVision Eno interactive whiteboard. I presented online for the K12 Online Conference because of Twitter and was invited to present on Classroom 2.0 Live which I attend most Saturdays and tweet about each week. I was invited by @bethstill to be part of a panel that will present at ISTE11 this year in Philadelphia. Thanks, Beth.

My students and I have connected with over a dozen classrooms so far this school year via Skype. Lots of those connections were started on Twitter. Read about some of those connections here and here.

If you are a new educator to Twitter you might want to check out this LiveBinder by Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom). It contains lots of helpful information. By the way Happy Twitterversary to my friend, Steve. He and I share the same start date.

Kick Start - Activity 3 (Add Some Muscle)

2011-01-17T17:24:00.005-06:00

Well today while enjoying the day off in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday holiday, I learned a new trick. I learned how to add pages to my Blogger account so that I could add an About Me page in response to Edublogs' Teacher Challenge. I also updated My Complete Profile which is a built in part of the Blogger platform.

I am excited to now have a separate About Me page on my blog. I feel like a big kid now. Now that I have been successful in Spring cleaning my blog's About Me section let me know what your feelings are about my upgrade. Did I include too much information? Would you add to or delete anything?

Kick Start - Activity 2

2011-01-16T16:14:00.009-06:00

Well I've been working on the second activity of the Edublog Teacher Challenge. Since Glogster.edu is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools I decided to create a glog about what makes a great blog post.

I am doing some thinking about the direction I want to take my blog this year. It is definitely a mixed bag of various types of posts - tool reviews, reflective pieces, answers to challenges, etc. I want to write more about what I learn from my PLN and I want to write more often but time seems to get away from me because of the many things I am trying to do each day.

Are you happy with your blog? What is your focus? Do you mind reading someone's blog who writes about quite a mix of topics? What draws you to read a post? What makes you take the time to leave a comment?

Checking Out Montage-A-Google

2011-01-15T15:57:00.003-06:00

Today I read about Montage-A-Google on Jeff Thomas' blog. I tried it out on a couple of searches that I wasn't thrilled with but I finally typed in fleur di lei and got the image below. I guess it has possibilities.

Wildlife Finder from BBC

2011-01-13T19:50:00.007-06:00

While doing a search for a bird picture for one of my students, I discovered this BBC site. While exploring the site I found this video and hundreds of others that would be great to use with my students and it's not blocked at school.

Check it out and let me know what you think about it.

Am I Up to the Challenge?

2011-01-09T22:51:00.011-06:00

I just found out about the 30 Day Blogging Challenge for Teachers being run by the great folks at Edublogs. I have been thinking about which direction I should be heading with my blog or a couple of weeks now and this challenge might help my find a focus. So here is my response to the first challenge.

1. When did you start this blog?

I started this blog on Sunday, June 21, 2009.

2. Why did you start this blog?

I started this blog because I'd had a classroom blog for a new and wanted a place to post more professional thoughts and reflections.

3. How did you start this blog?

Since I was familiar with Blogger, I decided to use that same platform for my professional blog. I knew what I wanted the title to be and I played around with a few templates before choosing one I liked.

4. What are you most proud of about this blog?

I am most proud of the fact that I have maintained my professional blog. I am proud of the comments I have received from people in my PLN that I admire.

5. What would you like to change about this blog?

I would like to find a focus for this blog. I write reflective pieces, posts about tools I've discovered, and responses to various challenges. Maybe because I don't post on any kind of a regular schedule, I feel that this blog is a hodgepodge of posts.

6. What upsets you about this blog?

I am upset that this blog doesn't have more comments, but I don't think I have developed it in such a way as to have much of a following. Why would people want to read it?

7. Do you read other blogs?

Yes, I learned how to set up an RSS reader when I attended LaCUE in December of 2008. It often gets filled up with many posts that I have fed into my Google reader. I have been setting aside more time lately to read posts of other educators and edtech leaders.

8. Do you comment on other's blogs?

Yes, I do comment on other people's blogs. I tried last year to leave at least one comment a week and am trying to do the same thing this year. I would like to comment on the blogs of new bloggers to offer them encouragement to keep going.

9. Do you Tweet about your new posts?

Sometimes I will tweet out my new post, but sometimes I don't. It depends on the topic of the post. If I feel that I said something that would be interesting to others then I will tweet about it. I'm not usually a shy person, but sometimes I get shy about promoting myself.

10. What do you hope this challenge helps you accomplish?

The two most important things I hope this challenge will help me accomplish is to find a focus or "a voice" for my blog and get me to write posts on a more regular basis. I also hope to find some new connections through this challenge.

Glogster

2010-12-26T11:08:00.001-06:00

Promise Poem

2010-12-18T22:20:00.001-06:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Promise Poem

View more presentations from Angela Maiers.

Animated Text Creator - Wondersay

2010-12-09T22:15:00.003-06:00

Just learned about Wondersay - a simple tool for creating animated text displays.

made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

You can copy the embed code and use it on your blog (like I did above), wiki, or Glogster.

Transform to Reform

2010-11-22T16:00:00.005-06:00

I've read a few blogs and done much thinking on what I had to contribute to "Blogging for Real Reform". I began to reform my teaching style back in 2004 after attending NECC in my hometown of New Orleans. I was definitely a "newbie" to the Web 2.0 tools being discussed and to the concept of being a 21st century educator.

I attended sessions at NECC and was totally in awe of the language being spoken. Words like blogs, wikis, podcasts, Nings, Moodle, and more were swirling around in every room and in every gathering. The excited voices were speaking of things I knew nothing about, but I loved how animated the conversations were. I knew I wanted to be a part of it all. From those few glorious days in the summer of 2004, I have been on a personal journey to transform into an innovative educator and therefore reform my teaching methods.

I am in my 35th year of teaching and I teach lessons in a completely different way than I did before 2004. I started taking on the responsibility of my own professional development which began by reading blogs and slowly evolved into building a personal learning network (PLN) that aids my learning everyday. I joined Nings like Classroom 2.0 and started attending online webinars. I read professional journals and books and even enrolled in an educational technology leadership Master's program at a local university.

Since I was so excited by how all this learning was transforming my teaching, I wanted to share it with others. I knew other teachers needed to reform their teaching methods also. So I became a teacher trainer at my school. I have presented sessions at the district, state, and national level. Each day as I enter my school I am encouraged as more and more teachers in the building are now slowly starting to reform their teaching style and transform into 21 century educators.

Today I am a 21st century educator, who learns alongside her 4th grade students as we integrate technology and web tools into our daily lessons. We connect with other classes around the country and the world by using tools such as Skype, blogs, wikis, Glogster, and VoiceThread. We participate in collaborative online projects. My PLN is always close by to lend assistance or offer encouragement as we travel on the road to educational reform in our classroom. Oh, and by the way, my students consistently outscore the rest of our district on interval assessments and the state standardized test, despite the fact that 82% of my students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

I believe that educational reform needs to happen. I believe that the most successful blueprint for reform is what has happened at my school. Get two or three teachers who are willing to try innovative teaching strategies and let them teach the others at their school their best practices and lessons learned. Transforming our schools will not, and should not happen overnight. It is a slow and steady possess. But if done correctly and without strong arm tactics, it can and will happen. And it can and will be successful.

Most teachers are in the classroom for the right reasons. They want to help young people learn and be successful. Now we just have to gently guide these teachers to the practices that will work best to accomplish that in the 21st century, so teachers can help prepare today's students for their future.

Adding Voice to a Word Document

2010-11-21T21:14:00.007-06:00

Today as I worked on finalizing the professional development plan of my ETEC 665 course and the technology plan for my ETEC 630 course, I was also clearing out my gmail inbox. I get daily updates from several Diigo groups and have not had time this week to open them. So today I was determined to get my inbox down to zero. As I quickly scanned each Diigo update, I came across one bookmark entitled "A teacher's guide to using audio and podcasting in the classroom". When I clicked on the link I was taken to a blog post by Kit Hard, an educational technology consultant. This is a post that you will want to bookmark for future reference.

I love his instructional matrix and how he outlined the basic steps for his readers. However, my favorite part was learning about adding voice to a Word document in Word2007. I have been delaying updating to Word2007 but will definitely be doing so now that I know about this feature.

Watch this video to see how easy it is to add your voice to documents.

Thanks Kit for the information.

Great News in My Email

2010-11-20T18:02:00.007-06:00

I was so excited when I opened my email to find this sitting in my inbox. What a great honor! I was looking forward to attending LaCUE in December, but now I'm even more anxious for the first week in December to get here. Wish me luck and let's keep our fingers crossed.

Using Zoom.it

2010-11-13T08:48:00.006-06:00

Today I learned about Zoom.it through Twitter. If you have the link to an image you can use Zoom.it to experience the image in a new way. You will get a short Zoom.it URL to share with friends or you can embed the viewer directly onto your blog. It's as simple as 1-2-3.

1. Find the URL of an image and copy it.

2. Paste the URL into the Create page of Zoom.it

3. Get a shortened Zoom.it URL to share.

That's all it takes. I embedded the one I tried here on my blog. Here is what the shortened link looks like - http://zoom.it/SerI.

Check it out.

Let Me Count the Ways

2010-08-22T21:37:00.006-05:00

It is Sunday night. The second full week of school starts tomorrow and I can't wait to see my 5th period math students' faces. Boy, do I have a surprise for them. Last week they worked on their first blog posts. We are using Kidblog.org as our platform. It is easy to use and can be moderated by the teacher through the dashboard of the interface.

As I was making sure I had all my assessments (sigh) and lesson plans ready for the coming week, I checked our Kidblogs and realized that six students were ready to be published. I pushed the publish button and then tweeted about our blogs. Of course I got five replies that said they needed a password to comment. Oh dear, I had forgotten to change the settings to allow anyone with the link to post a comment. (I still have to approve the comment before it appears on the student's blog which I like. Safety first.) Well, I quickly remedied that situation and posted to Twitter that all was now working. Then I got a tweet that me reminded me to use the hashtag #comments4kids when I tweeted about my kids' blog to reach an even wider audience. This hashtag was started by William Chamberlain and you can read more about it here. So I sent out another tweet including the #comments4kids this time around.

I was commenting on the blogs of students of Greta Sandler from Argentina (@gret) when my Tweetdeck starting going crazy chirping Mentions. All of the mentions were RTs (retweets) of my #comments4kids tweet - Anyone up to commenting on the blogs of some 4th graders? I decided to check out what was going on at my kids' blogs. How do I love Twitter? Let me count the ways - 70 comments as I am writing this. 70 comments in less than an hour. I LOVE TWITTER.

Thank you to all of the great members of my Twitter PLN. You have done a great thing. I just hope I can sleep tonight because I am so excited for tomorrow to come.

I Promise to...

2010-08-09T20:40:00.004-05:00

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4153022/2/istockphoto_4153022-i-promise.jpg

As this school year gets ready to start here in southeastern Louisiana, I am thinking about what I can do to make it great. I have been reading thoughts from others in my PLN (personal learning network) on this topic and I have come up with 8 things I promise to do during this year.

1. Try New Things - I am beginning my 35th year of teaching. Wow, even to me the sounds like a long time. But even after all of these years I love being a teacher. I like being the innovative teacher who tries to integrate technology into every lesson. This one should be easy because I have spent the summer learning new ways to use new tools with my students.

2. Connect With My Students - This year I really want to get to know my students' passions. Our classroom theme will be "My Passion is..." I will have all of my students blogging and I plan to add lots of comments to their posts.

3. Get Parents Involved - I will be adding a new kind of teaching to my plate this year. Beside teaching my fourth graders math and social studies, I will be doing some teaching for parents. My plan is to have evening computer training sessions for parents. I want them to learn about digital safety , creating a digital footprint, and using social media for learning.

4. Get My Class Creating, Connecting, and Collaborating - Some of the ways I will get my students creating is by starting the year off with "About Me" Wordles. They will be using kidblog.org for creating their blogs. They will create a Glogster about their passion. We will use Skype to connect with other classes throughout the year. Also my students will be commenting on others' blogs. We will participate in many collaborative projects locally, nationally, and globally.

5. Talk Less and Listen More - I have been getting better at this over the last couple of years. When I got comfortable with the idea that I can't know it all I started learning more from my students. One of my favorite classroom activities is to get them working on their latest project and then "eavesdrop" as they work cooperatively. I learn a lot about my students while doing this informal assessment.

6. Find Balance in My Life - Okay, I'll admit it. The older I get, the geekier I get. I find that I can spend many hours at a time online tweeting, reading articles and blogs, or looking for great projects for my students to do. Too much of my socializing is done online. My house chores get put on hold. I don't eat properly or get enough sleep at times. While I love spending time on my computer, I will be conscious of taking time for other things in my life also. I need to read books, go to the movies, and get out of my house and go for walks.

7. Laugh More - I tend to be more serious than silly, but I love when I can have a good laugh. I am going to be on the lookout for more things that make me laugh this year. The first place I can look is at myself. Being able to laugh at myself in front of my students is the one thing I will have to work on the most this year.

8. Don't Tech Just Because - Since I have a whole room full of new tech tools this year, I am excited to start using them in every way possible. I will make sure that I am using technology to enhance the lesson and engage my students, not just because it is there. I am carefully planning my units and lessons to make sure that learning is at the forefront, not the technology.

So there are my promises to myself. What would you add?

Social Media on #edchat

2010-08-04T07:56:00.007-05:00

#echat Social Media Worlde

This was created from 1/3 of the Social Media #edchat transcript from 8/3. I wanted to see if we could find any patterns within the language we were using. Is it me, or did Wordle create an image that looks a lot like the Twitter fail whale? —@rpetersmauri

I hit 2,000 followers today on Twitter.

Check out the Perk Up Your Projects Wiki

2010-08-04T00:18:00.007-05:00

i saw a tweet tonight from @sroseman that said "Perk up your projects with Web2.0". So I followed the link and ended up on this wiki. I looked around a bit and then decided I wanted to play with different logos. Below are some examples.

This one was created at FlamingText.com using "Craved"

This one was created at Glotxt.com using "NeonLights"

Check out the ways you can perk up your projects.

Thank You for Reform Symposium 2010

2010-08-01T21:12:00.011-05:00

Shelly Terrell, Kelly Tenkely, Jason Bedell and Christopher Rogers were the organizers of the Reform Symposium 2010 that took place online July 30, 31 and August 1. I can only imagine how much work went on behind the scenes to get this symposium planned and then to make sure it went smoothly over the three days. Saying thank you seems so lame, but sometimes keeping it simple is the best so…Thank you!

The organizers used the whiteboard on Elluminate to discuss some of the numbers that were generated by RSCON10.

I liked that idea and decided to compile some numbers of my own.

3 days

18 sessions

14 hours

10 sessions where I took the mic

19 presenters and organizers in my PLN

unknown number of chat entries and tweets

Here is the list of the sessions that I was able to attend virtually this weekend:

Friday July 30, 2010

Opening Keynote – Steve Hargadon 4:00-5:00

Identity Day: Revealing the Passions of Our Students – George Couros 5:00-6:00

It's Not the Tool, It's How You Use It – Mary Beth Hertz 6:00-6:30

Saturday, July 31, 2010

StudentCon: Students Teaching Teachers - Jerry Swiatek 8:00-8:30

Creating a Personal Learning Network (PLN) – Tom Whitby 8:30-9:30

What the Heck is a 21st Century Skill Anyway? – Angela Maiers 12:30-1:30

Skype Around The World - Silvia Tolisano 2:00-2:30

Technology, what's in it for my students - Alexandra Francisco 3:00-3:30

Back-channeling in the Classroom – Richard Byrne 4:00-5:00

New Teacher Survival Kit – Lisa Dabb and Joan Young 5:30-6:00

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Tech in 10 – Kelly Hines 8:00-8:30

Students Refine School – Monika Hardy & students 9:00-10:00

Abolishing & Replacing Grading – Joe Bower 10:30-11:00

Everything I Learned About Tech Integration I Learned From Movies - Nicholas Provenza 11:30-12:00

Innovative Practices in Education–The Power of Students Producing for Authentic Audiences with Authentic Assessment – Paula White 12:30-1:30

This Ain't Your Mother's Classroom: Why You Need to Use Social Media in Your Classroom – Tim Gwynn 2:00-2:30

Education: Timeless and Priceless – Steve Anderson 3:00-4:00

Closing Ceremony – all the organizers 4:00-4:45

I heard Vicki Davis say at one of her ISTE10 sessions I attended this summer, “try to limit your take-aways from a large conference to the top three”. So my top three are:

1. Every student is like a box of Cracker Jacks. Find the “prize” inside of every student.

2. Let students discover their passion and set aside time everyday to let them pursue it.

3. My students and I should be “educational architects” in our classroom.

I have a lot of information to process from the Reform Symposium. I can't wait for the 2010-2011 school year to start so that I can implement some of the things I learned. I am tired and my brain is on fire.

What are your big 3 from RSCON10?

Leadership Day 2010 - My Take

2010-07-30T20:23:00.009-05:00

Today marked the fourth annual Leadership Day hosted by Scott McLeod. My post for last year's Leadership Day asked leaders to examine the tools in their technology toolboxes. Then I wrote extensively about how I had added Web 2.0 tools to my toolbox since 2004. I had planned to add to that post each year and basically offer up the same challenge again this year to all the leaders out there.

Well I'm choosing a different slant on this topic this year. Another year has gone by and we have entered the second decade of the 21st century. So many edtech leaders are tired. They were part of the first wave of digital pioneers. They have been evangelizing for technology integration in their districts or schools everyday, some for more than 20 years. They want to know when everyone else is going to get aboard the train. When are all of the leaders in education going to get with the 21st century in terms of technology?

So my post for this year asks this question: As a leader what are you doing to integrate technology into your staff development?

Most school districts in the United States will begin the 2010-2011 school year in the next few weeks. Many districts or schools kick off their year with staff development. As a leader who wants to see technology integration taking place in your district or school here are some ideas on how to deliver your staff development in ways that show you can "walk the talk".

Things to Try

1. Try a different presentation tool - Instead of PowerPoint try Prezi.

2. Try a different way to brainstorm - Instead of using chart paper to gather ideas, try Webspiration or Wallwisher.

3. Try an online storage system - Instead of running off lots of handouts, put all documents on Slideshare or upload them as resources to the school website.

4. Try a different projection system - Instead of an overhead projector or a computer and a screen, try an interactive whiteboard.

5. Try a video camera - Instead of relying on teachers' memories or tons of handouts, capture your staff development sessions with a Flip cam and upload the videos to TeacherTube.

6. Try to use the expertise of others - Instead of being the facilitator of all technology staff development, let members of your staff led a session on a tool with which they have expertise.

7. Try a different voting method - instead of using charts and sticky notes to vote on ideas, use Poll Everywhere or student response systems (clickers).

8. Try a different evaluation method - Instead of passing out an evaluation sheet, create an online survey to be completed using SurveyMonkey or Google Forms.

9. Try a different way to share an expert's advise with your staff - Instead of hiring a budget busting expert to present at your school, use Skype to "bring" the expert to you for free.

10. Try a different way to gather ideas for further staff development - Instead of writing ideas on a piece of chart paper use blog or wiki and encourage your staff members to post a comment to your blog or collaborate on the wiki.

I Want Every Teacher in My Building to Read This Post

2010-07-27T12:51:00.001-05:00

I kept seeing this being tweeted for about a week now and finally had time today to click on the link and read the article. Every teacher needs to read the post "Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the 2010-2011Year Without" by Samantha Smoke. She has written about tools that every teacher should know about and be adding to their toolbox.

I know that using Web 2.0 tools can seem overwhelming, but I encourage every teacher to try out one new tool each month this school year. Remember that you don't have to be an expert with the tool to begin using it. Just play around with one at a time and have fun. A strategy I use is I use the tool a little bit and then introduce it to my fourth graders and challenge them to learn more about it. I give them time in class to demonstrate their expertise and we all benefit.

Let's start 2010-2011 off on the right foot by learning together.

Posted via email from Paula's posterous

Reflections on ISTE10

2010-07-05T15:43:00.010-05:00

I am finally recovered from a very eventful week in Denver. I went to Denver early to spend some quality time with members of my personal learning network (PLN). We had a great time at the cabin and in Estes Park. I wrote about that part of the trip here. I also attended my first EduBloggerCon on the Saturday before ISTE10 officially began. Read my reflections on EBC10 here. I even got to attend the TEDxDenverEd event and I won an Eno board. Read all about that experience here.

I have spent much of the last couple of days reading others' blog posts, reviewing session materials that are being tweeted out, and just chatting with my PLN (old and new) on Twitter. I was so mentally drained when I arrived home that I slept until 11:00 my first day home. I haven't done that in ages. Also during this time I've been trying to get my ISTE reflections solidified. So here they are -

What Did I Learn?

I am an innovative educator. I use many tools, not just for the sake of using tools, but because they help my students create, collaborate, and connect.

I have created quite an online presence. I was looking forward to meeting members of my PLN and I thought I would have to find them. I didn't think that they would be looking for me. When Peggy George come up to me and said she was so glad to finally meet me face to face I was floored. Kim Caise did the same thing, and so did so many people I know online. It was great to hear someone say, "Oh I follow you on Twitter", as I introduced myself to them.

I can't do it all. I struck a nice balance this year between attending sessions, looking at the vendors' exhibits, and spending time in the Bloggers' Cafe. I got to attend some great TweetUps and vendor parties, and I even had some alone time. Yes, there are things I wish I had done, but overall I'm happy with the things I got to do.

I learned that reaching out to newbies was fun and easy to do. I had written a challenge on the ISTE Ning before going to Denver about helping newbies connect. I also wrote about the challenge on my blog. I was successful in meeting my own challenge and hope that others did the same thing. It was great to get to know these newbies on a more personal level - Tami Thompson, John Shoemaker, Dorie Glynn, Karen McMillian, Tim Nielsen, and Donna Dennis. Hope their first ISTE was memorable.

What Are My ISTE10 Take-Aways?

I found that this year it wasn't so much about cool tools for me (except the iPad) as it was about reflecting on my use of those tools in my classroom. Jeff Utecht made me reflect on the projects I have my students do. He took us through a 15 minute engaging project that hit all levels of Bloom. Thanks, Jeff, for a great session.

I learned that it is important to do some training for parents. I plan to schedule a session at the beginning of the coming school year to help parents learn about online safety, creating a digital footprint, and "crap" detection. As a teacher and a teacher trainer I have covered these topics, but I never reached out to the parents. It is important for them to learn about these topics as well.

Having connections to a PLN is very important for helping me stay current and continue my learning. Members of my PLN are the people I will turn to first when I want to work on collaborative projects in my classroom. I am glad that I was able to make so many new connections at ISTE10 this year and I am looking forward to the next school year with renewed energy.

Finally...

I know as the days continue to pass by I will think of more things I learned while at ISTE10 but these are the ones that are foremost in my mind at this time. Attending this conference was worth every cent I spent to attend.

Photo credit: Melanie Holtsman http://www.flickr.com/photos/holtsman/4737542378/in/pool-1324634@N24/

I Attended TEDxDenverEd (6/28/10)

2010-07-04T00:12:00.016-05:00

Have you ever watched a TED video and wished you could attend one of their events? Well I have many times and I was one of the lucky people who received an invitation to attend TEDxDenverEd. TEDx events are locally organized independent events that follow the TED format. I had to fill out an online application and then wait anxiously to see if I'd get invited. When my invitation hit my inbox, I could hardly contain my excitement. A while later the speakers were added to the website and I started reading up on those I did not know. I exchanged tweets with Dafna Michaelson and Brian Crosby and told them I couldn't wait to meet them in person at the event.

Monday, June 28 finally came and I headed from the Colorado Convention Center and the ISTE convention to the Denver Performing Arts Center. While we waited for the doors to open, you could feel the buzz of anticipation. We were given a metal water bottle with the TEDx logo on it filled with ice cold water which came in handy because the theater lobby was hot. I met up with my friend, John Shoemaker, from Palm Beach, Florida so we sat together for the event.

As each speaker took to the stage, I was amazed at how calm their voices were while they were delivering such powerful words. My personal favorites were Brain Crosby, Adora Svitak, Dafna Michaelson, and Sarah Elizabeth Ippel.

Brian told about how he gets his disadvantaged fourth graders connected globally. He doesn't let their lack of money or background knowledge stand in their way of accomplishing amazing things. He dazzled the audience with the videos of their latest science project The High Hopes High Altitude Balloon Project.

Adora Svitak used her mighty vocabulary to remind of all that we can learn from children. At twelve years old her stage presence outshines most adults. She is sassy and possesses a great sense of humor. You can view one of her previous TED talks here.

Dafna, a single mother, took on a remarkable tour of the country last year. She traveled to all 50 states in a 52 week period to find average people who are changing things around them. She told us how she encouraged her own third grade daughter to be a change agent at her school. During the break people in the audience were encouraged to add ideas to the towers being created to showcase ideas on how to change a problem in their area. The winning idea with be awarded $1,000 to help get their idea off the ground.

How tenacious are you? Well Sarah Elizabeth Ippel told us about her tenacity. She had to present her idea for the Academy for Global Citizenship three years in a row before it was finally excepted. Imagine having a school in the middle of Chicago that has it own garden and serves organic food at breakfast and lunch. That is what she built in a old barrel factory. Now it is a school that others would like to see emulated in their neighborhood.

As each presenter delivered their talk, Janine Underhill was onstage creating a visual representation on a PolyVision Eno whiteboard. I was fascinated by her work during the first part of the evening. During the break Ashara Ekundayo said it was now time to give away the board. I couldn't believe when she said, "Is there a Paula Naugle in the house?" John had to just about push me out of my seat.

What an evening it turned out to be. I got to attend the "hot ticket" event in Denver, heard great speakers who pushed my thinking, and won an Eno. Thank you to the TEDxDenverEd organizers, speakers, and sponsors for a wonderful evening I will never forget.

ISTE10 Sunday's Events (6/27/10)

2010-07-04T00:03:00.004-05:00

Well it has begun. All of the excitement leading up to ISTE10 has brought me to this opening day. I got up early at the Pearl Street mini-mansion, as our place has been nicknamed by members of my PLN. Paul R. Wood and his group are staying at the ISTE mansion in Cherry Creek, I can't wait to visit it.

I called John Shoemaker (@showee) and arranged to meet him for a late brunch at his hotel. John didn't find out until about two days ago that he would be attending ISTE10 from his school district. He and I have developed a relationship on Twitter and we definitely wanted to meet each other face-to-face. We had a great visit and realized that we were attending a lot of the same events while in Denver.

Brenda Smith talked me into attending the opening ceremony. I'm really glad I went because the skit by Mario Armstrong was great. He talked about battling the "Locked Net Monster", "Dollar and Cent-atur", "Medi-Orge", and "Abominable No-Man". I also managed to get one of the ISTE metal water bottles.

Next, I spent some time in the Bloggers' Cafe and watched the opening keynote from here. Pretty sad to watch that unfold, but I won't dwell on it. Other bloggers are having a field day with it, but I don't want to go there. I'll just say it was very sad to witness the feeding frenzy.

My next activity took me over to the Hyatt Regency to attend the Glogster Ambassador meeting. Jim Dachos greeted all of us and handed us a Glogster bag full of goodies to help spread the word. I saw John Shoemaker, Ann Leaness, Patti Duncan, and Traci Blazosky at this gathering. I love Glogster.edu and feel very comfortable telling others about this great tool.

Finally I attended a TweetUp at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were packed into the bar area like sardines but it was fun. Had wonderful conversations and enjoying meeting people from all over. Headed back to Pearl Street tried but happy after a long day.

My First EduBloggerCon

2010-06-29T11:21:00.003-05:00

After three wonderful days in Estes Park with members of my PLN, I headed into Denver to attend EduBloggerCon. Last year I missed the EBC in Washington D.C. because I attended the Discovery Day of School event at the Discovery headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland. Unfortunately Discovery and EduBloggerCon are scheduled for the Saturday before ISTE starts on Sunday, so that means I will have to make a choice to attend one or the other.

EBC was the first unconference I have ever attended. An unconference is planned the morning of the event and consists of conversations instead of presentations. Here you will find the pictures of those who attended and the schedule that was created of the event. My biggest take aways from this event are

students need lessons on "crap" detection

we need to present sessions on digital citizenship to parents

should how we assess tech literacy be standardized (?)

I have some thinking to do.

By the way, I made the picture this year. Woohoo!

Posted via email from Paula's posterous

My PLN at Pre-ISTE10 Get Away

2010-06-25T21:22:00.005-05:00

I have spent the last couple of days relaxing in a cabin in Estes Park, CO before heading into Denver to attend EduBloggerCon and ISTE10. Thanks to Beth Still (who organized this whole thing), I am enjoying the company of Paul R. Woods and his wife, Diane, Scott Floyd, Mike Gras, and Randy Rogers who all hail from Texas. Also Steven Anderson (NC), Mary Beth Hertz (PA), Cory Plough (NV), Brenda Smith (NE), Michelle Baldwin (NE), Jason Schrange (NY), Richard Bryne (ME) and of course Beth are all here with me. It has been an incredible experience. The activities have included fishing (not my thing), hiking, sightseeing, eating, drinking and impromptu TweetUps with this incredible group. Steve Johnson stopped by for our Mexican feast last night and Kyle Pace joined us via Skype. This is the power of a PLN and Twitter at its finest.

Personal learning networks (PLN) and Twitter are hard to explain to some educators who have never had this type of experience. My 2009 New Year's resolution was to build my PLN and understand how to use Twitter for professional development. I started on the Ning network and then joined Twitter in February of that year. My goal was to get to know some educators online and then hopefully meet some of them face to face when I attended NECC in Washington D.C. Beth was one of the first people to reach out to me because she had taken a similar journey after attending NECC in San Antonio in 2008. Sue Waters (from Australia) encouraged each step of my process and I used her resource to help build my PLN. Incredibly I did get to spend time with both of them in Washington plus dozens of others I'd met online.

My PLN has continued to expand over this current year and now I'm here in Colorado enjoying quality time with some of them. I am eagerly awaiting the start of ISTE10 where I will get to meet even more "online friends" face to face. Many of my PLN who can not be in Denver are looking to me to keep them updated on all the great events of the conference which I will do through Twitter updates. I have set a goal for myself while at ISTE10 to help make other "newbies" feel welcome and to get them started on the road to developing their PLN.

Posted via email from Paula's posterous

Great ISTE Advice from a Great Friend

2010-06-22T09:48:00.002-05:00

I have never met Jen Wagner face to face and I am sad about that. I have participated in many of her projects over the years and responded to her various surveys she has posted when she is presenting at various conferences around the country. We have been in many a chat room together as we virtually attended conference sessions. Jen was one of the first members of my PLN (personal learning network) and I cherish her friendship. One of these days we will get to meet face to face, but until then I look for her online presence everywhere I go.

I saw a comment on Twitter that sent me to Jen's newest post. This is a must read for all of us who will be attending ISTE10 this week. This is great advice from a great friend.

Posted via web from Paula's posterous

"Connect with a Newbie" Project

2010-06-22T09:13:00.002-05:00

As I start packing for my exciting week in Denver and saw a lot of nervous tweets from newbies attending ISTE10 and a great question popped into my overwhelmed brain: What can I do to help the newbies? Well as I was drinking my coffee and thinking back over my previous ISTE (formerly NECC) conferences I remember what a difference feeling connected made to my conference experience, so I put out a challenge on the ISTE Ning.

I posted the link on Twitter and had it retweeted by several members of my PLN including one newbie I can't wait to meet in Denver.

So I ask you are you up to the challenge?

Posted via web from Paula's posterous

EduBloggerCon in Denver

2010-06-17T11:37:00.001-05:00

Last year in Washington D.C. I arrived at EduBloggerCon right at the very end of the event. I was coming from the Discovery Headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland where I had attended Discovery Day of School. I'm glad I got to attend the Discovery event, but I was sad to have missed EBC09. Well, this year I plan on being at EBC10 for the whole day and learning the ropes of this experience from my personal learning network PLN buddy Beth Still. I can't wait to see what happens at this "unconference" and to meet more members of my PLN face to face.

I want to be in the picture this year!

Posted via web from Paula's posterous

I'm Backkkkkk!!

2010-06-17T09:53:00.005-05:00

I set up a an account on Posterous a long time ago and only used it a few times. Well today I was directed back by another user's tweet and decided to try it again. I've added a few autopost accounts and am seeing how that works.

If you can send an email with an attachment, you can use Posterous for your blogging platform. Easy peasy. I'm attaching a photo that will also be added to my Flickr account. I think I will start using this service regularly.

Posted via web from Paula's posterous

I'm Presenting at ISTE Unplugged

2010-06-04T13:01:00.007-05:00

12:00-12:30 pm

Title: Web 2.0 Lessons Learned from an Elementary Teacher
Description: I teach 4th graders and I use many of the Web 2.0 tools you've heard of with them - Skype, VoiceThread, Glogsters, Edmodo, Google docs, and more. Join me as I share my lessons learned and best practices for integrating today's tools into an innovative classroom. Let's share our experiences.
Presenter: Paula L. Naugle, Bissonet Plaza Elementary School, Jefferson Parish Public School System, Metairie, Louisiana

Well I did it. I signed up to present on Wednesday, June 30 at the unconference known as ISTE Unplugged. I am both excited and nervous at the same time. I figure I'll rally some of my PLN members around me for moral support and I'll be fine. (Sue Waters you better be close by.) I figure with the topic I chose and how I like to share my experiences it should go well. Wish me luck.

Check out the schedule and maybe add your own presentation to the list.

Let's Skype While I'm at ISTE10

2010-06-04T03:13:00.004-05:00

My last post let you know how excited I am to attend ISTE10 in Denver. I know how jealous I am when members of my PLN are attending conferences around the country that I can't get to. I have attended many conference sessions virtually thanks to my PLN tweeting out the URLs. I have been a part of many backchannel chats while I was sitting at home in my pj's.

I'd like to extend an invitation to anyone who is interested to Skype with me while I am at the Bloggers' Cafe. Too many people think they shouldn't go there if they don't blog. Nothing could be further from the truth. They really should call this area PLN Plaza. Everyone who hangs out in this area of the convention center is more than willing to engage in conversation with anyone who is there. I will spend several hours in the Bloggers' Cafe each day and would love to let you experience it first hand. If you are interested add plnaugle to your Skype contacts and let me know through a tweet or an email that you would like to connect. I will do all I can to make you feel a part of the experience.

Can't Wait to Attend ISTE10

2010-06-04T02:29:00.012-05:00

Today I filled out a survey put out by ISTE asking what excites me about ISTE10. I found that an easy question to answer. I am excited about meeting the members of my PLN (personal learning network) face to face. I was fairly new to Twitter last year when I went to Washington, D.C. to attend NECC, but I was warmly welcomed into the Blogger Cafe by the likes of @bethstill, @suewaters, @jutecht, @rmbyrne, @paulawhite, @paulrwood, @dobrien917, @angelamaiers and many others. I went to a TweetUp and attended a baseball game with my new friends. I had great conservations with @coolcatteacher, @stevehargadon, @teach42, @mcarls, and other wonderful educators. I had such a great experience that I decided there and then that I would definitely attend ISTE10.

I've been lucky enough to attend NECC04 in New Orleans, NECC08 in San Antonio, and NECC09 in Washington D.C. Each of these trips was funded by my school. Funds were written into our School Improvement Plan to allow for this. Unfortunately those funds are not available this year, but I decided to foot my own trip to ISTE10. Why you might ask? Is the $1,500 worth it? My answer is absolutely YES.

What will happen in those five days in Denver will be worth every penny I will spend to attend. I will attend sessions presented by innovative educators from around the globe. I will renew my old friendships, and establish many new ones. I will get to share ideas and set up collaborations for the coming school year. I will hear about others' best practices and learn new ways to use Web 2.0 tools. I will get to spend quality time with other educators who are like me. I will get to hone my presenting skills at ISTE unplugged. I am psyched. It will be so invigorating.

I am prepping for my trip by adding an ISTE10 column to Tweetdeck, tweeting with my PLN, establishing a presence on the ISTE Ning, ordering my Twitter Tshirt, organizing my conference planner, and signing up for activites like TweetUps. I have started adding places of interest to my ISTE10 Google map and I downloaded the Bump app to my iPhone so I'll be ready to exchange contact info with everyone. Okay what have I forgotten?

Can you tell that I am excited to get to ISTE10? If you are attending I hope I get to connect with you. If you are not attending in person, be on the lookout for all of the tweets on Twitter which will tell you how to attend virtually. Look for the backchannels that I'm sure will be set up for some of the sessions.

2010-06-03T10:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I attended Spotlight on the Gulf webinar featuring Philippe Cousteau. According to Steve Dembo there were a record number of attendees. Actually I attended the second session which was offered to people who live in the areas that are most affected by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. I received an email from Discovery saying that due to such a large number of people registered for the event that the second one was being offered.

Philippe is a passionate environmentalist and listening to him explain the impact of the oil spill was heart breaking. Unfortunately at this time there are more questions then answers about what impact this will have on our environment. He included pictures and videos that he had taken on his tour of the affected area.

I live in the New Orleans area and am already feeling the affects that this spill is having on our area. It saddens me to think of how long it will take to get Louisiana’s wetlands cleaned up.

The webinar and related extension activities can be found here.

Photo credit: http://animalplanettalent.com/media/uploads/headshots/large/philippe-cousteau_.jpg

Check Out TeachersFirst Website

2010-05-30T11:27:00.005-05:00

Hooray! Summer is here, and we finally have time to relax and collect our thoughts for fall. Here is one of my favorite places to find great teaching ideas, time savers, creative lessons, and teacher-reviewed web resources: http://www.teachersfirst.com . Take this treat home for the summer. You and your students will thank me!

A Meeting with a Member of My PLN

2010-04-28T14:45:00.005-05:00

I've been on Spring break this week and have been enjoying the time off. However, I never completely stop thinking about technology or connecting with my personal learning network (PLN). When I attended TeachMeet Nashville virtually on Friday, April 1, I began tweeting with several other attendees. Before I knew it I was tweeting with the founder of TeachMeet Nashville, Jason Bedell and Nancy Blair(a member of my PLN) about hosting a TeachMeet in Louisiana. People who have been to TeachMeet like to call it the unconference. TeachMeet (un)conferences happen all over the world. They are put on by teachers, for teachers, at no cost to the teachers.

Well Nancy and I found out that we would both be in Mississippi on the same day this week, so we set up a face-to-face meeting to discuss founding a TeachMeet in our respective areas. Nancy has experience as a conference planner and she knows the steps that help insure a successful event. She is planning to have TeachMeet Georgia in the fall, while I will be hosting TeachMeet Louisiana in the Spring of 2011. We met for about two hours and got a rough outline together. How cool is that. Both Nancy and I gladly gave our free time to work on events that will hopefully hook other educators into the wonderful world of technology.

DEN Virtual Conference at Bissonet Plaza

2010-04-28T14:23:00.009-05:00

On Saturday, April 24, Alexis Western and I hosted an in person event for the DEN Spring Virtual Conference at my school. Since it was the first day of Spring break for the teachers in our district, we decided to delay the start time until nine o'clock. We had a small intimate group but thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Alexis ad I showed the attendees how to register and then log in on their own laptops. We demonstrated the various features of the WebEx interface and encouraged them to chat with the other virtual attendees. We took a break when our catered lunch arrived from Chez Nous. During lunch we started talking about our personal learning network (PLN) and the power of Twitter. All of us on Twitter made sure we were following each other and tweeted about our event. We also explained the process for becoming a DEN STAR. Several of the teachers in attendance said they were going to apply.

We also spent time helping each other with our Promethean flipchart project that is due before the end of the school year and discussing our plans for learning over the summer. I had a wonderful day, learned plenty of new things, and added some awesome members to my PLN. I hope that is true for all who attended. Thanks for coming.

What is Your Element?

2010-03-30T21:05:00.005-05:00

Tonight I attended a webinar which had Steve Hargadon hosting Sir Ken Robinson discussing his book The Element. Since I knew yesterday that I would be attending this session, I downloaded Sir Ken's book onto my laptop Kindle and read about a third of it before I went to bed last night. (Stayed up too late.) While the session was not without a few tech issues, I was amazed that the Elluminate platform performed so well with over 500 attendees. The audience felt like a gathering of my personal learning network (PLN). It was a hoot to watch everyone place their star on the interactive whiteboard map to show their location. The world was well represented.

I feel quite comfortable using Elluminate, since I use it almost every Saturday morning, when I attend the Classrom 2.0 Live sessions. I have become a pretty good multitasker - listening, watching the chat, typing into the chat room, opening links, and posting links for everyone to view. But let me tell you, with over 500 people the chat was flying by faster then I could read it. I didn't get to make too many comments or post any links. I'll enjoy revisiting this archived session after it is posted at LearnCentral.org. I've also enjoyed adding to the discussion on the Book Discussions Ning that Steve started. I look forward to being able to finish reading Sir Ken's The Element.

I was always a passionate educator, but when technology integration became a buzz word that I wanted to learn about, I found my true "element". I love being a 21st century teacher. I should be retired since I've been doing this for 34 years. Well, actually I did retire, but I also returned to work. I am so excited to create lesson plans that are full of technology integration. I spend much of my free time guiding my own professional development through Twitter, Nings, blogs, and webinars. I want to learn something new everyday that I can use in my classroom. My fourth graders also add to my technology learning. When something doesn't seem to work quite right, I turn to them first before calling for tech support. They have solved the problem on many occasions.

I am grateful that I discovered my passion is to truly be a lifelong learner and to try and ignite that fire in every student I teach. What is your passion? Have you discovered your element?

Are Your Students Engaged?

2010-03-28T09:14:00.009-05:00

Web 2.0 in the classroom on Prezi

(To properly watch this Prezi that was created by Ryan McCallum, click on the gray triangle. After it finishes loading, click on the "More" button, and then click on fullscreen.)
One of the members of my personal learning network (PLN) shared the link to this Prezi with me. I think Ryan McCallum's Prezi is a wonderful reminder to educators everywhere that our students need to be engaged or they could be enraged. Why not share this with members of your PLN?

TEDxNYED

2010-03-07T09:46:00.004-06:00

I attended several of the sessions that were streaming yesterday and was inspired by those I heard present. Here you can view Lawrence Lessig's presentation on Blip.TV. Today I learned about Wiffiti so I made a screen that has Twitter and Flickr updates tagged TEDxNYED added. I was given an embedded code so I could add it here.

I Joined Twitter 365 Days Ago

2010-02-25T21:51:00.006-06:00

A few days ago I was trying to remember exactly when I joined Twitter and launched @plnaugle into the Twittersphere. So I typed "when did I join Twitter" into the Google search bar and was taken here. After typing in my Twitter username, I discovered my first anniversary would occur February 25 - today. I knew I would have to celebrate my anniversary by posting a reflection to my blog.

A year ago I set up my account and spent time trying to figure out if this social network was for me. I made the typical newbie mistakes like following celebrities and people I didn't have much in common with. I posted a couple of questions when I had only a handful of followers and wondered why no one responded to my queries. I listened to the naysayers who said, "Who cares what someone ate for breakfast?" Like a lot of first-time users I didn't understand the Twitter stream or how to find the right people to follow. So I started a Google Reader alert for "Twitter" and soon had tons for material to read. Slowly but surely it started to make sense.

I can honestly say I have learned more from being on Twitter this past year than I had learned in the previous five years about Web 2.0 tools, technology integration, innovative teaching, project-based learning, elearning and many more educational topics. I have been an educator for thirty-four years and know that Twitter is the best tool I have in the toolbox.

Here are my stats as my first year comes to a end - I am following 657 people; 1,412 people are following me; I have been listed 68 times; I have tweeted an update 2,968 times. And one more interesting fact that was shared with me on Twitter tonight - Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) also joined Twitter on February 25, 2009.

Just 2 Questions

2010-01-03T14:57:00.004-06:00

I am going to borrow this idea from Dodie Ainslie. I found her by following the tweets of Michael Gorman who decided to follow me on Twitter..

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

I had watched the Daniel Pink video just the day before I discovered Dodie's blog post. The video spurred me to order and download his book Drive to my PC Kindle. I had even read the first few chapters of it by the time I headed over to her post. Isn't it funny how two people can watch the same video and decide to do different things because of it.

But thanks to the sharing that goes on in the Twitter stream, I was able to find a great project. Thanks Michael and Dodie.

Now It's Your Turn

2009-12-29T19:49:00.003-06:00

I just finished my post "2009 in Review". I am posting a challenge to some of the members of my PLN. I want them to reflect on how they did with the resolutions they made at the beginning of 2009. I hope they will pass on the challenge to 5 or so members in their PLN, and so on and so on. Are you ready for the challenge?

The people I am tagging are:

Beth Still

Jen Wagner

Jan Wells

Richard Bryne

Crista Anderson

Alec Couros

Your PLN wants to read about how you did with last year's (2009) resolutions. Please let us know when you post your response. Happy New Year!!!

Image - http://media.photobucket.com/image/logo%20pln/swampgift/logo.jpg

Be Successful with Your New Year's Resolution

2009-12-29T17:18:00.005-06:00

Professor Richard Wiseman found out about 10% of the 5,000 people he tracked last year were successful at achieving their resolutions by following these steps:

1) Break your goal into a series of smaller steps.

2) Tell your friends and family about your goals. This increases the fear of failure but also elicits support from them.

3) Regularly remind yourself of the benefits associated with achieving your goals.

4) Give yourself a small reward when you reach one of the smaller steps you mapped out.

5) Have a way to track your work - use a spreadsheet or a journal (blog).

Also check out these 5 tools at Make Use Of to help you with your resolutions.

2009 in Review

2009-12-29T12:10:00.013-06:00

I just finished reading Sylvia Martinez's blog post "Circle of Life: the technology using educator edition". It got me thinking about where my tech journey took me this year. My New Year's resolutions for the year 2009 were:

to build a personal learning network (PLN)

to expand my technology skills

and to start presenting at conferences.

Below I have put the highlights of how I accomplished my goals.

January:

I waited patiently as other 4th grade teachers in my district accepted the invitation to the Ning I created for us (on New Year's Eve). I wanted us to have a place to share resources and ideas. I watched like a proud mama as our membership grew to 31 during the year. Read about it and other things I did to begin to build my personal learning network (PLN) here.

I attended the GNOTM Conference. The best session I attended was one about special math days like Square Root Day, Odd Day, 100th Day, and Pi Day.

February:

I joined Twitter. At first I was just a lurker because I didn't "get" it.

March:

Somewhere along the line I learned about Classroom 2.0 Live and attended my first webinar using the Elluminate platform. I discovered that I'm not very good at multitasking. How does everyone listen, read the chat, and type all at the same time?

I created a Ning for the faculty of my school - Bissonet Plaza. I posted quite a lot of stuff, but there was not much interest from the other teachers.

April:

I added two posts to my classroom blog about Twitter and how valuable I was finding it to be. I kept thinking that I needed a professional blog for posts like this.

My 4th graders participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project.

May:

I made my first VoiceThread with my students. I entered the lesson in our district's technology lessons competition and I won second place, between two high school lessons. I was thrilled to learn that I had won my very own Flip camera.

I am asked to present about Nings and blogs at our district's technology conference in August.

I became a STAR Discovery Educator.

June:

I applied for and was elected to the DEN Louisiana Leadership Council. I am one of four people on the LaLC and part of the blog team.

I attended a two-day inservice "Working on the Work Web 2.0 21st Century Skills" put on by my district. I learned more about Google Earth, Glogster, Voki, Blabberize, Photostory and other Web 2.0 tools.

I completed a four week online class to become a PBWorks Certified Teacher.

I started my professional blog. I realized that I wanted to post some things that are not appropriate to put on a classroom blog.

I attended "A Day at School" presented by Discovery Education at their headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland. Then I traveled to Washington, D.C. to catch the tail-end of EduBloggerCon. I spent four great days at NECC09 and got to meet many of my online PLN face-to-face. I also attended my first TweetUp.

July:

I applied to attend the Google Teachers' Academy that was held in Colorado. I put my heart and soul into my application and video, but sadly I was not selected. Many members of my PLN helped me with the application process and consoled me when I wasn't selected.

August:

I did my first district-wide presentation at our Technology Training in the New Orleans Convention Center. I'm proud to say that it went well.

September:

I completed a very successful collaborative project via Skype with our buddy class in Kansas. I found Jan Wells and her fourth graders at one of the Ning's I belong to and we decided to work together this year.

October:

I found out that my proposal to present had been accepted for LaCUE {Louisiana Computer Using Educators).

November:

I completed the Technology Model Classroom Grant that was being sponsored by my district.

Jan's class and mine did another Skype project.

I completed my application for graduate school.

I completed my presentation for LaCUE in December.

December:

Jan's class and mine completed our "Paul Revere's Ride" VoiceThread project.

I presented at LaCUE with Alexis Western (one of the TI's from my district). I also helped Carl Gaines do a live stream session (via ustream) of one of Brian Mull's sessions.

I applied for Technology Leadership Master's Program at Southeastern Louisiana University and was accepted.

I participated in Jen Wagner's Holiday Card Exchange Project. I was one of 24 schools is Group Four. My students loved getting cards from all over the country and Canada.

I was awarded a $15,000 Technology Model Classroom Grant from my school district.

As 2009 draws to a close, I sit here on my laptop thinking it was a good year - it was a very good year. What do you think? How was your 2009?

I Got the Technology Model Classroom Grant

2009-12-29T12:05:00.002-06:00

I spent a lot of my Thanksgiving vacation applying for the Technology Model Classroom Grant being offered by my school district. Applicants could get up to $15,000 worth of hardware for their classroom. The time spent on that endeavor was definitely worth the effort.

On Monday, December 21, our assistant principal, Audrey Easley, called my room and asked if I had checked my email. When I told her I hadn't, she said I needed to do so right away. What I found was an email from Dr. Mabel Moore, Chief Technology Officier, that began "JPPSS Division of Technology is pleased to announce that you have been selected to participate in the Technology Model Classroom Grant." Attached was a letter from her which began with - "Congratulations! You have been selected to receive one of the first JPPSS Technology Model Classroom (TMC) Grants. Your current practices and plans to integrate technology into the curriculum have earned an award to outfit your class with the hardware and support you need to be successful."

Here is a list of the hardware that will be placed in my classroom:

ActiveBoard 1
Projector 1
ActiveVotes 1 set
Active Tablet 1
ActiveSlate 1
ActiveWand 1
ActiveView 322 Visual Presenter or other Document Reader 1
Laser Printer 1
Digital Camera 1
iPod iTouch 1
Flip Video Camera 4
Netbooks 15
Dell D18CFR 18 Station Laptop Cart 1
Portable GPS Unit 1
Webcam 15
Headset & microphone 15

Upon accepting the grant I am agreeing to the following:

JPPSS Model Classroom Grant recipient must agree to the following:
• commit to a minimum of three years to the JPPSS Technology Model Classroom environment which will involve ongoing administrative and peer observations;
• willing to submit the following classroom samples as part of an electronic portfolio in the JPPSS Blackboard site to be used as a staff development assessment tool: student samples, ongoing monthly journal reflections, digital pictures, digital video clips, and alternative assessment samples;
• post at least one lesson plan online at Promethean Planet per semester;
• participate and complete all activities in the JPPSS Blackboard collaborative environment (coming in the near future);
• satisfactorily complete at least one online course per year via the JPPSS Blackboard or other web-delivered course (cost covered by JPPSS Technology Department);
• integrate technology units and activities that utilize technology resources to support standards-based learning;
• attend the fall and spring JPPSS Technology Model Classroom collaborative meetings (release time is provided by the district);
• attend LaCUE Conference at district expense;
• submit a proposal to present at local, regional, or national conference during one of the three years of commitment;
• Applicants are required to produce a final technology “product” each year representing their progress towards their 3-year PGP (i.e. website, CD-ROM, electronic portfolio, video, multi-media presentation, etc. that will be submitted electronically or via CD/DVD).
• Applicants must assure that technology is infused into their PGP that:
• meets local and state content standards;
• contains direct links between content standards from two or more curriculum areas and the State Technology Standards.

I look forward to all the opportunities that being a TMC will afford me. I am so honored that JPPSS deems me worthy and am looking forward to 2010 and beyond.

LaCUE09 TweetUp

2009-12-06T12:58:00.008-06:00

Boutin's in Baton Rouge was the site for the annual LaCUE TweetUp. This event, that was organized by Brian Mull, was a small (about 12 people) but rocking event. Carl Gaines, who couldn't stay long, said that the number of attendees was up from last year. Twitter is slowly catching on among Louisiana educators.

Leslie Fisher, one of the top LaCUE presenters, entertained us with her frequent flyer stories. She is down-to-earth and humble, even when she told us about how she became "The Leslie Fisher". I love the fact the she can be just "one of us" when she is not on stage.

Brian Mull told us about his teaching career and how he started work for November Learning. He grew up a military "brat" and his dad retired to the Metairie area. His dad began a second career as an educator and his mom also teaches.

Other members of my PLN (personal learning network) who attended were Alexis Western, Lisa Dick, and Susan Gauthier. Hopefully next year the group will be much larger.

Dining with the STARS

2009-12-06T12:44:00.005-06:00

As part of the Louisiana Leadership Council (LALC), I got to attend the annual "Dining with the STARS" dinner. This event is hosted by Susan Tompkins, Chair of the LALC. Susan invites the Louisiana STAR educators who are attending LaCUE (Louisiana Computer Using Educators Conference)to come and bring a guest. Unfortunately my guest was unable to attend, but I went anyway.

I was excited because I got to meet the rest of the LALC face-to-face. Susan Tompkins, Cindy Wallace, and Susan Gauthier were very welcoming to me. It is nice to be able to put their faces and names together. About 25 people attended the dinner. Hopefully some of the guests will consider becoming STARS educators.

My Tweet Cloud

2009-11-28T22:35:00.002-06:00

One of the members in my Twitter PLN tweeted about using a site called Tweet Cloud so I thought I'd try it out also. This covers the last three months of my tweeting. As my PLN has grown, I have been saying thanks and thank you often. I notice that resources and LaCUE are in there too, which is what I would except since I have been busy gathering resources for my LaCUE presentation on December 4. I am excited to be presenting on the state level for the first time.

JPPSS Technology Institute - Day 1

2009-08-11T18:30:00.010-05:00

All of the teachers, paras, nurses, couselors, etc. of the Jefferson Parish Public School System (JPPSS) are taking part in an historic professional development inititive today and tomorrow at the Ernest M. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Louisiana. Our superintendent, Dr. Diane Roussel, along with the JPPSS technology department headed by chief technology officer, Dr. Mabel Moore, have pulled together a technology conference to rival the likes of NECC. The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) which is hosted by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is held annually. The venue for NECC was Washington, D.C. this year and I was fortunate enough to have attended it also.

Planning for the two-day JPPSS event began last school year and continued over the summer. Presentators and keynote speakers were gathered, presentations schedules were created, sponsors were lined up and all of the logistics were worked out by the many people involved. I can only image the long hours and personal scarifices that were made to plan and carry out an event like this.

Today began with all of us gathered together in Hall J of the convention center to be greeted by our superintendent. I could feel the pride she has for our school system and was greatly touched as she got chocked up at several points during her speech. She was followed by C.H. "Sonny" Savoie, president of the Natioanal School Board Association, Tony Wagner, author and co-director of the Change Leadership Group, and Supriya Jindal, First Lady of Louisiana and a graduate of the JPPSS. Then the audience attended the breakout sessions. These included workshops, lab sessions, and a presentation by Alan November, senior partner and founder of November Learning.

I was very active all day posting updates of the day's events to Twitter (Do a Twitter search for JPPSS to see all the things I learned today), growing my PLN (personal learning network) and expanding my knowledge of ways to integrate technology into my classroom. I overheard many excited teachers saying that they couldn't wait to try out all of the "cool" things they were learning. We left the convention center tired but renewed and looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Thank you to Dr. Diane Roussel and everyone who made today a wonderful success and we'll see you tomorrow. As a way to show our gratitude for this wonderful experience, I had some of the teachers at my school create this VoiceThread.

So What is a Tweetpanel?

2009-08-06T18:13:00.008-05:00

Yesterday evening I was fortunate enough to be part of an experiment - tweetpaneling - conducted by Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) on Twitter. A tweetpanel is where several people agree to discuss a common topic with a set of questions, hashtags, and topics ahead of time to be posted at intervals to increase interest and discussion on those topics on Twitter.

A few days before she had put out a tweet asking anyone wanting to be a panelist to join the wiki she had started for this experiment. She cautioned us that we would be learning as we go. I decided to sign up still more than a little confused about what I was supposes to do. As the days passed Vicki was obviously brainstorming how she wanted this experiment to unfold. She sent the panelist emails to keep us informed as well as she could. Then the day arrived with a new email from Vicki telling the panelist that the hashtag for the experiment was #edchat and to use this particular TweetGrid.

Well I almost bailed. I knew what a hashtag was but I knew nothing about TweetGrid. Then I found out I could set up tweets to be sent out at an assigned time using TweetLater. Now I had another tool to learn. Well, I love a challenge so I decided to try my best to do what Vicki (in Georgia) was envisioning for the rest of us.

I spent about an hour going through the videos and tutorials on the TweetGrid and TweetLater sites to prepare for my role in this experiment. As I was learning I found myself getting excited about this event. I could "see" what Vicki was trying to get us to accomplish. I finished setting up my tweets with the best resources I could find in my Delicious account for each topic about 5 minutes before the "great tweetpanel experiment" was scheduled to commence.

Then the clock struck the hour and we were off. Well all I can say is I yelled whoppee out loud when my first preset tweet hit the tweetstream. I beamed happily as the TweetGrid screens I set up began to fill up with dozens of tweets with the #edchat hashtag. I got so swept up in what was unfolding online that I was an hour and a half late meeting friends out for dinner and drinks. My TweetDeck kept chirping with dozens of mentions as people retweeted me and my friends sent me many DM's (direct messages) saying how great this thing was working. In the middle of all this madness I saw a tweet about an EdTechTalk that was streaming at the same time. So I decided to log into the session for a short time. Vicki saw that I had done that and she joined me in the chat room of the show as our tweetpanel experiment carried on.

In the middle of all this fun I had to leave the house and go to meet my friends. When I arrived at the restaurant I tried to explain why I was so late. I whipped out my iPhone and showed them what was going on. Needless to say they were not impressed as none of them are teachers or twitterers. During dinner I kept sneaking peeks at my iPhone and smiled as I checked my gmail to see about two dozens noticifications about new followers on Twitter.

The best part was the Web 2.0 Smackdown that was scheduled for the last 10 minutes of the tweetpanel. A smackdown is where the panelist share the newest tools or websites they can find with others. I had set up my TweetLater account to tweet one new tool every minute from 7:50-7:59 p.m. CDT. The stream was really flowing during this time. I didn't even realize that Vicki was no longer with us. (Read her post to find out what happened.) I went to bed when I returned home from my dinner with my friends feeling that the "experiment" had been successful.

I got scared this morning when I couldn't get on Twitter or TweetDeck. Uh oh! Had I had my Twitter account suspended? Had our little experiment done smething to hurt the Twitter world? I couldn't ask anyone because I couldn't contact them via our usual means of communication. I couldn't even get logged into my Facebook account. Boy, was I relieved when I later found out that Twitter shut down for a couple of hours due to others who were maliciously trying to harm their system.

I deinitely learned a lot yesterday on my lifelong journey as a learner. I hope you did to.

WOW, I Want to Be in Her Class. She Gets It!

2009-07-30T14:58:00.005-05:00

Sonya Woloshen is a digital teacher. I was introduced to her through David Truss's post. It is hard to believe that the 2008-2009 school year was her first year of teaching. After reading about her and watching the three videos where David interviews her on using POD's in the her classroom I wanted to be in her class. Wouldn't you want your child to be in her class? How about making your classroom more like hers?

What Would Happen If I Googled You?

2009-07-30T11:00:00.009-05:00

I Googled my name "paula naugle" today and Google returned 2,070 results in 0.23 seconds. I had to go to the fourth page to find a result that was about a different Paula Naugle than me. So what you might ask. Am I being egotistical? a narcissist? a braggart? Who cares?

I have to admit the first time I ever Googled myself I was being egotistical. I wanted to see my name in that famous of all search engines - Google. And there I was about 3 or 4 pages in. Today I did it for an entirely different reason. I'm checking my digital footprint. What trail am I leaving behind that can forever be pulled up by someone else's search of me?

Please read this post that I borrowed from Seth Godin's Blog. It is short but delivers a huge message.

A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper.
Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person's name.
The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, "binge drinking."
The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, "I am applying for some menial jobs that are below me, and I'm annoyed by it. I'll certainly quit the minute I sell a few paintings."
And the third? There were only six matches, and the sixth was from the local police department, indicating that the applicant had been arrested for shoplifting two years earlier.
Three for three.
Google never forgets.
Of course, you don't have to be a drunk, a thief or a bitter failure for this to backfire. Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you're on Candid Camera, because you are.

Yes, I Believe in You

2009-07-25T19:40:00.006-05:00

I was reminded of Dalton Sherman today while checking my tweets on Twitter. I first met Dalton on a first day of the 2008-2009 school year in our cafeteria. It wasn't a face to face meeting. I met him on the big screen in my school's cafeteria during our first day of inservice training. You see, Dalton had delivered a keynote speech to the 20,000 plus teachers of the Dallas Independent School System. It was shared on YouTube and my superintendent decided his message needed to be shared with the teachers of JPPSS.

So at a designated time that morning, all the teachers in my school system viewed Dalton's speech all over Jefferson Parish in their various schools. I don't know what happpened at other schools. I can only tell you about the reaction at mine. Every teacher was awed by the delivery of this young boy. The sometimes restless bunch as not-quite-ready-to-be-back teachers sat silently and listened intently as the video played. When it was over I don't believe there were too many dry eyes in the room. What a way to kick start our school year!

I'd like to thank Richard M. Byrne of the Free Technology for Teachers blog for reintroducing me to Dalton.

Can Your Information Be Trusted?

2009-07-23T16:50:00.013-05:00

We all know the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words". Well today I saw a cartoon by Randy Grasbergen that inspired me to put my creative remix juices to work. So I hopped over to Flickr and borrowed this photo from Don Fulano who had posted it with a Creative Commons license. I dumped it into PowerPoint and added the caption and saved it as a JPEG image. (In case you can't read what's on the chalkboard it says, "This chalkboard has never been written on before! Or again.") And viola', I had created a picture that delivered the some message as Grasbergen's cartoon.

I believe this is what is going through the mind's of students in too many classrooms across our country. Why should they tune into teachers who are delivering information they can access 24/7 in a much more user-friendly way? What do they want with chalkboards and overheads? Why should they trust our information? They have their computers and cellphones. They get to interact with others outsides the walls of their classrooms at the end of the schoolday. They can hardly wait for that last bell to ring. Shouldn't we allow them this same kind of interaction during the schoolday? Shouldn't we be allowing them construct their own learning? They have the tools available. We should be there to guide them, not talk at them.

What is your reaction to my picture? How do you think your students would respond?

ImageChef - It's not Wordle

2009-07-22T09:15:00.002-05:00

I found this new mosiac maker thanks to Traci B. from Pennsylvania. I love the fact that I could make a atar because I'm proud to be a Discovery STAR Educator and a member of the Louisiana Leadership Council.

Check out ImageChef. There are many different shapes available. You can change the font, the color of the letters, and the background color. Imagine the ways you can use this mosaic maker in your class - on your blog, in your wiki, to add to posters, to make cards, and so many more. Explore the possibilities of ImageChef!

Web 2.0 Tools Via Glogster

2009-07-16T10:41:00.004-05:00

I was directed to this glogster by a tweet I received from @bethstilltoday. I think this is a great resource to have to help others learn about the tools availbable.

What's in Your 21st Century Toolbox?

2009-07-12T19:27:00.023-05:00

As most of us in education get ready to begin the last school year of the first decade of the 21st century I’d like to ask educational leaders one question. What’s in your toolbox? No matter what we do in our lives, we all need tools to perform our jobs. Are the tools in your current toolbox part of the 21st century or are they sadly outdated? I am adding to Dr. Scott McLeod’s challenge to bloggers to write about leadership. He maintains the blog Dangerously Irrelevant and has hosted this challenge which is now in its third year. I am setting up a challenge for all you educational leaders out there. I ask you to reflect on your own toolbox. Is it full of old tools that should be discarded? What was the first new tool you added? What is the latest tool you’ve added? What are you doing to help those under your leadership to get their toolboxes equipped for the 21st century? Following is my example of how I have equipped my educational toolbox over the last five years.

As a classroom teacher, I have spent the last five years outfitting my 21st century toolbox. It started when I attended NECC04 (National Educational Computing Conference) in my hometown of New Orleans. Luckily I attended with my principal, Brenda Breithaupt, and media specialist, Ellen Miller. I say luckily because without their guidance I would have drowned in the floodwaters of what that conference had to offer. Blogs, wikis, Nings, Moodle, digital storytelling were a few of the new buzz words presented to me. My head was spinning at the end of each day. I made up my mind at the end of the conference to get into the 21st century as a teacher. It was a slow journey at the beginning but is now moving at an incredible speed. Brenda and Ellen supported and encouraged each step of my journey. They have continually given me the opportunity to add to my toolbox. I set up this timeline to help demonstrate my journey to becoming a 21st century educator.

2004-2005 School Year
1. I was awarded one of the four model classrooms that was set up in our building this year. Each model classroom had an interactive whiteboard and six computers. I was selected because both Brenda and Ellen recognized the enthusiasm I had for technology. I was not a digital native, but I was sure willing to be a digital pioneer. My new classroom also included a digital camera, a video camera, and access to a wireless laptop cart containing 15 laptops. With my new “tech toys” I spent a lot of time surfing the web looking for sites I could use in my classroom.
2. I discovered how to use my eBoard. My school district provides an eBoard for every teacher in the system. I learned how to use my eBoard to its full advantage to provide information for my students and parents. At first it was just a list of websites I had previewed and posted for my students to use to extend their learning. Then I learned how to hyperlink and embed things onto my eBoard note.
3. Next I added Audacity to my toolbox and started podcasting. I was proud of myself and my students when I posted our first podcasts to my eBoard.
4. I had used the digital camera to take pictures of activities in my class, printed them, and put them on display. I had learned about the tool called Photo Story 3 so I decided to use it and turned those digital pictures into digital stories.
5. I learned how to download unitedstreaming videos (Now Discovery Education Streaming).

2005-2006 School Year (Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, the levees fail, and there is widespread flooding, death, and destruction. Many families have left the city and are living elsewhere.)

6. While I was evacuated to Florida I learned how to send SMS on my cell phone.
7. I learned how to follow threaded discussions on sites like NOLA.com to find out what was happening back home.
8. I added Google Earth to my toolbox and helped the kids who returned to school see where their former classmates were now living.

2006-2007 School Year
Sadly this year was a time of rebuilding for most of us in our city. While my home and school did not flood, both sustained damages that had to be dealt with. Personally I also owned another property that was heavily damaged and needed to be rebuilt. Many people I work with lost their homes and had to start over. Some of my former students returned, but sadly a great many stayed in the areas they had evacuted to and settled in their new homes across the country. I honestly don’t remember this year in terms of school, but I remember it in terms of rebuilding my life.

2007-2008 School Year
Thanks to the great technology leadership of Brenda and Ellen, they again put money into our school improvement plan (SIP) to send one teacher to NECC in San Antonio. I was the one chosen to attend. This time I went solo. From my previous experience I knew how to navigate the waters, and while the waters were deep I didn’t have that same sense of drowning. I expanded my knowledge of blogs, wikis, and Moodle but did not add them to my toolbox yet. I learned a lot, but I was lonely.

9. My next tool was an iPhone 3G. I was so excited that I could now carry the internet with me.
10. I purchased a MacBook right before heading to San Antonio.
11. Next I set up a Google account and
12. started using gmail,
13. Picasa,
14. and learned how to set up RSS feeds to Google Reader.

2008-2009 School Year
Again Brenda and Ellen along with our newly acquired Title I teacher, Anne McCormack, were able to earmark some money in our SIP plan’s budget to send two faculty members to NECC in Washington, D.C. Another classroom teacher and Ellen were chosen to attend. I was not upset. I was excited for David and looked forward to helping him navigate NECC. I was more than willing to pay my own way. Unfortunately David was not able to attend so I took his place. What a difference a year can make! Thanks to the new tools I had recently added to my toolbox I felt so connected to many other educators from across the country and around the world.
15. I started my classroom blog using Blogger.
16. Then I set up a class website using FreeWebs.
17. I joined many online social networking sites like FaceBook,
18. Classroom 2.0,
19. Linkedin,
20. and Delicious.
21. Thanks to Sue Waters’ directions I started my PLN (personal learning network).
22. I started a Ning for the 4th grade teachers in my district. To date there are 27 members.
23. Next I attended my first webinar which used the Elluminate platform.
24. Then I joined Twitter. (http://www.twitter.com/plnaugle) My PLN exploded.
25. From my PLN, and various webinars I attended and Nings I belonged to I was encouraged to use
26. animoto for educators
27. VoiceThread for educators (there is a free account and a paid account for educators)
28. Stupeflix.com
29. Smilebox
30. Wordle
31. Flickr
32. Jing
33. Glogster
34. I used Skype to connect more personally with my PLN and to connect my class with others.
35. I became a STAR Discovery Educator and was able to add the wonderful DEN resources to my toolbox.
36. I made a survey using Google Docs and will use this tool a lot this coming year.
37. I put all my materials for my district-wide presentation on a Google Site.
38. I set up a Google calendar for my classroom.
39. I started my professional blog. Again I choose Blogger as my platform.
40. I am finally setting up wikis thanks to attending PBWorks Summer Camp online this summer.
41. For my first wiki attempt I decided to use Wikispaces.

As you can see what started out slowly, was somewhat sidetracked by a natural disaster, has exploded thanks to my PLN. I would like to thank Scott (a member of my PLN) for inviting me to be a part of this discussion. Now it’s your turn. What tools are in your 21st century toolbox?

(Hurricane Katrina photo from Google images)

Happy Birthday, America

2009-07-04T23:44:00.007-05:00

As the Fourth of July winds down for 2009 I am quickly trying to get this post done. It rattled around in my head all day and I want to get it posted on the 4th. Many people in my personal learning network (PLN) were just getting back home from NECC in D.C. or are still in our nation's capital. There were plenty of tweets on Twitter wishing everyone a Happy Fourth of July and I couldn't help but think back to my wonderful week in D.C. I met so many of the people I know on Twitter and it was wonderful to converse with them face to face. So much sharing goes on via Twitter and it certainly continued in the face to face venue at NECC. I felt so empowered as an educator to have these connections.

I spent a great part of today remembering that I live in a country where I am afforded the opportunity to speak out and to say what is on my mind. I take the rights I have as an American too much for granted. I thought about our founding fathers gathering together to write our Constitution and marveled at the fact that they were able to get it done and it is still the document that my government is based on in the 21st century.

We educators are struggling with what schools should look like in the 21st century and how best to teach our students for their future. How do we prepare our students to be literate, functioning citizens? Are there new literacies or just a new skill set to learn the literacies of reading, writing, listening, and speaking? The debate continues, but I had to stop and be thankful that the debate can happen because I'm an American. So as the conversations continue to flow forth on these and many other educational topics, I had to take some time today to say I am proud to be an American and am blessed to have the rights which I take so lightly.

What thoughts did you have as you celebrated America's birthday?

(Picture: google images http://i.123g.us/c/ejul_fourthjuly_wishes/card/108575.gif)

What a Week This Will Be

2009-06-22T23:59:00.007-05:00

This is how my week is shaping up. It makes me excited to think about meeting members of my networks face to face. First I'll be meeting other STARs at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Then I'm on to D.C. to attend my third NECC. I know from all the tweets I see that I am not the only person who is scrambling to get many things accomplished this week.

Monday - PBWorks Summer Camp offically starts. Need to complete my homework that was sent to my email inbox.

Tuesday - I will attend PBWorks Summer Camp webinar and work on homework.

Wednesday - I need to start getting things ready for the trip north. Also need to submit materials electonically for August presentation.

Thursady - Packed for my trip. Finished my PBWorks Summer Camp homework.

Friday - Must be at the airport by 5:00 a.m. for my flight to BWI (Baltimore/Washington International)

Saturday - I will be attending DEN pre-NECC Extravaganza in Silver Springs, MD. It is the fourth birthday of STARS.(I can’t wait to meet the other STARS.) Then I will travel to D.C. for EduBloggerCon and NECC 2009. (I can't wait to meet people in my PLN face to face!)

Yes, it will be a crazy week, but I'm loving it!

6/22/09 Today I Learned

2009-06-22T13:59:00.007-05:00

1. @haleon shared this from Angela Cummingham's post.
Class Discussion Guidelines

2. I was reminded of this collage creating site by a Diigo group that I belong to.
Here is the collage I created.

PLN - Not Just My Initials Anymore

2009-06-21T22:10:00.005-05:00

What does PLN mean? I used to just think of these letters as my initials (Paula L. Naugle), but now they have taken on a whole new meaning. I started a classroom blog for the '08-09 school year and learned a lot about the blogging process. It was great to "grow" that blog. My students and the parents of my students enjoyed visiting it. Then in January I learned about PLN's (personal learning networks) and put a few posts on my classroom blog that didn't really belong there. I toyed with the idea of starting another blog - my PLN blog - but was just too caught up in school activities to do so. Well now I'm on summer vacation and realize more each day that I need a professional blog - so viola'.

How does one get a PLN? I followed the advice on Sue Water's wiki. She took me through the steps that helped me successfully get started. I started out slowly and worked on it a little each week. I already had a blog, so I began to add comments to others' blogs. I set up Google Reader and subscribed to blogs by educators. I joined Classroom 2.0 and several other Nings. I started a Ning for the fourth grade teachers in my school district. I set up a Delicious account and started social bookmarking. Finally, I joined Twitter.

How does your PLN grow? Mine started out on a local level with the 25 members that joined the Ning I started. I had some conversations and exchanged ideas with them. I kept checking out my Twitter account but just didn't get it. I had selected a lot of top educators to follow and could see their "tweets" but wasn't part of the conversation yet. Then I started attending the free Classroom 2.0 Live webinars every Saturday. In the chat room someone would ask the attendees to put our Twitter names in the chat stream so I listed mine. When I opened my email I would have several requests for "follows" on Twitter. Each week my list of followers increased. I finally took the leap of faith and began posting "tweets" usually including a link to a site I had found that I thought other educators might want to check out.

What does my PLN do for me? They share links, answer questions, give advice, make suggestions, make me laugh, make me think, make me question, make me grow. I am extremely thankful to the members of my PLN for all they have done for me. Start growing your PLN today.