Dooley Noted

Ipad 1:1 Schools

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:41:00 +0000

Are there any 1:1 ipad schools? Are there any 1:1 ipad schools receiving grants to fund implementation? Are there any 1:1 ipad schools where implementation is significantly increasing student learning?

I am equally intrigued as I am skeptical. You see, I spent time as a teacher in a school in Nevada where a 1:1 MacBook initiative was rolled out to the Freshman class my last year there. I taught Computer Science and knew the initiative would immediately create new, unique, and exciting learning opportunities for this group of students. Do ipads do the same? Do they do it bettet?

I am more than happy to do some work and tech training with a teacher on a trial basis, but I have no idea where to start. Besides asking my principal to shell out $15k to supply a classroom with ipads, do I have other options at the state or federal level? Or even private grants? What about Perkins? As you can see, I have lots of questions and few answers on this topic. Anybody have advice?

Tweet of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:24:00 +0000

So I have been thinking, "how can I contribute a little slice of what I find to be the most interesting tweets or articles I read all day?" Of course, the natural answer is to simply retweet those profound words of wisdom or thought-provoking articles. Well, I was looking for a little better way to keep track of these daily educational gems, so I spawned my own hashtag, #MrD-ToD.

Now, I acknowledge that I lack a few creative bones in my body and am barely original. However, I'd like to think my hashtag is fairly self explanatory and should be easy to follow. If you happen by chance to be the other person (besides myself of course) following this hashtag, you can expect to read some pretty excellent daily musings, most educational in nature.

Contrary to popular belief, I do perform a bit of research prior to jumping into things of this nature. I don't want to be that, guy that just created the 2,096,521st "Tweet of the Day" for education. Much to my surprise, I found nobody else providing something of the like. Well, guess I am a bit original today. Up, up, and away with Mr. Dooley's Tweet (s) of the Day!

Principalm for School Administrators

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:06:00 +0000

Anybody running Principalm software for student data management system on the go? Well I am! I must say, for the price we paid (roughly $1k for our 1k students), we sure get a lot of bang for that buck. I run Principalm on my LG Revolution smartphone (android powered) and boy is it smooth. At the drop of the hat, I have student schedules, lockers, health conditions, parking info, grades, attendance, and discipline history at the ready. Oh, and did I mention a 4" picture of the student!?

I think so highly of the software that we provided it to all three campus supervisors on older Palm handheld devices. They use it to deliver student notices, check attendance/truancy records, learn student names/pictures, and the like. This software has given us all the ability to have the majority of our student data management system on the go. I have absolutely no complaints thus far, and am looking forward to expanding its' use elsewhere on campus (as well as connecting through an Infinite Campus back door - I currently have to download Ad Hoc reports if I want updated info, my only minor issue).

Lastly, it is important to make a note that the data is secure, even on my smartphone. It is password protected, and it is setup to wipe the data at the third incorrect password attempt. There are some additional security features but I never plan on letting my phone out of my view.

If you are an administrator looking at the software as an option for your campus, feel free to ask questions...

A Refresher...

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:45:00 +0000

So I've been away from blogging, tweeting, and everything else associated with #Edchat in well over a year and a half...

I've come to realize that my Assistant Principal job is quite demanding, but have also realized that I need to have more balance in my professional life. I have not been taking the time to reflect upon my philosophy and practice, and promise to begin looking more closely at how I am positively influencing my students. I look forward to being back on the cutting edge of technology, bringing what's useful to the front doors of my school...

Teacher Top 10 Video

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Just thought I would share a hilarious video about the "Top 10 Things You Don't Learn About Teaching in College."

Enjoy!

YouTube Video: Download and Import to iMovie

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:28:00 +0000

If you've always wondered how to get a video from YouTube into your iMovie project, well wonder no more! I put together a simple and short tutorial on how to do this. The video has no audio, but the steps are simple:

Use FireFox
Install Video Downloader add-on
Go to a YouTube video
Click download arrow at bottom of FF
Upload the saved .flv file to ZamZar and convert to .mp4
Check your email and download the converted file
Import the converted .mp4 file into iMovie
That's it!

Watch the video here (it may take a while to load, it's 13MB!):

Reflection Week 15

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Core Values

Clarify who we are
Govern personal relationships
Guide us on how to teach
Inform us on how to reward
Honesty
Transparency with statistics of student/community population
Look up Singleton & Linton, 2006, pp 60-61
Acceptance
Embracing cultural differences
Cultural barriers – break them down
Break the vicious circle/cycle
“Money is never going to make education more equitable if we do not properly desegregates our schools so that the minority population of students have as much to gain from public schools as middle and upper class students.” Jonathan Kozon, 1991.
Modeling
Model expectations of what I want my students to produce or learn
Learn by example
Intrinsic motivation
I value my own education, never a choice for me
Payback, sense of helping others
Caring, making a difference
Respect and trust
Friendly
Maintain healthy relationships
Focus on building confidence
Organization
Key to keeping up with the changes in education
Ownership and pride
http://www.Nps.gov/training/uc/whcv.htm

Decision Making

You get paid for your judgments.
With good judgment, you can find the knowledge (or those that do)
Why is it so difficult to make a decision?
Our value in the eyes of others are sometimes more important than the best decision
Why is decision making such an important activity for principals?
You’re paid for them
Decisions made in education are people decisions
It’s important, affects the students for the rest of their lives.
How do you make decisions? How does you r principal make decisions?
Gut instinct? Not in hiring…
Think it through
How will it affect most involved
Involve stake holders
Do not ASSUME
Are there techniques that would help a principal make a decision?
Stay aligned with your core values and school culture
Compare and contrast the various models of the decision making process.
When should a principal not involve others in the decision making process?
Confidentiality
Personnel issues
Make some minor alone decisions to begin with, to prove to staff that you can.
Are there techniques that would help a group make a decision?
Are there advantages to having a group make decisions?

Reflection
This class helped me to think more about my own core values and beliefs as they pertain to my future administrator role. I think that, because my values and beliefs have already been heavily rooted in my current teaching roles, that they will translate well to a principalship. Now obviously this might not be the case, but I believe that my current core values are enough to propel me into the role where I can refine and re-evaluate them. This class also brought forth the need for me to always stick to these core values, especially during the decision making process. The notes above are important to my future success in this arena.

Reflection Week 14

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:05:00 +0000

SAGE: Student Achievement Gap Elimination

The culture behind Nevada’s school improvement process embraces high expectations for every student and is built upon the foundation of the following beliefs:
1. The work of schools is student learning;
2. All children benefit from challenging and relevant curriculum;
3. Curriculum, instruction, and assessments must be closely aligned to State Standards;
4. Every teacher can be an expert when provided collaborative and sustained professional development focused on improved instruction;
5. School culture and the learning environment can promote continuous improvement.
6. Parental support and involvement are critical to improved student performance;
7. Effective use of data is vital to continuous improvement of teaching and learning.
Comprehensive improvement plans take several years to implement and demonstrate improvement in the targeted areas. A continuous improvement cycle provides the opportunity for ongoing identification of effective practices and/or actions that should be continued and ineffective practices and/or actions that should be revised or eliminated. There have been many successful school improvement efforts. The education research literature includes hundreds of examples of school improvement that have resulted in increased student learning, improved parent involvement, decreased dropout rates, and an increased percentage of students who enroll in college. The SAGE (Student Achievement Gap Elimination) school improvement process provides schools with a framework for problem solving to target the school improvement efforts best suited for them.

5-Step Plan for Dealing With Stress

Identify the stress risk factors
Decide who might be harmed and how
Evaluate the risks
Record your findings
Monitor and review

Reflection Week 13

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:49:00 +0000

End of the Year

Checklist passed out

The most intriguing items on this checklist include:

Student Portfolios
Classroom Inventory
Lunch charges paid

I included these as the most intriguing because I think they are really site-specific items to include on the end of the year checklist for teachers. What I am saying is that these are items that principals choose to implement at their site.

The June Checklist for Principals is much more insightful. Things on the list that peaked my interest included:

Schedule BTS Nights
Yearbook distribution
Review Testing scores
Meeting minutes

Reflection Week 12

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:14:00 +0000

Is Your School Fun to Work For?

This short quiz helped me to understand that it is quite important to work in an environment, especially in education, that is fun.
The quiz had some great, yet simple, questions that forced me to really think about the level of fun at my site.

My First Staff Meeting

This handout did not do justice to the presentation, but it is useful in its own right.
The handout had simple, yet effective, tips that included dressing appropriately, bring a stainstick (probably the most useful!), using humor, keeping it short, staying true to your personality.
These were some good tips, and I will most definitely have to revisit these after attaining my first assignment.

Reflection Week 11

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:17:00 +0000

Goals
The presentation on "goals" helped me to understand the biggest benefits of goal setting and the mistakes that can rob you of your goals. The most useful of these were:

Benefits
- Greater peace of mind
- Greater personal growth
- Contribution to others

Mistakes
- Not having a mentor or coach
- Not taking time to celebrate when reaching a goal
- Not working on yourself

Reflection Week 10

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:17:00 +0000

9 Characteristics of Effective Schools

Link Here
• Strong and professional principal
• Strong and professional teachers
• Clear positive philosophy
• Environment conducive to learning
• Effective student welfare system
• Strong organisational framework
• Broad, balanced curriculum
• Meaningful assessment and reporting on student progress
• Support for parent and community participation

Reflection Week 9

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:16:00 +0000

Listening Skills

Roadblocks
- Interrogating
- Ordering
- Ridiculing
- Probing
- Scolding
- Criticizing

Reasons to Improve
-To avoid saying the wrong thing, being tactless
- To generate a feeling of caring
- To check that you are both are on target with one another
- To help people start listening to you

Questions to Ask Yourself
- What impulses do I have?
- How genuine do I feel now?
- How attentive am I to him right now?
- How comfortable do I feel right now?

This handout will most definitely be coming with me to my future administrative office. I feel that listening is one of the most challenging administrator skill, and this is something that I will most definitely need to work on in the future.

Computer-Using Educators (CUE) 2010 Conference

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

This past weekend, I attended the CUE 2010 Conference in Palm Springs, CA. The trip afforded me some much needed time to do some extended professional learning in the comfort of an EdTech conference. I drove in early Friday morning and missed Thursday's events as well as the keynote (hey, you have to love that 5am Los Angeles traffic right!?). I immediately went to my first session and began learning about Moodle in the Web2.0 class. All of my sessions went extremely well and I gained a ton of new knowledge.

My main goal for attending this conference was to gain some insight into the latest Web 2.0 tools that others were integrating in their classes. Below is my summary of sessions attended as well as some additional notes/sites/resources that I pulled from the #CUE10 hashtag via Twitter (link opens in a TwapperKeeper.com link). Feel free to offer up feedback and any questions you might have. If you'd just like to visit my Delicious Bookmark feed for CUE10, click here.

Web 2.0 in the Classroom: A presentation that discussed how to go about integrating Web 2.0 in your classes. Presenter talked about collaboration, presentations, reading & writing, and provided some resources for future learning goals for teachers.
CUE Unplugged: This wiki was used for CUE's informal "Unplugged" sessions. I bookmarked this for future reading, and thought it was a good enough resource to pass along to other EdTech folks. Some great presentations from politics to online field trips to the perfect classroom.
Welcome to C3: Collect, Connect, Coach (C3). This is a source for administrators that are tired of checking teacher observation boxes; using this iPhone app allows for quicker and easier walkthroughs. Produce charts and other data without syncing.
Teach with the Touch - CUE: Ever seen the iPod Touch being used to teach in the classroom? Well, if you've got a Touch, navigate to this site (mobile version for quicker loading on mobile devices), and check out what you can do!
Extreme Makeover: by Steve Dembo: Presentation by Discovery Education's Steve Dembo. You can get a general understanding of his presentation from the Prezi - just think outside the box.
MapAList: What a nice app this is. Turn a Google Spreadsheet into a map using locations of users. Here is a Google Spreadsheet of Twitter Educators that I turned into a Map:


iPod Flash Cards: Flash cards on an iPod? Yes, that's right! Check out Mr. Coley's site - he has templates that free for students/teachers to use to create flash cards that drop onto the iPod for studying!
Dr. Arnie Abrams: Handouts from Dr. Abrams' sessions at CUE 2010.
Test Your Knowledge With Trivia Games: A website that allows students to show their knowledge by creating a game on any topic of their choice. What better way to get students involved, quizzing each other using technology?
Web 2.0 Tools for Educators: Wow. Web 2.0 tools broken down by type, with examples and descriptions. This might be the best list I've seen in a very long time. Definitely worth a look.
Web 2.0: Animoto video from a Web 2.0 session. Can't recall where it was used, but good source when introducing the topic to students.
digitalgoonies.com: Presentations from the Digital Goonies crew from CUE2010. Topics included Web 2.0 "hot" and "cool" applications, Google Earth, and Geocaching.
Florida Center for Instructional Technology: Another great resources for technology in the classroom. Links to clipart, lessons, maps, etc. Broken down by subject as well.
Lit2Go: Poems and stories in MP3 format. Can anybody say iPod friendly? Extend your classroom.
On-Line Technology Tutorials From Around the World Wide Web: From Internet for Classrooms - tons of tutorials for most applications out there. A valuable tool for teachers when learning a new applicaiton.
Wallpapers, animated gifs and cliparts: Does this need a description?
http://www.cytochromec.net/blog/: Great presentation from Colin Matheson on the integration of Moodle at school sites. He's also on Twitter as @cytochromec.

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro: Online meeting application. Adobe product, probably works great, but not free.
Google Notes from CUE: A fellow attendee took some notes on his Google sessions. Feel free to browse his whole blog, he had numerous notes with a LOT of tips/tricks.
Google Workshop for Educators: The official "Google for Educators" session. I did not attend, but there is some excellent stuff at this site.

Reflection Week 7

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:04:00 +0000

Top 5 Characteristics of 90/90/90 Schools:

A focus on academic achievement
Clear curriculum choices
Frequent assessment of student progress and multiple opportunities for improvement
An emphasis on writing
External Scoring

Reflection Week 6

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:26:00 +0000

Cooperation vs. Control

"If one has cooperation, control is unnecessary"

Respect & Trust

"Shared decision-making: you will spend more time deciding and less time cleaning up messes from hasty decisions."
I don't see a day in the future in which we'll be asked to do less

What would you do the first day as a school administrator?

Do something the first week that shows thanks and appreciation to staff
Little things pay huge dividends (pre-start of school BBQ!)

The Stages of Leadership

Better care for and love them because it will matter (students won't learn from teachers that don't care, even if the perfect lesson is taught - and vice versa).

Site-Based Management

Reflection Week4

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:26:00 +0000

The first and last minute of anything we do are the most important! Everything else is window treatment.

My communication handout and self-assessment tool.

Asking questions, at the end of conversations, without judgment:

I wonder...
What would happen if...
I had this thought...(non judgmental)
I heard that they tried this over...

The last word is not the last word, it is just a summary. If you give the last word, it is a decision

With an employee that has bad attitude:

Give them the opportunity to explain it first
“Yesterday with both observed something inappropriate at this school. How should I handle that?”

If you’re in a fair fight, you haven’t prepared yourself enough!

Core Values:

Equity and Access, Innovation, Excellence, Coherence, Co-Accountability.
Climate and environment
Engaged learners
Enhancing employee capacity
Outcomes for students
Challenge
Creativity
Commitment
Ethics
Excellence
Integrity
Personal development
Responsibility
Teamwork
Recognition

Everything you do as a principal is dependent upon your norms that you have created, in close alignment with the school’s mission and vision.

Reflection Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Thursday, January 28th

A colleague gave a great presentation on decision-making. This helped me to think and reflect on how I make everyday decisions, something I have really never given much thought to. Her presentation included the idea of not making knee-jerk decisions. Instead, letting teachers mull the problem over will help them develop their own solutions and ideas. Often times, not providing a decision right away helps others to think for themselves (obviously, there are times where a decision is needed right away).

We moved on to the Changing Role of Principal, where I presented this Prezi presentation:

The presentation was designed to look back on previous thinking of leadership in education, in order to move towards a new theory. This new theory looks at educational leadership as a craft-like science that requires administrators to have a multitude of answers for one problem, migrating away from the "one size fits all" mentality. You can download the presentation notes here.

I learned a lot from doing this presentation and associated research. As it turns out, I think this new theory of educational leadership is deeply rooted in common sense. Does it make sense to include stakeholders in the decision-making process? Does it make sense to discuss why it is important for teachers to meet their expectations, and to include them in making those expectations?

Reflection Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:28:00 +0000

Thurday, January 21st

A colleague shared information about becoming a future administrator and sharing how to go about balancing personal and professional life.

“Survivor skills for the principalship”
Take care of #1 - have some "me" time.
Enroll in playtime 101 - get out and do fun stuff! Get new hobbies.
Have the family visit the school, so faculty know you’re a person
Schedule “fun time” with friends and family
Leave campus once in a while - take a break, talk a walk, get coffee.
Have a discussion with your spouse about your new position/role

We watched this great video on TED that discussed creativity in schools. Apparently, our traditional school environments tell kids they need to fail in order to learn. But we punish them with grades when they do fail, so this is inhibiting their creativity! “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, then you’ll never be creative.” Listen to Ken Robinson's presentation:

Some other profound items worth discussing from this class:

50% rule – spend half the time in your office and half out in the school doing things. Do not be a hermit! Make sure you are visible!
Supervisory time should be spent on helping each teacher become just a bit better. Be sure to meet them where they are comfortable, give up some of your power!
Spend 10% of supervisory time dealing with incompetence and unsatisfactory items. Do not relinquish power here, have these meetings in your office!

Reflection Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:51:00 +0000

I have recently started my last semester as a Graduate student at UNLV in the Master of Education, Educational Leadership program. My professor for my capstone course, Dr. Robison, is trying something new this semester and has asked us to begin thinking like an educational leader in everything we do. In continuing that theme, Dr. Robison has given us the task to put these reflective thoughts down on paper, in what he calls the "Role of Principal" journal. Being the tech savvy teacher that I am, I thought it would be a good idea to just integrate this into my professional blog so I can share my thoughts with others. In addition, I want to connect to other educational leaders and would love their comments, so please feel free to give your opinion.

All future reflective journal entries will be tagged with "UNLV." The first of many is below, I hope you enjoy!

Thursday, January 14th

Try not to command: don't be a leader that tells people what to do. This is from the old military way of thinking, that was largely involved in creating the "old" way of thinking in education. Dr. Robison discussed numerous classical educational leadership models that all incorporated this command style of leading. It is rather obvious that this way of leading now does more bad than it does good.
“I now know what I don’t know:” it is truly a good thing to realize how much you really do not know about any particular subject or content area. For me, I still have a long way to go until I even begin grasping a small percentage of what a retired school administrator knows. Even though this scares me quite a bit, I look forward to my first real challenge as a school administrator, where I have to put what I have learned into immediate practice.
You get to practice the craft and polish it throughout your career: this statement tags along with the previous one. Now that I know how much learning I still have to do, it is quite comfortable to know that I'll have the time and hopefully the opportunity to polish the craft of being an administrator. I'm hoping that my endeavors as an assistant principal will pay off greatly in the long run, and hope to be a sponge in this learning process.
The bigger picture: This course is going to help me grasp a view of the bigger educational picture. I am being challenged to not just think about leadership in my current school, but to think about it in broader terms; county wide, state wide, country wide, and globally. Dr. Robison says I'll be better for it, and I completely agree with him.
Leader is not a manager: to be a great leader, managing a team is not the way to go. Distributing your leadership to the team helps them to find their own leadership, and allows you to truly model the desired leadership behavior. This is highly tied to the culture you create in a school, without it you'll sink!
Respond as administrator: in all we do throughout this semester, we need to begin thinking about everything as if we are a current administrator, and the situation involves us directly. Questions to ask yourself should include; what would I do, how would I respond, what research can help me make this decision, who should I ask to gain teacher opinion and insight, etc.
Teachers are picked on, listen to them: teachers are the ones in the classroom, most directly affecting student achievement. Dr. Robison said that teachers are often picked on, so lending an ear and listening to them gives them a voice. It's not that you have to act on whatever they say, but just listening goes a long way.
Leaders adapt to staff: this makes a whole lot of sense, but without hearing this it may go to the wayside. Leaders should adapt to their staff, not vice versa. I definitely plan to use this thought in my first administrative position. I will be the new kid on the block so to speak, and it will be much easier for me to adapt.
You cannot treat all teachers the same: you need to judge their needs and act accordingly (adapting), then they will make changes (situational leadership – wrong leadership causes hostility).
Use charisma to your ability: “you don’t have power because you have the job.” Talk about an eye opener with this statement. Just because you get an administrative job does not mean you automatically have power to do what you want. If you lead this way, you'll make a lot of staff members angry right away, and will probably find yourself on the short end of the stick when it comes to contracts for the following year. Use your natural leadership skill of charisma to help staff see your point of view and vision.
Eye to eye and knee to knee for best communication: showing up and working with teachers in the trenches is a great way to establish respect and a bit of trust when it comes to communication. Be next to them and with them as you lead them, be visible!
Don’t have all of the answers: this is a tough point to get through your brain, but it is extremely important to know that you don't have all of the answers. I like this point because the same holds true for teachers in the classroom. A teacher that thinks they have all of the answers will lose students along the way (some just out of spite) and the same holds true for leaders.

NMSA 2009 Conference Notes

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000

Here are my notes from the 2009 NMSA Conference in Indianapolis this past weekend.

Todd Williamson and Shawn McGirr also posted their session notes. You can also check out my Delicious Bookmarks for online sources from the conference.

Foldables (3-D Graphic Organizers)
Presenter – Dinah Zike

NOTE: got a bad seat, had to sit in front with back to presentation – notes are rough.

•Recognition and Recall were not preparing students for learning
•Production is a better process for learning
•By folding paper, the kinesthetic action helps to reinforce learning and remembering the information on the paper
•Clarify concepts with as few words as possible (Venn Diagrams, Concept Maps, etc.)
•Better off to have STUDENTS create them
•Foldables can be used in any curriculum
•Foldables turn 2-D into 3-D
•Proven to improve retention and recall
•“Make new connections”
•Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Tacos, Burritos, Shutterfolds – types of folds in the paper
•Use envelopes to staple into inside of organizer
•Can bind together multiple folded/cut papers

This session was pretty awesome, but it is very difficult to give an example of a foldable by discussing it in text. Get a better idea here:

http://foldables.wikispaces.com/
http://www.dinah.com/

What keeps us teaching MS? Understanding who stays, who goes, and why?
Presenter: Dr. Tariq Akmal

•This presentation discussed the reasons why teachers leave the middle school teaching/administration field
•Researchers suggested ways to keep teachers/administrators
•Did not take exclusive notes as Dr. Akmal was making presentation available.
•Will post notes and presentation when I hear back from Dr. Akmal.

VoiceThread
Presenters: Susanne.Long@onslow.k12.nc.us & Brent.Anderson@onslow.k12.nc.us

•I did not take notes on this session as we were involved in a hands-on lab, learning how to use VoiceThreads.

•For more information, check out the VoiceThread.com website.

Advisory
Presenter: Michele Tissiere

•“Do Now” activity
•Gathering: Stand up/Sit Down – in a circle, have them facing, make statements and students sit/stand based on statements
o Making connections
o Advisor find out a lot about students in a short amount of time
o Make individual kids feel special and noticed
o See uniqueness and similarities
o Safe activity – no talking (great for ESL)
o Builds community
oLifts strengths
•“Public agreements” – she uses this term to describe the agreement she makes with students.
•Goals:
o Walk away with a framework for Advisory
o Best practices
o Advisory design team
o Professional development
o CLEAR and they are brought into the conversation
•A FRAME FOR AN ADVISORY SESSION
o Gathering
o Agenda
o Activity
o Debrief
o Closing
•The ritual of the gathering and closing will help teachers feel like it doesn’t need a prep
•The four big advisory goals
o Academic Advisement
o Community and culture
o Healthy Development
o Post Secondary Planning
•Teacher Leaders – important to getting Advisory successful at the school level
•Advisors – the role of the Advisor
o Not a friend
o Not a counselor
o Not a parent
o Are a coach
o Are a facilitator
o Are a role model
o Are listeners
o Are mentors
•Professional Development formats to consider
o Workshops before school opens
o Workshops on PD days throughout the year
o Workshops during in-service
o Workshops during conference/planning
o Check-ins during dept. meetings
o Infusing certain rituals or routines into dept. meetings, etc.
•Assessment – a feedback process for continuous improvement of advisory

See Attached Handout for additional ideas/concepts on Advisory (will be uploaded today).

Digital Natives….Got Tech?
Presenters – Frontier Middle School teachers and principal
•All students, all teachers, have laptop
•“Turning Point” was the book that the school (Frontier MS) was built off
•We are teaching in their world, not ours
•Making a difference in the education of our students
o “The Navigators” – different groups have different names
o UTILIZING MIDDLE SCHOOL MODEL OF TEAMS (by grade-level).
•No textbooks, just computers
•Students became experts in their own subject
•1:1 computing opened the door
•Utilized “more than paper” to begin linking the groups
•Uses 4-point rubric rather than grades
o “advanced proficient”
•Options to include multiple types of media
•ClassMarker.com
o FREE – throw out a test, automatically graded, results immediately
•Examples of assignments
o [student examples]
o PP/Keynote
o Personal expression through movies
•Turns short assignments/units in extended learning – more than short answer
•Harness the basics/keep the imagination
•Good students
•1:1 is not magic
•Unlimited ways to express one’s self
•Recommends the Mac – utilizing Pages for drag/drop templates
•shadowpoetry.com
•Digitally, you can meet more standards and more easily
•Wordle.net
•To better learn a concept, students need to interact with it (via media)
o Setting stories to music
o TASK-S’s compose a soundtrack to correspond with the elements of plot in a short story.
•Mood, identify key characters, etc.
o Utilizing GarageBand to compose (or Audacity on PC)
•Compose their own music
•Use preloaded instrumentals
•Use preloaded sound effects
•Include their own “composer commentary” to explain
o [student example]
•Scaffolding – gave help for students that may struggle with composer commentary
•Provides questions that kids might come across
•Provides rubric
•Music and technology, together, make a world of difference
o Blogger.com
•Utilizes blog to post warm-ups, discussion questions, polls, Google news reels, and to mediate.
•Technology and Assessment
o Utilize iLab for formal assessments – gives the quiet students a voice because they complete them in private (records video/audio).
o Obvious indicators from these iLabs “I think...”
•Student gave herself a 9 – but couldn’t explain why. Means she doesn’t understand the rubric either.
o First Class system is used (much like our FLHSemail.org)
o Twitter – she calls it a social networking site, but it is micro-blogging
•Rubric – INTERESTING and vague
o MySpace – 71% of students have online profiles
•Utilized MySpace for character development
•Created a profile on MySpace for a character in the book – lots of options!
•Rubrics are created with some student input
o Online Safety
o Anybody can make up information
•Filtering the Internet: “Don’t take it away from them, teach them to use it”
•SOURCES:
o FRONTIERMS.COM

YOU HAVE TO ALLOW STUDENTS TO PLAY WITH THE SOFTWARE FIRST BEFORE EXPECTING ANYTHING OUT OF IT.

TEACHERS SHOULD ONLY BE TAUGHT THE VERY BASICS OF EACH SOFTWARE APPLICATION, ENOUGH TO BE COMFORTABLE WITH IT-LET THE STUDENTS FIGURE IT OUT!

•QUESTIONS:
o GRADING?
o ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY?
o WHAT KIND OF TRAINING ON COMPUTERS/SOFTWARE FOR STUDENTS & TEACHERS?
o WHAT DO THE RUBRICS LOOK LIKE?
o INTERNET SAFETY AND COPYRIGHT?

Web 2.0 in Your Middle School Classroom
Presenter – Erica Roberts
Comp Apps @ Jefferson MS in IL (5th year, from the Computer Business)

•http://www.go2web20.net/
•Iteachyoucomputers.wikispaces.com
•Differences between Web 1.0 & 2.0
o Read-only
o Read/Write - Two-way street
•Shows Machine is Using Us (Michael Wesch video – another good one to check out is Digital Ethnography Anthropological look at YouTube)
•Benefits of Web 2.0?
o What’s going to engage students more? Books or online content?
•Use web to create own content – students become content-creators than consumers?
•Social Networking
o Limited amount of info that we can store
•When you “crowdsource” you can get phenomenal answers
•She gives the example of utilizing Twitter for its’ powerfulness
o She follows educators, people local to her area, Mac techies, etc.
•You can “expand your knowledge”
•Twitter Lists – you can follow lists, you can check lists that you’re on
o Plurk – like Twitter, but goes horizontally (more private? Don’t agree with)
o Edmodo – uses it in her classroom. Like Twitter for the classroom.
•Positive aspect of social networking
o “myspace is kind of an inappropriate place”
•all of her students are on edmodo
o can use as a replacement for flash drive
•Classblogmeister.com
•RSS
o Really Simple Syndicate - like a newspaper subscription - you get new media when it is released.
o NetVibes – set up RSS feeds for your classes
•Wikis
o Made for collaboration, multiple people working on same thing at same time
o Decade assignments for the wiki example
o Wikis in Plain English
o CoolCatTeacher example of collaboration across the world
•Google Docs
•Ning
o Private MySpace
•Creative Content Creation
o Kids are really engaged when they can put stuff together that’s fun for them to look at
o Edu.Glogster.com
•Up to 200, free, student private
•Sharetabs.com
o Presents links in a table
•Acceptable Use Policy – uses as parent permission form, "it is fine because it’s a private network."

National Middle School Association 2009 Conference

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:04:00 +0000

My bags are packed, and I'm ready to head to Indianapolis later today to attend the NMSA09 conference. I plan on attending, as part of my self-directed PD, sessions that involve technology integration, web tools for teachers, leadership in education, digital literacy, and project-based learning.

In keeping with my PD goals, I will be tweeting small snippets of useful information with links and quotes about edtech and other topics. I will be utilizing the #NMSA09 hashtag - I set up a Twitterfall page that will show all of the tweets of all conference users with the same hashtag.

Follow @MrDooley on Twitter for my tweets about the conference, or check out the Twitterfall page for more!

Tech Tip: Download YouTube Videos

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:12:00 +0000

A colleague of mine has restarted his dedication to blogging as part of his personal professional development plan (see previous post about self-directed PD). Mr. Orr is a Science Teacher and Technology Coordinator at Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High School. In his latest blog entry, he posted a link to a YouTube video that demonstrates how to download YouTube videos (I know, there is some irony here). I agree with his statement that "how do I download YouTube videos?" is the most common question asked of our fellow teachers. I thought I would also spread the tip, so here's the video:

Students & Twitter: Part II

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:36:00 +0000

To follow up on my first blog post about Students & Twitter, students succeeded at implementing twtpolls to collect opinion-based data from their peers on various topics. After this short Twitter assignment, students completed this WebQuest. Changes made to the WebQuest included utilizing Google Docs to create a presentation (much like PowerPoint) demonstrating their perspective on their Computer Ethics, as well as integrating Twitter.

A few student groups integrated twtpolls, while others searched for tweets containing opinions to back up their own. One group found an expert that provided excellent information about Bluetooth and WiFi for inclusion in their presentation.

Overall, the WebQuest assignment was pretty successful. I would have liked to have seen greater Twitter integration at completing the assignment, but I have to remember these students are novice tweeters. Keeping this in mind, they did a great job.

FETC & Professional Development

noreply@blogger.com (MrDooley) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:15:00 +0000

As I wrote in my previous blog post, I am taking on the responsibility of creating my own self-paced Professional Development plan. In keeping within my own goal for PD, I decided to attend the 2009 FETC Virtual Conference. This is my first attendance at an all online conference, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. FETC touts the following benefits, which are the main reasons I decided to attend:

There are no travel expenses. No lines. No substitutes to schedule. No funding approval needed.

A 100% FREE education technology conference? I don't need a substitute? I don't need to create lesson plans? I don't need to stand in line? FREE? What other reasons do teachers need to attend this conference? How about the fact that teachers can experience

A dynamic exchange of best practices and tips for success.
Expert speakers sharing their views in an effective, interactive way.
A virtual networking lounge to reconnect with colleagues and make new contacts.
Real-time access to other participants through instant messaging.
Technology product and service demonstrations in our virtual exhibit hall.
Free content downloads and presentations to go.

I encourage all those that have not signed up for attendance to do so - Register Here. I'm looking forward to experiencing the virtual environment of this conference in combination with learning some new technology integration tools! See you "there."