2010 JA Trade Fair...Almost Here!

It's hard to believe that the 2010 Junior Achievement Trade Fair is just a couple of weeks away! Seems like just yesterday WINC (that's the name of our JA Company Program here at Spring Woods HS) was in the very beginning stages of planning our premier product for this school year.

Members of the production team have the products ready (well mostly), the marketing team has begun advertising and building the booth, the sales team is busy honing its skills, the public relations team is busily sending out press releases...whew! So much to do in such a short period of time!

While I'm not ready to tell the world exactly what our product is...I can post a picture of one of our advertisements here. Right after our Thanksgiving Holiday I will post about this again and strongly encourage all my friends and colleagues to order this awesome product...it'll make a great Christmas present for someone you love!! :)

Glogster (Student Example)

Teaching Glogster to my students...here's one I really liked. The assignment was to illustrate examples of Property (for Business Law). I think this student did a great job!

The Return

Over the past year, I've allowed just about everything to interfere with my blogging. I'd like to see that trend end.

The start to this year has been a wild one--filled with more than just a little stress. It's November now and 'things' are beginning to settle in a bit. I find that now, more than ever I want to begin blogging again. So much is happening with my classes--how I'm implementing new technologies, finding different ways to deliver instruction--I want to share those experiences with others.

For example--one of the courses I am teaching this year is Business Law. If I'm not careful, it could become a very dry subject. Well, the students are studying about classifications of property right now. To help 'liven up' the topic, I created a mini-project for them. I chose to have them use Glogster to create their posters. Here's an example of how one student made this project just POP!

Here's another example that I liked as well (view this post)

Countdown...

In just a week we'll begin a new school year in Texas...where did the summer go?? Oh yeah, that's right...I (gladly) spent my summer preparing for and attending the Junior Achievement North American Company of the Year competition with the officers of our JA Company Program, WINC. Awesome performance by our group (BTW). Very proud...and...that's right...I completed another online PD with my district, studied for and passed the MCAS Word exam, attended Conference and spent my weekends at tennis tourneys with my son...whew! Busy (but very fun) summer!

Now, it's time to complete my preparations for the upcoming school year. I received my schedule last Thursday. I will be teaching 'lots' of BCIS this year...which is great 'cause several of us will be piloting a program to help our students with certifications in IC3 and MCAS. WooHoo! Awesome...

I'll also have a couple of sections of Sports Marketing again this year as well. Thanks to last year's online PD, I was able to implement some cool Web2.0 technologies in this class...the students produced some great work.

I want to expand that this year. I will be expanding my unit on digital citizenship in all of my classes this year. I found that most of my students (last year) needed more than what I covered in class (especially when it came utilizing tools like backchanneling). I will be receiving video cameras...YEAH!!! I plan to utilize them in the Sports Marketing classes. I believe they will be a great resource for students to demonstrate creativity and content mastery..very exciting...

I've learned so much this summer that it's hard not to become overwhelmed. I have to keep telling myself, "Baby steps, just take baby steps." Maybe one day I'll be as "on" in my teaching as Vicki Davis, or Dan Meyer, but for now...baby steps...

11.5 More Things: Thing 11.5-Evaluation

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I love Glogster! I've been looking for a way for my students to create digital posters...now I've got it! I also enjoyed creating a Voki. I've got some ideas on how to use Vokis to introduce lessons, new concepts, etc. I think students will enjoy listening to 'her' sometimes. I'm am also 'stoked' over my educational account at Animoto. I received my approval today...that resource alone is going to add volumes to student input. (Thanks, Vaughn! If not for you, I would have missed that link!)

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? The Library2Play and Library2Play2 online PD courses help to keep me informed and enlightened on new technologies that I can integrate into my curriculum. I'm excited about bringing fresh ideas into my curriculum to both engage students and add further rigor and relevance to what I teach.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? SlideShare and authorSTREAM were my big surprises. I will definitely use these resources to help connect my students to experts and to share my students work. Great stuff...

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I love the concept and I love the format...please don't change that! There's more than 12 hours here, that's for sure! I found myself going back to different sites...I have already taught my son how to use Glogster (he wants to make NASCAR posters) and I apologized to my husband about SlideShare (read my post for details). Awesome work guys...please keep these coming our way!!!

11.5 More Things: Thing 11-Digital Citizenship

I've been thinking a lot about digital citizenship and how best to teach this to my students. I am glad to see digital citizenship as a part of this online PD series.

As a Career and Technology Education (CTE) teacher, I teach a variety of subjects that involve an enormous amount of computer time. I have norms (rules) that I teach my students--for them to use the lab they must adhere to these policies. I have made netiquette a part of these norms, but I have not developed digital citizenship lessons that outline and teach all nine elements of digital citizenship as outlined by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey in their book Digital Citizenship in Schools...until now...

My plan for this year is to integrate all nine elements into my curriculum. My introductory lesson will have the students research the term "digital citizenship" and then have them create a multimedia piece (of their choice) that illustrates the definition of digital citizenship and how they can "live it" both in and out of the classroom.

I found a number of videos about digital citizenship online. I think this one would spark some discussion in class...what do you think?

11.5 More Things: Thing 10-Virtual Worlds

I took the plunge into Second Life about a year ago. It's amazing to me just how real this virtual world can be. What I found in my exploration was that Second Life (for me anyway) was incredibly time-consuming.

With that said--I think that virtual worlds are amazing...and I do believe that as educators we have an opportunity to use these virtual worlds in a host of different educational venues. Vicki Davis (the world's most amazing teacher) has been working with her freshmen to build a virtual world that teaches digital citizenship. Imagine the possibilities of teaching other subjects via virtual worlds like second life...what a great way to keep our students engaged.

I have so many new things that I want to incorporate into my teaching this year; adding virtual worlds to that would be awesome. Let's see where the year takes us!