Blog Update

The teacher I was discussion in my earlier post began his blog last week. I have included a link below. So far the blog has been used for discussion between students. Right now he's trying to get the students familiar with the process. One assignment has the students reflect on a guest speaker that came to their class.

http://www.llstrategies.blogspot.com/

A blog on blogging

Today I began to help a teacher in my department set-up a blog for his class. I suggested he use a blog in one of his resource classes. Discussion is an important part of this class because some of the focus is on developing social skills. The blog will enable him to monitor comments between students and allow all students to have a voice.

I'll put a post later with a link to the blog once it's up and running.

Tablet Training Update

Yesterday during the afternoon institute day session, I trained the teachers of my department on basic tablet use. Mike provided me with a list of basic operations (Phase I). We proceeeded through those basic operations and I answered questions that teachers had.



After the Phase I was complete, I introduced basic inking features and how to capture a wireless projector. I demonstrated how inking could be used to annotate a Power Point presentation. After our session was over most of the teachers stayed to test out the wireless projector. It was very well received. The training went smoothly and I'm looking forward to introducing some more advanced topics.

Tablet Training

I've spent the past week working on ways to train the Special Education department on the use of tablets. I'm going to work off the checklist Mike gave me in order to get an idea of what teachers know. Most of the help I've given people has been informal. This will be the first time I'll get to sit down with everyone. Not only do I want to see where their at, but I want to know what questions they may have.

Our meeting will take place Tuesday February 20th. We're going to meet during the afternoon institute day session. One thing I'd really like to show everyone is how to capture the wireless projectors. So far we have only one in our department. However, several different teachers use that room so many of them would get an opportunity to use it.

Science Blog Concerns

I've continued to post questions and activities on my Science blog, however, some of the comments have not met my expectations. I'd like to see the students writing more. It seemed that way in the beginning, but now they're doing the bare minimum. I'm going to try to communicate what is expected out of a post very clearly.

Next week I'm going to do a lesson on how to answer the blog posting. Maybe this will help to elicit better responses.

Update on Science Blog (Week 1)

This is the end of the first week with the Science Blog. I'm surprised by how many posts I've received so far. I've tried to make the blog questions simple at first just to encourage responses from the students. As the students become better at posting comments, I'd like to make the posting more involved. So far I've used the blog on 3 occasions:

1. The first post was an extra credit assignment. The students posted a comment about what they were doing for Thanksgiving and what plant products they were eating. I received 12 comments out of 15 students.

2. The second post involved the students looking at picture and answering questions with their own input. So far I've received only 5 comments. However, today is the last day for comments and we are on the computers today.

3. The last post is in regard to the project we are currently completing. I'm having students post comments and questions about the project. So far over half of the class has responded.

One Note for Indicator 13

Yesterday I assisted our department transition coordinator with Microsoft One Note. In the Special Education Department we have experienced an increased amount of paper work, especially with regard to post high school transition. The most recent of which is called Indicator 13. Basically, it's a data collection tool that indicates what transition services students with disabilities are receiving.

Our transition coordinator wanted to share with our department how the Indicator 13 worksheet worked. Also, he wanted to convey the correct way to fill out the sheet, as well as, the basic requirements.

Last Friday, we scanned the worksheet as a PDF file and created Transition Notebook for this and further paperwork. One of the sections is dedicated to Indicator 13. Our coordinator inked in the requirements while he presented during a revolving faculty meeting. Also, in the section we included the PDF file. This way teachers will only print out the number of Indicator 13 sheets they need.