Posted in Uncategorized

Summer Learning

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Yikes! I realized that I haven’t posted here in over a month. It’s not that I haven’t been learning, but just the opposite, I’ve spent the summer multitasking more than usual. I’ve learned a bunch! I’ve also missed a bunch…I can’t keep up with all the blogs I’ve been trying to read. Partly that’s because I’ve met a whole bunch of really great people through Second Life and have added their blogs to my aggregator, and partly it is because I’ve spent a ton of time in Second Life with Pam Elgin designing a place for ITRTs to collaborate. It’s almost done…I’ll post more about that later.

The other thing that has kept me tied up has been a class of 14 energetic second graders in summer school! This is the second year I’ve had the chance to work in the three week summer school program in Salem, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. It gives me a chance to get my hands back into teaching, and to build a few (albeit brief) relationships with students, something I miss terribly being an ITRT. I’ve been trying to post some of the projects we worked on in class on a class blog. I have a few more projects to post, but you can check it out here.

Posted in Uncategorized

Attending NECC Virtually

Posted on by Tina Coffey

While I’m not actually at NECC in Atlanta this year, I will be attempting to follow it virtually. Vicki Davis provided some great tips from her experience doing this last year. Next year, cross your fingers, I’ll be there in person.

So far, here’s what I’ve done:
-set up a PageFlakes Page to catch all the great posts coming in about the conference
-found the listing of sessions that will be broadcast as webcasts or podcasts.
-picked out specific sessions so that I can watch for blog postings about them. Steve Hargadon has created a super postto help out with this process!

There will be some sessions in Second Life too that I plan on attending from the comfort of my sofa.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that edublogs will not only continue to stay up and running, I will gain my ability to add pictures and use the editor (instead of having to code each post). James has been working on switching edublogs over to faster servers, and there have been a few issues. I love edublogs…so I’m looking forward to the new upgrades and trying to be patient.

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Posted in Web 2.0

Invite to my Second Life Home

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Thought I’d throw out an invite to my home in Second Life! It is located on Eduisland 3. Pam Elgin and I have set up a spot for educators, especially ITRTs, to meet, chat and explore Second Life…and we’d love to have you join us! But you don’t have to be an ITRT…anyone is welcome!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%203/57/96/23/shirts1We have enjoyed meeting a few ITRTs from surrounding areas so far! I’m sure there are more of you all out there…please come by and visit. Pam has made some great free T-shirts to advertise our calling…and we have started an ITRT group. Second Life would be a great place to explore together…and meet virtually!

Also, if you have a chance to attend NECC (National Educational Computer Conference) this year, either virtually or in real life, you will notice a Second Life presence. While ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has maintained headquarters on Eduisland for awhile now, their new island has just been finished in time for this event, and I hope it will be packed! I am so bummed that I will not be attending in Atlanta this year, but I will definitely be participating in Second Life…hope to see you there!

If you want to read more about Second Life, check out Tyna Catteneo’s blog!


Posted in Salem City Schools

Thoughts on Improving Student Writing (for Next Year)

Posted on by Tina Coffey

I want to plant a few seeds before you leave on summer vacation…

For those of you looking for ways to improve your students writing skills, I might have a few ideas that will grab your students’ attention.

Publish Your Students’ Writing!

Blog

If your students know that their classmates, their families, and other people around the world will see and comment on their work…suddenly, writing becomes more meaningful than just writing for the teacher. Talk about a GREAT motivator!! And now it’s so easy for your students to publish their work by blogging.

  • Start your own classroom blog project where students can write or comment regularly
  • Find a class “blog buddy” in another place (I know of a few 3rd grade teachers around the country looking to collaborate–see me if you are interested)
  • Have students write about what they are learning across the curriculum!

picture-4.png Blogs are web logs…if you say that quickly, you’ll see where the name came from. Web logs (blogs) are online journals. Click here to see a whole list of elementary school blog examples (from Salem and elsewhere).

Write a Book

Or your students can publish their own books! How cool would it be for your kids to be able to check out books written by their classmates from the school library or purchase a bound copy (or a free download) of a class book online? This is possible!

  • Publish a class book using Lulu (I wrote in detail about this website last month here)

Create Multimedia Projects

Podcasts and Digital Stories

What about using writing to create multimedia productions? Creating movies and podcasts actually covers the entire writing process…and the final product is a lot more exciting than a piece of paper! And it’s very easy to do!

  • Create a digital story using Movie Maker or Photostory
  • Write and produce a podcast

You don’t need to do all these things at once…think about it over the summer, pick an idea, and we can work throughout the year to create wonderful learning opportunity for your students! I’ll be available via email and this blog throughout the summer if you have an idea you’d like to kick around!

Posted in Salem City Schools

What would you like to learn next year?

Posted on by Tina Coffey

The ITRTs are in the process of nailing down a series of in-services for next year.  We plan to offer 20 one hour in-services after school in the same type of format as we’ve done in the past.  Instead of the unscheduled in-service credit, however, we will be offering recertification points.  Here’s your chance to tell us what you would like to learn! Leave me a comment and let me know!