November TIS Report

I continued to learn about an use the responders in class. I still need work on using the MOBI. Started sending out responder and MOBi tip to the other teachers. I did have some teachers tell me the tips were helpful. I am learning more about the outdoor electronic sign and have been putting up more messages with different effects. I still can't get pictures on the sign. I have been working on loading a virtual business software on the computers in the laptop cart. I am also putting PhotoStory3 and MovieMaker on the computers. The students are not allow to use the computers since we still do not have deep freeze for the laptops. I have contacted the board office about the problem but might as well have talked to the wall. I have assisted teachers with Edline problems and help them find files on the jump drives. I started attending webinars on teaching Sports Marketing. They will pick back up in January. I have made several suggestions to administration about showing teachers how they can use technology (Edline) on our collaborative Wednesdays. So far there has been no response to my suggestions. I feel like we are in a holding pattern. Our computer lab is old! We have newer computers that were donated to the school but the lab has not been changed out yet. We started a new GED program and they use the lab in the afternoon. Several computers have been torn-up.

October Post

The main thing that I was involved with was the IPI (Instructional Practices Inventory) course with Dr. Jerry Valentine. This allowed me to take a test to determine whether I could be certified as a data compiler, observer or qualify to be a trainer. This is a teacher driven program where brief walkthroughs are conducted multiple times a day in all of the classes in the school. The main focus of these observations is to gauge student engagement on the IPI scale and using this as a starting point for discussions about making students active participants in their education as opposed to passive observers.

The next thing that I did that focused on technology was a multiple day workshop on PBL’s. This training focused on ways to incorporate technology into my curriculum and develop units or lesson plans that keep students motivated, engaged and excited.

Nov. Tech Report

Webinars, webinars, webinars...I completed a webinar on balanced science programs and "attended" a Virtual Tech Forum. The Tech Forum was set up like a conference, with sessions, virtual vendor area and chat sessions. It was one of the best and most interesting webinars/webcasts I have ever participated in. The three sessions I completed were High School 2.0: Talking Change for Today and Tomorrow, Cells in the Classroom: From Banning to Embracing and Internet 2 and High-Bandwidth Connectivity: How and Why to Jump on Board. I shared information from all these session with our director, especially about bandwidth. We have serious lack of bandwidth issues now that our Welding and Building Construction labs are use ToolingU and our Automotive lab is using Today’s Class.

October post

During the month of October, I was busy learning many new technology things. The first thing I did was to attend with my CTE Director WorkKeys certification training at WVUP at Parkersburg. We attended a one day training session for the online portion of the WorkKeys test. I am now a certified proctor for both the paper and pencil and the online portion of the WorkKeys test. Two days after that I went to the state DECA advisors academy and became certified to be a DECA advisor. Even though the main emphasis was not on technology, we discussed many ways in which to implement technology in Business and Marketing classes and ways in which technology is used at the competition level. For example, students create electronic portfolios to be used at the state competition. The following two school days I was a member of our school leadership team that attended the regional High Schools That Work data workshop at Lakeview in Morgantown. Technology use in the classroom was definitely a major topic in our sharing sessions there. The technology focus team at our school hosted a MOBI training for teachers at our school during October with Mike Semones from eInstruction. I finally installed my software and am now able to use my classroom set of MOBIs, and they are now ready to let other teachers use them also. I then attended an afternoon training session at Job Force in Morgantown on KeyTrain with my CTE Director. We are now able to set up our students accounts for KeyTrain online. We have given all of our completers and many other juniors and seniors the Quick Guide pretest. Now they are able to do their assignments online either at school or at home. I helped teachers get all of their students through the first round of Acuity benchmark testing, and we are now preparing for the second round. Marian Covey, coordinator for WV HSTW came to our school and helped our leadership team, of which I am a member, get all of our teachers through their online survey. We are now preparing for our technical appraisal visit, and I was asked to go on a technical appraisal visit to another school in February. If you have never done this before, it is a good way to get lots of good ideas (especially in the area of technology). I don't think I could fit any more into a month!

October Blog Report

What technology activities was I involved in during the month of October?
· I attended WVEIS ON THE WEB Train the Trainer Workshop
· Meet with County Technicians about mobile lab problems and updates.
· Did technology orders for Elmos and software.
· Meet with RESA Technology Specialist and had refresher training on MOBIS and clickers.
· Set up trainings for teachers for MOBIS, clickers, and Whiteboards.
· Updated T-drive (teacher resource drive on network I created)

What technology activities did I share with my students?
· Meet with TECHIE Team every Thursday morning. Techies are assigned teachers to assist with technology maintenance and other technology needs.
· Worked with students on WV Writes Program.
· Helped 6th graders and new students utilize our online grading program—SnapGrades.
· Students utilized Quia.com and Actden.com for class activities and tutorials.

Other CTE educators?
· Loaded software and updated computers for various teachers.
· Set up access email and SnapGrades
· Gave an in-service on WOW (WVEIS on the Web)
· Troubleshooted the Distance Learning Lab and various teacher laptops.
· Created a Technology Newsletter which will be updated once every month to our school webpage.
· Created a list of students without Internet access—school newsletter and technology newsletter will be emailed monthly. Students without Internet access at home will receive a hard copy.

November Blog Report

What technology activities was I involved in during the month of November?
· Presented a workshop to our feeder area elementary school on WOW, Quia, and SnapGrades.
· Added student pictures to our online grading program—SnapGrades. Teachers can no see a picture of the student for use during team meetings or class. They also can create seating charts using student pictures.
· Updated teacher computers, added Mozilla FireFox for use with WV Writes program.
· Troubleshooted various teacher computers.
· Assisted new teachers with WOW and inputting grades.
· Updated T-drive (teacher resource drive on network I created)

What technology activities did I share with my students?
· Worked with students on WV Writes program
· Meet with Techie Team every Thursday. Taught them how to download spyware and Malwarebytes programs to help clean up computers.
· Students viewed and Audacity tutorial and worked with Audacity to merge music and recorded voice.
· Students learned to work with online yearbook program.
· Students worked with Windows Movie Maker to create movies for their Power Point presentations and the school webpage.
· Students used Wordle to create an “All About Me” piece of art.


Other CTE educators?
· Assisted teachers in locating curriculum resource sites to be used in the classroom.
· Demonstrated how to use whiteboards.
· Worked with teachers on the class web pages.