My thanks to Christine Southard who shared this mid-year check-up via plurk. Christine is a fellow DEN Star in my Personal Learning Network (PLN). For those of you who don’t know, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. I maintained my membership in the CEC while I worked in educational diagnostics when I lived in New York.
The CEC maitains a blog for first year teachers, and while I would like to direct this post to the many new teachers that I am working with, the information is truly applicable to all. Their recent post “Your Mid-year Check-Up” includes some questions that you might want to consider. Now is certainly a great time to assess the physical, academic, and social environments in your classroom. It is also a good time to take stock of how you are coping with what life looks like right now. Sometimes we need to make changes mid-year to avoid burnout.
My personal learning network has lots of different sources. A TRT in Kentucky shared a link to an online booklet on how teachers could help children of military cope with the changes surrounding deployment. Given our population, i thought this would be great to share with you all: An educator’s guide to working with military kids
Everyone knows I am a fan of Sci Fi. If I could, I would watch Science Fiction all day every day. Back in my college days I actually watched 17 episodes of Star Trek a week. I love Star Trek especially the original, because the episodes always made some social commentary. So I was quite pleasantly suprised when I was searching Slideshare the other day and found a presentation on lessons learned from one of my favorite shows of all time.
Many of you are aware that there have been many changes to United Streaming in the past year. I’ll list them here in case you have not noticed:
They have changed their name. This was Discovery Education’s way to bring uniformity to all of their new products. So United Streaming is now DE Streaming (Discovery Education Streaming).
PPS has changed our method of access. Last school year if you were on the PPS network and navigated to the DE Streaming site, you were automattically logged in. We are no longer doing that in order to allow teachers access to the DE Streaming teacher tools while on the network.
We’ve scheduled lots of professional developmnent on use of the DE Streaming teacher tools because they are absolutely fabulous, fun and free. So we need to use them.
DE Streaming has created a student center with lots of classroom application that is due to roll out in the spring.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because DE Streaming is about to roll out another batch of changes while we are on break. As a DEN (Discovery Educator Network) STAR Educator I get updates about changes and promotions that Discovery Education is planning. The last few updates have included an invitation to a webinar about the changes that will be made in late December. Deloris and I attended this afternoon. They will be changing the login page to one that is very customizeable. They will be adding new search perameters as well. The other changes won’t effect most users. If the changes throw you for a loop, let me know.
Wow. There are lots of things going on to prepare us for tomorrow. Last week I did more training then I thought it was possible to squeeze into a week - we trainined all of the paraprofessionals to use Kisdpiration 3, I helped introduce the “Cookie Unit” for 6th grade English, we trained all of the teachers at the “New” Park View, and I did overvew sessions on www.thinkfinity.org at Wellness Day. I got email from some of you asking where I was and when would I be at the buildings…I’ve got training with the TRts this week, so I’m afraid I won’t be at the buildings until next week.
In the meantime, I have a couple of back to school things for you:
Teachnology has started doing YouTube videos for teachers. Here’s something on student motivation that you might want to consider as you gear up for the new year:
Have a great start to the new year, and I’ll be coming by as soon as I can.
I don’t know how many times in the last week someone has asked me “Did you get my email?” Most of you know I spend close to 12 hours a day at a computer (10 hours at work and a few hours at home). I check my PPS email several times a day. If you’ve sent an email to me and enough time has passed for you to wonder if I have received it… chances are I have already responded.
Email is an automatic service. Unless there is a severe network failure or crash, I will receive any email sent to me on the PPS network within 2-3 minutes. While PPS only requires staff members to check email daily, as a member of IT, I check much more frequently. As a matter of fact, I am more likely to email someone than I am to call.
So check your email before you ask if I’ve received yours…’cause the question might really be “Did you read my response?”
Obe Hostetter from Rockingham just sent the TRTs across the state a list of tips for home computers. He thought that we should share them with our teachers so…here you go…Protect your computer.
I got an email from the VA ITRT Listserv. One of the points that was addressed was on copyright. I thought I should share the wealth:
Under the Copyright Act, there is nothing more intriguing and exciting for educators than Fair Use. Fair Use is the concept that if you are doing something for the greater good of society, like teaching, then your needs supersede the ownership rights of the copyright holder under the Copyright Act. Teachers, and by association, students, can legally use music, websites, video, print, images, and the whole realm of copyrighted materials for the purposes of teaching. This series, called, “Copyright for Educators,” is designed to help educators learn about Fair Use and what they can and can’t do within the category of, “Teaching” in the Copyright Act.
I have been getting ready for the teachers to come back most of the summer. This is the last week teachers have to get ready for the kids. Remember the Harry Wong book on the first days of school? I found a summary online that I thought I could share with you:
My thanks to Christine Southard who shared this mid-year check-up via plurk. Christine is a fellow DEN Star in my Personal Learning Network (PLN). For those of you who don’t know, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. I maintained my membership in the CEC while I worked in educational diagnostics when I lived in New York. 
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