NCTIES Tweets

Saw the following "finds" on Twitter from folks attending here:  Here is a list of all the tweets from people attending the conference who made comments and ended their tweet with #ncties...Cool stuff!   All I did was go to Twitter.com, and searched for any tweets that referred to ncties by searching with "#ncties"

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23ncties


Here are some highlights:

Great Resource for Going Global With Elementary Kids http://bit.ly/cHykR9

plugusin: Still my favorite find from yesterday's #ncties session is this site sharing strange maps: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

melissathibault: RT @kellyhines: #ncties Copyright free music to use in your classroom, correlated to NCSCOS http://www.iamlodge.com/beans/

jordanpgarrett: RT @drjohnhadley: RT @kellyhines: RT @deenawarwick @jdornberg: hope you'll look at my wiki
http://bit.ly/67OaHW
 for interactive math websites #ncties #edm310

misstizzy: Check today's #ncties update on the wiki pics included. http://2010ncties.pbworks.com/

Leslie Fisher's Favorite Web 2.0 Websites

The following are some of the web 2.0 tools that Leslie Fisher highlighted in her talk at NC Ties...I took these notes live so they are a bit stream of consciousness :)

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/
If used effectively is a great tool
Need to have two twitter accounts--one professional, one as a teacher.

lesliefisher.com

twitter.comlesliefisher

Some ideas:

Twitter feed going to a website...just for sports scores for example/ could put on front page of your website
with a widget

Teachers could have a homework twitter feed by using a # mark at the end of each tweet, and then searching for those tweets; for example students could all tweet the answers to a question posted by the teacher and typing something like #tjms at the end of their tweet

twitter.com/goodiess
Create a profile widget
search widget
select "profle widget"
put in your profile name
will give you the code to put in the webpage
you can then customize it

Tweetdeck is Free..
allows you to customize your columns (maybe 5 favorite friends)

Hash tag ncties--see all the tweets from just nctries

Facebook:

Can now choose who sees your posts!  Parents who think they are seeing all their children's "stuff" no longer true!---People can lead a double life

Google calendar ROCKS

can make several different calendars
Could use it for meeting rooms,  can setup with user groups
can embed on a webpage too

Google Maps:

for events--Leslie showed us fire tracking in CA
can save on your google account

Google Web Forms

Through google docs
Create new form
choose theme
Ask a Question...

bit.ly  (  http://bit.ly/ ) the link last forever

paste in any long url and shorten

creates a spreadsheet of the responses along with charts

You can embed into a webpage

You can get a email response

Used for book reports to send into teachers...

"EVERNOTE"  also ROCKS!

evernote.com

took pictures of her cooking instructions from her frozen dinners and uploaded to evernote

can make the folder public

Google wave:

dubbed as the facebook and twitter killer (not so much at this point)

Designed so that you can "ride the wave of information"...can add people to the wave as you go
You can share all kinds of apps
Problem is.... it is really "sloppy looking"
it's too convoluted
People are not feeling the love for it...

Etherpad:

etherpad.com/ncties2

Allows simaltaneous chatting
good news--cool product
import /export a doc
saves revisions
time slider--will play through the pad as it was developed and save it at any point...

Google bought it...may integrate into google wave

for 15 users and under...


Google "sites"  have taken an interesting turn

They have templates,  new page automaticall adds to a page on the side

Google voice:  you are given a phone number

set up phone and gives you voicemail and sms

Set up a friends group and can set certain phone to ring

generates a text of voice mail messages

completely free

google.com/voice

add yourself to the beta version

Jott
is an 800 phone number  pay for service...call in lists of things to do

list of lists they need to make

listen to voice, and

SMUGMUG

photo sharing site (pay for)
there is a shopping cart for downlaoding prints
They have a non-profit and get a reduced account. 

ustream.tv
Allows you to stream a live on-line

NCTIES

Heading to Raleigh and the North Carolina Technology (NCTIES) Conference

http://2010ncties.pbworks.com/

http://ncties.org/

http://wsfcs.pbworks.com/

http://wsfcs.pbworks.com/NCTIES-2009

Driving Directions >>
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/maps/directions/RDUMC

--
JDD

Teacher Morale

I am going to deviate from my usual "Tech Tips" to discuss an issue about which I feel strongly.  "Teacher morale" came up as an item agenda at our School Improvement Team meeting yesterday, and the minute I saw it, I thought to myself "OH NO,  here we go again!"

I have sat on our school improvement team (SIT) longer than anyone else at my school because as the full-time technology facilitator, I am a sitting SIT member.  As a result, I have served on SIT for 11 years now.  At this stage in my career, I am getting to the point where I have "seen it all before":  "teacher morale, should homework not turned in be marked as zeroes?; Should students be allowed to wear flip flops?; a variety of discipline issues, gum chewing, students using cell phones", etc, etc...  After so many years, these "critical issues" start to blurr into one murky memory.  I often say to myself: "Come on people, it's just Middle School!"

Anyway, Teacher morale has come up on several occassions in the past, so I know for certain that this is not a new issue.  Sure, there are differences in administation & faculty, but overall the same types of concerns rear their ugly head from time to time.  What's in the background of this current malaise?  It is afterall the middle of winter, and it has been a long one for us in the South East; we may have post holiday/winter blahs.  In addition, we are just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnell of a severe recession.  So, there is definitely context for this current feeling of unease. 

And by the way, Dictionary.com defines morale as "the state of the spirits of a person or group as exhibited by confidence, cheerfulness, discipline, and willingness to perform assigned tasks."

As a professional and a teacher, I love the fact that our job is one of the few where we still have a degree of autonomy.  I personally don't feel like I need anyone to tell me what to do. I need guidance now and again, but I pretty much know what I am supposed to do, and I do it.  I also don't feel like I need recognition.  It's just not in my nature.  So for me, my spirits are kept high by the good feelings I get from doing my job well, and the occassional positive feedback I receive from helping students/teachers.  If you want recognition and feedback,  why not start a blog? A blog will immediately make you feel recognized and you will know that someone out there is listening!

So why the low morale mantra here?  Certainly there are "issues" at our school, but are they any worse than other schools?  I don't think so.  Part of the problem maybe the fact that teachers by their nature seem to enjoy complaining, and when several do this (mostly about small issues) simaltaneously, it becomes a trend and spreads like a virus.  These problems are not significant ones if all of us simply focused on the following:  look on the bright side, offer solutions instead of more problems, and stop whining...

Having said all that, I'm sure there are things we can do to improve the morale at our school.  Listening to one another and communicating more effectively might be a good start.  Recongnizing our accomplishements as Mr. Martin does in his blog each week is also helpful. And finally, I suggest sucking it up and being grateful for the wondeful school we have!

I recently read a blog about school leadership and encouraging morale at schools--It reviews three simple things that school leaders should keep in mind. And again, don't forget--we are the leaders! Don't wait for others to lead you. Be a leader yourself. If our principal has allowed you to be a leader, he  has given you a gift and not told you to be a sheep!

I think we all must step up to the leadership plate and take responsibility for perceived problems at our school. Another resource comes to mind.  it is a book called Learning By Heart, by Roland Barth, and it is about taking on shared leadership roles in a school.  It would definitely be worth a read especially for those who don't naturally view themselves as potential leaders in the school..  Here is a review of it.

One last thing...We all should put "the situation" at our school in perspective.  Everything is relative. People in the corporate world are really hurting right now.  I have a friend who works for a large corporation in Charlotte and his main job lately has been to make lists of people to lay-off. He just had to put a friend/neighbor on one of those lists because that employee had received a B- on a recent evaluation. The guy had never received a poor rating before in his career, and yet he is being laid off... Imagine the morale in an organization like that...?  Be thankful, be positive, and push out the negativity!

Survey Monkey

This year, TJMS used an on-line survey tool called Survey Monkey ( http://www.surveymonkey.com/ ) to poll our students about bullying.  We used a professional version which allowed us to survey up to 1000 students.  After the survey was completed, we downgraded to the free version.  The professional version was approximately $20 per month.  The free version comes with the following features:

The Basic subscription is completely free!  I signed up for a generic one called tjmswsnc, and you are welcome to try it.  If you would like to try and log-in under that account, e-mail me and I will send you the password.  Otherwise, it's very easy to sign-up for your own account!

Your surveys don't expire if you choose to never upgrade. They don't delete surveys or responses if you choose to stay as Basic.  You can create and administer as many surveys as you want for as long as you want! They are stored indefinitely.

Features of the Basic/Free subscription:

Allows up to 10 questions per survey
*100 responses per survey (Upgrade to Pro in order to view additional responses.)
Choose from 15 available question types
Collect responses via weblink
Collect responses via email
View live results as they are recorded
Supports any language, including Unicode
Survey completion progress bar
Automatic numbering for pages/questions
15 pre-built survey themes
Validate/require survey responses
Randomize/sort answer choices
Up to 3 Collectors per survey
Create unlimited number of surveys
Accessible and 508 compliant and certified surveys

The professional version comes with the following packages:

They offer the following subscription packages for Professional accounts:


Pro Monthly: $19.95 (month to month) x 1000 free responses every monthly billing cycle. Responses over the 1000 are charged $.05 every cycle.
Pro Quarterly: $59.85 (covers 3 months) x 1000 free responses every monthly billing cycle. Responses over the 1000 are charged $.05 every cycle.
Unlimited Annual: $200 (covers 12 months) x unlimited survey responses at no additional charge.

Have fun with some surveys!  You could do survey's/quizzes for students too!

Movie Clips On-line

I came across the following site (on twitter) for showing clips from movies.  There are so many good clips available on this site-- clips that you probably won't find on You tube:

http://movieclips.com/

I set up an account for TJMS:  user name:  tjmswsnc,  password:  3500sallykirk

Here's a review of the site:

http://mashable.com/2009/12/03/movieclips/

Hula is another site but hulu is more geared toward TV show clips:

http://www.hulu.com/


Watch and Embed documentaries for free...
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/browse/a-z/

Alert Now Message Playback

Have you ever received one of those Alert Now Phone calls but got interrupted or accidentally hung up on it? If you still want to hear it, now you have a place to go on-line and listen to it.


Go to one of the links below, put in the phone number that you received the Alert Now call, and it should generate a list of phone messages that were sent out during the last 15 days.

Here is the direct link to the Alert now message replay site:

https://www.alertnowmessage.com/

Otherwise, if you don't remember that website, you can go to the WS/FCS website, ( http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/) and click on the alert now message replay picture.

Or, on our TJMS website ( http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/jeffersonms) there is a link at the top left that says "Alert Now Phone calls"...

Hope this resource is helpful to you!