The staff development blog is up again. But please be reminded to email the appropriate ITRT as defined in the each session. Outlook is the only session that your building level ITRT can help you with.

JYMS LIST
jyms-mpc-distribution-autosaved

I express concerns now about there not being many star opportunities after school during the upcoming year.

As requests are now being processed for summer sessions, please take advantage of the offerings.

My plans are to offer a couple of ALL day sessions, two hours each.  I will repeat my Publisher, Blogging, and Internet Safety classes and will add Publisher Part II for those of you that just can’t seem to get your site published!

If there is something that you are interested in learning about, please let me know.

There are plenty of seats left for next week’s techfest4(click TECH FEST for handout) to be held from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Kings Fork Middle School.  And don’t forget about the door prizes!  I think I saw some speaker sets!  Remember there will be like ten different events and every half hour you stay you will get a half point.  So if you can stay for an hour -you can get ONE star point!  Just make sure you get your punch card stamped, signed and turned in before you leave that day.  So even if you can’t stay for the entire time you may be able to get to see the things that you are most interested in! Here is a list - technology-circus - of the people who have signed up so far - maybe you can car pool as well!  Hope to see you there! 

 DON’T FORGET THE STAR POINT DEADLINE IS QUICKLY APPROACHING! — Points run from MARCH TO MARCH! 

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Yes, I love finding all of those wonderful clipart and animations to brighten my posts, but have decided to share the websites with everyone.  Be sure and bookmark them.

http://www.fg-a.com/ | http://www.christmas-graphics-plus.com/ | www.bestanimations.com | www.animationlibrary.com |  http://www.teacherfiles.com/clip_art.htm

Children’s Halloween Jigsaw Puzzles from apples4theteacher

Halloween Games and Activities - Carve a Pumpkin, Math, and More

Hangman | Bug-out | Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt 

More Interactive Fun

MORE Halloween Fun from Surfing the Net With Kids

FreeHalloween (may not work at school)

I presented a PDA on Blogging today and wanted to share images taken with the digital cameras available for checkout in your local library. :)  There is Kaleidoscope, Watercolor, Cartoon, and all kinds of cool borders to enhance your projects.

I was a little rusty using the gallery but all ya gotta do after you create your album is create a new post, and click the last icon on the formatting tool bar, to Add NextGEN Gallery. Be careful where you insert the album (make sure your cursor is where you want the album).  You can easily move it, just pay attention to where you insert it and you will see brackets and GALLERY#.

Totally the coolest piece of technolgy yet! Those wonderful technology folks and ITRT’s have jointly created a universal cart contraining a computer, lcd projector and school pad to interact with the lesson being facilitated.

 Everything is secured and wireless! They even have cool speakers and an extra long cord.

Please consult an Itrt to receive training on the school pad - its great if you like to annotate and walk around the room when you are teaching.

Check out the GALLERY template with the Interactive School Pad software and see your ITRT for lesson ideas and interactive sites.

Your buildings have recently received a wonderful new technology: A universal cart housing a computer, lcd projector, school pad, and speakers!  You know what is even better than that? It’s all bundled together and ready to go! You want more? It’s wireless!

The school pad is a handheld pad that you can annotate on interactively from a website, or any Office document, sort of like a mini smartboard - and mini is the operative word here!

Please mindful not to checkout as just an lcd projector and use it for its intended purpose, the interactive school pad. Let your ITRT train you today!

Wow, this is totally bloggerific and/or blogtastic! The daily reads have really taken off, and I really commend all of you bloggers out there on your successes!

Continue introducing the blogosphere/ blogistan/ blogspace or even blogoverse! in your classrooms by posting reminders. 

Include your link to parents in emails as well as welcoming them to your blogspot!

I can think of so many ways this is working, but most importantly, it’s a different way of doing something!

Some of you are not using the SPELLCHECK feature which is the check-box with the ABC above it.

Please be mindful role models!

This is a very important read for teachers interested in learning more about teens and blogging.

“Helping You Make Informed Reading Decisions :: An initiative by the Public Library Services, NLB ~ Featuring book reviews, librarians’ recommendations, readers’ contributions, and events at public libraries (some call us a Book Blog). We invite readers to post comments or contribute reviews and recommendations.”

Everyone needs a good read now and again.