We had nearly 200 pigs on display at the Painted Pig Party. It was a fun time.

Here is a Powerpoint slide show of the pictures from the party. Pig Party Photos

Incase the slide show is difficult to open… here are a few more pictures:

If you are looking for more information or missed a part of today’s Expo, please let one of us know:

Pod Casting – Dan DeSimone

Distance Learning & Video Conferencing – Colleen Zoyhofski (MS Tech TA)

Noodle Tools – Sheryl Diana 

Movie Making – Greg Lloyd (Senior High School Tech TA)

Blogging – Anna Worden (Senior High School Tech TA)

BOCES Services – Brad Malone (BOCES)

Databases/Library Systems – Rachel Axelrod

Student Response Systems – Amy Bray

ELMO Visualizer – Andrea Catena

Air Clicks – Will Davis

Google Earth – Joe Henderson

Free Multimedia Teacher Resources (These were at the individual kiosks)

Authorstream - http://www.authorstream.com – Makes sharing your PowerPoints online easier.

Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net - For sharing presentations on line.

PowerPoint and Interactive Games - http://www.ppst.com – Free presentations in Powerpoint format.

Teacher’s Domain - http://www.teachersdomain.org – Library of free media resources. 

School Tube - http://www.schooltube.com – Media sharing

http://www.taggalaxy.com/

In the Senior High School, Science teacher Matt Chapman has developed a blog for his Environmental Science class. http://rhenvirosci.wordpress.com/ On his blog, students read articles he links or articles he attaches in pdf form. Students then respond in the comments section. The articles are a simple click away for students while reading the week’s post/article. If you look at his first post http://rhenvirosci.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/welcome-to-the-rh-environmental-science-class/, you can see he included a pdf file he uploaded. With WordPress, you can store 3GB of files Free. This can include pdfs, jpgs, and word files to name a few. Imagine, you could include articles for students to read, class outlines, review information, classroom work to share with parents, and what ever your imagination can come up with.

Also in the High School, Charlie Bielinski uses Blogger with his English classes. His blogs are set as private requiring students to be invited to view and participate in the blog.

http://medialit1-2ace.blogspot.com/?zx=86c0f79e3a2f8c58, http://medialit10-11bdf.blogspot.com/?zx=2949ffdbc63c9bde, http://medialit1-2bdf.blogspot.com/?zx=c56cc121f0228c4d, and http://medialit10-11ace.blogspot.com/?zx=441cfe7ad23cfb00. The blog posts/articles are an extension of classroom discussion. His students are required to respond as part of their grade. He wants to encourage students to have out of class discussions. In some cases, students have begun dialogs in their blog comments.

Many classroom blogs ask students to respond to posts. In Matt’s case the first article about climate change was followed by 12 responses from students. If you scroll through, you will see each student responded with several sentences of solid thought. If you wish to have students respond to posts, you can set guidelines for post length and content. In WordPress, from you Dashboard, you will be able to see which students have posted and which have not. Concerned about limiting comments to students? You can set the parameters from your dashboard limiting reading and responses in a variety of ways. Concerned about monitoring student comments? You have the ability to approve, deny or edit any comment made on your blog. WordPress will automatically mark some comments as spam and place it in a convenient spam folder.

There have been growing concerns regarding the use of tech. devices in public such as MP3 players, Ipods, and cell phones. Concerns range from points of basic manners to newly developing situations to issues of safety. As these pieces of tech. become more and more ingrained in our society, how do we determine whether to apply long standing points of etiquette or to acknowledge a significant change in society requiring a complete new look at what is appropriate?

http://blog.classroomteacher.ca/

 http://blog.classroomteacher.ca/wp-content/uploads/ClassroomWebsitesv1-0.pdf

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

Each blog entry asks a question. Students respond in the comments section.

A teacher could create a different page for each book taught/read during the year. On each page, categories for theme, plot, characters, etc can be created. Entries could be made by chapter or page sections then put in each category. Main points can b tagged.

* Notice in the comments under theme there is a long spam comment. Some blog providers now have a spam detection. WordPress will automatically send comments from mass marketing groups to spam.*

Communication with students and parents

 Kangaroo Class – http://mbs6.edublogs.org/

This teacher has her students post about what they are doing in class.

Trip to Greece http://my-ecoach.com/blogs.php?action=view_post&blog=1451&post=3612

This teacher used her blog to communicate with students about her trip to Greece

Discussion Group & Discussion Questions

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=7597

Questions are posted either as an individual current event question or a question about a discussion theme. Students are asked to post a comment. Visitors are also welcome to comment.

http://mrscaldwell0.edublogs.org/ & http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/

This English teacher initially used blogger then changed to edublogs due to a district change. Students respond to posts which are either in the form of questions or ideas to think about. http://mrscaldwell0.edublogs.org/2007/03/05/human-beings/#comments

Classroom Lecture Notes and Follow-up

This biology teacher uses his blog to post the class notes http://ghshonorsbio.blogspot.com/ . Students are welcome to post questions and comments https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19899099&postID=114375041260049316

Additional Blogs to check out…..

Calculus blog http://pc4sw06.blogspot.com/

Mostly math, but a bit of everything http://mhetherington.net/blogs/

A teacher blog that looks at education and technology http://blog.brettmoller.com/

ELA Classroom blog http://middleschoolworld.editme.com/

Classroom blog  http://group4green.wordpress.com/ (Check out how they update the class and parents after a snow day http://group4green.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/very-important-info-for-wednesday-3409/ )

This classroom blog seems to be directed towards parents and other educators http://chascin.edublogs.org/

This 3^rd grade classroom blog shares what is happening in class with parents http://jmyrmel.edublogs.org/

Science blog http://mrmansour.edublogs.org/

An Ohio School system’s classroom blogs http://www.westlake.k12.oh.us/CyberDemons/blogs.htm

What is a Blog?

            A Blog is short for Web Log.

            A Blog is a Reverse Chronological Publishing tool.

How can my students benefit from a blog?

How can I benefit from a blog?

                                    http://www.mcdaniel.edu/6460.htm

How might I use a blog for class?

http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/

Setting up your own blog

            There are several blog providers. The two most common have similar options. Be ware of blog provider are short lived.

                        WordPress – one of the more common blogs

                        Blogger – one of the more common blogs owned by Google

                        Edublogs – blog provider focused on educational purposes

                        Bravenet – http://www.bravenet.com/ – less common provider

Students setting up class use blogs

What are posts?

            Posts are entries including text, links and images which people are able to comment on. They are listed in reverse chronological order.

What are categories?

            Categories are a method of organizing your posts. These can be units, book titles, activities, etc.

What are pages?

            Pages are static, more permanent parts of your blog. These may or may not be able to be commented on.

What are Tags?

            Tags are basically a web 2.0 feature that identifies your post (or picture, or music, etc) with keywords so it can be connected with other similar posts.

            To control the amount of connections you get, keep your tags specific.

Blog safety

            http://www.connectsafely.org/

Etiquette and teacher contract

 http://www.abpc21.org/res/BlogRules_ABittinger.doc

Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration – Department of History at the University of Illinois http://lincoln.history.uiuc.edu/resources/democracy.htm

Lincoln Bicentennial – http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/

The Lincoln Institute – http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/

Lincoln Historical Digitization Project – http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/

Lincoln Studies  http://www.lincolnstudies.com/?p=85 (Blog)

PBS Webisodes http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/guides.html

PBS Lincoln and Reconstruction http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_lincoln.html

Lanesville Community School’s Lincoln Yellow Page http://www.lanesville.k12.in.us/LCSYellowpages/Lincoln/lincoln.htm

Lincoln’s Sword http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4034

LOC’s The Learning Page – Abraham Lincoln http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_lincoln.php

Biography – http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/

George Washington

Papers of George Washington http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/

Biography – http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewashington/

Mount Vernon – http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/meet_george/index.cfm/ss/21/

PBS – Rediscovering George Washington http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/

George Washington: A National Treasure – Smithsonian http://georgewashington.si.edu/

George Washington Papers at the LOC http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html