Tool # 11

What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.
I like the newly discovered app 'CoverItLive' and can see many uses for it in any classroom.

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?

I have thought about some of the tools that I have not used because they are not applicable to the job I have now and will certainly take them to my staff and work with them to add in their classrooms. Of course, my vision has evolved and has become more refined every time I use a new app or application. I see the world through a different set of eyes because many of those 21st Century skills require you to look at things differently or they are not as effective.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I did not expect to disagree with as many of the 'correct' answers on the final assessment as I did. Technology and acquiring 212st Century skills are, in my opinion, not as black and white as the assessment made them to be. i have changed my poiny of view on several topics after researching some of the answers given. That'a a good thing!!!

Tool # 10

All students and even adults should understand a few things about being safe and good digital citizens. It is so easy to take what you find on the web and use it as 'your' work even though it isn't at all. As responsible adults and educators it is our responsibility to let our fellow educators and all students understand how important it is to:

• Never plagarize any work, comments, or images by using them as ours. We need to teach everyone to cite the true authors of any content that is used.
• All students should learn how to be responsible with email, texting and all forms of social media. Our students must understand that what the write, how they write it, and any images they display become part of their own digital record and could cause them problems later on in their careers if they were entered in an irresponsible manner.
• Lastly, every educator and student should understand what online bullying is and how it can effect them and the person[s] it may be directed at. The internet should not be used as a way to 'get even' or to 'get back' at anyone.

All of the students at NMS who take any computer classes will learn about becoming good digital citizens by working through the lessons that are included in BrainPop.

I believe that it is the responsiblitiy of the school to help educate the parents of our students. This can be done easily by sending information home to the parents, contacting them through email or callouts, newsletters, and best of all having parent workshops during the day and at night.

Tool # 9

Technology should always be a seamless part of what is being taught in any classroom so that the students know technology is not just a device that thay can 'play' with but one that helps them learn, produces a product for a specific objective or enables them to understand a concept better.

Students should always be held accountable at every center or station they go to whether it be alone or in a grouping of some sort. Students are kids first and will vere off track if not given a vehicle to keep them honest. They should always be asked in some way [writing or speaking] about what they have learned before they can move on.

I liked Tutpup and MangaHigh the most of the links listed on the tools Blog. I had some trouble getting an account with Tutpup but after a few error messages it worked. This site could be very effective with middle school students since they always enjoy competing against one another which this site is about. This site would be great for a station/center since the group could work together to compete against another or just have a good round of competition within the group itself. MangaHigh has been used in some of our math classrooms and I have noticed that the students like the pace of this site and I think that they enjoy learning and being reinforced by using a website sometimes more than they do with an actual teacher. they can move at their own pace. In both these situations the students could be held accoutable for the usage by printing out history at the end of their session or even using a screenshot with their login as proof. Teachers could also use exit tickets with questons for the students explaining what they worked on.

Ipads and iTouches can be used cameras to document what the students are accomplishing or as QR scanners to find work or other elements that pertain to the station.

Tool # 8

I think that teachers will be able to have many interesting conversations within their classrooms as whole/small groups use their ipads/itouches to research, and use some of the ideas/apps learned in previous tools. These small, yet powerful devices will allow for any classroom to stay up with the technology that our students use in their everyday lives. Many times I have found that the student in our classrooms becomes very bored with the lack of 'everyday' access and learning in a way that suits them best and will turn off whatever is going on in the classroom. Our teachers will have to give up some of their power in the room and allow their students to learn and 'teach' themselves and the new devices will hellp accomplish this.

The devices should be issued to students after they show competence. The teacher could develop their own, or as a department a standardized testing procedure could be developed making sure that all students know how to use the devices within their specific classroom. 

Tool # 7

I have been using 'Coveritlive' on my ipad and iphone since going to the 2012 Model Schools Conference in Orlando this past June.I went to a presentation given by John Kuglin who is an educator that uses and helps others become more technology literate. He also see the future of technology in education.John showed us how Coverit live could be used in a classroom along with 'polleverywhere'. Using Coveritlive and a web cam the Model Schools presentation was available live to anyone and to us in the conference. I can also go back and view that presentaton and others as they were done in SlideRocket. We used PollEverywhere during the conference to get 'live' data from the participants. I think as an administrator the Leadership team could deliver information to the entire staff via the use of Coveritlive, save as SlideRocket presentations and then collect meaningful data using either Coveritlive or PollEverwhere as a determiner of validity or use of the information given. This could also be accomplished in a classroom setting with all students. I plan on trying sending info to staff members using this method during the school year.

Tool # 6

We use Twitter. BlogSpot, WordPress and Diigo to share information within the Leadership Team as well as with the faculty.
Our weekly bulletin  is on WordPress [NMS Principal]
We have a book study that is on Blogspot [Kid Team Book Study]
We use Twitter as a way to get infoand celebrations out quickly wherever we are [Twitter] We are #nmsknights
We use Diigo as described in an earlier tool to share readings that are pertinint to our Leadership Team.

These Tools can easily become a daily part of any classroom. Questions about homework or just questions about the lesson of the day could be asked om twitter or a blog and either the teacher or a student could answer.Students could quickly share thoughts, etc on Twitter or even use TweetDeck to share on multiple tags. the possibilities oere endless. whatevera class can dream one of the tools can be used to help accomplish it.

Tool # 5

I have used both Animoto and Wordle to create different types of product that have been used with our students and teachers as well as in our Leadership team.

An example of Wordle used to motivate students and teachers can be seen every Friday on the backs of our teachers and some students. We designed a Wordle T-shirt that uses words to depict the culture of a Northbrook Knight.

Animoto is used almost daily. We take pictures of athletes, students colaborating, special events, etc and show them to our students as a motivational tool at lunches, faculty meetings etc. One of my favorite animoto projects was done by the Administrators for the faculty luncheon on the last day of school. I took the anomoto and inserted it into iDVD and burned copies for all our teacers as a 'thank you' for all they did during the year.