What Will You Learn this Summer?

Hey Folks,

The end of the school year is approaching.  This year seems to have "flown" by!  After you have slept in late for a few days, what are your plans for the rest of the summer?  I hope that you will consider reserving some time to learn something "new" in the area of technology over the summer.  Here's several ways that you can do that:

If you are a Twitter user, you might want to check out some of these "hashtags" to follow to gather new ideas.  CybraryMan has the best collection of educational groups/people to follow.  Here's the link: http://cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html (also check out the rest of his website--great resources).

SimpleK12 has some awesome 30-minute webinars scheduled for the summer.  The membership fee is somewhere around $200 per person, but they offer lots of free sessions, too.  One June 3, there will be several 30-minute sessions on "Tools for Student Projects".  Also, June 5th, sessions will be on "assessment", and July 2nd will cover the topic of "bullying".  Here's the website:  http://community.simplek12.com and click on "webinars".  Look around the website and you might find even more free resources.  Our very own Melissa Mann from Madison County Elementary presents online for SimpleK12 about Special Ed and technology, iPads, etc.  Great service!  More webinars will be posted as the summer goes by.  Go back to this website again to check those dates/topics.

Dr. Janet Slaughter from Central Office Assessment Dept. created a Symbaloo (icon enhanced website) with some great Common Core (College & Career Ready) resources.  Summer would be a great time to investigate some of these resources.  Here's the website: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/janetslaughter.

Two conferences that might be of interest to you--for more technology "knowledge".  Alabama Educational Technology Conference (AETC) will be in Birmingham on June 10-12.  The website is http://alex.state.al.us/aetc/.  You can still register onsite.

Also, Madison County Schools is once again sponsoring the North Alabama Technology Conference (NATC).  Those dates are July 23 & 24.  The conference is located at Hazel Green High School and price is $30.  To see workshop listing and also to register, go to this website:  http://goo.gl/qrBFQ.  Registration closes June 3rd.

I'm sure there are many more opportunities for professional growth that will be available to you.  Please feel free to share those with me.

Til Next Time (and Happy Mother's Day) . . .

Vickey

Technology Conference Registration Open Til June 3rd

Hey Folks,

Just a reminder to register for the North Alabama Technology Conference.  Several workshops are almost full!  Don't want you to miss out on some great technology professional development.

Here's the link to register:   http://goo.gl/qrBFQ.  Cost is only $30!  That's a great deal!

Registration closes on June 3rd.

Til Next Time . . .

Vickey

I Choose "C"

 

Hey folks!

Last week, someone shared with me the video at the following link about Common Core.  It's hilarious!  Thought you would enjoy it this week (especially since so many of you are testing).  Thanks to Jane Scott of Legacy for sharing!  It's called "I Choose C".  Great insight for Common Core (or College and Career Readiness).

Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2mRM4i6tY

Enjoy your day!  Til Next Time . . .

Vickey

Testing Photo

Hey Folks!

Happy Friday!  Couldn't resist posting this picture today.  Thinking about all the testing currently underway and those end of year tests coming up.  I knew you needed a laugh!  (thanks Lori Alexander for sharing via Facebook)

Have a great weekend!

Til next time . . .

Vickey

Phone Camera Uses

This morning I opened an email that linked to a blog posting that shared 10 Everyday Uses for Your Phone’s Camera.  The post has some great suggestions for using your phone's camera and I wanted to share these with you.  Great ideas!  These came from a resource I had suggested to you earlier this year--gcflearnfree.org.  Hope you enjoy reading this blog post:  http://blog.gcflearnfree.org/2013/05/02/10-everyday-uses-for-your-phones-camera/

Have a great day!

Til next time . . .

Vickey

North Alabama Technology Conference

Hey Folks,

The 2013 edition of the North Alabama Technology Conference will be held on July 23 & 24, 2013, at Hazel Green High School.  Registration is now open.  Here's the link:  http://goo.gl/qrBFQ

Lots of workshops and concurrent sessions to meet the needs of beginners to advanced users.  Check out the .pdf documents of workshops and concurrent sessions at the link above.

There will also be an administrator strand with a local PLU available for Madison County administrators (other school system administrators will need to contact your PD person for permission to use this training as a PLU).

Hope you will plan to attend.  Can't beat the price ($30) for such great professional development, food, networking with educators, and opportunities to win great door prizes!

Hope to see you this summer!

Til next time . . .

Vickey

eLearning Alabama course

During the last few weeks, I have been taking an online course through eLearning Alabama (http://elearning.alsde.edu/)  called Developing and Growing Personal Learning Networks for School Leaders.  We have learned various ways to stay in touch with professionals, our peers, other educators, and the school community via podcasting, blogging, Twitter, and other social media resources.  I found that I am already doing a lot of the things mentioned in this course, but just not on a consistent basis. 

Plan of Action:  After taking this class, I am going to strive to become more regular in my blogging efforts with at least one post each week, get my ideas for podcasts "off paper" and "onto the internet"--I want to do a short podcast showing how to use one of the technology tools that I post in my blog, and become more vocal with my Twitter "tweets"--I follow several people, but I never post anything myself, so I am going to start re-tweeting things that I think teachers in my school system would like to read about. 

I really did enjoy the online course and encourage you to check out future courses. The website is listed above.