Chromebook: First Impression

I signed up as an accessibility tester for the new Google Chromebook.  I was really excited (probably more than I should be, honestly) to get an email yesterday saying that I'd been accepted into the program.  And for those reading this blog for the first time, I'm excited for a number of reasons: I'm a special education teacher for students with autism, and also teach a self-contained history class, and assist in a team taught (special education/regular education pair teaching) history class.  I also believe in using technology in my classroom, and this gives us another tool to try!  At the very least, we can use it for some of the web creation that we do, like Animoto and Blogging (we use edublogs, because its easier for me to keep track of what the students are doing).  I'm also looking forward to trying out the Read & Write extension for Google Drive since we use RWG in our school district for accessibility.

OK...  back to the first impression...

The machine arrived this afternoon, which was really a surprise because I only received a ship notice 3 hours before FedEx showed up at my door!  Good thing I was home, because it needed to be signed for and I didn't relish a drive out to the nearest FedEx overnight ship terminal (Alexandria, VA!).

The cat was, of course, very interested in the box.  He loves technology, and remains a die-hard iPad fan because it responds to his paws as well as my hands.  

Once I opened the box, the directions were right there for me to find...  Except they were in Braille!  A friend helped me find this: Braille Translator site once I connected the Chromebook to the Internet.

Good thing I found English and German directions right under it (and Spanish, French, along with several other languages!).  It turned out that I didn't need them though...

I took the machine out of the box and was very surprised at how light it was.  I actually think its lighter than my iPad with its protective case.  Its certainly lighter than my Sony Vaio S series (I love it, BTW) which weighs about 6 pounds with the add-on battery.  The downside is that the machine feels more fragile, and I'm a little worried about how it will hold up in my classroom.  Most of my students aren't unnecessarily rough with anything, and we often use my iPad without its protective case (I have to take the case off to hook the iPad to our interactive whiteboard; the dongle doesn't fit with the case on) to play group games or practice in my social skills class.  But, we have had a few accidents this year which have involved a broken digital camera and a dropped whiteboard stylus.

The Chromebook does not have a port that will allow me to hook it to the whiteboard in the classroom.

I tried out Chromevox, and was fairly pleased with it.  Mind now, I'm not blind, and I have no reading disability.  I'll have to ask some students to try out the feature and see if they also find it acceptable.  I am thinking they might not because it reads EVERYTHING, including hyphens and "end parenthesis".  However, I will leave it up to them to decide.  I don't think it will be too hard to get them to use it, because they generally like anything new and shiny.  

I have discovered that PowerPoint slides don't transfer as well to Google Drive, but I'll explore a bit more and see if that improves.

The battery life is advertised at 6 hours, which isn't bad for a laptop, although my Sony is 14 hours with the sheet battery, and 5-7 hours without depending on the settings.  The battery life may have something to do with the screen.  The screen resolution, frankly, was amazing.  It is REALLY sharp.  Again, sharper than my Sony. I didn't realize that the screen resolutions had advanced so much in the 2 years I'd owned my Sony.

I believe the Chromebook will fit in the old iPad zippercase I have, which is nice.  The only reason I don't bring my laptop to school with me more often is because I am not supposed to lift more than 15 pounds: the backpack with the laptop (6 pounds with the sheet battery, give or take a pound), plus the iPad and assorted  school supplies is over 15 pounds.  And the wheeled backpack I bought is a pain in the rear.  Yes, I bring the iPad to school with the laptop because in my team classes, one of my jobs is to make a set of notes for students who have trouble copying from the board.  I can stand in the classroom or move around with the iPad, and cannot do that with the laptop.  However, I can't access the school grading system (web based) or our IEP writing system on the iPad.  I will be testing those out; allegedly both work in Chrome because the district installed that on the desktop machines just after winter break.  

As a side note, I wasn't able to find a Skype client for the Chromebook, and I already know that the Red Cross web-based applications won't work in Chrome.  I've been told the latter by other Red Cross volunteers.  I'm hoping there is a Skype client, because I use that regularly for another group I volunteer with.

For now, this is enough...  

3D Game Lab: Mechanics of Game Based Learning

How might a teacher apply even ONE characteristic of games and game environments (choice, progress bars, etc.) to a typical unit or module of instruction?

As I've gone forward with this, albeit with much frustration on my part, I have thought about how to gamify my classroom in a better fashion. I already do some choice in the classroom, but I think I am going to add more options via a project selection board. I will give the students options on how they can show me what they have learned, including the option to take a test.

I will do this at the start of each unit using a choice board model, and I think I can streamline a lot of the activities including taking a test using various online options. We'll see how this works: it might allow me to do what I love about teaching, which is encouraging the students to be engaged and exploratory while minimizing the amount of time students spend stuffed into chairs and taking notes while I lecture. I hate that version of the classroom even more than I hate all the paperwork that goes along with teaching.

(The above picture is a sample choice board for a math unit from http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com)

The Sims 2: In MY Classroom?

I teach high school students with a wide-range of special needs from learning disabilities to autism. I've used RollerCoaster Tycoon in all its variations (we're using Gold/Platinum editions of version 3 right now) for several years in many ways. I make my own materials for the RCT units, including tutorials that the students have to go through before they can actually start the project. The students also get rubrics and have checkpoints where they have to show progress; at the end they fill out a reflection paper and do a presentation. My students have enjoyed it, and started campaigning to get me to use the Sims for the next project. I was hesitant---we have 3 laptops, so the students have to work in groups of 2 or 3, and the laptops can't connect to the school network for Internet access. Price is always a factor, so we definitely won't be using Sims 3. I've purchased Sims 2 to try out.
If I do wind up creating a unit based around the software, I will be shuffling groups (I do each quarter anyway), and I will be making each student responsible for a specific section of the tutorials. All students will fill in all questions, but each packet will have a letter or number that codes to questions they are required to do. I think this might prevent some of the "lazy man" I see, and the lack of actual team work in some groups. I know there are some this won't help, but we'll see if this is a step in the right direction.
Now to see if the download code has shown up and to begin the search for materials...

Reading for Information: Amusement Parks & Board Games

The 2nd quarter project for Basic Skills involves a reincarnation of my amusement park unit. Instead of a PowerPoint project, the students have to create a game board based on the amusement park they've chosen and researched. You can find the worksheets here, and some of them are fillable and savable in Adobe Reader.

The groups also have to create an amusement park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. We have several licenses of the software installed on laptops we received 2 years ago from Best Buy's Te@ch grant program. A note: If you own the original copy of RCT 3, you cannot purchase the expansion packs for the water parks or zoo. The expansion packs do not install properly. We had to purchase RCT 3: Gold, and RCT 3: Platinum. The Gold & Platinum versions install and run well.

At the wiki link above, you can find tutorial worksheets for RCT 3. I did not make the worksheets fillable, because it would be too hard to fill them out on the laptop while engaging in the software. The tutorials for RCT 3 require significant reading ability, which is something that most of my students have this year, but if your students do not have a 4-6th grade reading ability, you would be better off doing the tutorials as a group. You can do this by hooking a laptop to a TV with an S-Video output, an interactive whiteboard (if you're lucky enough to have one!), or an LCD Projector to a screen. I plan to give the game a shot on our interactive whiteboard, just because it seems like a really cool way to play.

The worksheets also include a rubric for the amusement parks, and the game boards. I allowed the students to choose the kind of game; many chose a Monopoly-style game, although 2 groups chose PowerPoint games: Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The last thing that is now available is a PowerPoint webquest for students to complete. The new version has added questions, and a box at the bottom of the page to put the link where they find the picture or text. It also has a project reflection sheet included. My students will likely be using this for their mid-term exams if I can get laptops.

Commerical Advertising-Classroom 2.0 Style!

Over the last few weeks, my students and I have been closely examining both television commercials, and print ads. The students have used a form for responding to the commercials they have viewed, and also to print ads. You can find all of the materials for the project (and as fillable/saveable PDFs, no less!)here.
The final project for the unit has the students inventing a product (they can use a basic one already created, a soda perhaps, but there must be something unique about their item) and then using Animoto to create a commercial. Animoto does have educational accounts available so you can use the full site without paying.

We started off with each student individually watching commercials and using the television response sheet. All of the commercials are from YouTube, and I downloaded them ahead of time to avoid school computer issues. I found a variety of old and new commercials. After that, in groups, students used computers to examine print advertisements with a response worksheet. The print ads were mostly from Flickr's Creative Commons.

Students have truly been engaged in the project: the group work has been amazing, and the discussions have ranged from defending a choice of product, and to how things have changed in TV & print ads since the students were children, and since the teachers were children. One group has decided their product is "flavored air"... how often do you get that kind of creativity?

What I Learned...

If I had to sum up what I discovered while reading teacher blogs, and really, other blogs, is that blogging isn't always easy. Its hard to keep it fresh and interesting. If you do not post often, people won't read your blog. In fact, they make become actively annoyed if it isn't updated regularly.
I see the lack of updating often on other Red Cross chapter blogs, and when we started blogging for the chapter, I had to promise our Chapter Exec that we would have at least one post per week. In the beginning, it was a struggle... My partner and I have a list of "back up blogs" should there be a week when nothing is happening at the chapter. The topics are like our very first blog post which was an "interview" with the chapter and include ideas like favorite disaster books or movies, disaster foods, etc. The same is true of Twitter: I try very hard to tweet at least one update daily from the chapter's account.
Last week, we used mobile Read/Write Web tools to post about our trip to Kings Dominion. Every hour or so, I used TwitPic to send a picture taken with my cell phone's camera... the links to the photos were posted to Twitter & our Facebook status. I was truly surprised at the number of comments we received when I got home later. People really wanted to see this stuff!!!
I must admit that I'm having trouble coming up with a specific unit, mostly because I know that I can't blog with my students... I'm thinking about doing something with community service/service learning, maybe. I know I want to encourage writing, but beyond that? I don't know.

Grant Equipment

At long last, we can use the technology that we received with the Best Buy Grant! Oh, we have been using it, but its been a piece at a time, and not the whole class/group engagement I had been hoping to see. Without an easy way to move the equipment around, and no place to leave it set up permanently, I had to get creative. After much discussion and angst on my part, I finally chose 2 different duffel bags on wheels, and our library-media specialist helped measure the equipment. We bought a red luggage duffel on wheels, and 3 permanent laptop sleeves (they stay on the computers). Two of the laptops live in the bottom "drop" of the bag, with our 4 digital cameras (also in previously purchased padded cases). The main compartment has our wireless printer/scanner and the 3rd laptop. The outer zipper pockets have all the cords for the equipment, and all the media (DVDs, USB flash). Other pockets store printer ink, mice, and digital audio recorders.
So far, so good. The bag is heavy, but the students are very careful with it, and it seems to be working. The best part was that once the students could see the equipment, and see the student who had been using items earlier they gained enthusiasm! I went from grumbling and growling over the current project, and a number of students not wanting to use technology to do the assignment to 100% using technology and true excitement.

This I Believe

At the beginning of the school year, I was looking for some engaging writing projects (that use technology, of course!) with my students. I found "This I Believe". It is a program from National Public Radio that encourages people to write about their beliefs. There are many samples posted on their website, and a curriculum for using it in the classroom. I decided to have my students write an essay on what they believe in, and then create a presentation. I left the parameters open because I hadn't taught most of these students before, and I didn't want to scare them off... !
When we started, I read them several essays about things that people believed in, and this was also when we did the goal setting & vocabulary wordle activities. I also found a few videos that fit the format of the program.
All of my students have now finished the essay, and several are nearly finished with their multimedia presentations.

Tar Heel Reader

Several weeks ago, I finally got around to asking for a password to create books in Tar Heel Reader. I received the little push I needed from the teachers that I've been writing grants with, because they thought it might be a good activity to add to the project for at least one of the grants we submitted. I created one book, and a student in one of the reading classes has been slowly working on a book of his own. I can't get the Flash version of the book to embed, but I'll try again later.
And here are some directions that I made with screen shots. The screen shots are small,because I didn't want to go put it on too many pieces of paper when printed.

My next plans are to do a book about the Red Cross, and to have the students make a few.

Masters of Disaster Adaptations

For those who heard about the MoD adaptations that were created by myself & the Loudoun County, Virginia Red Cross can look here for the Intellitools Classroom Suite files. The first module, Disaster Safety & Preparedness are available here.
Please note: The current Classroom Suite files are in Version 3. They are compatible for version 4, but once saved in version 4 they will no longer work in version 3. I hope to have time this summer to port the older activities to Version 4 over the summer as well as create the activities for the Fire Safety module.

If you are interested in print activities, and can provide proof that you have purchased a kit (or several kits) for either your chapter or schools & other groups in your area, I'm happy to email you the PDF files. If you would prefer to receive a CD of the print activities along with the IntelliTools activities, please contact me. There will likely be a minimal cost for the purchase of CDs and shipping.
I'm choosing to require proof of purchase for the paper activities in order to protect the copyright on the MoD kit. Groups that use the computer-based activities will typically have students that cannot access the print kit at all and so need more assistance to get this important information to their students & clients.

I would also like to thank the parents who previewed the activities for me before they were released, IntelliTools, Inc. for hosting the files in their activity exchange, and Mayer-Johnson, Inc. for allowing us to use the Boardmaker-PCS symbols in the activities without charge.

Technology Updates

Well, I've certainly been remiss in posting lately! This isn't to say that there aren't very cool technology things going on, but maybe that there are too many really cool technology things going on?

The students just finished their Trip Planning projects. Lessons that I've learned from this? Assign a date for the travel, and the amount of money they have to spend. Don't ask them to find prices for one-way fares, because most of the travel websites default to round-trip, and the frustration isn't worth it. If you need one way, divide the round trip price by 2. Remember that if your students choose a country that doesn't speak English, you will have to find menus they can read so they can plan their meals... The same holds true is they pick a place that isn't using the US Dollar as their currency, because this will make their numbers seem incorrect. And lastly, make sure that they know WHERE they are going... Is it Paris, France, or Paris, Texas? No, its NOT Paris Hilton! And we're not visiting the new Hooter's Bar & Casino in Las Vegas, either!

In the middle of this, we took a break to make brownies for the community service club's Concession Stand sales. You'll find the brownie video here....



My group, the girl's Lacrosse team, and our Band & Chorus groups sold pizza, snacks, soda and baked goods when our school hosted the Odyssey of the Mind competition in April. This was the statewide tournament, and I'm pleased to say that after all the bills were paid, we cleared $450! That's not bad for 6 hours (not counting all the time we spent baking!). Some of the money was used as a donation from the club to the local March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon, and some for our upcoming trip. This year, we were able to give the March of Dimes nearly $200 between walk pledges, selling awareness ribbon keychains, and the concession sale stands. We also had 12 walkers on the day of the event, despite the nasty weather.
We also managed to raise enough money for 2 students to go to the National Youth Institute Conference in St. Louis at the end of this month!

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 & Camtasia

Back in November, TechSmith was offering Camtasia 3.3 to teachers for free. Unfortunately, the offer is no longer available. I see lots of possibilities for Camtasia, though I could wish it was just a little easier to use. I think one of my problems is that I have a wide screen laptop, so when the software tries to set a region automatically, the measurements are off.
I then used Camtasia to record my screen while I played with RCT 3. I've never been really happy with the tutorials in the software, because they are very limiting, and in this version, require a lot of text to be read. It is hard to go back if you miss something, and there is no audio. In the past, I've tried to record the action on the screen using an S-Video hook-up to a TV with VCR, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. I was able to produce a basic video that shows how to place a "ready made" ride, and some facilities. The version here is of low quality so it won't take forever to load: the original is 1 GB without audio. I just figured out how to do the audio, and so will probably try that next. Now, if only getting RCT 3 learned was that easy; as with the other versions, the thing I find hardest is placing the paths.

Amusement Parks

Somewhere around 1999-2000, a video game called RollerCoaster Tycoon showed up. I remember first seeing it at an "educational" toy store that sold mostly videos and computer software. I purchased a copy, but found it too slow and too difficult for the students I had at that time to use. A year or so later, and I find myself covering for the 7/8th grade science teacher at my middle school who is on maternity leave. It was after state testing, and the 8th graders were antsy. In a few weeks, they were going on the annual trip to Six Flags for Physics in the Park, so I thought having them explore the science behind the rides might grab their attention. It did... We had two different software packages, a roller coaster simulator, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I was surprised at some of the work that was turned in, and ultimately turned in the unit plan as the subject aligned lesson plan that my school required. Fast forward another year, and I was teaching technology education. On a cart. In 2 buildings. I decided to have the students do a unit using the software, and purchased 5 licenses of RollerCoaster Tycoon II. I created tutorials for the software, purchased several videos that showcased both the science around the rides, and why people went to the amusement parks. The students also had to create a PowerPoint presentation about a theme park they chose to research. Overall, the project was a huge success, and one group of students had the opportunity to present their projects at a student technology conference. Since that point, I have done at least one part of the project (usually the PowerPoint) with my students each year. The class is currently completing a webquest to find different things about amusement parks on-line, which we will turn into a simple slide show. Then, students will work on the research for an amusement park they've chosen (this year's parks are: Dollywood, King's Dominion, Six Flags, and Walt Disney World), and finish by creating parks in RollerCoaster Tycoon.
We'll be using 2 versions of the software: RCT II, and RCT III. For II, we have both expansion packs, and for RCT III, we have the waterpark expansion. Both groups of students have tried out RCT II on our older laptop, and we'll be doing RCT III together since it is only available on my laptop. I'll post a few of the files over on the wiki, feel free to take a look and/or use. The files that I've posted tutorials and such for are older versions and all matched to RCT II. I hope to get things created for RCT III soon.
Check out another post (in a few days) on an idea I had for making the tutorials more accessible to my students...

Google My Maps

One of the last of my projects for my graduate class is a group work on a Google Tool. Each group had to choose any Google Tool, explore how to use it, and then come up with ways to use it in the classroom. My group is rather diverse: myself, a special education teacher, a librarian at an inner city school, and a guitar/history teacher in Southern Maryland. Given our unique make-up, it was a little tough to find a tool we would all benefit from... And then, somebody posted a website that was created to explore the assigned challenge of telling the same story 50 different ways. The website included a story that used Google's My Maps. I was convinced this was it, and fortunately, the others in the group agreed! I've spent the last few days learning how to create my own maps. The first one is rather dull, being just a list of places that I've visited over the years; the only interesting bits there are the few sites I included articles on, or photographs. But, my second map is far more exciting (at least to me!), and shows pictures of my trip to Seattle. I used the hybrid settings on My Maps to create a tour of Seattle using the pictures I took, and some wikipedia articles. I was even able to find a YouTube video about the Pigs On Parade. I can just imagine how this could help my students see and learn about places in the United States, or other countries. It gives the hook to get their interest, but also teaches to their strengths by providing visual and kinesthetic opportunities. My only issues are that, as near as I can tell, the Map program doesn't work with assistive technology such as screen readers, and text-to-speech, and I didn't really see a way to add a caption to photos I embedded. It is also rather time consuming to pull all the media files and articles onto the map. I think that for some large units, its worth the effort. It would certainly be a good project for students to complete to show off what they've learned. Here is a quick video about how to make a Google My Map of your own:

Connecting Outside the Classroom

In a previous post, I shared that I was an active volunteer for Red Cross Disaster Services. I have always, in some way, involved my school & my students in that part of my life which takes place outside of school hours and the building. Last year, my students worked at the local chapter one day a week, mostly doing office tasks, but also getting involved with disaster services. All of my students formed a good working relationship with the staff at the chapter, especially with our disaster services staff member. The students that I have this year ask about the people at the chapter frequently. This has also led to more awareness of what is going on and how those events can change lives. So, it was really no surprise today when they asked me whether or not anybody from our chapter was in San Diego. One student asked me if I were going to go (even though he knows I won't go during the school year, he always asks!). After we talked about people we knew who were going out there with the Red Cross (only one from our local chapter, but there were several from other area chapters), we looked at the KPBS Google Map. We counted the number of shelters, and talked about how wildfires spread. We figured out about how far our classroom was from San Diego, and we talked about things that we can do to make a difference (that was our classroom theme last year; this year's theme seems to be "Sharing Who We Are", which also lends itself nicely to community involvement!).
We definitely did not get any work done on Bread All Around Us, even though my students made sure tell me that they knew the Red Cross was giving out bread... But, for today, my students were connected with the millions of other people who are looking at the fire coverage and they were able to get, understand and share information at a level that allowed them to comprehend what was happening. Amazing, truly...

Google Images to the Rescue

I think I may have mentioned that my class is learning about the foods of different cultures. Today, as we were taking notes, we reached the part about yeast making bread rise through leavening. At this point, I think I made the mistake of trying to help the students understand how bread rises by asking them if they knew about carbonation One of my students throws her hand in the air, and says, "Oh! Yes! I know that bread has carbonation because its on the back of the label!" It was extremely difficult to keep a straight face, and I'm afraid to admit that I didn't manage it very well. It took lots of explaining with pictures at Google images, plus shaking up some left over diet soda in a bottle before they understood that carbohydrates and carbonation were different! But, I know that every time I look at the nutrition label on food packages, I'll think "carbonation" instead of "carbohydrate"!
I've put a few of the supporting files for the first part of this project. In fact, the project now has a name thanks to one of my students: Bread All Around Us.

AAC Awareness Poems

A few days ago, Samuel Sennott posted a request to the QIAT listserv with an idea about creating "electronic" poems in PowerPoint, IntelliTools Classroom Suite, Clicker or another similar program. The idea was to choose a public domain poem available from Project Gutenberg or Google's Public Domain books, and illustrate it using pictures from Flickr's Creative Commons.
A truly intriguing idea, at least to me... so I signed up. I created two poems, both by Robert Louis Stevenson, and from his A Child's Garden of Verses. I grew up with a battered copy of that book covered in some kind of red fabric, so reading it again to choose poems was like visiting an old friend. Here are the two I made:




And, I discovered that I liked the idea so much, I wanted to try it with my students. For those that have been reading this, you'll know that we participated in the Salute to Seuss project from Jen Wagner, and created People Poems AKA 'To Think I Met Them On Park View Street'. This project seemed a perfect way to wrap up our unit on Poetry before moving forward... We did not use public domain poetry, instead we used classic Shel Silverstein (students chose: Sick, Eighteen Flavors, and Dancing Pants), and one Robert Frost (a rather ghoulish poem about a boy who gets his hand cut off). I've posted the student checklists and rubrics on my wiki here

Integrating Web 2.0

We are starting the school year doing the Geography of the United States. One reason for this was to do some cross-themed programming with our English units for the Salute to Seuss project, but another reason was to give the students plenty of opportunity to explore what blogs were and how they were used.
We have a clustrmap on our classroom blog page, and we also have a huge US map hanging on our bulletin board. We're using Avery's 1/4" clear, removable dots to track people who visit our blog. We're not changing sizes or colors the way Clustrmaps does. At some point, we might add a world map to the bulletin board, but for now, I think the US Map is a good way to start.
This unit is also giving me the opportunity to help my students understand time differences, and learn a little about other places in the United States. We're starting with the West Coast, because of my trip to Redmond in about a week. As I mentioned in the last blog, I've left work for my students to do that relates to my trip. I've also promised to post pictures and details. I will actually post pictures and details here as well, although the classroom blog will have top priority for me.
In any case, if you're interested in looking at one of the activities the students will do while I'm gone, you can go over to my wiki and find this activity: Track A Flight.

Low-Tech & Simple

I've always wanted a word-wall in my classroom for my students to refer to, in order to make them more independent. This way, they can check the word-wall for spelling before they ask me. The problem has always been organization, coordination, and space. I know that there are a few other special education teachers at my school who would also like vocabulary walls, but because they travel from room to room, they would need words for each room they were in OR a way to quickly pull down and hang up a set.
Enter: Magnet sheets! Woo hoo! I've been looking at these in Staples for years, and trying to find a way to use them for something. Staples, and other office supply stores, along with Borders, are my preferred shopping locations! I love colored pens, too. ;)
Anyway, I used my favorite label template in Microsoft Word. Using a 2x4 shipping label template, I can make 10 vocabulary magnets per sheet, and 50 per package. The package of magnet sheets was about $12 from Staples, but I did find it cheaper at some other on-line stores. I was able to use a nice font at about 36-40 point, and include a picture of the word to help with comprehension, and with the visual learners who remember pictures better than words. And, of course, you could make the magnet any size you want up to 8.5 x 11. It worked really well, and should be fairly portable. I'm thinking that teachers that move classrooms could store them in a coupon box or index card box sorted by letter (or topic). Hanging back up again could be part of a drill/bell-ringer activity for a lot of different concepts: alphabetizing, categorizing, synonym/antonym, etc. Here's a picture of the one in my classroom:

New School Year Update

I worked this morning with my supervising principal, and the Dean of our special education department to get my schedule straight. I will be doing the Precision Teaching gig half time (3 periods per cycle; 2 on one day, and 1 on another). I have one block of Functional Academics the last period of the day every other day.
That left 3 periods... Imagine my surprise when my principal said that he, our Dean, and head principal were thinking about having me create materials and work with other teachers to integrate technology within the special education department!! I will get to spend one block, every other day, doing that exact thing.
I think it was here a few days ago (or not, as I don't see it) that I said that I didn't know of any jobs that would let me work with students, give me time to create materials, and attend conferences. I am totally happy to settle for 2 out of 3 of those, especially since I will get to attend a conference this year!
I am already looking at ways to make this work... I had thought about working with our AT person on another grant opportunity, as well as submitting a continuation grant (This Is My Life: Kicked Up!) to the Loudoun Educational Foundation (LEF). LEF was the organization that provided the grant for our digital camera project (This Is My Life: Using Digital Media To Increase Literacy Skills) in the 2006-2007 school year. We haven't decided yet, but we're looking at either podcasting or video as the addition to the project this year.
I've also been talking about my own ideas for this year, and some of the other teachers were interested.
One of the goals for my school this year is to increase the use of data collection to determine outcomes for students. I think that we could make our lives a little easier for some types of data collection if we use Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis and photo sharing. The students could respond to various prompts in blogs, thus allowing us to collect running writing samples for the whole year. They could post materials created on their wiki, and demonstrate all kinds of skills this way, and with photo sharing. Teachers benefit, because they could literally look at student work ANYWHERE, and not have to lug home 80 folders full of writing.
We may also use a wiki and blog to communicate information about Key Club to members. I offered to give space over at my classroom blog, and also on the classroom wiki.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we have received all the information from Microsoft for the Innovative Teacher Forums. I just set up my personal space on the Forum, and linked back here, and to my professional wiki.