This Week at Village 1.9.15

Hi Village Friends,

It’s been busy this first week back at Village. I am excited that 2015 has started with such enthusiasm and excitement! Here is quick look at some of the technology happenings this week:

• Special area teachers met to discuss blogs and Google drive. Look for some amazing content from Art, Spanish, PE, Music, the Media Center and World Language!
• Karen Stroczynski and Alisha Tricarico’s 4th graders presented their Glogs convincing colonial settlers to move to their colonies; my sights are set on Maryland!
• Karen Orlovsky discovered a wonderful site http://powermylearning.org/ a " FREE Platform for Driving Personalized Instruction and Self-Directed Learning: Activities in All K-12 Subjects, Aligned to the Common Core."
• Karen Cane discovered and shared a wonderful symbaloo web mix containing virtual tours and field trips. It was the week of the Karens!
• Classroom teachers continue to focus on their blogs; let me know if you need assistance!
• I held a morning share on Glogster. With a schedule conflict, you may have missed it. Please let me know if you would like me to help your students set up their accounts or want to plan a project. Check out the Glog I created about Village!
• Dana Kercheval and Alyssa Petrino used a wonderful site to graph data in science.
• Eileen Beam explored digital bibliography options. Here is a link to the doc I created. 
• Mariel Richter and I participated in a Twitter chat/book club for the book Teach Like a Pirate. Ask her about her pirate inspired lesson and look for a picture of Lisa Bremer on Twitter under the hash tag #tlap
• Annie Rosenberg had me in to discuss online etiquette with Edmodo book clubs.

I know there is much that I missed. But I look forward to showcasing the amazing things happening at Village. Here are some of the things I am working on next week:

• Pearson/Envision
• Blogger/blogs
• Glogster (let me know if you would be interested in a repeat share after school).
• Dan Gallagher and I will be working on the Village iPad cart
• Mystery Hangouts
• Virtual Debates
• Twitter

Please let me know if you would like to be included in any of these endeavors or if you have any projects you would like me to help you with. 

Finally, the tech department has created a Tweet 10 - 5 Day Challenge!  Participating in this challenge is optional, but will help you become more familiar with Twitter.  Each day’s activity will take less than 10 minutes. At the end of the challenge, there are digital badges and/or stickers for all who participate.

The challenge will be sent out this coming Monday morning, so if you haven’t signed up for Twitter, you still have this weekend to register! Let me know if you want any assistance getting set up.  (There are also Twitter resources in our shared Resources folder in Google Drive-the link is included in my signature.)

This challenge is for all staff, included administrators!  

All K-8 educators in our district have been challenged. 

Let’s show them what being part of the PACK means!