Sue+McClellan

 I attempted to view the information, tools, ideas, and gadgets from 3 different angles:

· as a teacher of GIS, AP Human Geography and ESL looking for more ways to utilize tools we already have access to in creative, stimulating, innovative ways; to engage students and equip them with skills they will need in the near future · as a member of the Social Studies department with excellent TAKS scores proving student & teacher performance however “bored” students · as a member of a district excited about moving teachers and students further into the 21st Century with confidence and strength

The ESRI booth offered specific information regarding the updates needed on the GIS systems already on my computers. I will do this myself and be in touch with Danny Stott if I hit a block of any kind. **GEOTECH 2010 is coming March 4-6 at Bishop Dunne Catholic School – an excellent opportunity to gain more ideas of relevant projects for GIS students.** ([|www.bdhs.org.geotech]). My GIS students will be participating in a “citizen science” measurement of light pollution. Environmental studies analyzed through GIS are available to my students now and I will continue with this theme now that they are past the beginning stages of the course. **“Field trips” on foot** to local parks with camera and our GPS units will be included. Visiting the Black Board vendor sites offered many new ideas for uses of this tool. Nothing further is needed for teachers to collaborate, store shared documents and student work – just need to play with it and use it! There needs to be some training on Scholar – and an understanding that the **social networking** through this part of Blackboard is “customized for education” – to share and learn through each other’s discoveries and not open to the public if this is a fear. **Student tracking devises**, offered through companies such as PlascoTrac, takes the attendance, assigns Saturday school for tardiness, and is automated with the student ID badge. The student is shown in the building, but this is an “at the school door” system, not “in the classroom.” Other tools already available to teachers and students that just need approval, or testing first then approval, include **Facebook set up for the classrooms**. Parents and students can ask question, engage in conversations on a set theme or topic, and use this as more than a posting board of information, but also a partnership between school, home, and students with the communication device of students choice. **Twitter in class** with tweets every 10 minutes by students with new info they just figured out, read, found, or discovered will keep them engaged. **A robust bandwidth** will be needed with postings of student made videos on **YouTube or Teacher Tube.** **Collaborative communities** are possible on **NINGS,** but also on **Blackboard**. Free coded, private space to ask questions, a poll, and display immediately as social data to be graphed or charted is through **EDMONDO**. All these items have been teacher tested and recommended in a great seminar by the Birdville ISD. This is teaching authentic and relative concepts to the students in modern and cutting edge technology. **Google** is our friend. I will explore even more of the new tools Google has out, **timeline** creations, **Blogger** sites, and the ability to hold student documents (as does Blackboard) so no matter which computer they are on: Mom’s, Dad’s, or the school’s, they can access their work and continue! “**Cloud computing” –** but I need to practice this first….. The maps through **Google maps** are excellent tools for Geography, ESL, and history students. Not only will students work with distances, cardinal directions, latitude and longitude, but concepts of sprawl, urban planning, primate cities, megalopolis, agricultural areas shrinking, desertification, etc. I am very excited about this and can see extensions into **Google Earth** to show the physical geography, not just maps. I would like to create plans for the district to incorporate these tools available to EVERY computer in the district for free. This links to cross curriculum with English classes, ESL exercises of math, environmental science classes with changes to the coast, impact of hurricanes Katrina, river and marsh changes, and on and on. This can be embedded into websites, blogs, Blackboard, or Facebook for sharing with other students. I really want to find ways to exchange ideas with the international community and I bet there are many RISD employees with family connections around the world. I would love a way for those of us WITH that connection to ask those on foreign soil to get in touch with a school, and if they are in agreement, allow online chat, Skype, or exchange of Facebook information – the old fashioned pen pal, however we won’t tell anyone that is what they are doing!! Instead it will be an exchange of learning, critiquing papers, sharing information/art/music/worlds. There are many tools available free online such as [|www.wallwisher.com] that I have already implemented in my classes. This wall that teachers create allows student access through a coded url then space for students to place a “sticky note” of brief information that all their classmates can view and add their own “sticky note” to. I’ve used this with vocabulary webbing and the students stumbled with the url but vast majority played well. They had to link their vocab word to another’s vocab word. Students cannot move sticky notes except their own. Finished product is a wall of notes grouped by relationship within the unit of study. Feel free to view: @http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/smaphug Glogster is an online “poster” with collaborative possibilities. I will try this with my class next week, again with vocab words. Students create their own display of what this word means, does, looks and smells like, video may be added, pictures added, decorations plentiful. Other things to consider: **IPod Touch….** **WorldandISchool.com** – information resource database with Spanish, ESL weekly programs, museum links of art and media…… [|www.WorldandISchool.com] $399 per campus/$339 by 3/31/2010 Cross Curriculum resource on vibrant online site 
 * Online etiquette** is a necessity to first bring all students in line with the do’s and don’ts of online practices. Think before you post something: "who is my audience and who will possibly view this?" Taking these steps before introducing online activities will hopefully keep us all safe. No postings of ….a long list will follow, however can be done easily and smartly with examples.
 * Games to create on Power Point** for middle school kids seemed very applicable to ESL students and will be done. One seminar I attended taught **“5 pictures and a Story”** that is PERFECT for ESL students. I’ll write about this practice and share it with Susan Forbes. No new product needed for this.