Heights Technology Blog

Ten classrooms have received Promethean interactive whiteboards and projectors. The teachers from these classes are currently participating in training on the use of the boards. I have established a training wiki site for teachers to share lessons, tips, and problems, which is linked to the techblog. The online site allows those not involved with the face-to-face training access to training resources. We are all very excited to see how the boards affect learning and teaching styles.

I was tagged by Vicky Sedgwick for the Wordle Meme started by Lee Kolbert. Wordle is a Web 2.0 application for generating Word Clouds from text which you provide. Words that appear more frequently in the text are featured larger. I took the challenge and my Wordle appears below.

I can see that the most recent lessons posted on Simple Machines and Weather were featured prominently, as were a few words (authored, hosted) that must appear on the blog somewhere, though not by my hand. I was pleased to see that Use, Using and Create stood out, since that is exactly what I want the students to do- use the computers and create. There is quite a smattering of other words of equal prominence which I hope indicates that I try to give the students a variety of activiites to help integrate the technology into the classroom curriculum.

So with my reflection on the Wordle complete, I would like to tag Mary Ellen Lynch, Sharon Tonner, and JoNelle Gardner.

Here are the directions:
1. Create a Wordle from your blog’s RSS feed.
2. Blog it and describe your reaction. Any surprises?
3. Tag others to do the same.
4. Be sure to link back here and to where you were first tagged.

We now have a Promethean Interactive Whiteboard and projector system in the lab. The whiteboard is connected to the teaching station computer. It allows teachers and students to interact with the board through a stylus, thus controlling the computer from the whiteboard. We were also fortunate to have the PTO purchase a rug for the lab, enabling students to sit on a cozy spot in front of the board.

Students returned to school in August to find brand new iMac computers in the computer lab. The machines have flat screen monitors and built in microphones and cameras. Everyone is anxious to get into the lab and work on the new computers.