March 16, 2012

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all the positive feedback around these weekly updates!  It has been so exciting and rewarding to take part in these conversations and be part of your planning.  Thank you!

Here's what's been going on this week.

What's working:
- Francoise has her students writing and filming a French soap opera. They are recording the episodes and after a bit of editing will be posting it online for feedback from their French exchange students.  More to come...

- Cecilia's Physics classes are creating short videos to explain concepts, they've been filming using our Flip Cameras and learning to edit videos using Windows Live Movie Maker - free software that is on all our school PCs. Check out this quick tutorial and more resources on my teacher page: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/cseaver/index.php?section=announcements

- Joe's Connections class is going to explore exactly how and how much they are multi-tasking at home - how much time spent on email, working on homework, texting etc.  This will be a fascinating way to begin thinking about the powerful tools many of them carry in their pockets and how to manage our often distracting but connected lives.  Two great books in our Library about these topics are: "Hamlet's Blackberry:A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age" by William Powers and "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains" by Nicholas Carr.

- Kamimura students are taking part in a Ning community, adding to an online discussion board about their experiences here in Seattle.  http://nwschool.ning.com/


What you're wishing for:
- more headphones - I've ordered 10 more headphones (5 with microphones) that will be available from the AV closet in the library.

- a language lab - many language teachers are struggling with how to use technology to capture and give feedback on student's performance.  One option that has been explored a bit at NWS but could be more useful when supported in an online community is called VoiceThread (group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install): http://voicethread.com/
This wiki for Educators using VoiceThread (lots of examples) could prove useful: http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/

- effective use of Inspiration Software - that lets you create visual representation of ideas/concepts... we are looking into how to make this more available: http://www.inspiration.com/

What's wonky:
-  Audio in Sprinkler classroom - we have been troubleshooting the audio from the SMARTboard in this room this week, the loud static/hum makes it impossible to hear audio from the laptop.  The short-term fix is to unplug the laptop if you want to use audio... and remember to plug it back in again so the laptop will continue to have power.  We are working on a permanent solution.


That's it for this week!
Have a fabulous weekend.  I'm off to a cabin with no internet access... it's all about balance!

All the best,
Catherine