Hello everyone!
Quint two is off to an exciting start! As Alicia and I
compiled these items from conversations we’ve had with many of you, and
projects we’re working on we are a tad surprised at how packed this email is.
We hope it’s helpful and please let us know if you have questions
or items to add. Here’s what’s been happening with teaching, learning and
technology here at NWS:
What’s working:
- There is excitement brewing about An Hour of Code - http://csedweek.org/ - happening Dec. 9-15, Ages 6 -106. No math needed. No computers either. Curious? Talk with Cecilia, Alicia or me about more info:
- We have two new Macs in the computer lab. They are shiny and working great.
- Liza Beemster is experimenting with pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/ a visual bookmarking tool that lets you pin images/sites and collect your favourite things on boards. She’s using the new projector and laptop cart in the Drawing Studio to share these images with students.
- In response to the interest in partnering with the ILAE school in Ethiopia around projects in Humanities, we purchased a school-wide license of Voicethread: https://northwestschool.ed.voicethread.com/ Voicethread is a tool for having conversations around media. For instance, upload images, documents or videos and then add commentary about the shared item(s). Voicethread lets you and your students add their own video/audio/text comments and listen to others’ responses. This can be used by any teacher here at school. Please let me or Alicia know if you’d like an account. Keep your eyes peeled for more info – a laptop, lunch and learn is happening this Thursday from 10:40-noon in the Library Reading Room. Please RSVP if you plan to come.
- There’s a new projector in Photolab – it will have interactive whiteboard capabilities, short tutorials for teachers are coming soon.
- COOL – Committee on Online Learning –is off to a busy quint. You’ll hear more about the experimentation with online learning experiences in the coming weeks, but we look forward to hearing preliminary project proposals from all who are interested, curious and eager to experiment. More info to come soon…
What’s wonky:
- Booking computer lab/laptop carts – Useful Subjects - Reminder to put your name, number of machines needed and where you will be (if using a laptop cart). An example: Catherine Seaver – 10 laptops – Chavez
- The two old laptop carts in the upper hall – the lumbering ones from Carson and Fisken – are not to be used. They are full of old laptops that are being refurbished and e-cycled. We’ve just put some clear signs up but just wanted to send a friendly reminder.
What you wish for:
- An explanation of the Snipping Tool – last wired weekday I mentioned this briefly, but didn’t give enough details. The Snipping Tool is available from your Start Menu, under All Programs. Once it loads you’ll notice your screen looks a little faded and your cursor has become a cropping tool. Select the section of your screen you’d like to “snip”. Release the mouse and that image will pop up in a separate window. You can now save this – go to File, Save As – and use it in documents, emails etc. Handy-dandy!
- A tad more info about EOM – this stands for End Of Message and can be used in the Subject line to indicate that the email has no content. This can make email scanning more efficient and hopefully keep emails shorter when necessary.
- A more dynamic classroom in Skylight – the new projector and cart are almost fully functional, just waiting for a document camera, coming soon.
Wildcard:
- There is a video rental store called On 15th Video – at Harrison and 15th – that has free video rentals for classroom use. Enjoy!
- The new laptop cart in the Upper Hall is called Upper COW because it stands for Computers On Wheels – ironically, this laptop cart is agile and small. Quite unlike some other cow-like carts I know…
Thanks so much for reading!
Have a great week,
Catherine and Alicia
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