iPod, uPod, we all want iPods!

I had the opportunity to visit Susan Wells, the principal at Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill yesterday. My principal joined me in the visit allowing for a bit of a different perspective on the iPod's use in the classroom. Upon first talking with Ms. Wells, we were excited about the positive atmosphere she has set up for her school. She shares my philosophy of slowly implementing new ideas with staff before bringing the ideas to the kids. I appreciate her understanding of this and believe it was one of the reasons her implementation of iPods in the school has been so successful.
Culbreth has an ipod cart for every school team and several wireless access points around the building. Upon visiting classes, you'll see students working collaboratively on applications installed on the devices and a new excitement on behalf of the teachers. I was impressed to see how the students were working together and talking about the activities they were doing on the iPods. Not only are these great tools for individual work, but the petite design allows for easy collaboration in small groups.
Upon leaving, my principal and I had to get out the ipod we had and find the apps that related more on a high school level. I was pleasantly surprised at the quantity AND quality of many of the apps out there. We purchased a few and tried a few freebies, mostly in the area of math. I think the interaction that many of the apps have is what makes them a fantastic addition to the classroom. Yes, you can read about theorems and postulates in your book and listen to your teacher talk about them, but being able to actually manipulate them on the ipod is what takes learning up a notch.
This trip has caused us to rethink some things and to consider making iPod touch a tool in our school too. If you haven't explored this option yourself, I would highly encourage it. We both went in a little skeptical but came out totally sold on the idea.

The Zone is Ready-are you?

I am completely amazed at the fact that the teachers at my school can't stop talking about Second Life! I'm all about the "tell a few and let them bring in the others" and it really worked on this one. I started with 1 person that I know is always willing to try anything new that I throw out at her. Then, another came on board and totally wowed me with how quickly she caught on. Now? We have a building called the NCHS Learning Zone, we held our first meet and greet last Thursday and we have over 20 teachers using Second Life. To put the cherry on top, every last person on my administrative team (of 6) has an avatar!
The day after the meet and greet, you could feel the excitement. Everyone that attended kept talking about their experience and teachers that are normally not interested in technology were asking how they could get involved. I must admit, though, that I'm a little surprised. I did not expect this level of enthusiasm right off the bat. It took me 2 weeks to totally figure out the clothing and I had two people make clothes (something I've not tried yet) within the first few days of having an avatar! They're picking it up quickly and I've found that many teachers have been in-world quite a bit this weekend!
There are, however, a few concerns about the social aspect of it. It's exciting, it's new and they want to play with it. Everyone is at the goofy phase right now where dancing and being silly is the norm (as it is for many just getting started in SL).
Soon, I'll be holding a learning session in SL which should be about the time they're over the social aspect and ready to consider the options for work. We all have to play with the dances and gestures at first, but eventually, the funniness wears off and one realizes that it is a great resource for the classroom.
In the meantime, we are putting together a list of second life tips for keeping teachers safe. I"ll post them once they are complete, but would love to hear anyone's thoughts if you're willing to share.

Great Games for the SMART Board

Jeopardy Templates created by JeopardyLabs
This is a long list of templates for use in K-12 Education. Jeopardy Labs has created a simplified version of jeopardy that is easy to use, quick to set up and great for many disciplines. I always encourage teachers to look for things that are already done-no need to spend lots of time doing it yourself!
These templates start by asking you how many teams you have, then you are taken to the game board where you select what category the student would like to answer. If the student answers correctly, a click of a mouse will tally the scores for you!

P. Twitty

I recently did a Personal Learning Network session with my administrators. We talked about twitter and Second Life mostly because those are the two that everyone is talking about a lot right now. I also believe that twitter is great for administrators with a small, precious amount of time because it's quick, short and to the point.
Through the course of preparing for the workshop and in the week after, I've noticed twitter in the news and on TV quite a bit! The latest mention of it was on the Ellen show yesterday. P. Diddy was a guest and I was quite surprised when I liked the way he explained what twitter is and how it is used. Take a look at this clip from the show.