tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6513886032323456962011-07-30T15:37:06.429-07:00Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.comBlogger661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-54410681354334216672009-12-03T05:30:00.000-08:002009-12-06T11:39:51.946-08:00

Please update your reader.  You can now find me at http://ejulez.blogspot.com/  I will no longer be posting to mrslachance.blogspot.com

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-52449013580134205762009-11-12T06:23:00.000-08:002009-11-12T06:28:31.016-08:00

I attended the ISTE Eduverse talk last night titled "All Technology Uses are NOT Created Equal: Accelerating High-Yielding Practices" with Bernajean Porter.  The information presented is near and dear to my heart and was shared in such a great way that I am excited to share it with everyone around me.  One of the things that Bernajean mentioned during her interview was that when teachers are

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-86470817284618342612009-10-18T12:04:00.000-07:002009-10-26T11:34:32.311-07:00

Upon entering Second Life, I had plans to only use it for attending workshops. I hadn't even considered the virtual world could have other things to offer, so I spent the first few months learning everything I could about education and how it is being done in Second Life. After those few months, however, I noticed something changing. I noticed that I was gaining more confidence in myself by

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-5719960929392229562009-10-07T17:45:00.001-07:002009-10-08T14:25:28.398-07:00

Over the course of the last couple of days, I have had a few different conversations about how computers are used to help us in our daily lives. The first conversation started with a workshop I was doing on PLN's where we were talking about twitter and all the great things social networking has to offer. During that workshop, I had a veteran teacher say that she has a hard time seeing computers

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-33262056309556507152009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:002009-10-10T17:53:46.323-07:00

I'm reading Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind right now in conjunction with some leadership materials here and there. While reading the chapter on symphony, a quote caught my eye:"all aspects of well-being, including physical, environmental, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health.....contribute to the healing of ourselves and our planet"Within the same page of that quote, I found this

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-10947018014328650412009-09-25T16:50:00.000-07:002009-10-02T11:08:53.705-07:00

As I have become more involved with twitter, I have discovered a need to explore more tools for managing my tweets. I used twitter for months using the web based version, but it got really annoying having to go to the website and refresh all the time as I started following more and more people. That prompted me to explore tweetdeck and twhirl. At that time, I probably was following more people

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-68475603673543030552009-09-08T12:33:00.000-07:002009-09-22T16:44:46.199-07:00

It's been a while since I did an update on the happenings of Julie Sugarplum, my Second Life Avatar. Lately, she has been working with a lot of people new to Second Life to help guide them through the learning process (how to walk, talk and dress). Seems this is a peak time for new recruits as there are many just starting college courses that are either totally or partially held in Second Life.

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-25651655326671335762009-08-18T19:12:00.000-07:002009-08-20T15:35:24.600-07:00

I've had a strong focus on leadership in my personal and professional growth plan lately. This all started with discovering a book in my garage from one of my husband's classes (Building the Bridge as You Walk On It by Robert E. Quinn). Since this discovery, I've poured myself into learning all I can about leadership and how it is playing a role in how I move forward in my life and my career.

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-26341837353446650522009-08-17T05:18:00.000-07:002009-08-17T06:40:20.833-07:00

Cabarrus County Schools in NC recently wrapped up the technology camp we hold in the summers for teachers. It's a two day event and this year we had 450 registered attendees. (Follow camp tweets at #ccstech) The camp is not only a great professional opportunity for teachers, but also for the technology facilitators in our county that are responsible for most of the presentations throughout the

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-9977207450174373692009-08-01T11:25:00.000-07:002009-08-02T06:08:28.567-07:00

Due to some waxing issues and not being able to get into the other labs at my school, I was able to hold the first workshop in the iLab on Thursday! Luckily, Mo Hax stopped by the day before and offered to help set up all of the computers or I'm not sure what I would have done. There were still boxes all around and the place was a mess, but we made it work! The workshop I held was on

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-426490266923817602009-07-30T11:21:00.000-07:002009-07-31T09:19:24.490-07:00

I had the opportunity to present at the leadership camp for administrators in our county this week. All school and district level administrators were asked to come to the week-long camp to learn about leadership, procedures and, of course, technology! I was asked to present 3 sessions on iPods and Podcasting. I took enough iPods for everyone and also borrowed a Macbook cart so we could use

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-16490174199988505152009-07-23T11:19:00.000-07:002009-07-23T11:38:02.357-07:00

I have been working for almost a year now on this new lab at my school and today it all started to come together. SMART Board installers and table installers are here today. I am so excited to see it finally start to look like a computer lab!I scheduled my first training in the lab for August 3rd (mostly because I knew I'd be pushing to get it all done and wanted to have a date so people

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-67706091053226794602009-07-19T13:01:00.000-07:002009-07-19T14:03:47.823-07:00

I encourage anyone that is, or works with, a technology facilitator to take a look at the Tech & Learning article, "The Five Essentials of Technology Facilitators: Successful On-Site Help for Technology Integration". It was written by Cheryl Whitfield back in 2005, so it is a little older, but I like the view of the position that it gives the reader.According to the article, there are five

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-38073523193404141702009-07-18T19:28:00.000-07:002009-07-18T19:38:01.374-07:00

Worked with Mo Hax on this video in preparation for some upcoming workshops we're doing on Second Life. Our plan is to use this as an intro to our presentation to give them just a little view of Second Life before we get into the details of how it is used and what it can do for teachers and students.Our first presentation is a full day where we'll take the learners through detailed information

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-10455252929759374662009-07-18T19:20:00.000-07:002009-07-18T19:28:38.260-07:00

I have been thinking for some time now that I want to remove my last name from my username. As I'm getting more followers on twitter and here on my blog, I figured I had better do it now or accept it forever. So, yesterday I made the switch. My new username is ejulez. I'm very excited about the change and look forward to being able to use it in some projects I am working on currently. For a

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-55461485588271200892009-07-06T07:18:00.000-07:002009-07-06T07:48:56.339-07:00

The tables for the new lab arrived last week and today I went in to place them so the electrical poles could be installed. Got a few of the first pictures as well, so wanted to share those with everyone.Wasn't able to coordinate table installers and electrical folks, so we had to lay the table tops on the floor so the poles could be placed in the correct spot. We found that the tables were a

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-77949316325141807602009-07-03T05:26:00.001-07:002009-07-12T10:17:28.914-07:00

Recently attended NECC in Washington D.C. and had some great experiences there that I'll outline in another blog soon. This one is dedicated to the thoughts and feelings I took away from the trip and how I grew a little more as a leader while I was gone for those 5 days.The BackgroundA few months ago, thanks to my awesome experiences at NCTIES, my life turned into a whirlwind of uncertainty and

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-47758294016510493262009-07-01T14:30:00.000-07:002009-07-03T12:32:16.638-07:00

Had the wonderful opportunity to attend the National Educators Computing Conference this week. My original plan was to blog every day, but I tell you, it was busy. I barely had time to tweet! So, my plan is to sum it all up in one post without making it too long and boring!Keep in mind, this post will not all be about learning. I like to talk about a little of everything including the

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-44418848517575873112009-06-22T17:57:00.000-07:002009-06-22T18:18:27.377-07:00

With the help of Newton Apogee in Second Life, I started a North Carolina Second Life Educators group. We had our first meeting tonight and I believe it was a great success.We had 7 people attend and the purpose of the meeting was to come up with some sort of plan for the direction of the group. The 7 in attendance included corporate as well as educational influence and ranged from technology

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-69439330676575023922009-06-03T06:25:00.000-07:002009-06-03T07:05:55.263-07:00

I've been going on and on about my county's summer technology camp for a few months now and many have asked me to share what we do to plan and prepare for such a large event. I will tell you it is a culmination of the efforts of many folks, namely all of the awesome technology facilitators we have in our district. Luckily, we are in a county that has at least one technology facilitator in every

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-2137538931433615352009-05-29T04:44:00.000-07:002009-05-29T05:26:24.893-07:00

I've been exploring a new search engine called WolframAlpha the last couple of days. It is a fantastic resource for many disciplines and I can find great educational use in this tool.As a former foods and nutrition teacher, I was quite excited to see the data that was found when I typed in the word "Apple" and got a nutrition facts label and several other charts displaying nutrients provided in

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-38965313427604923262009-05-19T14:23:00.000-07:002009-05-19T14:45:15.986-07:00

At first, I thought my technology manager was telling a joke when he told me about teens using high frequency ring tones on their cell phones, but turns out they're very popular. Students are using them, of course, to alert them when a text comes in during class. Seems that teens can hear sounds at higher decibels than we "old" people can. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical until he showed me

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-12527167420061491562009-05-15T16:20:00.000-07:002009-05-15T19:23:23.334-07:00

Have been working on the iPod cart most of of the week so I wanted to send out an update on a few things I've learned along the way.I met with my technology manager earlier this week so we could figure out how to get everything set up correctly. Being the first in our county to have an ipod cart, I think we were both excited about playing with something new! We had talked with Val Brown, the

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-55496577167621163872009-05-08T11:11:00.000-07:002009-05-08T11:47:34.385-07:00

I have had the opportunity to work as a mentor to a graduation project student this semester. It has been a very rewarding experience. His topic relates to social networking and he is the only student in our county creating an online portfolio. He volunteered to try it after finding out that I would be his mentor. A few of us tech nerds in the county have been wanting to get the graduation

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-10293780095952476632009-05-01T11:36:00.000-07:002009-05-01T14:20:20.449-07:00

Our Mac server arrived today for the 21st Century Lab! The lab is not ready yet, but we're setting up our ipod cart so that it works with the server, allowing us to manage the apps and other settings on the ipods. I want to add lots of apps to the ipods so teachers can start learning and helping me to find those "Apps of Steel" that should be on all of the units. We're looking for all the apps

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-74355238033220707062009-04-30T17:49:00.000-07:002009-05-01T14:21:33.899-07:00

Twitter has become one of my biggest resources for my personal learning network and I find that I check it multiple times a day-sometimes multiple times a minute, so I figured it was probably time to look for an easier way of keeping up with the latest tweets. I was given the recommendation to look at Tweetdeck and Twhirl.My first impression of Tweetdeck wasn't good. I found it a little more

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-57973655708013897372009-04-27T05:32:00.000-07:002009-05-01T14:22:11.861-07:00

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend the DEN Virtual Conference and listen to Chris Lehmann speak. One thing he said was that a school should not be a school + technology, the school should change the way it thinks and be different with the technology. I've already noticed that our school is becoming known as that "old" school with lots of new technology. I don't want people to

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-11936324947415914632009-04-24T10:12:00.000-07:002009-04-24T11:47:45.542-07:00

Once people find out what I'm doing with second life at my school, I tend to get a lot of questions about getting started with a SL program. We are moving slowly here (on purpose), but I've learned quite a bit so far that I thought I'd share. I'm sure this list is only the beginning.Talk to your technical team.They will be highly involved in the success of implementation. I recently talked to

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-25598551099826049882009-04-07T10:20:00.000-07:002009-04-07T10:59:28.669-07:00

I was given the advice from Susan Wells to have a big three. In other words, focus on 3 big things and always know what those are so you know you're working toward your goals. I've been thinking about this for a while and after having feelings of being totally overwhelmed lately, I decided it was time to put it on paper. I think I cheated a little because I came up with two sets of big threes,

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-59497596333521066642009-04-02T19:56:00.000-07:002009-04-03T11:31:40.994-07:00

I've been working and dreaming with my principal for about a year and a half now to create a 21st century computer lab complete with a lab, animation stations, podcasting booths and whatever else we could dream up. It's made many changes over time but within the last few weeks we have made most of our final decisions.Our room will include a full computer lab, 3 smartboards, animation stations,

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-53481804075134269072009-03-26T02:14:00.000-07:002009-03-26T02:32:19.004-07:00

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

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-59018093635483589842009-03-15T09:27:00.000-07:002009-03-15T09:49:50.459-07:00

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

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-67964773018108196272009-03-15T09:16:00.000-07:002009-03-15T09:24:10.145-07:00

Jeopardy Templates created by JeopardyLabsThis 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

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-56916582824222760032009-03-12T11:46:00.000-07:002009-03-15T09:25:43.753-07:00

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

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-42851918673198211982009-02-25T12:27:00.001-08:002009-02-27T12:28:00.244-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypusThis is an interesting video with a funny spin on how our world is changing. I encourage you to take a look at it and consider how you fit into this picture. Are you so fast paced that the smallest hiccup causes you stress? I know I tend to be! I think many of us (especially those that fit into the nerd category, such as myself) not only expect things

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-75815368805842822382009-02-21T18:29:00.000-08:002009-02-21T19:15:24.619-08:00

When I was growing up, "the talk" had something to do with birds and bees. Yeah, you know the routine--Mom or Dad fumbling over their words while you sit with your eyes on the floor (or anything but your parent for that matter) and pretend like you didn't just hear them say sex for the third time! Yeah, it makes me a little queasy thinking about it too. And now, years later, I'm the parent and

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-65748608800294119532009-02-06T10:57:00.000-08:002009-02-06T10:58:58.834-08:00

Just wanting to share this one! This is a fantastic enhancement to an already awesome product!

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-2266577903598479362009-02-06T05:34:00.000-08:002009-02-06T05:46:36.628-08:00

.msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db !important;} .msnbcLinks a:hover, .

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-30001834130169378592009-02-01T09:16:00.001-08:002009-02-01T09:43:31.486-08:00

In the midst of working on a project, I was directed to the book Presentation Zen. I quickly found the website www.presentationzen.com and was drawn in by the very first article, "Who inspires you?" This is a question most people don't consider, but upon really thinking about it, the people who inspire me are always on my mind. When I come to a tough situation, I often think about the people

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-20625907657594276742009-01-26T06:44:00.000-08:002009-01-26T06:55:12.095-08:00

The 21st century skills guidelines have recently been released and teachers around here are a bit hesitant to even look at them, let alone implement them. One of the teachers in my school recently brought in an article that could make everyone feel better about the changes. Find that article here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/406/story/463086.htmlKay McSpadden has done a fine job of making

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-54745646579748406802009-01-16T08:54:00.000-08:002009-01-16T09:07:44.918-08:00

Recently read an article about twitter from the desk of David Pogue at the NY times, "Twittering Tips for Beginners". I find that many people have similar situations when using twitter. They'll try it out and think it is way too time consuming, so they'll put it aside. Then, someone shines the light on how it can truly be used as a helpful tool and they become addicted to it's usefulness.I,

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-3497570032533673182009-01-14T17:53:00.000-08:002009-01-16T09:57:02.045-08:00

While reading up on all my twitter posts, I discovered this great little sound byte about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. I love the explanation and just wanted to take this opportunity to share with everyone. Follow this link to hear the audio: http://www.ijohnpederson.com/images//2008/06/jim-kloss-on-web-2.mp3I truly believe that schools need to focus their attention on these tools and make Web 3.0 our

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-53578200955892179212009-01-09T08:34:00.001-08:002009-01-09T08:50:06.362-08:00

I discovered www.wordle.net quite some time ago, but hadn't really considered some of the things that one could do with it. For those that may just be discovering wordle, once you visit the website, it asks you to paste text into a text box and then it creates a word cloud of that text. If you used one word over and over again, that word will be larger than words you only used a time or two.

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-50727743109986753052009-01-06T07:28:00.000-08:002009-01-06T08:24:00.992-08:00

I've been on Second life for about a month an a half. I thought I'd do an update on where I am and what I've learned. You may be able to tell from my picture that I have learned how to change my appearance and I have found a new hobby-shopping! I've even paid actual money to buy hair! I have met lots of great people that have helped me learn new things, join groups that are of importance to

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-33617155366295751752009-01-06T06:47:00.000-08:002009-01-06T07:23:52.886-08:00

I finally have a website! I've been planning to create one for quite some time and am so excited to finally announce that www.mrslachance.com is up and running! It is very basic at this point, but does include a page for Second Life and a page for Google. My plans for the future are to include lots of information on various resources available for technology integration in the K-12 classroom.

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-40679471486326405272008-12-27T10:02:00.001-08:002008-12-27T10:10:29.077-08:00

Got the best Christmas gift ever! I'm now blogging on my new 20 inch iMac!! It's great to get a new computer not only because of the new "technology smell", but also because I can reorganize all the "junk" from my old computer. When prompted to connect a firewire and pull in all the files from my old computer, I opted not to because I think this is a great opportunity for me to start fresh and

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-71496320833029332962008-12-21T12:55:00.000-08:002008-12-21T13:04:10.549-08:00

I'm heading home to the great state of West Virginia for the holidays. Now, you know I love the place. It's beautiful in any season and has some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. However, as a technology geek, I struggle with my visits. My mom has dial-up. No high speed here. Don't even think about looking at pictures, let alone virtual worlds! So, going home for the holidays is

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-11294872883503939062008-12-21T05:11:00.001-08:002008-12-21T05:21:07.214-08:00

I am starting to plan for a multimedia room at my school. My plans for this room include a podcasting booth, an animation design center, a video corner with green screen and a full working lab. Before we get too far into planning, my principal asked me to do a little research and see if I could find a school with a similar (or maybe even a better) situation. We want to make sure we're

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-86973087435235369302008-12-11T09:02:00.000-08:002008-12-11T10:03:15.759-08:00

I recently discovered a neat little tool called Google Sharing. It allows you to put a button in your browser and easily share the website that you are viewing with friends. There are several sharing options once you press the button. In one way, you can simply email the link to someone. Another allows you to post to popular social networking sites and the final way is to post to your Google

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-41165651253693985242008-12-08T04:31:00.001-08:002008-12-11T09:02:08.749-08:00

I've been exploring Second Life for a couple of weeks now and have learned a lot! I've spent most of my time on ISTE island, which has been great for helping me to learn new things about, not only education, but also how to navigate the program.Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the program and have become a bit addicted. I'm one of those people that has to completely immerse myself in something

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-60042708392337423262008-11-19T10:33:00.001-08:002008-11-19T10:33:28.067-08:00

November 18th, 2008 was Innovation Day in the state of NC. Schools were invited to participate in the event by opening their doors to the community in order to see what is changing in the schools in the 21st century. Two schools were selected in my county, one being my own and I felt that it was a success. We applied late, so we really only had a week or so to prepare. Schools are supposed to

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-92114763952851334052008-11-11T04:54:00.000-08:002008-11-11T05:12:36.221-08:00

My school district started a new program to educate teachers more on technology. Schools were asked to select three teachers to send to "Technology Enrichment Training" and learn more about SMART Boards, Web 2.0 and more! The three teachers selected would attend the training and then be asked to go back to the schools to present the information learned to the rest of their staff. It really is

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-19029501795052017182008-11-03T10:03:00.000-08:002008-11-03T10:20:57.702-08:00

In my family, we have decided to go for the gift exchange thing rather than buying everyone a present for the holidays. I'm sure many others are in a similar situation this year, but we did this last year for the first time and found we actually enjoyed it more than getting a ton of gifts. What made it even more fun was that when we were shopping all the sales (ex: Black Friday), we could buy

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-89709834848253323232008-10-07T06:31:00.001-07:002008-10-07T07:07:47.568-07:00

Many years ago I would list "searching the internet" as one of my hobbies. Yes, with weird stares and questions about what I could possibly be looking for. I just liked the thrill of the hunt. You never know what you might find out there.Well, as the internet has grown and I found myself busy with a job and a family, that hobby was lost until I met a good friend who helped me learn new and

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-25601675600752887702008-09-28T17:50:00.000-07:002008-09-28T18:19:43.104-07:00

I stumbled upon a new web 2.0 tool the other day. Glogster.com is currently in Beta and followed by the tagline "Poster Yourself". I find it an interesting twist on social networking, but also had to explore the possible educational aspects of the tool. Within a few minutes I had signed up and was trying to create my own poster or "glog". There are many design elements to play with on the

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-62971433061318569482008-09-07T11:36:00.000-07:002008-09-07T12:42:06.542-07:00

Administrators in my school are constantly trying to balance calendars. In a school with around 2000 students and over 100 teachers, there is always something going on in the school community. How can you keep everything straight and make sure that major events don't overlap? I suggest google calendar.Google's calendar is not only easy to use and edit, but it is also easily shared amongst your

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-80015458184087614192008-08-12T17:58:00.000-07:002008-08-12T18:18:01.396-07:00

I've been talking for quite some time about our county's first ever technology camp. Today was our first day of it and I was so amazed at how wonderful it turned out. We've been working on this for about a year now and there have been many trials and tribulations, but to hear a teacher say that this is the best thing they have ever attended, really makes it all worth while.We had very few

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-14695745094956394392008-07-22T16:13:00.000-07:002008-07-22T17:27:19.992-07:00

We are in a time that most of the "brand new" teachers have a social site somewhere and probably login every day. More and more, though, we hear of teachers being reprimanded for their antics on their social networking sites. This article from the Washington Post sums it up quite nicely. Is this a problem that should be addressed? I am very aware that some counties draw a line that no teacher

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-9377461372647512102008-07-18T18:07:00.000-07:002008-07-18T18:35:37.074-07:00

I discovered mixbook.com, an online book creation tool, few months ago. I was instantly hooked, but wanted to see what the teachers thought. I pulled in a select few teachers that I knew were interested in technology as this would be the first introduction of a web 2.0 resource. Not only were they hooked, but they made plans to use it in their classes and produced some interesting

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-60287140593175016782008-07-16T18:27:00.000-07:002008-07-16T19:04:12.758-07:00

As my husband is a social studies teacher, I tend to pay close attention to new sites that cater to some of the things he does in class. One thing he always mentions is that kids really don't like to do timelines. I recall not enjoying them in school either-not to mention then are a huge waste of paper when done the old fashioned way (which is how most teachers do them).Enter Timetoast. Your

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-8389895485302654592008-07-15T16:41:00.000-07:002008-07-20T17:50:01.552-07:00

As a technology facilitator in Cabarrus county, I am faced with the task of presenting several sessions at our first ever technology camp. We are now past 600 participants (no, we weren't expecting even half that many) so we know that this is our shot to really make an impact on the teachers and administrators in our county. I have volunteered to do 4 sessions.One session, luckily, I get to do

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-25144595085841108692008-07-10T18:35:00.000-07:002008-07-10T18:50:42.031-07:00

While perusing the wonderful world of web 2.0 this evening, I found a couple fantastic sites that I thought were worth sharing. I really tend to get into the nitty gritty of websites and I throw out probably 95% or more that I look at -specifically if I can't figure them out within a minute. So these are simple, time saving sites that I found very helpful.1. http://whenisgood.net/ We've all

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-55848798012597773832008-06-30T16:20:00.000-07:002008-07-16T19:08:17.411-07:00

My husband surprised me with a Wii fit today. I have to say that my nerdy side was quite interested in trying it and my non-fit side was really interested in seeing if it would get me moving. Of course the first time we turned it on was a learning process so we didn't get a lot of "exercise" out of it, but the 2nd time was all work! I was sweating, having trouble catching my breath and all

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-5791800439781584222008-06-13T17:14:00.000-07:002008-06-13T17:22:31.488-07:00

Today was my last day of school for a while. I'm sure I'll be in next week because I can't stay away, but I don't HAVE to go. I had a few interesting things happen while talking to everyone at the end of the year banquet. First of all, had a great conversation at my table about how important technology is in the lives of students today. I tried to just sit back and listed because I didn't want

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-54827786468444936482008-06-03T06:07:00.000-07:002008-06-03T06:17:45.981-07:00

I've been working a good part of the last few days to "tie up loose ends" around here. Cleaning the labs, FINALLY getting a chance to organize my office and pulling in all the borrowed technology equipment from throughout the year. I always find myself reflecting on what I did right/wrong and what I'll do for next year. To be honest, I started thinking about next year several months ago. So,

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-651388603232345696.post-66420994131553064022008-05-28T06:05:00.000-07:002008-07-17T17:41:21.773-07:00

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to do a quick presentation on how to use photostory for a group of students taking a statistics class. I thought "hmm, wonder what's going on here"? So, I showed them how to create their story (mainly a 5-10 minute overview of the program) and told them to go for it! I walked around for a few minutes to see exactly what they were doing and I heard the

Julie LaChance / Julie Sugarplumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12691243983476650851noreply@blogger.com0