This past Saturday 10/3 the AZLA fall conference was held at Glendale Community College. I had the honor of being one of the presenters and I shared many resources gathered from the DENNI. My session earned the title “Best of Arizona” and I will now be attending and presenting at the SWCOLT Conference in New Mexico in April of 2010. The presentation focused on the use of Digital Storytelling in a World Language classroom.

Thank you to all of the DEN members who help to share and spread the word of technology integration!

I have had so much fun exploring all of DEN and the DEN blogs. As I explore I have stumbled across several really cool ideas and links. I am looking forward to trying these since as a teacher in Arizona I am being asked to become more and more creative with less and less. My school district has frozen all spending and so little things like paper are hot commodities. My theory is adapt and overcome! Discovery Streaming and all of the “Builders” have helped me to make a transition to more eco friendly assignments not to mention I am helping to conserve and make use of resources better.

 The most interesting link I came across was that of VoiceThread. I can use this immediately in a Spanish classroom. I can post videos, images, etc and have my students comment in written or spoken form in the target language. The students will love the use of this 2.o medium and I love the fact that everyone becomes more engaged!

Thanks DEN for the great tips.

Today’s staff development on campus included a session which I led with 20 teachers in attendance. We had the opportunity to establish IDEAL accounts and then explore the Discovery Education website. Our main focus was the shown them ways to save time, money and make use of resources that are already out there for us to use.

The feedback was positive (yeah!) and hopefully the teachers will make use of these items in the near future. A few of the resources handed out where from the DEN and others are items I have either created or compiled.

http://sites.google.com/site/ridgetechieteachers/

In all we are spreading the world one small group at a time! Do you have any ideas for great training sessions or activities? Please share them!