I have a confession to make. Until last year, I never wrote down any dates or appointments. I usually remembered to attend them, but only
because I had them all stuffed in small crevices in the corner of my
brain. Of course, that usually lead to a
feeling of being overwhelmed and unorganized. Maybe that’s why I could never sleep soundly-
always wondering what I had to do the next day…
I remember trying to
use a day planner, but if I needed it at school, it was in my car or if I
needed it at home, it was at school. You
see the pattern there. So it never got
used. Early last year, I began to use an
online calendar and it has changed my life.
The online calendar/organizer I use allows me to enter
events in any month or year and set reminders to be emailed IM’ed or text
messaged to my cell. The best part is
that I can add or view events from any place with an internet connection
(services will soon be available that will allow this to be done offline as
well). So now I don’t have to keep track
of where my planner is!
For items that recur weekly or monthly, I can set the event
just once and then tell the program to repeat until a certain date.
There are many free web applications that will do all of
these tasks, including the ones below. The one I am most anticipating is Scrybe
(still in beta-check out the video). You
can enter your data in one calendar and save it in iCal format. You can then import the data into another
online calendar if you want.
So check out some of these free sites and post some comments
letting us know what you think. Are
there some cool features that you use that we should be aware of?
Hipcal, Kikocal, Google Calendar…
I don’t know about many of
the readers of this blog, but I just finished my mid-year conferences. Where I teach, we have to send home letters
for each appointment, collect the parent confirmations and report the entire
conference time sheet to the office for recordation. And of course there’s always a bunch of times
that parents can’t make it, so we then have to switch them. Wouldn’t it be easier if a computer could do
all this for us?
Enter The Parent
Conferencer, the free, web-based tool created by our own DEN member Greg
Gorman. Unfortunately, I found out about
this tool after my last conference, but I definitely bookmarked the website for
next year.
This online tool is highly
useful for setting up your conferences, printing confirmations and reminders in
English or Spanish, changing times and more. There’s a great
tutorial page here. Go to parentconferencer.com to sign up
for a free account and get started. There
are other great components you can check out on the website as well. They are fee-based, but worth exploring if
you’re a primary teacher looking to streamline your assessment and instruction.
Looking for a way to integrate video making in your
classroom without sacrificing your core curriculum? This past weekend about 30 DEN members came
together for a fabulous weekend at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Hollywood. Joe Brennan writes about his perspective of it here
in his blog. Personally, I found it
to be very valuable because the entire training was essentially set up like a
mock lesson that would be done with students.
If you have not had the good fortune to attend one of these
two-day workshops, it seems the best way to sum it up is this: we teach students the writing process to help
them acquire a well-rounded perspective of writing. Likewise, this digital storytelling workshop
didn’t simply cover video-editing, but rather the entire process of film making
in the classroom and how to implement these ideas.
Stay tuned for information on any AFI events TBA, as they
are sure to fill up fast. In the
meantime, you can find additional ed tech resources on the Den wiki.
You may have noticed a large push
for healthy foods in our schools lately. I know in my district we are no longer able to serve anything sweet and
have been mandated limits on what kids can eat while with us during the day (of
course we know that schools are the cause of obesity in the first place). This is something all teachers will soon have
to deal with.
I’d like to
start a little forum where we can share suggestions on how to keep our students
healthy and/or replace some of the treats they formerly ate with wise
alternatives. Healthier Generation has
some good suggestions, but I think DEN members will have some great ideas to
share with each other as well. Let’s put
our ideas in the form of comments at the bottom of this posting.
Here are some questions to think about: What sort of non-food rewards can we give
students? What are some SIMPLE, but
healthy snacks kids can bring from home? What can we do in elementary grades to “celebrate” the birthday’s kids
look forward to? Anything else? The best answer wins a stick of sugar coated butter!!! Dave Kootman
Here’s an FYI for all DEN members who are seeking some professional development opportunities that won’t drain their bank accounts. This summer institute was suggested by Kim Randall, thanks Kim! Take a look at this link to learn more. There are two classes that must be taken as prerequisites, but if accepted into the program, there is a $4,000 stipend and free materials! We’ll try to keep you posted on any other interesting opportunities and hope other DEN members will share with us as well. Dave Kootman
Well, the long-awaited CUE conference in Palm Springs has come and gone. Everyone who stopped by the engaging sessions
at the Discovery Education Room (DER?) left with not only some useful
knowledge, but most likely some great new goodies and giveaways as well! If you have never had the opportunity to hear
Jannita or Hall speak, you’re missing out, as they are not only informative and
relevant speakers, but they’re also pretty darn entertaining. I was most impressed with the informal nature
that allowed the sessions to flow in directions that teachers needed most, as
opposed to the static presentations we sometimes see. 
DEN at CUE kicked of with a geocaching event on Thursday
evening. Discovery shared its GPS
devices to lead us on a treasure hunt that included such booty as free
subscriptions to Cosmeo, flash drives and a culminating feast of Italian
cuisine. If you missed this event, I
don’t mean to rub it in when I tell you how fun it was, but… oh wait, I do mean
to rub it in. Better be there next time 
Dave Kootman
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