Beth Weeks’ Blog

I have had the privilege of  presenting at TCEA and other conferences over the past several years. I always look for good digital ways to share my resources after the presentation. This year I think I am moving everything to livebinders.com and I will be able to present from there and keep updating that same location for those I share it with.

Check out two of the live binders that I have been working on- remember they are a work in progress!

Tech Camp- http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=322393

Tech Resources- http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=322287

I have been preparing for this year’s TCEA!

I am excited to be presenting about my summer Technology Camp for students. We have been doing this camp for several years now and I have had the priviledge to share about it a few times at TCEA-so come check it out on Thursday Feb 9th at 9:15am room 18A.

I am also presenting on some fun web 2.0 sites that are great for getting your students involved! I will be using some responders during the presentation. I will have the Neo2 keyboards with the 2Know toolbar and I will be using pollevery where with your cell phones  and maybe even a little socrative! I am also going to get to try out Qwizdom’s clicker during my presentation! Kinda excited about that! So come check it out on Friday Feb 10th at 8:00am room 18A!

See you at TCEA!

I have been working on my website! I had a teacher last year come up to me upset because the link to something she wanted to use was no longer available….. well… actually what had happened was that the link to another school district was the link to the page to the link to the page where the link was that she was going to use… did I confuse you.. me too!!! haha!!!

So.. I decided to start creating a resource page of links that my teachers could get to without traveling all over the Internet to find… so.. here is a link to my resource page feel free to use!!!

Click here to get to my web page     http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/SISDbweeks/

and then click on Classroom resource to find some of the links out there that we like to use in our classroom!!! I am trying to update it often! So check back again real soon!!! Also, let me know of some sites that I should add for my teachers!!! Do you know of great places to practice math or science or other things… share!!!!

This last week at the Day of Discovery at Region X our presenters had the opportunity to tell everyone about Glogster.edu! So many educators were excited about the possibilities of students creating digital posters with glogster! I had forgotten that I was working towards becoming a Glogster Ambassador so that I can share more and more about glogster!

Here is what you get with edu.glogster.com

Kids get to create interactive posters to tell about their subject! Couldn’t get better than that! They don’t just have the words and pictures.. but let them record their voice, their video or use discovery images and videos to help them engage themselves as they create and their audience with the topic they are creating the poster about!

As a teacher for edu.glogster, I get to create private student logins and watch the progress as my students create their posters! We can then share with one another or privately with our parents!

Let me tell you more about glogster if you haven’t used it before!!! This is some really great stuff!!!

Beth

Can you believe this year is coming to an end? Where did it go?

I have been uploading resources.. checking my DAL for spring training… I will be at Southfork ranch on April 24th for the in person part of the Virtual Conference. I will be getting ready for my Summer technology camp that I hold for students each summer! WOW this year has flown by!!!

I have learned so many new things that I have to try out!!! Web 2.0 tools are always being added and changed! Some really cool ones that I have checked out recently are:
fur.ly that combines several URLs into one for your students! COOL!

www.voki.com some really cool avatars!!!

of course my favorite spot is www.go2web20.net to find out what is new out there!!!

What is going on in your world???

Beth

Ok.. so countdown is on to TCEA! We are making sure that we have our travel plans ready! Making sure we have everything ready for our presentations! Getting excited about the pre-conference event that Discovery is putting on at the Bob Bullock Texas State Museum. I AM excited!

TCEA will be the week of Feb 8th in Austin. I will be presenting just once this year about our annual Summer Technology Camp for students. My presentation is Thursday Feb 11th at 8am. It is called “Making Waves with Technology” We will be sharing our Distance learning adventures, Discovery Science and Streaming, Neo2 keyboards and Smart boards and all the activities that really worked for that week long camp! And we have LOTS of activities because we did different things for each of the three weeks that we had camp! Come check it out!!!

Let me know if you are also presenting at TCEA.. let me know what you are presenting and I will look you up if I can!!!

Also, look for Discovery STARS presenting and let us know if you are part of the Discovery STAR team!!!

Beth

Well it is a countdown to summer… but that is not the end of teaching and learning! Of course I am sure you guys are as busy as I am with all the end of the year things we have to get done!

I missed the DENny awards!!!! Wow.. I am honored to be recognized! How fun is that.. I love to share resources… many of you come to my presentation at TCEA and we have a great time sharing “stuff”

So…. starting June 15th… I will be back in the classroom coordinating my annual Technology Camp! It is so much fun! Students come to us from all around our county and sign up for a week long session… many sign up to come to 3 different weeks of sessions!!

We do some Web2.0 tools that we aren’t able to do in the school year. We create and print and publish and have fun from 9am to noon or 1pm to 4pm each day. And of course the kids really love the Friday videoconference with the expert and then the showing off of their stuff as their family and friends come to visit our labs. Of course by Friday we will all be wearing the tshirts that we create ourselves!!!

This year my theme is “Making Waves With Technology” We will explore water… and some creatures in water… we will connect with the Texas State Aquarium and Alaska sealife Center. I am so excited about these videoconference connections!

I have a website that my teachers and students will use to get quick links to places… and hopefully we will publish some kids work as the summer goes along!!

http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/SISDtechcamp/

I am excited about the summer… can’t wait to share more of our adventures!

Beth

Well we are winding down another year and that just means I am gearing up for another summer technology camp. This year we are going to call it “Making Waves With Technology”

I am excited about the Distance Learning Vendors that I am getting in touch with that we will probably use at the end of each week. I am also thinking about sending someone out with a camera and using Skype or another great tool to connect back to us from an aquarium or something!

There are so many great resources out there… it is hard to decide where to steer my teachers, we have Discovery Science with the awesome virtual labs, streaming videos, and some great Web 2.0 tools that Glogster and Blabberize and more… can’t wait to give you updates on all that we do…..

Maybe we will get an opportunity to share again at TCEA! We had a full house in our tech camp presentation last year!!! If you are reading this and you came to that presentation and now you are starting your own tech camp!!! We would love to hear from you! A few of you have emailed me direct.. keep those emails coming!!!

Yeah! It is almost time for TCEA! I am presenting two different Sessions! One is on Integration ideas and the other one is on Tech Camp! I am also signed up for the Discovery PreConference event on Tuesday!!! I am excited about that!!!

Leave me a comment and let me know if you are going to TCEA.. also if you are presenting.. let me know of some sessions to watch for!!

Beth

I have the privilidge of working with teachers every year and training them on the awesome tools we have in our hands! It has been exciting to start the year with new projectors and awesome sound systems in our rooms…. so guess what goes really GREAT with those tools!!! You guessed it Discovery Streaming! I have been training teachers on getting started with streaming videos! So watch out all you other fleets… Excitement is brewing and Central will be adding some new stars very soon!!!

Beth