Lancaster

=Lancaster Central School District=

Lancaster Central School district 's purpose is to provide our students with a comprehensive educational program that will allow them to develop fully the necessary academic and social skills to become responsible and productive members of a democratic society.

Team Members from Lancaster High School: John Bender, Assistant Principal [|Amy Balling], Science Teacher [|Robert Eberhart], Social Studies Teacher [|Heidi Chaves], Technology Curriculum Mentor

Our Journey through EETT
September 25, 2008

Our team made a valiant effort to keep up with all the new tools introduced today. We now have accounts on EETT ning, wikispaces, delicious, twitter, flickr, edublogs but we just couldn’t quite figure out Plurk. Amy has some ideas about having students podcast biology content with the possibility of having students from downstate critiquing. Bob is toying with ideas of a best practice wiki for the social studies department or perhaps a student portfolio. John, our team leader, saw our need to work together and scheduled a full day of planning on November 6. Additionally Shannon and Jenny will join us for a full day on November 20. I am still hoping to find a place for the digital citizenship skills I think students (teachers too) need. One suggestion we have to others is to set up a separate email account (hotmail, gmail, yahoo) and use it for all your web 2.0 tools. School email is limited in size and just plain too full most of the time. Submitted by Heidi

November 3, 2008 John and I attended the workshop [|Enhanced Education through Collaboration.] We learned about survey tools but decided to use our school website survey tool. We worked on some questions for our Digital Access survey in preparation for our full team meeting on November 6. Additonally we decided to build a blog on our school webpage for John to use with teachers in our Academies. Our teachers are familiar with signing in and the structure so we felt this would be more effective than trying to use an outside resource. We were introduced to several print resources including //Learning by Doing//, and //Smart School Teams//. We explored igoogle especially the Google Reader for RSS feeds. Submitted by Heidi

November 6, 2008 Our team met for a full day to begin our project. We began with making a chart of web 2.0 tools, with their characteristics, use and examples. This exercise really helped clarify the tools for everyone. We developed a survey to determine our students' access to hardware and applications both in school and at home. We posted it on our school website to be administered by Bob and Amy in their classes. We were surprised by how long this took to write. We worked on an agenda for the day (Nov. 20) when Jenny and Shannon will be in Lancaster. Yeah! Turkey dinner for lunch that day! We finished the day with looking at the past grant projects and brainstormed ideas for our project. Submitted by Heidi

November 13, 2008 All attended Face to Face.

November 20, 2008 Jenny and Shannon visited Lancaster High School. Morning was spent reviewing our work so far. Jenny and Shannon met our student member, Eric. Afternoon was spent adjusting our direction for year 2 and sharing tools. After school, Jenny and Shannon met with HS student computer club to hear their views on Web 2.0 and student learning.

December 1, 2008 Amy attended [|Enhancing Differentiated Instruction Through Technology] workshop

December 8, 2008: Learning Showcase Amy Balling presented **Project Based Learning in the Science Classroom.** Heidi Chaves presented **Digital Citizenship: Starting the Conversation.**

Where do we go from here? March 5, 2009:Full day meeting with our Team: John, Amy, Bob and Heidi Exposed to blogs: Amy has a blog on her school website, with no comments. Edublogs: none of us continued. Don’t like how ads are added to our words.
 * What we learned in Year 1.**

Wikis: exposure. Bob had kids do review wiki, eberharglobal.wikispaces.com Extra credit Bob made pages and missile crises as example Assign 2 students to each page, different periods.Attach electronic copy of handout. Students posted video and text. Used different color fonts for different students. Some students made own account. Bob put up review questions from Castle Learning. Heidi working with wikiteach.wikispaces.com at William Street. Teaching Marie how to wiki for ELA writing wiki Social Bookmarking Delicious: Amy for personal use, Bob for global resources, Heidi Ning Amy set up Lancaster Bioshare for Lancaster bio teacher as part of study group (inservice) to share resources and notes from meetings. Also Amy did regional (wny bio teachers..Cheektowaga teacher center group) ning, use to share pictures from digital microscopes, discussions, 26 members. Key to this was established group.John is working with Academy social network. NAF collaboration network. Twitter: Heidi and Amy are active. Recently blocked at LCSD. Voice Thread: Amy did a lab online. ‘ Onion Diffusion Lab [|__http://voicethread.com/#u216497.b267261.i1400351__] Christmas 2008 [|__http://voicethread.com/#u216497.b303023.i1605151__]

Wordle: Amy using to make materials.

Podcasting: Amy has podcasts. Using screen capture with Smartboard and record. Covert using videora ipod converter (at home) then post on website and itunes.

Surveys: Used Schoolwires to do access survey. Survey Gizmo Amy used to access prior knowledge. Used laptop center with others doing a worksheet with Amy ciculating. Skype: Blocked We learned how Web 2.0 works as a collaborative tool with many editors rather than the web as we knew it as a resource with static information.

Until our staff is knowledgeable, can’t do this yet. Students want something new and innovative ways to learn. Access to hardware an issue as most classrooms have one computer. We do have lots of boards.
 * Needs for Students:**

Learn what Web 2.0 is… How would we get them interested in learning? Ning: Amy could show Bob’s team how she used ning with study group at Monday team meeting. Wiki: Bob could show your team. English is just starting… Our teachers need to learn other strategies besides lecture. Even with boards, they still lecture. Could we videotape lessons with technology? Showcase the technology Amy and Bob are in. We switched to Google Docs so we can collaborate as we work! Are these tools used in the business world? Should we talk to finance academy teachers? Communication: could that be the hook? Animation tools: goanimate, scratch Our District Goals: awareness, moving people for where they are to next level. **Planning Professional Development** What do we want teachers to know? How to use new Internet tools (Web 2.0) to save time, learn professionally and personally and help students learn and connect with others outside LHS. What do we want teachers to be able to do? Meet the different learning styles of students using the technology Should we show one tool or multiple tools? show different tools to give teachers an idea for their goal setting blogs for daily notes different students put the daily notes online (for math classes too) Mentoring other teachers to bring them in to learn web 2.0 tools summer workshop or institute over 2 days Amy: Podcasting --Bob: Wikispaces -- Heidi: Social Networking each for 1/2 day and then last 1/2 day they choose one for investigate in depth.
 * Needs for our teachers.**

April 2009 Heidi started a blog at [|techietalent.edublogs.org] to replace the paper newsletter which was previously distributed to the district.

June 10, 2009 Our Student team is participating in the Elluminate Advisory Sessions. Students posted to Student Wiki Eric

Heidi attended Elluminate sessions Guest Experts with Darren and Tom. Amy working on claymation videos.

We are planning our own Summer Session at LHS.

July 6, 7, 8, 2009 Amy attended entire Summer Institute. Heidi attended Digital Storytelling, Tech Tools for DI, Active Literacy, and Community Connections.

July 9 All attended F2F w. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

July 10 Eric, Robbie and Heidi attended Summer Session with Jenny. Began work on Cellphones in the Classroom video

August 26, 27, 2009 Lancaster's own Summer Institute We welcomed a dozen dedicated teachers for 2 days of learning. Heidi presented on social bookmarking, Amy on podcasting and Bob on wiki creation. Jenny and Shannon supported all efforts.

Fall 2009 Primary focus was on Student Advisory Team and preparing for Learning Showcase.

New Wiki established by John Bender and Terry Adamec (assistant principals) for High School to share best practices

Link to Coordinators' Resources