Explore why the “divinely inspired” Google is changing the way teachers teach and students learn in our schools…and not always for the better. Learn many aspects of the Google search tool and how to effectively teach them to students. Participants review a framework and process for student research utilizing web based search tools.  Teachers also discover why Google is no longer just a search tool but a complete set of productivity and development tools that rival the largest software publishers out there. This session will explore many of the Google Tools (iGoogle, Picasa, News Search, Images Search, Scholar, Google Sites and Google Docs) and how they can enhance your instruction for greater engagement. **If needed this session can be customized to include Google Apps for Education.  Contact us for more info  

• 5Google Earth in the Classroom- This ain't your daddy's globe!
  3, 6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

Grab you passport & get ready to travel the world! You may have read about this amazing free tool but are unsure about how it can be leveraged to enhance your instruction and your students’ projects.  This session is designed for the beginning Google Earth user who wants to understand how this amazing tool can be incorporated into their classroom. From the simple search for your house to exploring various locations around the world, this session will include multiple instructional examples of how Google Earth can be integrated into multiple grade levels and subjects. Geo-browsing, Google Earth authoring and collaboration will all be addressed in this GEO-Adventure. Contact us for more info  

Ask us about: Google Earth in the Math Classroom  & Google Earth as a Writing Tool

• 6Writing for an Audience! Blogs & Wikis in the Elementary Classroom
  3, 6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

Blogs & Wiki’s can be a powerful tools to enhance instruction and greater engage your students in all forms of writing. When students have enough technology access they make a great format for student electronic portfolios.  Come explore how blogs & wiki’s can be used in your classroom to improve student writing through greater engagement and by strengthening the revision and editing process. Participants may utilize a variety of tools including Blogger, Edu Blogger and Wordpress to set-up a teacher and/or student blogs. They learn how to manage and protect bloggers when they are sharing online and how to use blogs as a student writing portfolio and collaborative writing tool. Various free wiki tools are used to model collaborative writing projects for students.  Contact us for more info  

• 7Writing for an Audience! Blogs & Wikis in the 6-12 Classroom
  3, 6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

Blogs & Wiki’s can be a powerful tools to enhance instruction and greater engage your students in all forms of writing. When students have enough technology access they make a great format for student electronic portfolios.  Come explore how blogs & wiki’s can be used in your classroom to improve student writing through greater engagement and by strengthening the revision and editing process. Participants may utilize a variety of tools including Blogger, Edu Blogger and Wordpress to set-up a teacher and/or student blogs. They learn how to manage and protect bloggers when they are sharing online and how to use blogs as a student writing portfolio and collaborative writing tool. Various free wiki tools are used to model collaborative writing projects for students. Contact us for more info  

• 8Digital Video Jammin' Writing with Video & Other Video Projects
  3, 6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

This hands-on workshop will provide educators with a new look at the possibilities of video and the production process in their classroom.  Participants will discover how they can use the video production process to excite students about the writing process.  The workshop explores the three phases of the production process and how it correlates to the writing process.   The workshop models how a basic language arts unit on poetry can become “Video Poetry”, a compilation of visually rich images and sounds that students’ utilize to communicate the mood and feeling of the poem. Participants will team up with other members of the workshop to create, shoot and edit their own video using Microsoft Movie Maker, iMovie or Flip Video software. Contact us for more info  

• 9Powerful Tools for the 21st Century Classroom-
  The World of Web 2.0 & School 3.0
  3, 6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

The world of the classroom is changing! Or maybe I should say it could change (hopefully for the better) with the use of so many new “Web 2.0my” applications.  Web 2.0? What does it mean and more importantly how can it help transform classrooms and teaching into more engaging and project oriented learning environments?   From basic productivity software, the amazing world of Google Apps, to easy to build Facebook type social networks for your classroom. This day is filled with practical tools for every teacher.  Participants will spend the day exploring many  amazing Web 2.0 applications that they can use in their classrooms right away and how we continue to keep our students safe when we move away from the one dimensional internet into the highly connected and interactive environment that is Web 2.0. 
Contact us for more info  

• 10Research & Technology- a Disaster Waiting to Happen!?
  6 & 12 hours (60-90 minute Keynote also available) Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators

 

 

Executing meaningful research with electronic resources can be a daunting and sometimes wandering task. This can be even more difficult for students who are often used to the “Go Fetch” search method where students simple go after answer(s) to various questions and compile them into some loose form.  This hands-on workshop will take participants on a journey through the world of the “Natural Disaster” by utilizing various research models and information technologies. Participants will role-play as teams of researchers and strengthen their Internet searching and web literacy skills gathering information that will enable them to collaborate with fellow team members.  The session breaks down the research process into 5 key areas  Contact us for more info  

  

• 11Smart Boards & Active Boards- Leveraging the Interactive White Board for Greater Student Engagement (moving beyond the overhead mentality)
  6, 12 & 18  hours-  Target Audience:  All Teachers & Administrators
  

 

 

Smart, Promethean, Interwrite & Mimeo boards have all made there way into many classrooms over the last decade. The brand is not that important, but what teachers do with them is. These devices can be very powerful tools in helping teachers create a more visual, auditory & kinesthetic learning environment. This session will explore the basic operational components of the boards and the software that gives it most of its power. Teachers get hands-on, modeled classroom examples of how the tool can be integrated into their lessons  while they start the process of building their own lessons. This training can be customized to meet the needs of each district. Possible customizations: Active Software, Smart Notebook, Student Response Systems & gathering relevant data, Building Teaching Resources & Assessments, Harvesting & Mapping Resources    Contact us for more info