NJEA 2009 Convention High Tech Hall - Forget the free yardsticks and hand sanitizer!

This year's NJEA Convention High Tech Hall surpassed my expectations. We started out small last year with the Technology Integration Showcase, but this year we really did it right. Thanks to Darryl Ensminger and his team from the NJEA for all their hard work. All of the presentations and classes can be accessed here:http://njea-tis-09.wikispaces.com/. My presentation, Everyone's a Winner with Top 25 Free and Easy Web 2.0 Tools was so much fun. I got meet so many new faces, plus catch up with some old friends. Attendees were happily surprised by all of the technology offerings and many commented to me how worthwhile their stop in the high tech hall was to their professional development.

Engaging Parents

The students are already engaged, but what about the parents? Back to School Night was my first chance to really engage parents in Connections. I tried a new approach this year. I spent almost zero time talking about rules and regulations and more time helping parents get a handle on exactly what my class, Connections, is. I used Slide Rocket again and it definitely get more attention than a Power Point. Parents this year, seemed really impressed by the our class blog and twitter account.
One of my goals for the year is to have more parental involvement, whether it be commenting on our blog, following us on Twitter or skyping into the classroom.

We had a great Back to School Night last night. I saw a great deal of enthusiasm and interest from parents. I hope the excitement and interest carries on.

Smart EdTech Strategies for Tough Times

School has started so I am super busy. However, I am excited to attend an event on Friday, September 25th called "Smart Ed Tech Strategies for Tough Times" in Jersey City. For the event itinerary click here.
To register:
http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=744064

I'm most excited for the keynote: Using Emerging Technologies to Improve Student Achievement by Chris Dede and Timothy E. Wirth Professor in learning technologies at Harvard University.

If you can't attend, I'll be tweeting and blogging live. I am sure to get some great tips and websites!

Photo credit: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/03/0313_besttech_buck/image/ss_1.jpg

Top 25 Back to School Web 2.0 Tools/Sites

Top 25 Tools In no particular order...(Google Apps for Ed would be #1- no explanation necessary - but here are the top 25...I mean 26...) Delicious Voki Wallwisher Plagium CNN Student News Google Similar Images Google Squared Google News Time Line Google Inquotes Google Audio Indexing Wikispaces Super Teacher Tools ClassTools Make Beliefs Comix Teacher Tube Pixlr Glogster Word Press or Blogger Posterous Google Earth Time Lines and Gallery and Google Maps Twitter and Twitter 4 Teachers Google Translator Create a Graph Screen Toast Cool Tools 4 You to Use Google Search Curriculum Copy Right Free Images by Ken Shelton Feel free to add to the list!

Search, Learn and Share GTA Boulder 09

I was lucky enough to present at Google Teacher Academy in Boulder yesterday as a Lead Learner; "learner" being the key word because I learned so much and shared so many ideas with new and old Google Certified Teachers and actual Google developers. The presentations by my fellow lead learners (including the Google Lit Trip Guy, Jerome Burg, Lisa Thumann, Kern Kelley, Christine Archer, and Ken Shelton) as well as by Google developers such as Ronald Ho, Aidan Chopra, and Mike Springer were unbelievable and by the far the most inspiring and mind-blowing I have ever seen. In my Docs rotation, at one point I had 4 actual Google Doc team members with me. The pressure was on to impress, but I was blown away by how helpful and receptive they were to educators' ideas. I think they were suprised at students and teachers use Google Apps.
However, my personal "aha moment" occurred when we went on a tour of the Google office (the lobby of this office had a rock wall, pool table, ping pong table, and a Rock Band Competition going in- definitely the most "Googley" lobby I have seen so far). Our tour guide, a member of the Geo Apps Team was asked how one could land a job at Google. Our tour guide told us its easier to get into Harvard than to get a job at Google. Our gracious guide and many of the Googlers reiterated that day that Google is not looking for people that can remember facts, but people who know how to find answers. Right after the tour, Lucy Gray showcased the new Google Search Curriculum and I am definitely going to start out the school year using this - kind of a mini search boot camp. After reflecting on last year, teaching students to search smarter, not harder is definitely on my to-do list for this year. It also made me recall a blog post I shared with my students and their parents last year, "Google's Advice to Students: Major in Learning and Google's Study Tips for Students.
On Wednesday, August 12, 2009 5:00 pm
Pacific Daylight Time, Google is offering a free Webinar on the new Search Curriculum. Check it out!

Google Apps for Education Review

This year I piloted Google Apps for Education in the classroom at http://welcome.hartmanstudents.com
I bought a domain at GoDaddy and it took me about a week to figure out proxies,domain, etc. It probably wasn't the best way to configure everything, but it worked! I decided to block their access to Gmail and Talk because it was more than I could handle for the first year. The students had access to everything else.

They had Gmail addresses, but they were only used to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and forms. Creating accounts was easy, I created a spreadsheets and the Apps team created all of the accounts for me. Let me tell you that when ealing with middle schoolers, that spreadsheet was the key to survival! I can't tell you how many times I looked up usernames and passwords!

The first marking period of school, I felt like a computer applications teacher, showing my 6th graders how to login, manage their Google Docs, share Docs, create a Google site, etc. Not to mention how easily 6th graders forget passwords! It was exhausting.

After laying the groundwork, I started to see everything coming together.

By the 4th marking period, they were so adept that they figured out how to do things I never even knew about such as transitions and animations in Docs Presentations and creepy crawly spider gadgets in sites. They were using Google Apps for all their classes, not just mine, and they were even creating their own websites at home for fun! Some even organized end of the year parties and made digital yearbooks of their own.
I am so proud of my students from last year. To check out some cool projects we did, check out HartmanHoopla, a blog co-authored by my students and I.

Above everything my students learned last year, they possess 21st century technology skills and tools that will help them succeed in the future and tools to discover their passions, such as the Hannah and Cailin who have their own YouTube Channel, website, and Twitter account. These two young ladies are just getting started! It's unbelievable what 6th graders can do when you give them access to tools such as Google Apps for Education.

The Power of the Network

A couple of weeks ago, I saw tweet on Twitter by isenbergs asking if anyone was willing to catch an egg. Intrigued, I DM'd her and we started networking . Basically, my students needed to "catch an egg" sent by a group of third graders from Saltsburg, PA live on Skype.
It was a cross country egg toss and the objective was:
"To design and construct a protective structure within a cardboard box that will prevent damage to an egg or eggs which will be mailed to another classroom. An egg without any visible cracks or damage is scored as a success."
Click here for the rules.
Each group had to construct a case for an egg and mail it. Then my students had to open the package, LIVE on Skype. The other teacher, Ms. Jake, recorded the grand opening. We received the package at 1:19pm today and Skyped at 2 pm. The box was very carefully wrapped with warnings on it such as "FRAGILE" and "OPEN WITH CARE." The 3rd graders stuffed the box with broken popsicle sticks, cut up straws, and twine. They also created a paper box inside, placed it in a ziploc bag, and secured it with rubber bands. We couldn't wait to open it! It was so great the they actually got to watch my students open the box live on Skype.
Sadly, the egg was cracked, but it was a good try Saltsburg Elementary!
We blame it on the postman! Better luck next time. I was surprised at how empathetic my students were and they were all genuinely upset! Some wanted to beg the cafeteria manager for a hard boiled egg to hold up to the camera.
Anway, the moral of the story is now we have even more CONNECTIONS. My students are starting to write children's e-books on themes we have been studying throughout the year and now we found a class to send them to for review. It's all about CONNECTIONS.