Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Wednesday, March 19

Wednesday - The last full day at NCCAT

It's been an intense online day. Spent time updating my blog pages. I downloaded Irfanview last night and used it (with some difficulty - and a lot of help from my friends!)to resize and crop some of the photos. Finally got the group photo on the wiki frontpage! Thanks, Debbie.

Back to schoollibrarylearning2 for work with RSS feeds and Bloglines reader. I tried out Pageflakes and liked that result. Will next look at GoogleReader.

I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the information out there. I'm ready to move around BUT it's raining very hard and I can't get my wildflower walk in today!

Tuesday March 18, 2008

Wildflowers on the trail




This morning I did some professional reading for my leadership role as department chair. I so appreciate having this time to reflect and let things adjust to a natural focus.

Joined my team in the conference room and began my Flickr work. Also added my voice to Pat's Voicethread project. Took another look at Googledocs and did some comparisons to PPT. Also spent some time with SLJ's March issue. Thanks Debbie for sending the link to Doug Johnson's article on Second Life! I created an identity in Second Life, (Angie Ortiz) just to get a little taste of that world. Decided my time would be more productive in the "real" virtual world!

Demo-ed NoodleTools for my learningteammates. I need more experience with this product.

Lunchtime! Dr. Ernest Johnson, an NCCAT fellow joined us at our table for lunch. We discussed participating as Teacher Presenters in one or two of his NCCAT courses as well as presenting at NCSLMA or conferences for other middle school professional groups (LA, Social Studies teachers) as part of an NCCAT offering.

After lunch, I hiked/walked for about an hour on the trails and around the pond. I need to move more than I did yesterday! I did exceed my step goal for the day, ending up with over 11,800.

After returning to the conference room (a bit sweaty-but all alone!) I opened Noodletools and took notes on Chapter 1 of Guided Inquiry. The program helped me process and make connections as I read. I think I will continue this as I progress through the book. I appreciate the opportunity for firsthand experience with "Noodling"!

Shower, visit in our NCCAT "home" space and dinner. Went to Walmart in Silva with Bev to purchase a webcam. I am now officially in the 21st Century! After installing the webcam and Skyping for awhile, turned back to professional reading before turning in. Quite a different day for me!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Middle School Media Specialists Mastering 21st Century Skills

First Day at NCCAT

Our laptops are plugged in as we explore technologies and share ideas around a giant conference table with a view of a fountain and budding forsythia.

So far today, I have created a Skype account and avatara (Thanks, Weemee!) and explored GoogleDocs.

I escaped to climb the Wildflower Trail behind the Ayhsti residence and took pictures of some of the first wildflowers to bloom this Spring- all before lunch!

At this point, I'm working my way through the tutorials on http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/index.html. This is taking me through blog basics and continuous learning. Tomorrow I'll look at Flikr and import some pictures into the blog!

I worked with my del.icio.us account and added bookmarks throughout the day. I think a webcam is in my future!

Here's a photo of the learningteammiddle Teacher Scholars at dinner last night: