Shengli Primary School - Zan Cheng campus

This is an view of the Zan Cheng campus taken from Principal Zhang's 11th floor home.  He keeps a close eye on his school even from home! : - )  Shengli Primary School has two  campuses.  This is the newer campus built about 10 years ago.  Each campus has an enrollment of over 1,000 students.  There are 150 teachers that work at these two schools.  There are assistant prinipals at each campus that help Principal Zhang oversee these large learning communities. 

Great work

Wow! I'm so impressed with your book reports! I need to show your book reviews to some of my top readers. I think they will be interested in some of the books you wrote about, too. I made a copy of your favorite websites list. I will share it with my class and my friends. I think you are doing a great job of sharing your knowledge and excitement about learning! I liked the video cheer, too!! Girls you did a good on that. You'll have to come down and show my kids how to do that! Keep up the great work! Mrs. McClintock

Justin Tarte - Life of an Educator...: Let's make a difference...

Justin Tarte - Life of an Educator...: Let's make a difference...

Harrison TV - Streaming Live!

On Monday, March 7, Harrison TV-Streaming Live! will be operational.  Our morning announcements and a variety of special events will be available for live viewing throughout the school, and at home.  Teachers, using their computer and projector, will be able to WATCH the announcements and other events in their classrooms.  Recorded events are saved for seven days allowing viewers to revisit broadcasts at their leisure.

Accessing Harrison TV is simple to do.  Go to this blog, http://huskybytes.blogspot.com, and click the link below the video window at the top of the page.  A new window will open with the live video feed of the event.  You will be asked for an access code.  That code is "husky1300"  Make sure the classroom projector is on so everyone can view the program. If you on the link before we go live, you could possibly be subjected to an advertisement.  Simply turn down the volume on your computer until the live event begins.  The broadcasts will not be interrupted by advertising.

We also recommend that you choose to "Follow" the Harrison TV stream.  You will get a notice anytime a program is being produced.  That is really all there is to it.  If you have any questions or difficulties, contact Rick Glass.  Morning announcements will continue to be broadcasts over the PA system for the benefit of those in the hallways and places without computer access.

There are many positive ways we can use this technology, so do not hesitate to share your ideas.  Soon, we will have a video player embedded on our school web site.  This will allow parents, homebound students, and others to view our shared activities from any location with internet access.

Read the EdTech Times - A Daily Magazine about Educational Technology

Nancy Rooker recently asked me where I get my ideas for technology integration.  My answer is really quite simple.  I use Twitter.  Currently, I am following more than 600 teachers, administrators, and consultants from every level of education.  They post their ideas, successes, failures, and dreams in short bursts of 140 characters.  I find them by using hashtags like #edcur, #edtech, #edchat, #sped, and more.  I look at who is making active contributions and I choose to follow them.

I just put a link on this blog to the EdTech Times, a magazine created from gleaning the blogs and other writings of the people I follow on Twitter.  The magazine is published free for me and for others who choose to use the services of PaperLi, the company that aggregates the information.  The articles you read here are fresher than any newspaper.  They are the gleanings of some of the best people who are passionate about teaching, learning, and technology.  You won't agree with everything you read.  Neither do I, but they will make you think.  They will help you fight complacency and challenge you to move outside the boxes that are either created for us or created by ourselves.  Just perhaps, they will validate what you are doing and encourage you to continue making a difference in the lives of your students.

If you would like to know more about Twitter and creating your own magazine, please let me know.  

Thanks,

Rick

National Geographic Kids

The National Geographic Kids website has been a great help to our 2nd grade students. They are researching an animal and writing a report for one of our non-fiction unit projects. In the search box at that site type in the name of your animal. Several links should pop up that you can go to. Look for the link about your animal that lists photos, video, facts, e-card, and map. When you click on that a screen should pop up with a picture of your animal and a Print tab at the top. Click this and you get a printable animal flash card that you can cut out and glue together or just use as part of a report. Many of the animals we chose had lots of other facts that printed with the picture. The KidsBiology website is another good source of friendly readable information about animals and other topics for kids.

Internet4classrooms

My 4th graders used "internet4classrooms" this morning. I had the children go to Google to access this "learning center". They eased into Internet4Classroom HomePage; we used the whiteboard to discuss how to get to the "practice lesson". The boys and girls quickly picked up how to get to appropriate grade level, subject area, and Mrs. Kinsey's assignment.

FYI-we went to language arts, parts of speech and "gorilla grammar". I liked this "lesson" because "GG" had a mini-glossary with examples as well as levels (beginner & advanced).

Looking forward to hearing your recommendations.

Welcome new authors

This is a great beginning.  Our Husky Bytes blog now has six authors and we're looking for a couple of dozen more.  Yes, we will all fit just fine.  Post your comments, but more importantly share how you are integrating technology into your classrooms.  We can learn from each other.  Have questions?  Post them here.  Between us, I'll bet we can come up with some workable answers.  When you're surfing the web and find a great link for learning or an article about tech, teaching, and learning, post the link so we can all check it out.  Glad you're here.

The weather's fine!

I like it here. It's like a little island. I hope we all fit.

I'm in too...