Middlesex ITRT

http://www.history.com/media.do

The above url takes you to a wonderful site full of webcasts. The vary in all topics. My favorite is This day in History.  These webcasts are short under two minutes- usually only a minute.  What a great way to share this info.  It would great uesed on a daily news show in a school.

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs?mode=3

Are you tired of typing in a long URL – only to find out that it does not work.  You go back and check and you missed a space, comma, slash, or typed 2 of some letter.  This program allows you to take long URL’s and make them tiny.  This makes them much more user friendly in blogs, emails, websites etc.  To get this tool- http://tinyurl.com

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways – using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) – and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

To get this cool tool:  www.voicethread.com

Currently- we are working hard at creating a curriculum for internet safety for our division. 

Middlesex employees- please check out the moodle sites- one under school programs and one under MES teachers.  The first in the working site for the committee members and the other was a site created for students at the elementary level.

I am the ITRT  (Instructional Technology Resource Teacher) for Middlesex County Schools in VA.  I have been in this position for 6 years.  I taught first grade for 26 years before taking this position. I am a “geek” through and through.  I began using computers in my classroom with a Commodore 64, an Apple IIe, and a TRS 80.  Needless to say, I have watched technology change a lot through the years.

I hope to use this site to share ideas on integrating technology into the classroom.  I beleive that technology should enhance the curriculum and not be used just for the sake of using technology.  It needs to be added to the curriculum seamlessly.