Teachers have been asking for a way to organize their class newsletters on their FCPS Teacher Pages.  This screen cast will help you add a child page and link to your newsletters from the child page.

Adding Child Pages to Post Newsletters

At the beginning of each school year or the second semester, teachers are often asking how to update their FCPS Drupal Teacher pages.  I have created a set of video tutorials that outline how to do this.

Drupal Teacher Pages Basics Screencasts

The links below will take you to a screencast of basic Drupal teacher page editing tutorials.  It is recommended that you view the videos in “FULL SCREEN MODE” to optimum viewing.   To enter full screen mode, begin playing the video and scroll down until you see the icon pictured at the right in the bottom right corner of the video.

You can press the ESCAPE button on your keyboard to exit full screen mode.

The videos are recorded in order but each one highlights a specific skill and can be viewed in isolation so you can find and review only the information you want or need.  If you would like the paper handout for Drupal, you can click HERE to get it.

1. Logging On and Off
2. Resetting Your Password
3. Finding Your Teacher Page
4. Basic Editing
5. Linking to a File
6. Inserting an Image
7. Linking to a Web Site
8. Adding a Child Page
9. Posting a Blog Entry

10. Adding Child Pages to Post Newsletters

Making the most of your Professional Development Time 

This presentation will provide insight for PD Professionals and Administrators who wish to “flip” their PD to allow teachers more time engaged in meaningful activity during a typical 45-minute PD session.  Attendees will learn of the methods of one Teachers Specialist for Instructional Technology’s adoption of the flipped model for PD.  Resources and software for creating a flipped PD will be shared as well as real world experiences and feedback from teachers who participated in the flipped model.

Flipped model is not “the answer” but can increase the time teachers have to learn, investigate, and prepare lessons using web 2.0 tools.

Follow @techtimetony

Tweet #flippedpd

Conference Materials

Download the from the FLIPCHART presentation - Inlcudes Links and PollEverywhere

Download the PDF version of the flipchart

In an effort to maximize your time during the bi-monthly 45-minute Professional Development, I will be sending links to videos for you to watch in advance of our meeting.  The videos are not usually more than 10-15 minutes in total length.  The remaining 30 minutes will be spent together using the new information to create products for your classes, plan assignments, or get questions answered.

In order to help get the most out of your session, please read and complete the following items.  

• Please watch the videos in the link below before our scheduled session. The total time of the videos is under 15 mins. This time will be “credited” toward your 45 Minutes of PD.
• Please choose one of the tools (Prezi or LiveBinders) you want to work with when you come to the session.
• Please create an account for the tool you select and have your username and password available when you come. Please see the attached handouts for information on how to sign up for an account. Please be sure to follow the Prezi instructions carefully in order to be successfully registered for a teacher account.

Some important items about the structure of the PD session.

• Because you will watch the videos on your time, you only need to stay 30 mins to get your total 45 mins of PD. Some people may want to stay longer and I am happy to stay longer to work with individuals if they want to volunteer to stay longer.
• When you come to the session, the goals and objectives of the session will be to provide
  • Additional time to work and explore one of the tools – handouts will be provided.
  • An opportunity to ask specific questions about the tool you are using
  • Additional time to create resources for your class using one of the tools
  • An opportunity to plan with me to use one of the tools with your class
• I will try to arrange the room so that teachers using the same tool will sit together.

This month, we will be looking at two Web 2.0 tools, Prezi and Livebinders.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to learn how to create accounts for Prezi and LiveBinders

Prezi is a web-based presentation tool that creates dynamic shows to focus students on the exact information you want them to see. To view the introduction to Prezi, click here and click the "Get Started" video. (NOTE: These videos are blocked at school)  At school, download the introduction video.  You are free to watch all three videos but the "Get Started" video will help you get going.

To start working with Prezi right away, download the Prezi Quick Guide from the FCPS Prezi page.

LiveBinders allows you to save web sites, pictures, documents, pencasts, and presentations in a familiar organizational structure, the 3-ring binder. It is all online. LiveBinders has great tutorials on their website to get you creating your own binders quickly. Click the links below to watch the tutorials.

What is LiveBinders?

Bookmark as your browse

Tabs and Subtabs

To get started using LiveBinders right away, click the "Sign Up" link in the upper right hand corner of the page and create your account.  You will want to install the Live Binder Bookmarklet tool. NOTE:  These steps need to be followed on each computer you want to use.

• Install the LiveBinder Bookmarklet on IE (seems to only work on IE 8 on FCPS computers.  Use Firefox or Chrome if in doubt)
  
• Install the LiveBinder Bookmarklet on Firefox
• Install the LiveBinder Bookmarklet on Safari or Google Chrome

If you have fired up Pixie from the Application Menu lately, then you have no doubt seen that the NEW version of Pixie is here.  Pixie 3 by Tech 4 Learning allows students the ability to create their own original art and writing projects on their computer.  Easy to use drawing tools make graphic design a snap for students in all grades.  Teachers will find the pre-made lessons and activities easy to find and use with students, or can let their class start with a blank canvas where the only limit is a child's imagination.

New in Pixie 3

• Save all Pictures as ONE file! - At last students can save all over their artwork in ONE file instead of saving each picture seperately.  This makes it much easier to create stories, comic books, and movies.
• Collaborate on Pixie Projects - Students now have the ability to work together on one Pixie project
• Get Published - Students can publish their work online in the password protected k12share.com site from Tech4Learning.  More information about this will be available soon.
• New Drawing Tools - Some of the new tools include crayon, dry brush, and a marker.  The drawing tools have been moved to the right side of the screen for more convenience.
• Interactive Full Screen Mode - Pixie 3 has a feature that optimizes the buttons and tools for use on interactive whiteboard users.  There is even a "clone" feature which allows you to drag and drop copies of objects on the page.  This is great for activities such as money, maps and globes, and counting.

To get started using Pixie 3 with your students today, check out the "Tutorials and Resources" for Pixie 3 section on the TRT Pixie 3 page.

Pixie 3 has changed how you show a slide show of pictures that students have created.  In Pixie 2, students would create a picture and save it in a folder with the rest of the class.  (Click to view a tutorial on how to import pictures into Pixie 3). The teacher would open the folder of images and click the "Slide Show" option in the OPTIONS area. 

Now, all the teacher has to do is enter full screen mode, choose the settings for the show and viola! Instant slide show.

Click to view a tutorial on showing a slide show.

Download a printiable version of the tutorial.

Opening a Folder of Pixie 2 Pictures

One of the most requested features for Pixie 3 is to allow students to create multiple pictures and save in one file.  Now that this has become a reality, how do you open up all your old Pixie 2 pictures and put them into one project file to export as a movie or play as a slide show?  Maybe you want each student to make one picture to be imported for a slide show or movie?

I have created a page to explain how to do this here.

Get the Printable Version: Printable Version

 ActivSlate Introduction for PE and Health

August 25, 2011

Please download the flipchart for use during our training today.

PE ActivSlate Flipchart

Adopted From Amy.Boehman's Blog

When you save a project in Pixie by going to "File" and "Save as", most users do not realize that the project is being saved as a .p3i file (Pixie file).  Therefore the picture you created will only open within Pixie software.  (See picture below for what a Pixie file looks like.)

Instead, you will need to export your project as either at Movie (.mov or .flv), PDF (.pdf), or podcast (.mv4)

You can also Create Images of each page in the project as a seperate picture file (.JPEG) where each page is saved as individual files.  You can also create tent cards, trading cards, booklets, and post cards with this option.

Click on the FULL PAGE option.

The Image Export window will appear.  Give the image a name (If there are more than one image, this will be used as the base name and numbers will be appended to the end to give unique image files).  Click the down arrow and select a folder to save the image(s).

Click SAVE.