Tech+Training

**Tech Training: Summer July 20, 2011**
Excellent day of exploring many new and useful technology programs and sites. Followed the new format of free-flowing where the facilitator runs around like crazy helping each individual w/what they are working on. Small groups w/specific topics based on need. This way, we were able to cover MANY things as we progressed throughout the day. REAL GOOD format. Got EXACTLY what I needed and more. Feel a lot more ready to start school in August. Feel like I have a head start on those who did not attend. D. Weatherly p.s. Bless you, Peggy, for killing yourself for us!!! Most helpful technology day ever!!!

Comments by Julie Thomas

This training was very useful today. I left very excited about being empowered to actually use more technology in lessons/class. I was especially impressed with joining the LCM Tech Wiki. The links on this page are very user friendly. We covered Learning.com aka EasyTech where we were able to see the changes that have been made. In particular, there are Teacher Lessons that show you how to do lessons with your students, what I consider Professional Development. A demonstration of SmartBoard/Interwrite training was great! We learned how to video lessons and upload them onto SchoolTube. Very cool stuff! United Streaming aka Discovery Streaming we covered the new changes as well, and were shown how to set up our classes, and do lessons that provide quizzes, assessments, and other interactive learning for students - any grade level, any subject We utilized a source called Visual Blooms that uses the new Blooms Taxonomy with lessons, objectives on a particular Blooms - again for any grade, any subject Symbaloo was another feature to have and access all of your sites on one page - a convenient way to access all of favorites in one step. It was easy to add buttons on the page, so as to personalize it quickly. We went into Gaggle and practiced using it: including creating a blog, using digital lockers, and how to use Training Videos to self-teach how to use applications. The day was full of great stuff! I highly recommend it, and look forward to future training. JT 7/20/11

Thanks again for all the great info. you gave us yesterday. Sincerely, Mike Platt

This class was very informative and hands-on. I enjoyed breaking up into small groups to focus on specific topics. You can also learn from other teachers and what works well for them in each program. Thanks Peggy! I love the extra programs you showed us, too! Megan Whittaker

Peggy: Thanks for putting together a very useful and informative day on a wide variety of technology. Having everyone input their information simultaneously via Google Docs was a great way to demo this tool as well as find out what each person there specifically wanted to learn. You showed enough of a new tool to help us, but then you gave us access to the resources to continue to learn more about that tool. The PLN (Professional Learning Networks) was very helpful in finding others who are doing the same thing and learning from/sharing with them. Your having access to help everyone get into United/Discovery Streaming, Gaggle, School Center, etc. by your having access to the usernames/passwords was great. Reviewing the changes (or the tool for the first time for some) was very timely! I've already set up my Symbaloo page with several tabs. Can't believe how easy this tool is to use (and don't know why I didn't know about this before).

The format was very useful for helping everyone get skills that they specifically needed--instead of just sitting and watching. Would highly recommend continuing this! Marcia Brown