Blog « Interact Cafe

INTERACT 2012 Application!

Jan 5

Posted by Chad Jones in Best Teaching Practices, Technology Integration | No Comments

Are you ready? Excited? Can hardly contain your enthusiasm?! Well…neither can we! It’s time to open up the INTERACT 2012 Application! YAY!

Here are the basics that you should know before you fill out the application:

What is INTERACT?

For the fifth time Lamar CISD is gearing up for a staff development like no other. INTERACT is designed to provide attendees with research based teaching strategies paired with outstanding examples of technology integration. In fact that is what INTERACT stands for, INtegrating TEchnology Realistically Among Classroom Teachers. Our goal is to pair fantastic teaching with amazing technology and make it feel second nature to you. We recognize that for a teacher to feel comfortable with the technology they need to have regular access to it rather than simply checking it out once a semester. That goal, along with a firm belief that only you, the teacher, can best decide which of the many technologies best suit your style and meet your student’s needs, compels us to follow up the training with the chance for you to outfit your classroom with some cutting edge technology.

Who can apply?

You apply as a team and each campus has one team…except High Schools, which can now have two!

Teams must contain 2-4 members
Teams must represent at least two grade levels for Elementary or two subject areas for Secondary
Teams may contain one specialist (Facilitator, Special Ed, etc.) per team

How do you apply?

There are a few steps you will need to follow in order to apply for INTERACT 2012:

STEP 1: Complete the “Intent to Apply” – ALL teams that hope to attend INTERACT 2012 MUST complete the “Intent to Apply” by Feb. 1, 2012! You don’t have to be ready to fill out your application by Feb. 1st, you just have to have let us know that you are

STEP 2: Complete the “INTERACT Individual Application” – This is a quick three question form that helps us know who you are as a teacher and professional. Be honest and show off how great you are!

STEP 3: Create the a fun and creative video with your team answering the following prompt:

“Why do you NEED to attend INTERACT?”

We will be evaluating each video on its creativity, vision on education, and demonstration that all of your team members had a role in creating it! The video should be no less than two minutes long and no more than four! After you are done, your team will upload the video to YouTube and share it with us via the “INTERACT 2012 Team Application“.

When does all this need to be done?!

Here are your deadlines and important dates, so write these down NOW!

The “Intent to Apply” is due Feb. 1st – do that one NOW!
The individual application and team application are due by March 1st.
INTERACT 2012 is the week of June 4th – 8th; 8:00am – 4:00pm

What if this all sounds too intimidating or I don’t know where to start or I just have additional questions?!?!?!?

Easy! Contact your CITS! They would love to help you find a great team, let you know when video trainings are available, or simply tell you how great INTERACT is.

We are so excited about this year’s INTERACT…it’s going to be the best one yet! And we hope you’ll be a part of it!

Tags: Interact

Happy Holidays from the iCafe Team!

Dec 13

Posted by Chad Jones in Tips and Tricks | No Comments

I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in saying that this is by far my favorite time of year! Christmas is coming, a New Year is around the bend, letting me not worry about how much weight I gained over Thanksgiving, and we all get TWO WEEKS OFF FROM SCHOOL! YAY!!!

Well, to help you out with the holiday cheer, the iCafe team wanted to share some of our favorite festive tech-y treats that may help you be a bit more jolly!

Digital Ginger Bread House

One of my favorite things to do around this time of year was creating a ginger bread house with my grandma! It was always so much fun…and I got to eat lots of candy! Sadly, I probably won’t get to see grandma this year, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make a ginger bread house! Thanks to Highlights Kids, you and your favorite little kiddo can sit next to the warm glow of your computer screen and build your very own digital ginger bread house, complete with candy pieces, “stuff”, and icing! When you are done, print it out and save it for much longer than you could save the real thing! …I just wouldn’t recommend eating this one…

Highlights Kids Build Your Own Ginger Bread House

A Message from Santa

Want to make a little boy or girl the happiest little kid on earth? Have Santa send them a personalized video message!

The folks at Portable North Pole allow you to do just that and it takes just a few minutes to set up the message. A video is then created where Santa talks to your kiddo, calls them by name, and let’s them know if they have made it on to the “NICE” list! This is a super fun thing to do for your kids…my daughter is still talking about her message from Santa!

Portable North Pole

Keeping Tabs on Santa

Are you ready for Christmas Eve? Wonder if Santa is on his way? Thanks to the folks at NORAD, we can keep tabs on where Santa is all Christmas Eve through noradsanta.org. This is a lot of fun to sit down with kiddos and talk about where he is, discuss what Christmas is like around the world…and also make sure they get to bed on time, because he’s on the way!

This year, NORAD Santa even has an app for your iPhone and Android devices, so you can keep tabs on Jolly Ole’ Saint Nick even if you happen to be traveling!

THANK YOU!

From the bottom of each of our hearts, we would like to say thank you from the iCafe team! We are honored to be able to work with all of the wonderful teachers in LCISD and around the globe! We hope you have an incredibly relaxing break and look forward to working with you again in 2012! Happy Holidays!

…and don’t forget to elf yourself…

Tags: Christmas, NORAD, Santa

Upcoming Training from the iCafe Team!

Dec 6

Posted by Chad Jones in Staff Development, Staff Development Plan | No Comments

Looking to integrate a few new technology tools into your classroom? Check out the upcoming Professional Learning opportunities from the iCafe team in the Spring of 2012!

Jan 17^th	iPads for Beginners Training	Section #54133
Jan 24^th	Windows Live Movie Maker – *INTERACT APPLICANTS ONLY*	Section #54135
Jan 26^th	iTeach ELA and Social Studies with iPads	Section #54158
Jan 31^st	iTeach Math and Science with iPads	Section #54156
Feb 2^nd	Intermediate SMART Notebook Training	Section #54141
Feb 15^th	INTERACT Video Assistance Open Lab – INTERACT APPLICANTS ONLY	Section #54140
Feb 16^th	Promethean ActivInspire Intermediate Training	Section #54132
Feb 21^st	Discover the Possibilities with Discovery Education	Section #54154
Feb 23^rd	INTERACT Video Assistance Open Lab – *INTERACT APPLICANTS ONLY*	Section #54136
March 1^st	Liven Up Student Presentations	Section #54134
March 20^th	Exploring the World Beyond your Classroom Walls	Section #54160
April 12^th	Introduction to Google Earth	Section #54139
April 17^th	Discover the Possibilities with Discovery Education	Section #54155

All sessions are available in ASCEND and last from 4:15pm – 5:45pm. Be sure to register to save your spot!

Tags: ASCEND, training

It’s coming…INTERACT 2012

Dec 2

Posted by Chad Jones in Technology Integration | 11 Comments

It’s coming…are you ready?

INTERACT 2012 is on it’s WAY!!

INTERACT is a week long learning experience for teachers across our district in which you explore some of the best research proven teaching strategies while being immersed in the all of the amazing technology resources available here in LCISD! This week is one of the most amazing, fun, fulfilling, and meaningful learning sessions we get to be a part of…and we want you to be a part of it too!

Here are some important dates to remember as you plan to be a part of INTERACT 2012:

SAVE THE DATE: INTERACT 2012 will be held June 4 – 8; 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

APPLICATION:

Application window is open from Jan. 4 – March 1
Intent to apply MUST be submitted by Feb. 1
The application will be video based – more details to come!

WHO CAN APPLY:

Teams must contain 2-4 members
Teams must represent at least two grade levels for Elementary or two subject areas for Secondary
Teams may contain one specialist (Facilitator, Special Ed, etc.) per team

Oh yeah…and after attending, you get to outfit your team with the technology tools that best suit you and your students!

So start planning now! Get those teams together, start brainstorming some possible ideas on how you want to apply, and check back with the iCafe blog soon for more details!

READY TO APPLY?!

Be sure to follow this link and complete the Intent to Apply Form by Feb 1^st!

Tags: Interact

Trouble Finalizing? Try being a little less…compatible

Nov 17

Posted by Chad Jones in Tips and Tricks | No Comments

Remember when TV’s went to a digital signal a few years ago? You had to buy a special converter box to plug into your TV so you could watch all your normal channels. For a little while, television stations didn’t have to upgrade to digital, but if a station decided to and you didn’t have the converter box, you couldn’t watch the show anymore! Well…the same kind of thing can happen in Internet Explorer!

As Internet Explorer has been updated, web pages are having to update as well, so they can be viewed inside of IE. Explorer tries to help older web pages by turning something called “compatibility mode’ ON, so the new fancy things inside of IE will turn off and you can view the page properly – think of it as unplugging your digital converter box from your TV so you can watch those channels that hadn’t upgraded yet.

Unfortunately, there are some pages that just don’t work in compatibility mode because they have been designed to work in the new IE…and the PCG Finalize Gradescreen is one of those pages!

If you are having trouble finalizing your grades inside of PCG, you need to turn Compatibility Mode OFF – think of it as plugging your digital converter box back into the back of your TV! In Internet Explorer, there is a button just to the right of the address bar that you need to click to turn it off…see the image below!

Once you click that button, your gradebook screen will refresh and you can now finalize your grades!

How do you know if you need to turn compatibility mode off? Well, if you are checking boxes in the Finalize Screen and it isn’t checked when you go back to check on it, then you need to turn that button off! If you are entering comments and they aren’t showing up the next time you go to look at the screen, same thing! If you click save on the Finalize screen and it never refreshes – time to turn compatibility mode off!

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cdjones@lcisd.org!

Tags: Gradebook, PCG

Recommended Apps for the Week of Nov. 14-18

Nov 14

Posted by Chad Jones in iPad 1:1, Technology Integration, Technology Review | No Comments

Have you noticed that iOS devices are pretty popular? Probably not. Who could have possibly noticed the MILLIONS of iPhones out there, the MILLIONS of iPods, and MILLIONS of iPads wandering around?

Ok, obviously we know and you know that iOS devices are popular and we have hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of them in the district alone, but how can you keep up with all the new apps that are out there and evaluate whether it is something you should try using in your class? Well, the iCafe team is going to try and help!

Check back each week as we look at a few of our favorite apps that we recommend. Here’s our first four…and some are even FREE…at least for today!

	Scribble Kid - Give the kids chart paper and markers to create!
	Creative Genius on-the-go - Supplies you with a bunch of writing prompts or acting out activities.
	Counting and Skip Counting – Practice counting and skip counting…click on the numbers to follow along.
	Counting Board – Put the hundreds chart an your device…click to reveal the numbers.

Tags: iOS, iPad, iPod

The Texas STaR Chart

Nov 1

Posted by Chad Jones in Technology Integration, Technology Review | 4 Comments

Moving forward with technology in the classroom is obviously the wave of the future…it’s hard to deny that…but how can we gauge whether our schools are actually moving forward?

One way that the state of Texas reviews the growth of technology in our schools and classrooms is through the use of a simple survey called the Texas Teacher School Technology and Readiness Chart…or the STaR Chart!

Texas STaR Chart

This online tool (http://starchart.epsilen.com/) allows for the state of Texas to assess the use of technology in our schools, and from that, can help disperse funding as it is needed. All teachers and campus librarians are REQUIRED to take this survey, and from the data they provide, campus administrators complete a survey for their campus, and finally the district provides their results to TEA.

Since this is a survey that you only complete once a year, it can be difficult to remember exactly what you need to do, so to help you out, we have created a few video tutorials walking you through the most common steps of completing the STaR Chart. The videos answer each of the following three questions:

I am new to my campus this year. How do I get a username for the survey?
I forgot my password! What do I do?!
This seems too easy…is this all I really have to do to complete this survey?

So, check out the videos below (press the play button in the middle of each screen to begin)! Hopefully they will help you walk through this very simple, fairly short survey, that ultimately helps us all reflect on how technology is impacting our schools!

I’m new…how do I get a username and get set up in the survey?

I forgot my password! What do I do?

Ok…I’m in the survey now…What do I do?

Tags: STaR Chart

Keyboard Shortcuts

Oct 28

Posted by Jeff Peterson in Microsoft Office, Tips and Tricks | No Comments

Keyboard shortcuts are a combination of two or more keys that allow a user to complete a process quickly using the keyboard instead of the mouse. The idea behind keyboard shortcuts is to improve efficiency, saving both time and effort. In the past some shortcuts were complex, such as “CTRL + Shift + F12”, the print command in Microsoft Word in the past, today the commands are generally easier to perform and remember, “CTRL + P” to print in Microsoft Word now. Regardless of the keystroke command, the shortcuts, once learned, will make your life more productive.

Here are some of the more popular commands:

Commands Universal with Almost All Windows Based Programs
F1	Help
CTRL + S	Save
CTRL + P	Print
CTRL + Z	Undo
CTRL + X	Cut
CTRL + C	Copy
CTRL + V	Paste
ALT + F4	Close or Exit active program

Looking for additional shortcuts? Visit this site to view keyboard shortcuts for popular Microsoft products such as Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and many others: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx

PCG Mythbusting! – Running Reports in Excel

Oct 25

Posted by Chad Jones in Microsoft Office, Tips and Tricks | No Comments

I hear there is a myth going around that you can’t run any of your PCG Reports as Excel documents! Well…that’s true! There a number of reports in PCG that work great inside of Excel, but you have to know the trick on how to run them!

Do you want to know the trick?

Of course you do! That’s why we made this quick video training on how to do it!

As I said in the video, many reports will run great in Excel, but not all of them. Unfortunately, some of the gradebook reports will not be able to be exported to Excel because they add columns of data (assignments), and the export simply doesn’t handle that. Sorry! For the other reports though, this will probably be a great way for you take data from various sources and pull them all together in Excel for additional analysis. If you have any questions feel free to email me at cdjones@lcisd.org!

Tags: excel, PCG, reports

Creating a Desktop Shortcut for your Students!