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!

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…

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

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!

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!

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.

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?

[See post to watch Flash video]

I forgot my password!  What do I do?

[See post to watch Flash video]

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

[See post to watch Flash video] ]]> http://icafe.lcisd.org/the-texas-star-chart/feed 4 http://icafe.lcisd.org/keyboard-shortcuts http://icafe.lcisd.org/keyboard-shortcuts#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:35:49 +0000 Jeff Peterson http://icafe.lcisd.org/?p=3336

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:

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

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!

Here are some simple directions on creating a desktop shortcut for students from an Internet Explorer Address which can be a huge time saver and help keep students all on the same page…literally!

• Log on to any LCISD computer as a student. (Check with your CITS for the login information if you don’t know it for your campus!)
• Open Internet Explorer
• Be sure you can still see the desktop of your computer (you may need to click on your restore button if the window has been maximized to fit the entire screen.
• Navigate to the site for which you’d like to create the shortcut.
• Near the address at the top of the window, find the favicon (small image next to the internet address.)
• Select the favicon by “clicking and holding.”  Then drag the favicon to your desktop.
• Rename the new desktop icon, if desired, by right clicking on the desktop shortcut, selecting “rename,” and entering text.