tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28049635639260141912011-11-27T18:25:27.145-05:00Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-54034494045446895232008-10-17T13:28:00.001-05:002008-10-17T13:28:59.594-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-88003030736014498072008-10-17T12:15:00.000-05:002008-10-17T12:16:09.109-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-15771198646847652302008-10-17T10:17:00.000-05:002008-10-17T10:37:56.008-05:00

White Board WiimoteI'm having trouble getting connected in this room in the Civic Center so I'll have to edit this later.University guy – selling pens for$7.00She puts the wiimote directly on top of the projector on opposite side of light bulb.All info on ACTEM notebooksuweschmidt.org – wrote the mac softwareCan use almost anything to make light pensShe thinks magic markers work best pull out the

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-84842315749778130752008-10-17T07:59:00.000-05:002008-10-17T08:00:08.483-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-66104739675790155962008-10-17T07:45:00.002-05:002008-10-17T07:57:13.871-05:00

Okay, I'm not using "Coveritlive" for the keynote. But that's because I want to listen, absorb, and because I can link you to her presentation or embed it directly here:Passionbased Main Education08View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: maineducation08)It's all about Web 3.0. Web 2.0 is all about the tools. Web 3.0 is how we use those tools.

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-82554401438900941372008-10-16T21:05:00.003-05:002008-10-16T21:20:23.989-05:00

Okay, so those last three posts weren't exactly Linux related but they were definitely technology learning. And they'll be a few more posts tomorrow from the rest of the conference. The annual ACTEM conference is amazing - its engaging, inspiring, connecting, learning, and as this year's Maine Friend of Technology put it, "It's all about the kids." The award winner was Floyd Calderwood. He

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-80562809904332614822008-10-16T13:04:00.000-05:002008-10-16T13:06:10.639-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-88711769726546399272008-10-16T10:54:00.003-05:002008-10-16T12:59:05.404-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-79109953309204561562008-10-16T10:11:00.003-05:002008-10-16T12:59:59.023-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-14830299579395905992008-07-13T19:17:00.004-05:002008-07-13T19:41:26.089-05:00

In an earlier post, I recommended that everyone who uses computers should read Linus Torvald and David Diamond's book Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary. I also think that folks should read something about Richard Stallman, the father of GNU (GNU's Not Unix) Operating System. Technically, it was Richard Stallman's work and Linus Torvald's work that when combined created what

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-69826792515467167092008-07-08T10:39:00.003-05:002008-07-08T11:02:01.627-05:00

Whew! It's hard to believe that these hot and humid days of July are allowing my brain to think of school. Well, actually, my only other choice is to think of major housework that needs to be done. So, what have I been thinking of? What makes an "integrated with technology" lesson plan "integrated with technology"? I did an Internet search and didn't come up with anything conclusive.Is it

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-60291209585412853922008-06-28T18:05:00.005-05:002008-06-28T18:14:05.084-05:00

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't blog about two of the sessions at FOSSED 2008. That's because live blogging my own presentations felt a little odd to me.However, if you register with Global Classroom you will be able to join the Moodle classrooms I set up for participants in my presentations. The first one is called, "Our Youngest Users" and the second one is called, "Teaching the

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-44555044176826229242008-06-26T15:04:00.007-05:002008-06-26T15:57:05.655-05:00

Tonight's Keynote is Bryant Patten . . . .Brian is quickly reviewing the basics of Open Source. Why?$ + FOSS = LeverageHave it now! (Free S0ftware for Schools)Never 'stuck' with itInclusiveNo PiracyWhat?Myths = too hard, free means no good, teach the industry standard, etcMilitary is pushing for Open Source because enhances IT agility, industry has to compete on ideas, etc.There is a good chance

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-36325866061823195272008-06-26T08:10:00.006-05:002008-06-26T10:42:23.719-05:00

Sonja Gonzalez is talking about Web 2.0 communication tools. Check out her outline.First up is Skype. She is telling us about a colleague who was teaching a high school class on Game Programming. All the kids thought they'd be the author of the next "World of Warcraft." The teacher joined a game programmers listserv, posted a request for someone to talk to her class. A programmer agreed and

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-49158785313725179652008-06-25T15:13:00.013-05:002008-06-25T16:32:03.761-05:00

Today's Keynote speaker is . . .David Trask !!!!The text in blue is my interpretation of his talk.The title of his speech is "The Natives Are Restless"In a normal school environment we use technology for:email, instant messaging, web browsing, social networking, spreadsheets, writingWhat do we use to do these things?bloated "over-blinged operating systemsexpensive office suiesweb browsers banned

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-89638330625560591242008-06-25T12:31:00.004-05:002008-06-25T15:01:46.811-05:00

As always, lunch was delicious - the food at Gould Academy is simply amazing! Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivore's alike are fed well here.Well, I decided to attend Moodles Beyond the Classroom presented by Maya Crosby, science teacher, and Thomas Steele-Maley, social studies teacher, from Lincoln Academy are the session leaders.First they got us all registered at Global Classrooms. That was easy

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-40874880560379573002008-06-25T08:14:00.013-05:002008-06-25T10:58:52.086-05:00

Session #1 of FOSSED 2008Robert Sargent of Waits River Valley School District, Vermont is presenting on Free "Libre" Open Source Applications for the classroom. He is talking about assessing standards acquisition by using Open Source applications.This following text in blue will be a real time interpretation of his presentation:Best Teaching Practices Student-centered Project-oriented

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-79703588999680323382008-06-24T22:55:00.004-05:002008-06-24T23:29:59.290-05:00

It's hard to believe it's been almost exactly a year since I've written about my personal adventure with Linux. But, since the last entry was done at FOSSED 2007 and this is the eve of FOSSED 2008 perhaps it is appropriate.The main reason for the long hiatus has been discouragement, frustration, and plain old stubbornness. I was stubborn about not writing because I didn't want to write anything

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-4765258688667971362007-06-21T13:24:00.000-05:002007-06-21T13:28:22.508-05:00

Wow! Thanks to the Web 2.0 session yesterday, I learned how to use show.Zoho.com Show to upload my presentation and then embed it in this blog.This is a cool Web 2.0 tool that will make creating exciting classroom websites easier.This is an awesome conference. Lots of help and support and camaraderie.

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-85621496195604637092007-06-21T13:21:00.000-05:002007-06-21T13:23:43.938-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-63628311782300837202007-06-20T13:28:00.000-05:002007-06-20T14:28:49.287-05:00

The rest of the morning was stellar. We progressed through using blogs with students to using wikkis. I learned about 'camelcase,' a language used by some wikkis that creates separate pages when you list a name together like this: JoeSchmoe. This is a good shortcut for teachers.After wikkis, we moved on to Google Apps. Google has any number of applications that lend themselves to classroom

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-4675451845786645582007-06-20T08:47:00.000-05:002007-06-20T08:53:52.863-05:00

Here I am, back in Bethel, Maine, at the 2007 FOSSED Conference. As it was last year, the weather is nice, the food is spectacular, the people are amazing and the dorm rooms . . . are dorm rooms.This morning I'm participating in a Web 2.0 session. We're only a short time into the first session and already I have some great ideas! I want to have my students blog with their 4th grade Care

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-81851050286083181362007-04-26T11:30:00.000-05:002007-04-26T14:17:24.771-05:00

Writing lesson plans can be tedious.Don't get me wrong. Creating lesson ideas is a fantastic process! And thoughtful planning is a key to successful implementation. But, finding the standards, typing the standards either full text or with some 'secret' code, delineating the process in either prose or steps, recording materials needed, resources available, homework, reteaching, and assessment

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-10688335709310571912007-04-18T08:46:00.000-05:002007-04-18T08:57:42.635-05:00

Volunteers can make a program. Last night, 5 community members with Linux technical expertise met me at school to see if our recycled machines were dead. Great news, the tech-gurus not only got everything up and running, they taught me how to trouble shoot some basic issues!Yes, I've begun that long journey to the tech side. Actually, it's not even close to that but, I have learned a few

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-82978754943899644372007-04-05T10:21:00.000-05:002007-04-05T10:52:02.158-05:00

Google Maps has just released a cool new feature for non-techies. Originally you had to be a programmer type if you wanted to create a mashup. (A mashup is when a web application allows users to develop new content by allowing some programming privliegds. Or at least that's the best that I can infer from perusing Wikipedia's definition.) Now, Google Maps has added user friendly tools so that

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-90807816316368720862007-04-03T22:32:00.001-05:002007-04-03T22:32:28.804-05:00

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-12738831068834813442007-04-03T22:25:00.000-05:002007-04-04T20:19:50.141-05:00

Have you discovered Scrapblog yet? Scrapblog is a cool, new web based application. It's a user friendly digital scrapbook. It's free. The finished Scrapblogs can be published privately and only accessed with a password or published publicly. They can also be printed. It's a great tool for classroom teachers and students that can integrate photos, videos, audio, and text into a finished book. The

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-37432368014802775182007-04-03T14:26:00.000-05:002007-04-03T14:57:38.959-05:00

It's that time of the year when most school budgets are in the process of being developed, presented to governing bodies and (hopefully) approved. Many of the costs of education are out of local control~heating, electricity, gas for buses, health insurance~to name a few. Fortunately, one area has a viable alternative. This alternative might not cut costs but it definitely will give a school

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-55328008049821729822007-04-01T13:52:00.000-05:002007-04-01T13:55:10.285-05:00

I will be presenting at FOSSED 2007. (Free and Open Source Software in Education)Here is a description of the session."Ok, I've got Linux/Open Source in my classroom...now what?"This session is for non-technical classroom teachers. Other sessions might teach you about the applications that are available with a Linux Operating System. This one will help you learn to think about how to use the

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-38692214265340540062007-04-01T13:05:00.000-05:002007-04-01T13:52:13.076-05:00

The FOSSED Conference for 2007 is open for registrations. (Free and Open Source Software in Education) It used to be called NELS (North East Linux Symposium). This is a much more descriptive title.The conference was originally for those techie types. However, a few of those techies were actually classroom teachers in disguise. They quickly realized that teachers were an essential element for

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-42372671502092694152007-02-11T14:20:00.000-05:002007-02-11T16:27:34.458-05:00

My students and I were studying the genre of "How-To" Books. Usually, as part of a similar study, I would have the class create a big book that summarized their knowledge of the genre. This time I decided to have them create a Presentation in Open Office. The end result was very cool!As with any genre study, we immersed ourselves in "How-To" Books. We read them aloud, we read them in small

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-41049573957572218372007-02-07T14:33:00.000-05:002007-02-07T16:27:26.999-05:00

Spelling correctly is an essential skill for students. Many student assessments require them to demonstrate knowledge and skills via paper and pencil tasks. Just like penmanship and keyboarding, spelling needs to be fluent so the student can concentrate on the content of the writing.One way to give your students another tool to master the skills in spelling correctly is to use Spelling Time at

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-73840979851749498202007-02-06T12:40:00.000-05:002007-02-06T12:55:20.369-05:00

At our school we decided that we wanted the web browser to open up to our school's homepage. Several of us have Portaportals (check out www.portaportal.com to set up your own free web-based bookmarks organized the way you want it) that link off of the school's homepage. Mine can be seen at http://guest.portaportal.com/room8Here are the directions to set each of your students' accounts to set

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-31457827959439280532007-02-01T15:48:00.000-05:002007-02-01T16:22:38.754-05:00

Teachers lives are governed by schedules. There are lunch schedules, recess duty schedules, and bus duty schedules. There are schedules for each subject including library, art, music, and phys. ed. Then there are schedules for staff meetings, parent meetings, and professional development meetings. Consequently, many of us organize our classrooms with schedules. Schedules help us ensure that

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-17734856542922837362007-01-25T15:35:00.000-05:002007-01-25T15:56:31.833-05:00

At the beginning of this school year, I had 5 working recycled K12LTSP machines. So, using the computers was manageable for small group work. (Unfortunately, I'm down to 2 working machines. We need technical expertise.)I organize my classroom so that penmanship practice is first thing in the morning. As I thought about using the Linux machines during that time, I realized that keyboarding is

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-18632796398634167622007-01-23T15:20:00.000-05:002007-01-23T19:28:42.503-05:00

After my students learned how to log on (and log off), and change their desktop backgrounds, I moved on to using some of the applications. I had envisioned and planned a slow, methodical process for each student to learn how to navigate to a program and use it. Fortunately, my students knew better and I had enough sense to let the synergy of the learning process take over.I gathered the class

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-72272421789211555082007-01-22T10:10:00.000-05:002007-01-22T11:35:52.614-05:00

The family spent a cold Maine afternoon browsing at our local Borders. (I know, local and Borders is an oxymoron.) I collected a diversity of books to peruse while having a cup of something warm. My pile included texts on low-fat vegan recipes (a GREAT way to lose weight!), knitting, Barack Obama, and Linux. Of the four books on Linux I chose to peruse, only one was non-techie friendly. I

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-36046800598085307102007-01-20T14:27:00.000-05:002007-01-20T15:40:08.332-05:00

Let's assume that you have Linux-based workstations in your classroom. These may be recycled equipment that is big, bulky, but free or relatively free in cost or it may be spiffy, sleek, and comparatively inexpensive when looking at the cost of a new PC or Mac product. In either case, you need to get on the machine and start trying things out. The version our district is using is K12LTSP (

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-85295299994557907702007-01-19T14:17:00.001-05:002007-01-19T14:32:52.937-05:00

Before the techie-types put Linux-based computers in your classroom, you may be sitting through meetings or reading emails that contain new vocabulary. It's helpful to learn some of the new vocabulary before those workstations appear in your classroom. I found that by familiarizing myself with the terminology and concepts my learning curve was faster and I was better equipped to ask questions

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-42161299520497561082007-01-17T10:05:00.000-05:002007-01-17T10:21:10.285-05:00

Why am I doing this? This blog is for non-technical types who want to use (or are being mandated to use) Linux/Open Source technology in the classroom. I have spent the last year searching the web and joining lists for a non-technical resource to help me understand how I can use this to be a more effective teacher. I couldn't find a resource that was specifically for teachers. I was looking

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804963563926014191.post-70359400582950209862007-01-17T10:01:00.000-05:002007-01-17T10:04:51.600-05:00

What is Linux? Linux (pronouned with a short i) is a computer operating system. One of its advantages over Windows and Macintosh is that it is able to run on a wide variety of hardware. Other advantages include its cost, its freedom from viruses, and its flexibility. It's free!, the source code is available to any and all. This means that literally thousands of programmer-types have worked on

Mrs. W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16182266530927904141noreply@blogger.com0