Working myself out of a job

I am so happy to have this laptop and LCD projector. I get so much more work done...home, school, coffee shops. I love it! Attendance is easier, updating grades is easier, everything is easier. I am looking forward to getting my website set up on Urban Planet. I had one on teacherweb.com, but it cost me $30 a year. I uploaded assignments and class notes.

I've been putting my class notes on PowerPoint. It is not that I couldn't have done that before, it is just that without my own laptop and LCD I can't depend on getting a hold of a lap top for sure. So there is no point planning on PowerPoint. But now I can! In fact, I put my notes for the Atomic Structure Unit on Powerpoint. One of my students was out sick that day, so when she came back, it was very easy to just print out a copy of the class notes.

If all goes well, my students will be able to download all the notes and homework from my website. Then they won't need to come to class and I can stay home and eat bon-bons all day. Ha ha ha!

More on Thing 3 - NPR Podcasts

I searched for a news summary and found a nice 5 min daily podcast from NPR. I didn't realize that a large number of feeds were podcasts & movies. I could actually see playing this for my homeroom students daily. I love news summaries...but I prefer printed.

Thing 3 - RSS is real simple

Thanks to the code from Ann, it was easy getting my feeds set up. I looked for additional feeds...including from the world of ballroom, of course, but it was tough to find things really valuable in the format of a blog. I can see using RSS if my students each had blogs on which to post questions and chemistry HW tips. It would be very easy to see what they are thinking.

History of the Atom Project

I am very grateful for Marcia's help with getting my 9th grade pre-IB Chemistry up to speed with the databases on connect.spps.org. She also showed them how to use easybib. Their assignment is to research the major contributors to our modern model of the atom: Dalton, Thomson, Bohr, etc. They then have to present what they learned in the form of a poster, skit, poem, rap, etc. The bibliography with complete citations from reliable sources is a big part of their grade...no wikipedia allowed!

Bells & Whistles Finally Working

I finally got my avatar working! I was surprised how addicted I got to making the perfect avatar. But what I enjoy the most is helping other people get things working on their blogs or websites. There are a few new teachers here that rec'd laptops as part of the new teacher initiative.
Because the effective use of laptops and LCDs is on my mind, it was easy to help out our new physics/chemistry teacher. I got her set up with webelements, orbitron, and how she could use her favorite physics websites in class.