Read Across Arizona

A few events required rescheduling. Yesterday, third graders from Mrs. Jyothi Soto's (Maricopa Elementray School) and Ms Linda Anderson's class (Curiel Elementary, Eloy District) joined for another fun filled celebration of reading.

Read more here!

On Saturday, November 4th, I attended the PEAK Conference in Flagstaff, AZ. This event is hosted annually by AzTEA Northern Chapter and was held at Coconino Community College (Lone Tree Campus). This incredibly stunning venue was nestled in the deep pines and the large windowed buildings afforded a wonderful sense of being part of the environment outside while working indoors.

This is part of the AzTEA annual tri-conference series. This year's series: Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century'. Last year Jack Wallbrecht and I presented at the 3rd in the series - "WOW" Way Out West Conference which happens each April at the ASU West Campus.

The focus of this first in the 2006-2007 series was 'Teaching and Technology'.

Keynote speaker Hall Davidson is an amazing force of energy and enthusiasm. This gentleman is involved in so many incredible initiatives for students utilizing technology to move them into the realm of true critical thinking, it was hard to follow his rapid pace and excitement. I wanted to reflect on every morsel but he just kept piling amazing ideas and things he is involved with on top of amazing ideas and things he is involved with.

I attended a breakout session on GarageBand. One Maricopa County district charged every teacher with developing ways to improve literacy and language fluency, as part of an overall initiative. Incredibly innovative and imaginative Middle School English Teachers are using this software as part of their response. Students must prepare scripts that meet content and rubric demands set by the teacher - driven by curriculum and standards. If the student's work meets the appropriate criteria, they earn the ability to use GarageBand to create video and sound that supports the message of their written (read orally into the end result video) work. While we are a PC district and this is mac software, this innovative and creative teacher effort should be recognized - Engaging students in new and unique ways, to achieve at a higher level of critical thinking/learning, integrating technology seamlessly for the sake of gaining knowledge NOT for the sake of technology! It simply doesn't get any better than this!

Another information-rich session was run by ADE Ed Tech Director Cathy Poplin re-introducing IDEAL, the ADE portal initiative for administrators and teachers. When initially rolled-out a few years ago, the registration process was rather cumbersome and prohibitive. ADE has successfully streamlined the process and ASSET is now within the powerful IDEAL portal. Educators need use only one portal (IDEAL) to access both powerful CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT tools and resources!

On top of a wealth of incredible resources and data for administrators and teachers there are AIMS Practice Tests. Coming Soon (data was being uploaded and verified at the time of this conference) schools under SIP will soon have data available through the IDEAL portal. No teacher of administrator should work without this powerful resource developed by ADE. Link to IDEAL PORTAL here.

To quote Tom Horne: "IDEAL represents our commitment and dedication to offer online resources that support high quality teaching and that provide an engaging, technology-rich learning environment for all Arizona students. " (Quote pulled from IDEAL website)

Another session I attended was presented by Technology Department from Flagstaff Unified School District. They were sharing the results of their District's Technology Literacy Assessments from last year's state baseline and this's year's Fall Pre-Assessments, which MUSD concludes next week. The Flagstaff Board and Administration are using this data to identify needs and assign appropriate support ($$$) to address those needs.
Learn more about TLA here: http://maricopa-itv.blogspot.com/2006/11/state-technology-learning-assessments.html
And here: http://www.techmusd.blogspot.com/

During the lunch break I represented Eastside AzTEA, for which I am co-chair, along with former Chair Ruth Camuse. We welcomed and lunched with Eastside AzTEA members and discussed mutual interests and needs in the area of Technology Integration support for teachers.

Congratulations to AzTEA Northside Chapter for an incredibly successful conference!
Thanks to Jill Dingman (Grant Director) and the Pinal County ITv Consortium for sponsoring me at this event!

5th Grade AZ Students participating in TLA's - November 2006

RA Az Recognized by 85239.com

http://www.85239.com/news/detail.cfm?id=5573

State Technology Learning Assessments

MUSD will be assessing nearly 400 5th & 8th Grade Students

While not directly related to videoconferencing, through our involvement and active participation in the Pinal County ITv Consortium, MUSD became part of last year's AZ State Department of Education Statewide Technology Learning Assessment Initiative, under the direction of Cathy Poplin, ADE Director of Educational Technology.

The Grant that supports the Consortium, sponsored MUSD and other Consortium School Districts to become part of the state baseline. These baseline assessments were conducted last spring. The state mandated the number of 5th and 8th graders to be assessed, cost of assessment paid thorugh the ITv Consortium Grant.

Why 5th and 8th graders? Just like AIMS testing, which measures students standards based performance over time, TLA measures and evaluates student, teacher, school and District performance (compared to State and National results) benchmarking at carious learning stages, to insure 'on-target' growth is taking place. 'No Child Left Behind' mandates that students be technology 'proficient' by the end of the 8th grade. (Proficiency defined through AZ ADE State Technology Standards).

This year the grant will once again fund assessments for Pinal County ITv Consortium member schools. This is a huge benefit of the grant, other districts - throughout the state- are self-funded at a rate of prox. $3.00 per student assessed. An\ exciting change this year is that the same students will have a Pre-Assessment (November 2006) and a Post-Assessment (Spring 2007). This will allow evaluation of growth of the same population of students over the course of the school year!

Assessments are conducted in the computer labs at the Elementary and Middle Schools and will occur throughout the month of November.

Developer: http://www.learning.com/
To view sample assessment: Products, Tech Literacy Assessment, under Quick Links select Elementary or Middle School sample - require FLASH, get free download here

From the ADE website:
Press Release

'Scope and Purpose' Technology Learning Assessment"

Direct comments or questions to achayefsky@musd20.org MUSD TLA Coordinator

Day Four and I am finally catching my breath!

8 of 12 MUSD events completed!!!

Our teachers and students are making this event so fun and a true delight to witness! Their creative interpretations of the written word is amazing!

Many of this year's participants (adult and student alike) have NEVER participated in videoconferencing yet seem so natural and comfortable with the technology. They are already looking Toward Read Around the Planet and other VC activities!

Thanks to Jenn Berger - Director of Elementary Libraries - for her ongoing support of ITv as she helps teachers definie ideas and implementation! Jenn participated in 10 hours of ITv Training, last school year as part of the Pinal County ITv Consortium. Jack Wallbrecht and I conducted this training. This training included technical know-how as well as how to incorporate videoconferencing into lesson plans.

Today Jenn and Betty Johnson, Maricopa Elementary School Library, joined Mrs. Wells and Mrs. Christian's classes as they partnered with Ft. Thomas and Skyline Ranch Elementary (Florence). Thanks for taking time out from shelving the new Library books at MES to join us! (see picture)

For more details and pictures from the on-going Read Around Arizona events, this month, see our webpage:

http://www.musd20.org/Amy/RAAz_Prep_2006.htm - being updated daily during event days!

Two days down - the events so far!!!

Yesterday Ms Kraus' second grade class (Maricopa Elementary School) partnered with Ms Baca's second grade class from Ft. Thomas.

Our only RA Az event with a High School class partnered Mr. Ence's Business Class with Ms Hinton's Ft. Thomas High School class.

Today Mrs. Sullivan's fifth graders (Maricopa Elementary School) partnered with Ms Britt's students from Lafe Nelson School, Safford Unified School District.

Link to more information and pictures here!

Simply select campus of your choice from the Navigation Bar on the left of the webpage!

Thanks to Jack Wallbrecht, HS Director of CTE for stopping in to support our students at RA Az!

Full Path: www.musd20.org, Departments, Technology, Technology Integration 2006-2007, Collaborative Projects, Read Across Arizona - November 2006

Select the link for the school of your choice, then select the link for the class of your choice!

Monday it all Begins --- Again!!!

This Monday our first events will take place. Students have been touring the ITv Distance Learning Lab in preparation for their "connection" and energy is mounting!

Watch for pictures as the events get underway!