The Techno Cheetah

LEGO EDUCATION with Mrs. Quinn, Technology Teacher

Mrs. Quinn and Mrs. Colman, GT Resource Teacher, will offer a new seminar, LEGO Education, to 4th and 5th graders.  Interested students are required to complete an application and if selected, will meet at their lunch/recess time one day a week (for approximately 8 weeks).

LEGO Education is an exciting program that promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

LEGO WeDo – Students begin work with simple robotics. They build models, attach sensors and motors that are attached to a computer and design actions using a simple programming tool.

LEGO MINDSTORMS  – Students learn to design, program and control models. They use software to plan, test and modify instructions for a variety of life-like robotic behaviors.

Mrs. Quinn will present information about this seminar at the 4th and 5th grade lunches. The required application is due by the end of this week.

Check back soon for more updates about LEGO Education at Bellows Spring Elementary School!

On Tuesday January 20, 2009 at 12:01 pm, one minute after Barack Obama officially became our 44th president, the White House website changed to reflect the new administration.

Some of the new features on the redesigned website include a blog, a weekly video address, and slideshows (here’s a cute one of presidential pets).

The picture below shows the transition the website went through.  You can view the evolution of the White House website, or any website, using the Way Back Machine, on archive.org.

Image Source: Before & After: WhiteHouse.gov

Update 10/2/08 – The application process is now closed.  Thank you to all who applied.  Mrs. Quinn and Mr. Robb will be looking over the applications and picking tech helpers in the next week.

Attention BSES 5th Graders:

Mr. Robb and Mrs. Quinn are looking for responsible and reliable 5th grade students to be kindergarten tech helpers.  Tech helpers come in during kindergarten class and help the kindergartners with the activities on the computer.  Helpers must be willing to miss one day of recess per week.   If you are interested in being a tech helper please fill out the online application.  The application deadline is October 1.

Click here to complete the application.

Over the summer, Bellows Spring’s student Alayna Lightfield, organized a fundraiser for a charity close to her heart.  The fundraiser was a great success.  What really impressed me was how the family used technology (they created a blog) to promote and highlight the fundraising effort.  What a great idea!

You can read more about it on the Lightfield’s family blog- http://thelightfieldfamily.blogspot.com.

Hello to the Bellows Spring Community!
I am very excited about teaching at Bellows Spring Elementary School this year. I will be at BSES on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I will also teach at Deep Run Elementary School on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I have taught in the county for many years and for the past fourteen years was the GT Resource teacher at Mount View Middle School. I am taking classes at Johns Hopkins University in their Leadership in Technology Integration Program. As a result of this course work, I decided to pursue a position as a technology teacher. I love working with technology and look forward to sharing my expertise with the students.
I recently vacationed in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and Cape May, New Jersey. My final vacation will take place in New York and Pennsylvania for two family reunions. Some of my hobbies include photography, art, travel, and playing frisbee with my dog Elvis.
That’s all for now. I look forward to a fun and exciting year!
Thanks to Mr. Robb for inviting me to join this blog.
Mrs. Lorraine Quinn

I forgot to mention in my last post that I met Lester Holt, the co-anchor of Weekend Today and the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News, at the NECC conference.  Mr. Holt moderated a Today Show style keynote discussion at the conference.  Here’s a picture:

I’ve been home for a little over a week now since the NECC conference in San Antonio and I’ve had some time to digest all the information.  First, I just could not get over how big the conference was.  It was amazing to me the number of people that are interested in educational technology and came from all over the globe to learn more about it. According to this article from the ISTE website there were:

12,654 registered attendees

577 international attendees from approximately 57 nations

88 registered journalists from around the globe attended NECC, plus hundreds of dedicated bloggers

The size of the vendor hall was also mind-blowing.  It was an amusement park atmosphere only without the rides and people are trying to sell you things   I tried to capture the size of the vendor hall but I don’t think the pictures really do a justice.

Again, from the ISTE article:

The largest educational technology event in the nation, spanning five and one half football fields, featured 1,340 booths and 479 companies displaying hardware, software, educational and technical publishing, and equipment/services emphasizing the use of technology by students and education professionals.

The Office of Media and Educational Technology has set up a blog where attendees from the Howard County school system wrote about what they learned at the conference.  You can read about two of the sessions I attended (here and here) as well as what others HCPSS employees learned at the conference.

I’m excited to use some of the ideas I came away with this upcoming year.