The Techno Cheetah

Wow, time flies!  The third week of school is coming to an end.  It seems like it went by so fast.  Since my last post there have some technology related updates for our school and, more specifically, for the ed tech program:

1. Staff Pictures
The staff pictures are now on the Bellows Spring website.  Although the themes have changed, the personalities of each team still shine in the photos.

2. Green School
Bellows Spring is going green! This year our school is starting a two year process to become certified as a “Green School.”  We will be documenting progress our school makes on the Green School page on the school website.

3. Interactive Whiteboard
The ed tech program has received an interactive whiteboard!  This board lets the user control the computer from the front of the classroom.  Over the last three days I’ve been learning some of the features of the whiteboard.  I’m looking forward to exploring some of the other features and learning how to use it as an effective teaching tool.

Some students got an opportunity to try it out:

There are several exciting changes this year for technology class:

1. Mrs. Quinn will be the new .6 technology teacher.  She will be at Bellows on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

2. Technology class will no longer be on wheels!  (I’m very happy about this as the computer cart was very heavy to push around the school.)  Technology class will be located in the portable that Mrs. Hughes occupied last year.

3. A new version of Pixie, Pixie 2, has been installed on all the laptops.

4. Although the order has not arrived, we will be receiving an interactive whiteboard.  An interactive whiteboard connects the computer to the projector and will allow the teacher and the students to control the computer from the projection on the whiteboard using a special pen.  This will make demonstrations and student presentations more interactive.  I can’t wait for it to arrive.

Whiteboard Image Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Interactive_whiteboard_at_CeBIT_2007.jpg