I have made my first widget for Mac OS X! It was much easier than I thought it would be. It is a simple countdown clock. The goal - MCHS Class of 2009 graduation.
This widget won’t be of much use to anyone not at MCHS but I just felt like sharing. It is available for downloading in a zipped file for anyone who wants it.
I just added this cool online tool to my Resources - Links+ list but wanted to share it in a post also. This is such a cool site - and it is FREE. I can see SO many EdTech uses for it!! Have students create animations easily and then save them as Flash files or animated GIFs. Students can tell short stories, give demonstrations, create simulations, and much more. Math students could show how to solve particular types of equations step by step and then share their demonstration.
I am presenting two sessions of this technology workshop at Millington Central High School this week.
Here is the QuickTime version of my Keynote presentation (click to manually advance each slide) - file size is 2 MB.
Here is a PDF of the presentation slides with room for notes - file size is 1.1 MB.
Here are the links provided in the presentation:
I just accidentally came across a neat feature in Apple’s Keynote. I am not sure how many other programs this works in but I plan to try it and let you know.
When typing in Keynote, if you aren’t sure how to spell a word, type a few letters of the word and then hit the ESC key. A pop-up menu appears that gives you suggestions for completing the word.
If you have never visited AcademicEarth, take a moment to check it out. It has thousands of video lectures from the world’s top scholars in a wide variety of subject areas and it is free.
You can, if you wish, register and make an account but you don’t have to. If you do create an account, you can make playlists of videos which can make classroom presentations go a bit smoother.
If you show any of these videos to your class, connect via Ethernet for a cleaner presentation.
Note that you can also embed these videos into your website or blog.
I am set up to receive weather alerts on my cell phone. I was quite surprised when I was awoken in the middle of the night with a message announcing a Winter Storm Warning. The weather authorities are predicting an accumulation of 2 - 4 inches. If we get it, that will be the most we have gotten this season.
The snow started as predicted around 3 pm. One of my cats, Geo, enjoyed a trip onto the balcony of my apartment to watch the white stuff fall.
After just an hour, my car was pretty much covered.
The radar makes it looks like it is almost over but they say more is on the way. I am just glad I don’t need to go out in it. 
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Update posted 3-1-09:
We ended up with about SEVEN inches of snow!!! Looks like some may melt off today but it is expected to refreeze overnight. That will make tomorrow morning’s drive to work pretty scary. Maybe we will get a snow day.
Regardless, I decided I better go out and clean off my car today. Getting all that snow off of it will allow the sun we get today to melt off much of the ice underneath (I hope).
Again, this is another topic I expect to write more about later on but let me just say that I thank Apple for developing Remote Desktop. I use it daily to manage our computer labs and mobile carts and cannot imagine the time it actually saves me. It also makes it so much easier to catch students on inappropriate websites or catch them when they are off-task. I highly recommend ARD!
My primary web browser is Firefox. I occasionally find I need to use Safari but 99% of the time, you can find me in Firefox on my MacBook Pro. I have customized my Firefox in a variety of ways and that is one of the reason I like to use it.
I use the tab feature for my home page. I keep the sites I visit on a daily basis right there for me to check. What sites? Well, this one is in tab number one. After that I have the MCHS website, Response-O-Matic (since I manage several forms there), WTVMEA (I manage that website), Woot (because I love a good deal), and Tribal Wars (a game site I spend WAY too much time on).
One other way I customize my Firefox is by using Foxmarks. I have tried various ways to save and manage bookmarks (del.icio.us and ikeepbookmarks.com, just to name a couple). Using Foxmarks in conjunction with Firefox has proven to be the easiest way for me to keep an updated backup of my bookmarks. When surfing the web, I bookmark a page and when I close out of Firefox, it syncs with my Foxmarks account to update my backed up bookmark list. It couldn’t be much simpler. Of course, I still have to keep my Firefox bookmarks from getting too convoluted but that is another story entirely. 
I will make more posts on my use of Firefox in the future and talk about neat ways to customize it and expand its uses.
I serve as the Technology Coordinator for a high school and part of my duties include holding training sessions for the teachers. I try to make them useful and relevant, giving them tools they can use to further integrate technology into their current lesson structure.
Right now I am preparing for a session on using Skype in education. I am calling it, “Bring The World Into Your Classroom with Skype.”
I have used Skype on a personal level for awhile now. I started using it (and sharing it) with a few teachers at my school just recently. The interest level is finally picking up so I am holding two sessions of this workshop.
We just recently held our first video conference. Two of our English teachers contacted the author of a book their students are reading. A Skype session was planned and, even though it had its hiccups, the experience was invaluable - not only to the students but to the adults who attended. Our local newspaper sent a reporter out and a wonderful writeup appeared in the publication. I absolutely LOVE the opening line by the reporter, Tom Bailey, Jr.:
“Millington students stepped into the future Tuesday to explore the past.”
I expect I will write more about this experience soon. I will post my handout and presentation file for others to use. If you have used Skype with your students, please comment on this article and share.