GRITC 2011 – Summer Technology Conference Preview

The Baldwin County Public Schools’ IT Services department will host the 3rd annual Gulf Regional Instructional Technology Conference (GRITC) on July 26 & 27 at Robertsdale Elementary School. This conference will bring state and local presenters to Baldwin County teachers to provide professional development on a variety of technology integration topics.

Conference sessions will include innovative technology integration ideas and content specific strategies that you can use in your classroom to address the new Technology Course of Study.

Registration will open next week.  Watch for the next IT Newsletter for details. Teachers will receive a small stipend for attending both days of the conference.

Some of the sessions being offered at GRITC this year are:

APT and My Learn 360

This session will explore the My Learn360 feature in the Learn360 database. The functions in My Learn360 enable teachers to create online assignments, playlists, slide shows, questions, quizzes, blogs, and documents. Attendees will learn how to enter student names into the service, to create and distribute assignments to those students, and to retrieve the results submitted by students upon completion of the online assignment. In addition, attendees will log in as a student and complete an online assignment.

Boards and Bloom’s

Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing and Applying with Whiteboards. Get your “Bloom” on as you learn to create lessons and facilitate with interactive whiteboards and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.

Creating a Virtual Class with Moodle

In this session participants will learn how they can turn the classroom into a virtual classroom that has all the form and function of the traditional classroom. By using web links, pod casts of lessons, and even grade quizzes you’ll see how one teacher has truly transformed her class.

Designing Great Lessons for the Promethean ActivClassroom

We will be sharing ideas for how to use elements of visual design and best practices for instruction to create lessons that will make the most of Promethean’s powerful technology tools. Come and see many awesome ways the ActivClassroom can increase student learning through direct instruction, cooperative learning, hands-on activities, and more!

Digital Age Teaching and Learning

High quality professional development is critical when trying to integrate technology and improve teaching and learning. Participants will explore the essential characteristics of effective professional development, both fact-to-face or virtual. A multitude of free professional development options will be explored as participants discuss the challenges of presenting teachers with professional development program in today’s cash strapped economy.

Elementary Science and Moodle

Are you a 5th grade science teacher that needs help with the state science assessment? Do you want to share and access materials through Moodle? Do you want to add FUN to your science review? Come to the 5th Grade Science Moodle Session.

Giving Students a Visual Voice: How to Use Movie Making to Get the Most out of Your Students

Using programs like Photostory 3 and Animoto will give your students a voice through which that can tell the world what they have learned. Come learn not only how to use these great programs but how to create projects that will motivate and excite your students.

How to get SMART Math Students Using SMART Notebook

In this session participants will strategies to engage students both during direct instruction and during checking for understanding. Come see how you can get your students engaged by using fun interactive lessons that can help bring math alive for students.

Inspire Great Ideas and Great Writers

One of the biggest hurtles to great writing is organizing your thoughts. Students often struggle with organization because they aren’t able to organize their ideas using traditional outlining methods. To really motivate students to write you have to get their ideas down on paper and help them see the connections. Inspiration is a program that can help you help your students get organized and become better writers. In this session you’ll see how easy it is for students to create a graphic organizer that can help them move past bland writing and achieve a level of communication they can be proud of.

Make Your Notebook Lessons More Fun and Interactive

Looking for that extra something that will make your Notebook files really pop? Join us to see how to incorporate the many resources of the SMART Notebook software with other resources to create dynamic lessons and activities, and learn some tips and tricks along the way.

Moodle Madness with 4th Grade Reading Resources

This course is an introduction to 4th grade reading resources via a Moodle course. This Moodle course is open to all Baldwin County teachers. It provides a wide variety of reading resources created by various people around the country and county and housed in one central location. The Moodle course not only provides a place to store these resources, but also provides a central location for teachers working with 4th grade to share great tools and ideas!

Podcasting: Making lessons permanent

Podcasting can give students and teachers a chance to create projects that can make lessons permanent long after they time they are taught. Participants in this session will learn to create enhanced podcasts using a PC and free software.

Skype

All Baldwin County classrooms can host or participate in online video conferences for free with nothing more than an inexpensive web cam and a program called Skype. Connect with the classroom down the hall, across the county or around the world. Students can talk to experts, share information with each other, discuss classroom activities, and collaborate on projects. This session will demonstrate how to install Skype, how you get started using it, and a variety of classroom projects that have successfully used the program.

Using the ARMT Math review videos

As part of an effort to help students and teachers better prepare for the ARMT, Gary Kubina and Liz Ray have created a series of math videos and other resources which can be used for both whole class and individual instruction. The videos correlate to the State Course of Study Standards and the Coach Books. In this session you will learn how to access the videos as well as how they can be used in your classroom for direct instruction or remediation.