TLN Update

Greetings!

I hope things are going well as you navigate this busy season. With the Christmas break just 2 weeks away, I want to bring you up to date on a couple of things.

Wednesday's workshops were very well attended. I had many people leave the Audio Workshop excited about using digital audio as part of their instructional practice. It sure was great to have people there from the French Audio group to verify the power of using Digital Audio with their students. If you are interested in seeing a good example of this, head on over to Loius Jenkins' website. http://frenchaudio.net/ljenkins. James Klassen also had a large group of teachers at his workshop (Easy Classroom Websites with FirstClass 8.3) and a great deal of enthusiasm around starting to use this resource with their students and school community.

Here are the things we should have accomplished by the end of December:

1. The Second Blog Post finished

Your first official blog post was a description of your project and the research question you are pursuing. The Second Blog Post should be centered around the useful resources related to your project that you have discovered so far. This will be a critical blog post because it will allow us as a group to pool a
huge wealth of information into one place. Many of you will have found web-based resources. You can list these in the blog post. May I suggest learning how to to make a link in blogger? Click here to learn how. However, if some of the resources you found were anecdotal in nature, or print-based, simply jot these down (names of books, authors, etc) in your blog.

2. Some Baseline Data Established

When looking at a research question, you are usually looking at something changing over time. Learning gained. Student achievement increased. Your understanding expanded. In order to report this out, a good understanding of where you were before you implemented some changes is crucial.

If your reseach question is centered around student achievement, then some baseline data on where the students were prior to implementing the change will be important to gather. Samples of student work, audio/video interviews, surveys of parents and students, journal entries reflecting on your observations at the time all are great ways to gather this baseline data.

Remember: You want to be able to look back at "something" and compare what you see at the end of the project against that sample.

3. Plans made to attend the workshops being provided for the TLN

As part of the TLN we are expecting members to attend 2 workshops during the course of the project. Many of you have already attended one held this past Wednesday.

These are the workshops you can choose from:

1. Interactive School Websites or Easy Online Surveys ~ December 12, 3:30 - 5:00 Click here if you haven't registered yet.

2. Assessment and Data Mini Conference being held at Bakerview on January 16 3:30 - 6:30. Includes dinner.

THIS WORKSHOP IS REQUIRED AS IT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ESSENTIAL SKILLS NECESSARY TO REPORT ON YOUR FINDINGS Click here to register.

3. Multimedia In the Classroom ~ January 30, 3:30 - 5:00 Registration will be forthcoming. We are still working out some details as to the workshops we will offer on this day.

Over the next couple of weeks, the STaRT Ed staff are planning to drop by and visit with you at your school if we haven't done so already. If I don't see you before the holidays, have a Merry Christmas!



Gary Toews
STaRT Education Technology Trainer
Gary_Toews@sd34.bc.ca
Cell: 604-614-8308
Fax: 604-853-5281
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