Week 10-The Gift of Knowledge

This week's assignment is optional--you only need to complete it if you missed one of the previous weeks' posts. In the spirit of the holidays, I thought we'd give someone who isn't in our class the gift of something you've learned. Here's how it works:

1. Look over the past posts and find something you think you'd like to pass on to someone else.
2. Pick a person on your staff to receive your "gift of knowledge."
3. Visit that person and say, "Hey, do you have minute so I can show you this cool thing I learned?"
4. Show them. (Don't forget, let them "drive." Only in dire situations should you take over the keyboard or mouse of another person--we learn best by doing.)
5. Come back here and tell us what you shared and why, and a little bit about the experience.
6. Enjoy your break!

Week 9: Using Your Teacher Website to Provide Resources

Every teacher in our district has the ability to create a teacher website. Teacher websites can be use to communicate information to parents and students, provide information and resources as documents or links and to create discussion through a discussion board. Photos and videos of students can be added for families to view. Events can be added to the calendar, practice quizes can be created and grades can be shared.

Did you know that you can lock a document? Any file that is uploaded to the documents section can be locked by clicking on the padlock to the right. You will be prompted to create a password. This password can be shared with individual parents so only they can access the file (audio, video, word document). When someone clicks on the file, they must enter the password in order for the file to open.

Here are a few SWIFT sites you may want to visit to see a variety of uses:
Brandon Betlach
Christine Thurston
Cheryl Reilly
Wendy Ward

For this weeks post: Look at how other teachers in the district are using their SWIFT site. Look at other teachers in your grade level/specialty. Report back how you currently use your site and what you would like to add to enhance your site.

Week 8-Staying Organized with OneNote

OneNote is a wonderful program found on our laptops. It is a Microsoft Office program created to work as an electronic notebook. "OneNote is a place for gathering, organizing, searching, and sharing notes, clippings, thoughts, reference materials, and other information." As a teacher I have created notebooks for my class of students, committees and groups as well as print shop and report cards.


When you open the program you will see that there is a notebook already created for you. It is the user guide for the program. There are two tabs, each with several pages. (Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office OneNote)

For this weeks post, view the OneNote 2007 Guide notebook. If you are new to the program, review the Getting Started with OneNote tab/pages. If you are a currect user, review the More Cool Features tab/pages. Report back and share how you could use this tool as a teacher.