Kick back and make a plan! Win the Best Buy Award.

Take time this summer and think of a great technology winning idea. You could win 2,500.00 from Best Buy.Don't wait until Sept. 30, 2007, write it up during the summer and post it before August 30, 2007 our first workshop day.

Rewarding Schools for Making Learning Fun
At Best Buy we believe technology can excite and engage students, creating a more valuable educational experience. Through Best Buy Teach Awards we support schools� creative use of interactive technology to make learning fun.

Best Buy Teach Awards reward schools using interactive technology to make learning fun.

• Over the past four years, more than 4,800 K-12 schools have received over $14 million in Best Buy Teach Awards.
• Awards go to K-12 public, private and parochial schools using interactive technology in classrooms.
• Schools must be within 50 miles of a Best Buy store to apply.
• Educators must apply online between July 1 and September 30.
• See examples of how teachers are using technology to make learning fun.

technorati tags:bestbuy, technology, greatidea

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What has the District Technology Committee been doing this school year?

You will see we are using technology. We podcasted our first meeting. The sound isn't that great, but you can hear most of the speaking. The minutes will be posted along with the link to the podcast.

Here is the link for the podcast of the May 31, 2007 meeting.

Here is a link to the Summary of the District Technology Committee

District Technology Committee Meeting May 31, 207

Members in attendance: Saul Lindauer, Jamie Cox, Mary Bouchard, John Bailey, Bob Gilpatric, Bob Sprankle, Cheryl Oakes, Cheryl Mills, Marty Cryer

Agenda:

Celebrate the Technology improvements throughout the year.
     WHS, WJHS, WES,Adult Ed, Central office
Hear a short presentation about Moodle –

Bob G. and Cheryl presented a quick intro of Moodle for the group. We are waiting to hear if the per diem request was accepted for WHS. We will know by June 18, 2007. Moodle will be introduced throughout the district next fall in staff meetings, small group meetings and will be a requirement for teachers to have a presence on the Moodle.

See the Technology Checklist for WOCSD

·         The Checklist was sent out to the staff as an online survey. Next time the survey questions need to be tweaked so support staff can answer not applicable to the questions about Web2School, for example.

Update on staff development in the district

·          Waiting on the survey results and the district calendar.

Update on the collaboration with Kennebunk and Virtual High School

·          No word yet.

   Update on collaboration with Kennebunk/Wells and the summer staff development class.

There are 18 people signed up to take a summer technology class and there are 4 teachers from Kennebunk joining our staff.

 

Questions, comments, suggestions!

 

• The Boosters are planning on selling USB memory sticks at WHS and WJSH next year. This will enable students to take their documents and presentations back and forth from home to school.
• Take all the information from the Technology Committee this year and find another way to get it out to the community. I will work with Reg Bennett. The information is listed on the District page, the Wocsdtechtalk page and to the administrators.
• A recommendation was made to have a page where the parents, students and community can find information about open source software which will enable students to use similar software at home as at school.
  
  This has been a rocking committee and I look forward to another year with this group.

technorati tags:wocsd, coakes

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Student and Teacher Survey for MLTI

Hello all,

Please have your 7th and 8th grade students fill out this survey.
Then please take time and fill out the survey for teachers. This information is being compiled for the MLTI project.
Students!
Student Survey: http://www.cepare.usm.maine.edu/surveys/mltistudent.htm



Teachers!

Teacher Survey: http://www.cepare.usm.maine.edu/surveys/mltiteacher.htm

Literacy Strategies at the High School level

Here is a project that was developed in Maine for high school literacy. It is called the Region III Literacy Project.

This Literacy Project is part of the State Moodle were lots of great information is stored.

The purpose of the project grew out of a need for high school students to be reading at a Lexile level between 730-960, a college freshmen reading between 1100-1310, and a typical Lexile reading level for textbooks and manuals at the Technical Education Center between 1010-1210.

Once this purpose was defined Region III instructors began integrating literacy strategies into their lesson plans to ensure student comprehension of the required reading material. What are you using in your classroom to ensure student comprehension at the target Lexile standards?

technorati tags:literacy, highschool, cheryloakes, lexile

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Thanks to Target for their efforts in Education

I've been meaning to write this blog post for a month. Since we just are coming off a vacation I figured I better just do it!

Target, announced a "first of many thanks to teachers for this year!" Taget thinks that teachers should feel appreciated all year round. Here goes!

Here is an easy way for our schools to realize funds from Target. Through the Take Charge of Education Target donates up to 1% of every purchase you make on your REDcard to the eligible K-12 school of your choice. This is one way you can benefit our schools.

Target has made a site with downloadable materials for teachers and students where diversity is celebrated.

Next September 2007, teachers can apply for Field Trip Grants for trips in our local community. Check out this link for more details.

Finally a contest for students Redesign your school! This contest, for students grades 9-12, began in March 2007 and the submissions are due June 30, 2007.  Students can win scholarships, prizes and the opportunity for their ideas to influence future schools' designs.

Checkout these ideas, all it takes is a little time.

Over and out!

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Juniors at Wells High logon to PrepMe

On April 12, 2007, all juniors in attendance at Wells High School were able to take part in an introduction to PrepMe. Here is the paragraph from PrepMe.com's website from Feb. 1, 2007.

Today is a big day for both PrepMe and the State of Maine. We just announced that in conjunction with a philanthropist, we will be making $4.5 million per year in PrepMe test preparation available to Maine’s public high school juniors for the next three years. Maine took the bold step of replacing its state assessment test with the SAT because it believed that every student deserves to have access to a college education and with the partnership announced today, PrepMe hopes to play a substantial role in making college accessible to Maine’s students.

It is not often that a whole grade level in a state can take part of something so influential and important (besides the laptops). I was in the computer lab all day at WHS and explained a little bit about PrepMe, test taking strategies and how to take advantage of the services that PrepMe has offered. Ms. Jennifer Lacher-Starace and I worked with the staff and students to get them involved with this process. I have to say that the support that PrepMe has been comprehensive and very reactive. I've been able to communicate with their company with questions and support.

PrepMe is designed for students to take diagnostic tests and then have a series of practice sessions individualized for them in preparation for taking the SAT's May 5, 2007. Parents may also take part in this process by accessing their student's account and by observing the kinds of topics the students need to work on. Each student went home with a flyer about PrepMe and an email about the process. If you have any questions about this process visit PrepMe or ask you student or your student's English teacher or Ms. Lacher-Starace. You can always email coakes!
How could I forget the most important part? The students were very serious about this test. They liked getting their scores immediately, getting feedback on their answers and about knowing what they need to work on next. Thanks PrepME.

technorati tags:PrepME, WHS, CherylOakes

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Online gaming in virtual worlds!

 Join the Women of Web 2.0 at 9 PM Tuesday as we discuss  many webtools. This week, April 10, we are discussing the following.

The Horizon Report 2007 states that virtual worlds are going to be a significant trend on college campuses in the next 1-5 years but there are some educators already doing it.

The Guests
Beth Ritter-Guth is a pioneer who is teaching literature in Second Life (SL). (Shakespeare in SL, to "prim or not to prim?")  She has taught me so much and is very patient!  We have a lot to learn from her.

Dr. Allan Webb is the founder of literaryworlds.org  and has an amazing story to tell about how a difficult book became very teachable in a 3D environment.

This is not technology focused as both of our interviewees are teaching literature!  It will be exciting!

We have agendas for these shows.  I'm going to share a pared down version with you:

If any of the following interests you come along tonight. If you can't make it you can listen to the podcasts which will be posted by Thursday at www.edtechtalk.com

WOW2 April 10, 2007 Agenda: The Potential for Virtual Worlds in Teaching

First 5 minutes - our WOW's of the week (where we share the coolest new stuff we've found!)

I. Guest Intro
(Brief bio, what doing now, and how they first got into virtual worlds and what they do now in virtual worlds.)

II. The current uses of virtual worlds in teaching
Observations from those who are doing it.
Dr. Webb -- How he first started literary worlds and the improvements he saw.
Beth - How she first started using second life and she you uses it in the classroom now.

III. Where do you see this going?
Beth - What do you think can be done in SL or other worlds that will help teaching? Are you seeing things happen in SL that will change things?
Dr. Webb - Where do you see sites like virtual worlds going in the future?
Beth's response

IV. Current Trends and Reports and your Reactions -
The Horizon Report 2007 listed virtual worlds and massive multiplayer gaming as becoming important parts of the college educational experience in the next 1-5 years? Do you agree with the time frame? Do you think college profs will agree or disagree with this?

A new report has emerged questioning the validity of software in helping achievement... do you think this has the potential to also stymie the growth of virtual worlds and give ammunition to the incredulous?


V. Safety
SL and Teenagers -- What can we do to safely use this tool. Beth, let's start with you, we want the audience to understand the issues about bringing K-12 into SL and the limitations.
Dr. Webb - are there safety issues in virtual worlds?

Over and Out! Cheryl

technorati tags:onlinegaming, CherylOakes, womenofweb2.0

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There is no such thing as a free ride!

There is no such thing as a free ride. Nothing in life is free. Many of us have heard these sayings  before. Well then, what about Free Speech? This week in the blogosphere we have watched a conversation take place that demonstrates the human cost of free speech, the lasting impression of a few irresponsible words and images.
As 21st Century Citizens we have a responsibility to model responsible, respectful and ethical behavior while using the Internet.
Today and often,  be sure that you talk with your staff, students, parents and community about cost of Free Speech. Our words are powerful. We have a responsibility to use our words to promote our ideas and we have a responsibility to share this knowledge and model good behavior while using the Internet.

All of this conversation should center around how to stopcyberbullying. Today March 30, 2007 is Stop Cyberbullying Day. I expect  this really is the beginning of  stopcyberbullying,  a way of life. Free Speech?  Responsible, respectful and ethical speech.

technorati tags:stopcyberbullying

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Web 2.0, The Machine is Us/ing Us

When you view this, you will get a taste of how the web is changing. Think: how the learners are changing.
Think: how teachers should be changing.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Great links of this week!

If you are looking for ideas to promote learning about the Civil Rights Movement, please check out this site. http://www.visionaryproject.org/teacher

Have you been looking for a collaborative calendar? Here is a free online calendar for organizations that will streamline the scheduling and communications process for your members!

http://www.famundo.com

Marco Polo, a standards based curriulum web site for teachers has merged with Verizon Literacy Network. With those two powerhouses, you can't go wrong. Check it out if you are looking for  lessons plans, interactive student activities across seven disciplines.

http://www.thinkfinity.org/home.aspx

The US Department of Education has unveiled their newly remodeled versions of Federal Resources for Education.   http://www.free.ed.gov

Last but not least! Check out the ALA podcasts, listen to library related news at  http://blogs.ala.org/districtdispatch.php

Read my latest blog at TechLearning.com it is all about Daylight Savings Time and the web.

Over and OUT,Cheryl

technorati tags:wocsd, Cheryloakes

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SMARTboards and differentiation

Joe Scrivens presented about how he used Notebook to differentiate lessons for multi levels of ability in the classroom.Notebook also allows for different learning styles, the cloner for example lets you build words from parts. All the learning styles can be built into the lesson. By using colors to jazz up the bullets, it may make it easier for some students to read and remember. Now we have time to build our own lessons in Notebook.

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A great time at SMARTboard Training, Wocester 2/2007

Thanks to Pamela for sharing these great photos!

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Day 2 of SMARTboard training in Worcester MA

John Blaser from Eastchester, NY, presented his rollout and training of staff in his school system. Critical Factors for Integrating SMARTboards into Classrooms, Schools and Districts. His district has 2800 students and has integrated SMARTboards , 125, into their classrooms for the past 2.5 years.There are still more SMARTboards to add to the district. As part of John's presentation he interviewed many teachers(40), administrators(8), and many email anecdotes. He asked 2 questions:

What was necessary or what contributed to the successful integration of SMARTboards into your classroom, school or district?

What are the benefits of integrating SMARTboards into your classroom, school or district?

Critical factors from the interviews:school committee support, support of administrators,training during the school day, must have substitutes, train right in the classrooms PROFESSIONAL development is KEY, will make or break how it is used in the classroom, trained by teachers and technology integration specialists

Implementation: Deployment and Configuration-

Integration Plan, Professional Development Model- teacher training in the building and knowing the people in the building to go to for support. Classes for inservice credit. Informal training in small groups at a grade level. Start with small goals and small implementation plans. Provide options for training, one size does not fit all.

Administrative Support-need to understand the enormity of the SMARTboards

Professional Development-key

Time Interest and Dedication-Allow teachers time during day, course work, afterschool all good options.It will take about a year to get the SMARTboard integrated into the teachers day.

Go to JohnBlaser.com for some of John's resources. 2/27/07 -823

Stephanie Carson, a product developer for SMART presented the newitems that are coming out. The Notebook is the mainstay of the productdevelopment.

Bridgit enables multiple users to connect easily and share real-timevoice, video and data with out making reservations, installing softwareon the desktop or uploading preesntation materials in advance. It alsouses VoIP. Allows the user to hand over the desktop and you canannnotate over the screen.*

SynchronEyes is a classroom management software.

SmartIdeas the concept mapping software. It is complimentary with the board.

The SMARTboard 600 series needs a seperate projector and has theability to move up and down. USB audio, wireless bluetooth, gowire.

The 600i series has an arm that projects 3.5 feet, which is theprojector. Purchase all through SMART. You can also run without acomputer. You can use a USB key to run your program. People can do theinstall on their own.

The Airliner wireless slate allows the teacher to teach from aroundthe room as well as having students participate using the board.

The Senteo Interactive response system.You can use for quizzes on the fly and immediate graphs are ready to use.

Sypodium is a product that allows inteactivity on a huge screen, not an interactive white board.

SMART is committed to education by providing professional development and unlimited support.

Many training opportunities are available at the SMARTTECH site.

SychronEyes- is a classroom management system great for labs, orgroups of laptop classrooms. You can push out files, so you can get theurl page all on the student computers.Windows compatible.

SmartIdeas concept mapping software. It is very intuitive and agreat resource. It is great for visual learners. It has great levelsand links well with Notebook. There are lesson plans already made onthe website.

Part 2 of the SMARTboard workshop

Robert shared this great source for all subject areas for high school teachers and students. Merlot.org
Gillyon, science teacher in NB, demonstrated how to use the virtual cell URL http://www.ibiblio.org/virtualcell on the SMARTboard. Spyguys http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mesg/html/math6web/math6shell.html for math, geared for 6th graders, james bond theme and also had good review for gr. 7 and gr. 8
Optic microscope primer http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/

Merlot.org is a peer reviewed multimedia site good for high school, all subject areas.

Jen , Northbridge High School, uses the SMARTboard, links the video clip from United Streaming right in her presentation for her Geometry lesson.She downloads the attachment of the video file and links right into the notebook and it plays really quickly.
Jen,from Cavendish School, Grade 4, VT. She created a game using the duplicator function, students come up to the board and create words, there are clues available for students. She has 12 students in her class and after presenting to her school board, they are purchasing more for their schools. She shared a lesson on drawing a plant and labeling the plant. The URL for the main page is from the Birmingham Schools, there are plenty of other great resources too.

Len Euart, from Plymouth, MA. He is a technology coordinator at the K-8 schools. He uses BrainPop, BrainPop Jr. and EnchantedLearning.com with his SMARTboards. The lesson he used was about using Capital Letters. Len, adds the standards to the lesson. He copied the buttons as links for his teachers to use. Brainpop Jr. has the ability to read the text to students. Then there is a built in game with practice/assessment of the skill.
Gary, from Hebron CT, teaches 7th and 8th grade science. He has created notetaking worksheets for his students, students add the information. He has a way to check the answer. Then students write their assignments in their agendas. He uses the SMARTboard for labeling the parts of the heart.
Pam, middle school language arts, New Brunswick, CA. She has a SMARTboard in her room, the computer lab and one portable one. The district has just purchased 80 more. 70-80% of SMARTboard use is with Interactive software or websites. Once teachers have seen the benefits of the SMARTboards they are engaged and motivated. Pam uses the links to online movies for the lesson introduction. Then students come to the board and put objects in correct categories. Her students love the Mission to Mars interactive site from the NASA website. Students have 10 minutes as a team to make decisions about their trip to Mars. Now that her teachers have seen the motivation of the SMARTboard software they are excited to do more. Her 7th grade students all have laptops, housed at school.

Wendy,gets to share resources with all of us. She demonstrated the Jeopardy game with the interactive graph and all the notebook resources.We used the Inkaware insert text into Excel! or insert text as Graphic for signature.

Rachel, a SMARTboard educator, from NYC shared how to get scanned images into notebook.If you already have images on your computer, to move things into the notebook software, then look for insert, find your already saved images and it moves it to the software. She showed how to use the view option and split the screen.

SMARTboard Workshop, Worcester, MA

I was invited to attend this New England workshop with area SMARTboard educators. This is a sharing opportunity for area educators and by blogging about what I am learning, I am able to bring you along on this workshop.

Check out this site first. http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/

There are more than 450,000 whiteboards in classrooms. 15 million students using the technology.

There is a great contingent from New Brunswick, CA presenting their best practices. Allan, teaches at Blackville High School, Blackville, NB, Grade 10 and 12 English, history and media studies.

He demonstrated his Jeopardy Ancient Rome game prior to testing to help with recall. He used the powerpoint jeopardy template and then linked the blocks to the different pages. The linking capability was critical.There is also a timer included on each page.

Shaun, from Blackstone Valley Tech School in Upton, MA presented his website. He has included all his worksheets on his site which he is able to use also as an interactive worksheet on the SMART board, file print, one option is smartnotebook print capture, (the smart notebook has to be open). This option is available with anything you have on the screen, it captures it to the notebook and creates a great print option.(This is a by-pass of the scanning process.) It actually prints into the notebook in better fashion then a scanner, YOU can not manipulate the items in the document, it is a graphic object. The camera feature allows you to take a picture of a piece of the page and put it in your SMART notebook.

Shaun talked about how his class notes are available for students who need assistance, he makes this available for all students as part of his website.

Cheryl spoke of how Wells Junior High School has deployed 30 SMARTboards as part of a renovation project.

Derrick, from Fredericton, New Brunswick, CA , District Office 18, is a math mentor and works with teachers in his district. Using the notebook for his lesson, he demonstrated that the URL's are interactive, he inserted the graphs that students worked on in class.He showed how a lesson for making a cube demonstration, for visually impaired it is easy to zoom in and enlarge the page.

Eithne, from Blackstone Valley Tech School in Upton, MA, where her school has 1100 students a 13 town district, as part of their renovation they have 84 SMARTboards in their school and are working with a range of expertise with staff.She is demonstrating the new version of Notebook 9.5 and is relaunching her training. She used the notebook software to create the training materials. How to take their materials and print and add to their notebook. Eithne took her materials and integrated them into a SMART notebook file, with page numbers a customized training manual. She included the URL link to Atomic Learning so it is a comprehensive package for teachers to go back to. It has a whole section of 3 min. movie clips on how to use Notebook
9.5.

Elizabeth, from Burnt Church School. New Brunswick, they started with one portable SMARTboard and now all classes have one. Her students are using Notebook for their presentations. The students created their project about how to market something using digital photos and the notebook and how to use notebook as a presentation.

Gail, from Bathurst New Brunswick, she models lessons for teachers in math. She created her training lessons with Notebook. There are over 100 SMARTboards in her schools. So, she has organized her her lessons by grade level and topics.It takes about one hour to prepare a lesson.the WOW was the URL http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activities.aspx?grade=all&standard=all

Gail also shared a site where you can get free clipart. Animated objects http://dgl.microsoft.com

Once there search for a particular topic and you with then just copy the image, and then go to the notebook and paste onto the page.

Robert share a place for public domain source for images. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

All this happened during our first session for the morning.

Blizzard of 2007!

We are in the midst of the Blizzard of 2007! While the snow is falling, the winds are blowing and temperatures are in the teens, with below zero wind chills, we can all be quite comfortable in our homes while reaching out on the Internet. I can check the weather in Tampa where my mother is at 46 degrees F, the weather in Montreal at 9 degrees F and snowing, and keep tabs on what is happening in Maine. You can imagine that I am also checking the snow amounts at Sugarloaf where at 4 PM they measured 17 inches. All this to say, that although we had a "snow day" today, many of us were still able to work and research thanks to the Internet we have in our homes.

I am working on compiling data from the NetDay 2006 survey. Thanks to all who took time to fill out the survey. You will be pleasantly surprised with the results. I know I am very pleased. The survey gives us a direction for our technology vision.
Cheryl Oakes, Valentine's Day in a blizzard!

technorati tags:Blizzard, web

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January News in WOCSD

Filters in WOCSD

To comply with Federal NCLB law the district uses the state issued filter called Bess. This filter is updated weekly so you may find things you normally accessed not available. The State of Maine controls the filter and I apply exceptions for our schools. Please email coakes@wocsd.org if you need access to a website for you or your students. I can usually open the site within 10 minutes. However a day’s notice by email is best. I’ve closed Internet Radio in order to free up bandwidth. After 2--3 PM the sites open up.

Ways to Learn more about Technology, when you want!

If you are looking for new ways to learn more about technology please check out these 2 online workshop offerings.
Http://k12onlineconference.org
http://dafnegonzlex.com/evo-07/index1.htm
Both of these conferences are FREE. It might work for yo u if you have some kind of technology goal in your professional plan.
University of Berkley makes 50 courses available for your iPOD. Free courses, college level. Good for you or your students.

Research Time
You can check out the Portaportal page I created  http://www.portaportal.com and the guest login is  internetresearch
You will find some great links about using the Internet to Research.
Another great spot to begin research is with the State of Maine MARVEL, virtual library and databases. There is a FREE workshop at the public library Jan. 22, 2007.

Looking to get a question answered about a particular piece of software? Check out Atomic Learning.com They have free online movies. It may be a movie you need to answer that question! If you really like this site let me know and it may be time for our district to get some accounts!

Web2School in WOCSD
This school year has seen many challenges for the district and the partnership with Web2school.
In each building 1 secretary is in charge of adding new teacher and assigning new permissions. Each staff member needs to update the web client when prompted. Parent information( user names and passwords) will be handled by the building secretary. The computer technicians will be responsible for ensuring the daily connections are working for all staff.
Web2School has volunteered to work with a committee on revising the mid-trimester progress report so that it prints out in a more professional way. See your building principal if you are interested in working on this committee. The committee should only need 3 meetings. FMI email coakes@wocsd.org

Web2School for Parents
If you hear from a parent that they are having
trouble logging into their Web2School please
let me know. I’ve worked with several people to get them in their accounts.

There are  83 staff members with Homeworknow accounts.
There are 6 parents signed up for emergency alerts from the schools.
Did you know you can check your pages to see how many people have visited  your site since you began?The District Technology Committee
made up of school and community members recommends using  Homeworknow.com K-12!

Thanks for using this site How many visitors have you had?

Thanks for visiting and reading this newsletter. Leave a comment!

technorati tags:technology, wocsd, web2school, homeworknow.com

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New 5th/6th Grade blogging activity group at WJHS

On Tuesday (January 9, 2007) I'll be starting a blogging group with 5th and 6th graders at Wells Junior High School. The purpose is to share Internet Online safety and netiquette rules. Our first charge will be to review online safety and create a collaborative wikispace on Internet Safety. You can watch as this site grows. Students must have parent permission before they create their own blog. However, they will be able to add to the collaborative wikisspace we are using for our webpage.

In order to watch this site grow you can subscribe to the RSS feed. You must have a blog aggregator. This is a way of collecting the blogs or news you want to keep track of. A popular blog aggregator is Bloglines. The RSS feed for this new site is (feeds:http%3A%2F%2Fwjhsinternetsafety.wikispaces.com%2Fpage%2Fxml%2Fhome%3Fv%3Drss_2_0). By adding this feed to your aggregator you can see each new upgrade. Watch this student site grow.

Another place to watch this grow is by clicking on the link from the Wells Junior High district page.

Wells Junior High Internet Safety

Any comments or questions please email coakesATwocsddotorg

technorati tags:internet, safety, wjhs

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Tagged and I am It! 2007

Apparently, a game of tag is currently going on in the blogosphere - and I have been caught! In a better attempt for you to get to know me better I'm to "reveal" five things about myself that you otherwise wouldn't know from reading this blog.  Here goes:

Sharon Peters, a Women of WEB 2.0 tagged me while I was still at the mountain house. She even had to give me a hint I'd been tagged!

According to the rules, I am now supposed to share 5 things you may not know about me. And then, I am supposed to tag 5 other bloggers.

1. I am a downhill winter skier. Last year I was able to ski 80 days during our winter. My goal someday is to ski the winter season around the planet! During the winters in Maine I ski Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley.

2. I am going to present at NECC for the first time in June 2007 in Atlanta, GA. If you are there I hope to meet up with you! Look for our session as Women of Web 2.0. Okay, many of you did not know I belong to the Women of Web 2.0 well, the secret life of Cheryl Oakes. As part of Women of Web 2.0 and Webcast Academy, I co-host a weekly Internet Radio show , called a webcast, at Worldbridges.net Tuesdays at 9 PM EST also known as Wednesdays 2 AM GMT.

3. I love to spend time outside in the summer either in my kayak along the coast of Maine or in the community garden.  Part of my outside summer activities include raising 3 pigs for our dinner table.

4. When I began my career in education in 1974 I was a kindergarten long term substitute, then I worked in the field of Special Education, got my Masters in Special Education from the University of Maine in 1977 a field I stayed with until 1992. Then I migrated to the field of technology integration at  Wells Elementary School.

5. When I was working summer jobs I landed a great job as a cook at The Teashop at Squirrel Island Maine.

Tag you are it! Maria Knee, Leah Tondreau, Bob Sprankle, Ryan Palmer and Sharon Betts!

technorati tags:tag, blogosphere

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Ch-ch-changes

I want to review the protocol for smart passwords. Be ready in the first week of January to change your password. This will get you all through grading and report cards. Think of it as a New Year's Resolution you can't avoid.

I found the following rules for smart passwords at the Portland State University User Support Services. A smart password...

• must have at least six characters
  
• must not appear in any dictionary
  
• must contain both lowercase and uppercase alphabetic characters
  
• must contain a number
  
• should contain non-alphanumeric characters such as !, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), etc

If you have a question about creating a password you can email me. coakes

Many of you have asked about the amount of SPAM some of us are getting in our mailboxes. One way to work around this is to get rid of the email PDF form on our district page and make it unreadable by SPAMbots.

The next PDF may look like this   

  school address     wocsd.org

Staff user names:

coakes 

Then our community will  have to put the two things, user names and school address together on their own. This prevents SPAMbots from having it all laid out for them.

Over and out

Cheryl

Collaborative Content Coach for Technology

WOCSD

technorati tags:security, passwords, protocol, cheryloakes

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