CFF: Professional Development Helpline

The NS Anczarski

2011-05-19T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hysterectomy - Surgery Live Field Trip

2011-04-27T00:10:00.003-04:00

Video of Surgery Live is not permitted. The Whitaker Center with its partnership with Hershey Medical Center is one of only four locations in the United States that have this kind of a program for High School Biology Students.

WBRE Field Trip

2011-04-26T09:26:00.002-04:00

WBRE Field Trip

Students from Mr. Smith's Journalism Class watched a live newscast on the set and from the control room.

AWESOME!!!

Recent Videos

2011-04-20T13:32:00.000-04:00

Art Exhibit at Regional Band

March 25th Regional Band

2011-03-25T13:26:00.004-04:00

Regional Band Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 2:00

Guest Conductor

Dr. Andrew Yozviak

West Chester University

Host Director

Matt Tenaglia

North Schuylkill JSHS

New Jersey - State Report

2011-03-22T14:04:00.002-04:00

New Jersey State Report

using Photo Story 3

Cha, Cha, Cha Gym Class - Dancing with the Stars

2011-02-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

EKG - Heart Rate

2011-02-14T10:33:00.000-05:00

Create your own free slideshow design

December 22, 2010

2010-12-22T11:39:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas

from

NS Band and Choral Group

December 13, 2010

2010-12-10T14:44:00.003-05:00

      We are continuing to grow in our technology skills. Many teachers have mastered the art of blogging through their homework hotlines. We have had more teachers using blogs in their classrooms including a blog by Patricia Wade Dougherty, who had her students blog with students from Cambodia. Boy! Did she have interpreters on the ball! As you know Pat spent about two weeks in Cambodia teaching with a group from her Lehigh University International Relations Graduate Class. What an experience! I'm Jealous. She skyped into her classes, staying up really late at night, and shared her adventures with her classes. Her students were able to see her and talk to her from half a world away. What a free and great communication tool Skype is with so much to offer in education! Anyone of our teachers can bring a professional educator from anywhere in the world into their class by simply making a skype call.

     Mrs. Wade also taught a world cultures class using a webinar. Using a webinar allows the students to see your power point notes, pictures, maps, etc. It also allows students to use instant messaging to write down questions about what they see or about something else they might want to know. Mrs. Dogherty was able to read the questions from our students, but our students could hear Mrs. Dougherty's answer. We had WNEP channel 16 cover this webinar event.

      Using a blog for homework helpline has our teachers using blogs weekly to post homework. Many of the skills used in posting messages, word documents, and videos are the same tech tools used in Wikispaces.
Our principal, Mrs. Snyder, has everyone using a wikispace for their quarterly writing prompts. What a super way to get each teacher technologically invloved! Students upload their Word documents to their teachers' wikispaces. Teachers can see every project and evaluate these projects from their wikispace. A wikispace is a website that can be shared and used by class members. Teachers are slowly realizing the different ways that a wikispace can be used in education. Teachers are using other teachers' wikispaces from other districts as well in their classrooms. Student wikispaces make great e-porfolios where students can upload and keep all their documents, pictures, and videos throughout their school years on one web site. Some teachers already have their whole English and Social Studies notes on line on their wikispace so students can get their notes at home off the wikispace site.(especially during flu season).

    More and more teachers are using Google Docs for surveys, spreadsheets, word documents, slide shows, and calendars.

October 12 - October 31

2010-10-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

Wiki directions for Students

Wikispace directions for Teachers

September 21

2010-09-17T08:44:00.004-04:00

Football Theme Music

Causes of the War pptx

Deutchland

September 13

2010-09-10T12:41:00.006-04:00

Monday Video Tutorial on Making a Weekly Template

Monday

· Social Studies 7

· Social Studies 8

· Social Issues 12

Tuesday

· Social Studies 7

· Social Studies 8

· Social Issues 12

Wednesday

· Social Studies 7

· Social Studies 8

· Social Issues 12

Thursday

· Social Studies 7

· Social Studies 8

· Social Issues 12

Friday

· Social Studies 7

· Social studies 8

· Social Studies 12

August 30, 2010

2010-08-30T09:25:00.000-04:00

Well, blogger keeps changing things and ,for any new teachers, your homework helpline may look a little different than the rest of us. But they are only slight changes.

New Staff Members can use this link to create a new blog:
New Blog Template and Colors

June 4, 2010 SUMMER CAMP

2010-06-04T09:38:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, August 17th

Session 1 - Google Docs

Session 2 - PhotoStory 3 & freeplaymusic.com ; Introduction to Prezi.com

Wednesday, August 18th ***all day workshop

Session 1 - Wikispaces 1
Session 2 - Wikispaces 2 for the Classroom

Thursday, August 19th

Session 1 - Promethean: Things Teachers Need to Know

Session 2 - Promethean: Using the Desktop Tools; Time for Promethean Planet Downloads

April 20, 2010

2010-04-20T15:46:00.002-04:00

FlipChart Fundamentals - the basics and prerequisite for further Promethean Training.

March 29th

2010-04-01T11:17:00.007-04:00

Check out Mrs. Neary and Mr. Chernewski's Election Headquarters

Check out Mrs. Neary's Election Headquarters wiki. This project on Political Issues grouped students into political parties with each party member having roles and task to perform. This project used the wikispace for a project based learning activity.
This project had the 3most important ingredients to a project bsed lesson: Rigor, Relevance, and Substantive Conversation(great discussions among the teacher and class, among students within their political parties, major concepts and social studies standards brought forth by teacher,Mrs. Neary, inclusion teacher, John chernewski, and co-teacher and CFF coach, Stan Shumski.

Civics and Government

5.2.12.A: Evaluate an individual's civil rights, responsibilities and obligations in various contemporary governments

5.2.12.B: Examine the causes of conflicts in society and evaluate techniques to address those conflicts.

5.2.12.C: Evaluate political leadership and public service in a republican form of government.

5.2.12.D: Evaluate and demonstrate what makes competent and responsible citizens.

5.3.12.D: Evaluate the roles of political parties, interest groups, and mass media in politics and public policy

5.3.12.E: Evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of the United States electoral processes, including the electoral college.

5.1.12.C: Evaluate the application of the principles and ideals in contemporary civic life.

· Liberty / Freedom

· Democracy

· Justice

· Equality

This project had elements of many web 2.0 tools:

Wikspaces - embedding text, videos, and pictures
Photostory 3 for making Political Ads.
Microsoft publisher for creating brochures, newspaper clippings, Then converting the MP doc into a picture using pdf converter and saving as a picture to be embedded into the wiki page.
Voki - Avitars on main page voice recordings
Podcast with directions on main page using podbean.com
Google Docs Spreadsheet for comparing issues. Click on the Party Analysis wikPage
Google Docs forms for making up the election Ballot
CFF Digital Cameras for pictures to be used in the Political Ad Videos
Downloading background Music from free online sites for the Political Ads.
Research - Most important - Using the internet skills to research the political party they were given whether they were for that party or not to develop a campaign Website.
Student Centered - This was a student centered lesson with teacher, inclusion teacher, and tech coach acting as co-researchers, co-producers, co-planners, and tech facilitators.

March 26 Maiden Voyage of the SS Skook

2010-03-27T20:55:00.018-04:00

Full screen Version of the Videos can be seen at

mrshumski.wikispaces.com (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Mr. Scheib's Plastic Class (Long Version ) -- Mr. Scheib's Plastic Class (Short Version)

Dancing with Mrs. Rogers Gym Class---------Do You Know? How I Learn at NS

Google Doc test

2010-01-19T12:27:00.001-05:00

Chapter 5 Notes testing the blog KB count

PLC TECHNOLOGY TIPS

2009-12-17T13:52:00.022-05:00

PLC Tech Ideas - Discussions and tips that came out of our Professional Learning Community on Technology.

HOW TO PLACE A WORD DOCUMENT ON YOUR HOMEWORK HELPLINE BLOG in order to post a doc you need to get your document a url or web address. We do this with Google Documents.

Upload Word Document or PPT. (ppt. must be saved as 97-2003 version) to Google Documents. You can upload docx. or 2007 version docs but not pptx. Go to Google.com>click the more link > and click on documents.
At Google Documents, click on the UPLOAD button. Next, hit the select file button and browse or find your file and hit open button.
Word Documents (Spelling lists, Vocabulary, Study Guides upload quickly)
Look for the Back to Google Docs Button and click it.
Click on your document name and it will open up.
Now you can copy the url at the top of the ribbon and do a right click/copy.

Go to your Blog and hit the new post link.

Type the name you wish to call your document
Highlight it
Click the hyperlink icon and
Paste the url into the hyperlink box and hit the OK button.
Your document is now linked to your post.

2009-12-03T13:44:00.005-05:00

The Holidays are coming and the big guy with the red suit needs to know his geography. Do You?

Here are some good resources for having fun with locating places:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm
Map puzzles of U.S. and the World
Free Poverty

There are really cool and colorful map games at this site:
Map Games

If you think you are really good at locating places, try this site.
Test Your Geography Knowledge

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T14:26:00.003-05:00

Vision of K-12 Education Today?

2009-11-18T15:27:00.004-05:00

November 11th B Day - November 17th F day

2009-11-11T12:59:00.003-05:00

Professional Learning Communities PLC Tech Period Professional Training: Making Promethean Flipcharts, SmartBoard Slides, or Power Point Slides

All staff with Promethean Boards will make "Flipcharts.”
All staff with SmartBoards will make "Notebook Slides."
All other staff members will use "PowerPoint."

Our 1st activity:

Make 2 or 3 slides
1st page should be a title page and include a picture or colored background with a title.
2nd page (and 3rd page if necessary) should include and insertion of a google pic (copy and paste) or a pic from a file, insertion of video(s), insertion of a link to a document etc.
Completed project that demonstrates your tech skill should be placed on your subject area wiki page. Your name will be checked off that those skills were acquired.
Bring your laptops. We will help each other complete our activity.
You will receive an email from the facilitator through Wikispaces to join this wiki. Please click on the link that is in the email.
This 2 or 3 page project should be done and downloaded by November 24th.

Tech Period B Day Nov.3 - F Day Nov. 9

2009-11-01T15:22:00.026-05:00

Tuesday (B day)- Promethean Workshop (***Eventually all rooms will be equipped with Promethean Boards or Smartboards. Promethean Board training will be helpful now or in the future. )

ActivInspire - Before Next Monday, November 9th all CFF teachers need to update their ActivInspire software. When the ActivInspire icon is double clicked, the dashboard will come up first. Please click on the Configure command and then click "Check for Updates." Follow commands.
Tuesday we will use our time to go over the ActivInspire Flipchart and tools.
Teachers review, add new tools, and learn new Main Menu Box Tools.
Teachers learn how to use the Marquis select tools.
Teachers will learn ways to bring Word Documents into Flipcharts by way of "Import PDF from the File Tab.
Time for questions.

Where are we going next during our tech periods? We will use time on our tech days to answer the tech questions that arise as we create and use Web 2.0 skills.

Google docs - We all must have a google account. (We all have one since we have a "Homework Helpline" blog account.) This allows us to upload our files, word docs, power points etc. and then hyperlink them to our blogs. This gives our students a chance to keep up with the classwork when they are out of class for an extended period of time.

Check out this Google form/spreadsheet link titled Disease Research and see how this Google App can be used in any class, club, sport, honor society, voting for officers, a test or quiz, a project such as Disease Research form.

Wikispaces.com - We will all make a wikispaces for the purpose of uploading powerpoints, notes from word documents in one easy step to our wikispace. Your wikispace link will be placed on your blog site.

Software that is already on our laptops like Inspiration 8, Google Earth, audacity, photostory, moviemaker.

F- day October 30, 2009

2009-11-01T15:15:00.004-05:00

Promethean Training - ActivInspire Updates. CFF teachers go to the ActivInspire Dashboard and go to the configure tab and click on the "Check for update" button. Next follow the download commands. after this all CFF teachers will have the update or patch that allows for the importing of PDF documents. This is important because all resources from Pearson, Prentice Hall, Scott Foresman etc. are in pdf form. Also all word documents can be saved as a pdf and then imported into an ActivInspire Flipchart.

Learn the functions of the tools in the Main Menu toolbox, the Marquis Object tools, and the Tool Box Option Menu. Introduction to Flipcharts and their purposes will be discussed. Customizing the tool box from the View tab in the menu bar. Plaing important tools like reveal, clock, tickertape, magic pen, camera, handwriting, shape tool and line tool etc.

2009-10-14T09:50:00.009-04:00

The Importance of Coaching; An Interview with the CFF Coach, Mr. Shumski

What is the "Classrooms for the Future" goal?

The goal of Classrooms for the Future (CFF) is to transform and enhance how educators teach and students learn. Through the CFF initiative we will be giving our students the tools they need to compete and succeed in the high-skills, knowledge-based workforce of the 21st century.

After teaching for 34 years why would you take a position as a “Classrooms for the Future” Instructional Coach/Facilitator?

After teaching for 34 years, I took a position as an instructional technology mentor at North Schuylkill JSHS and now at Minersville and Tri Valley because I saw firsthand how technology in a classroom excited students. I started using a SmartboardTM about five years ago in Reading and Social Studies. Students loved the interaction of various educational websites. I’ve used Nettrekker.com, unitedstreaming.com, Brain POP, and quia.com etc. for years. So many times over the last four years I said to myself, can you imagine how great it would be if every student had a laptop. With laptops in the classroom every student could be engaged at the same time viewing and reviewing topics and, most importantly, working on the skills that the data shows they need help on. As an embedded technology instructor in the classroom, I savor the time co-teaching, co-investigating, and co-researching with the students and teachers. As a coach, it’s fun and challenging to communicate and collaborate with your colleagues in order to co-plan and co-produce performance and project-based projects using the best possible online sites and software to complete lessons that meet all the PSSA standards and anchors. Meeting deadlines with their project-based and problem-based lessons are a slice of the real world that brings responsibility and self discipline to the students. It’s rewarding and exciting to watch the students perform their tasks: word processing, using digital still and video cameras, and uploading and downloading film and music to their projects as they design and create their digital storytelling presentations. It is so rewarding to see the student’s faces when they’ve completed their final product using a new technology skill for the first time. You see and feel their sense of accomplishment and you share their joy. In fact, the classroom teacher and coach feel the same sense of accomplishment. The CFF instructional coach in every district impacts every core teacher, student, and administrator. The goal in every CFF school is to engage the students in new or redesigned lessons with HOTS, Higher Order Thinking Skills, and NETS, the National Educational Technology Skills, to create lessons that use technology and Web 2.0 skills seamlessly.

Why does PDE want “Classrooms for the Future” schools to have an instructional technology coach or facilitator? What does research tell us about the implementation rate for new learning?

Research tells us that instructional coaching is the catalyst for high school reform. Professional Development without follow up has an implementation rate of only 10 percent. In other words, the expensive equipment will take up space, be pushed to a corner and collect dust. Recent research from the University of Kansas, Center for Research on Learning, indicates that by using the coaching model, the implementation rate rises to 85 to 90 percent. This is why PDE is using this model. It is my hope to be a part of creating an environment at NS within which teachers and students use 21st century skills and use the technology seamlessly. That means, we will use the interactive whiteboards, projectors, laptop computers, the individual’s choice of software or web 2.0 ware that best enhances and completes the project-based lessons as easily as we use pencil and paper.

How do you feel about the committment made by CFF teachers and the kind of changes that will be made?

I congratulate all PA teachers for embracing the CFF technological initiative and making the commitment to take two 3 credit courses titled the "Need for Change" and "Teaching in the Core Area of Science, Social Studies, Math, and Science." Our teachers are experts in their field. They know the content inside and out, and are willing to make the shift happen and change the pedagogy. The change isn't drastic. In most cases it's not changing their lessons but redesigning the lessons they have in order to reach for the top of the new Bloom’s Taxonomy which is "create." It’s helping change the classroom from a teacher-centered room to a student-centered room. Students shouldn't be powered up all weekend with video games, cell phones, iPods, texting and chatting online and then power down when they come to school. We want them to be powered up at school also, and use all the technological equipment, the best software, internet sites, and web 2.0 skills like blogs, wikis, Google Docs, Google Earth, and other free as well as paid educational and interactive websites to research, create, produce, and present their projects using communicative and collaborative skills.
Posted by Stan Shumski at 10:18 PM