Along with The World is Flat (http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/), the book A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink (http://www.danpink.com/aboutwnm.php), was recommended by Alan November at his keynote yesterday. These books explore global competency and how behind the U.S. is and will become in this type of economy. Relating to the brain drain from the U.S. and recognizing the importance of changing student learning, Alan made some compelling statements about the state of learning. These were keypoints:

• Every school should consider students taking at least one online course as a requirement for graduation
• Because of massive information readily available, focus on what students really need
• the capacity to be self directed
• global communication skills (i.e. skype.com)
• students should be (co)owners of their learning
• the job description of students should be rewritten to a collaborative end

In thinking about where to begin, ask these questions:

1. What do you love to teach?
2. What is the most difficult part of the curriculum?
3. How can you build more motivating and demanding assignments?

Visit Alan's website at www.anovember.com for more information.

Reporting live from the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference: Susan Adams of NHPTV is at this very moment conducting a workshop on "Blogs in the Classroom." Her conference notes and resources can be found at http://www.nhptv.org/kn/conference.

Earlier, Alan November gave a keynote focusing on global competitiveness for our students. His keynote will probably be posted at the conference web site - www.nhcmtc.org, and later, I will be writing more comments regarding his thoughtful insights.

Yesterday afternoon was really nice. It started with a delicious sandwich from Good Life :-), followed by an excellent tech integrator meeting. Every time I go to a TI meeting I learn so much. We are using Google Docs to create the Agenda and take the minutes - live (so other's can add what someone else might have missed.) All of the tech staff are accomplishing so much in many different areas, yet it is all interrelated and important to know about. Considerable and informative, take time to check out the TI web pages, blogs, and del.icio.us bookmarks. All can be accessed from the district web site and individual school web pages.

More exciting technology related happenings continue in our district including the K-2 teacher laptop roll-out and training in early December, and the addition of laptop carts at all elementary schools. Now every teacher in the district will have access to 1 on 1 computing in their classroom. It will be fascinating to see what teachers use them for in their instruction and of course I have lots of ideas and resources to share.

Grade 5 students just completed Power Point presentations addressing "How the Earth is Constantly Changing" using topics ranging from Pangaea and Sea Floor Spreading to Earthquakes and Volcanoes to Maine Rocks and Earth's Structure. The hardest part for them was citing sources. Even though they were given notetaking papers with all of the information needed to write the citation, the students had a difficult time understanding the need for this in their presentation. It was also the first time they had to do it in a research project, so we will continue to stress the importance of giving credit where due. This will be a major focus of their next big project for Social Studies - Colony Quest. One positive note about these presentations was that students garnered the importance of presenting the essential information and having it look good (no grammer or spelling errors, etc.)

Having recently attended the ACTEM conference (www.actem.org), I felt rejuvinated in my mission. David Warlick presented a thought provoking keynote, and all of the sessions were useful and informative. While using the new MacBook Pro in sessions on podcasting w/ iLife 06 and Keynote and Pages, I was struck by the simplicty of these programs and their high degree of performance. It also made me want to go out and buy the new MacBook Pro immediately. What a beautiful machine! It inspired me with its innovation and ease of use. I love the built in iSight camera - actually, I loved everything about it! Time to start saving my pennies (and nickels, dimes and quarters), because the model I would love to buy is around $2500. Remember just a few years ago when a new Pentium 100 cost that much!

Just about 3 weeks of school has passed us by and it has been wonderful to see that teachers are using technology inherently as a tool for learning. Today we did a virtual tour of Ellis Island (from Scholastic) with Grade 4 students. They were fascinated and the focus of the lesson wasn't lost. The students understood that although it wasn't easy to immigrate to this country, people did and still do because of the framework developed by our forefathers. Using a simple LCD projector and BrainPop, students are engaged by informational movies about The Bill of Rights, The Constitution, Democracy and human body systems. The next step is for them to write about what they are learning in a blog or podcast.

It is finally here! A place to talk about teaching and integrating technology in our schools! The purpose of this blog is to share our experiences using technology in our everyday teaching. When I think of our accomplishments last year, I recall vividly, Mrs. Call's Fairy Tale News, Our Kindergarten Community, Colony Quest and Rocks and Minerals informational slideshow presentations. There is some real excitement around this year - especially with Web 2.0! Please check back here soon for information about Web 2.0 and technology integration planned for this year at Stevens Brook Elementary, Sebago Elementary, and Songo Locks Elementary.