Banner County School is currently in the process of developing an updated web page.  As we navigate this process, I am wondering if anyone has any advice about what to include or how to design the page to maximize the potential to improve the educational environment for our students, staff, and community.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Our new domain name will be www.bannercountyschool.org

Currently the site links to our first school webpage.  As we develop a new site, I imagine that we will have a "rollover". 

 

I hope that everyone is having a great summer!

 

Travis

I have discovered that I have been to wiki and blog sites but had never made comments or taken part. After being exposed to this information, it reassures me that I can do this! I hope I will be able to use this in the fall. It will be great to have a support system within our school and know you are only an email away. Thanks!

I am looking forward to use this technology in my classroom. I would like to share what we are doing in the classroom with the community. I now have a starting place where I can build on. I am hoping to use the web page to let parents know whats going on at our school. Our school has been in the community for over a hundred years, I plan on using the wiki page to have the community contribute to a school history page.

Well,  well.  Here we are again learning fun and exciting web 2.0 tools to use in the classroom.  I wish our school had all you wonderful teachers in it, ready to try new tools for your classroom.  My suggestion to all of you is KEEP GOING!!!  DON'T GIVE UP!!  I've seen students who are normally the non-participants in the classroom become the "hey, look at my work" type of kids who really enjoy these tools and are excited about what they can produce using a computer.  Just keep it up and you'll be amazed at where it can take you!

 Watch this video!

The teaching and learning 2.0 class has been so much fun. It will be interesting to watch what this group is able to do with these tools. As part of the class I created a quick podcast as a demo. Listen to the podcast

I've been teaching English for 35 years mostly at the 7th grade level, and the last two years at the high school. So many educational strategies have come and gone and come around again with new names and some tweaking.  Now, we may be on to some technological opportunities to really advance the learning of our students and ourselves.  I am concerned about remember what to do when I'm isolated with just myself and my computer, but as I tell my students, just play around with it and see where it takes you.

    Check out this site!  It has great infor on web logs for education and this site too!

For those who enjoy hiking in beautiful western Nebraska, try geocaching!  My 7 yr old son and I are beginning to explore this (I just purchased my own GPS system at Cabellas and I'm "fiddling" with it) and it's been a great experience.  PLUS-those of you who would like to do gps lesson with upper elementary/high school students, try geocaching!! :) 

Go to www.geocaching.com to learn more and have fun!!! 

I am trying to figure this out---apparently I am WAAAAYYYY far behind most of you in the techie world!  But, I am inspired!! 

Hello everyone!  This is my first blog post on our ESU 13 Elgg server.  Thanks to Criag for all his hard work putting this community together!  Hopefully educators will find this helpful and to those of you who are new to blogging will feel "safe" here to post any thoughts you may have.

I hope everyone has a fun and relaxing summer! 

The embedded video below has information that should give the world of education some things to consider. Are we using available technology to teach 21st century skills? Are we using available technology to engage students? Are we using available technology to make global connections?

Welcome to the new Nebraska NWEA User's Group Blog. The notes from the April meeting are posted in the section called "File Storage".  I will ask Jane Stavem from Columbus to post her Spanish version of the Parent Activities page,  if she is willing.  I have learned the hard way that if you click the "Click here to leave the community"--you actually delete yourself from the blog.  Don't do what I did--Use the "log off" to close it totally.

I have found a great source you all might visit to see how you could do similar things in your own school systems.  Remember that we were told about the Poway School System's use of NWEA....their website has a pdf file that tells their procedures--and has some great ideas.  The document is called "The New and Improved Taming Data Tool kit: Interpreting MAP Data for Teachers and Students."  It includes testing and accessing reports, interpreting results, goal setting and lexile tools.  Handy!  My favorite is the "Extreme Academic Makeover Goals"--kid appeal! 

I found it at:  http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/edtechcentral/MAPS/PDFs/9-07%20Toolkit/FinalMAPsToolkit9-11-07.pdf

 The actual document also says it is available at:  http://www.pusdmap.com

 At the same school district I also enjoyed their tech department's support with pictoral directions for teachers on how to do things with MAPS--It even has powerpoints for parent orientation--and a powerpoint about assessment "Of and For".  Look at this site:

http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/EdTechCentral/Training/MAPsGoals.htm

Let's remember that our professional learning community of bloggers is in its infancy.  Yes, we have plenty of room for growing into a more purposeful community.

There are roughly 6.5 billion people on earth, about 2.5 billion in China and India, 300 million in the United States, 1.7 million people in Nebraska, and 90,000 in the panhandle. (please double check my math) 

Let's look at the numbers another way.  We, the population of the panhandle make up 0.00139% of the world population.  That means 99.99861% of people in the world live somewhere else.

In the global society of today, technology, specifically Web 2.0, is a tool for keeping us connected to the rest of the world.

So we may be blogging along with only an emerging, purpose, audience, and voice, but we have taken a meaningful step into the future by joining the professional development blogging community.  Keep the blogs coming

I think that Michelle has a good point about finding meaningful content.  I think that one of the keys to this is that we enter specific keywords when we post so that our posts will be connected to the content we are writing about or need. 

 That being said, I can't help but post one more thing for everyone to scroll through . . . just to make things interesting, I thought I would share my new avatar (cartoonish, online person-thingy) with you.  I saw one of these on the blog site of another school administrator (Melinda Miller) and decided to create one for myself.  You can create your own at www.meez.com or you can click on the following link to see the animated version of mine:  http://images.meez.com/user/4/8/8/6/2/1/5/4886215_bodyshot_300x400.gif   [You do not have permission to access this file]

From the Principal’s Perspective

By Travis Miller

 

Banner County School recently received a set of posters from the Peter Kiewit Foundation promoting the foundation’s “positive parenting” media campaign.  Several of these posters are currently displayed in the school cafeteria.  However, I realize that many of the readers of the Scratchin’ Post are not able to come to the school and see the messages, so the messages from the Peter Kiewit Foundation are listed below:

 

• ABC’s Before TV
• Help Them Achieve Their Dreams.  Kids Need 9 Hours of Sleep
• Kids Who Love Reading Live Happier Ever After
• There’s a Reason Pancakes are Always Smiling.  Kids Need Breakfast
• Participation Counts.  Get Involved in Your Kid’s Education
• Share More Than the Meatloaf.  Have Conversations for Dinner

 

Many of these phrases reflect recent research about the importance of family involvement in education.  For example, by having conversations at the dinner table about what students learned at school, families can help reinforce student learning.  As brain researcher Dr. Robert Sjolseth states, “Without reflection there is no learning, only exposure.”  When students have an opportunity to reflect on their studies and share that information with others, learning is solidified. 

Similarly, the other statements from the Kiewit Foundation correspond to research about student learning.  If you would like more information about any of these statements or would like to discuss how to use this information to support your child’s learning, please contact the school.  As always, if you would like to share success stories about Banner County School or if you have ideas about how we can work together to make our school even better, please call the school or email me at:  travis.miller@panesu.org.

As I glanced at your initial blogs and the meeting minutes I saw that people discussed having "user's group" sessions.  Some that may be of interest in our are are

1.  infinite campus,  2.  Reading programs, 3.  Curriculular models, 4. Math programs

Are these issues that can be handled at a PLACES meeting--or should small sessions be set up that would have specific focus?  COuld DL serve a role so that a very short meeting could be held and people could share issues and solutions and maybe plan together for shared resources?  For example,  the Infinite campus group could meet and one person knows how to do the more complex reports and can teach that to others.  The reading group could meet and could decide to share expenses to bring a trainer to the region. 

Our current structures haven't been able to give much time for this sort of specific needs.

Does anyone want to see that type of specific mini-meetings started?

The world of standars-assessment-accountability is not generally filled with much humor. I was at a training session in Lincoln last week and had the opportunity to view this video. Tom Chapin is the creator of the video.

I should probably add this as a comment to Julie's previous post, but not sure how many people would see it there. One blog site that I am familiar with is LeaderTalk.

The following quote is taken from the "About" section of their homepage.

"LeaderTalk is the first group blog written by school leaders for school leaders. We hope that our insights and resources are beneficial to P-12 administrators and educational leadership preparation programs."

One link from the LeaderTalk page will take you to CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education). This is not a blog site, but does contain links to a few blogs in the left column.

These two sites alone provide access to enough information and links to additional resources to build a solid foundation of blog sites. 

When the STARS project entered our duties as "Curriculum People", it created a time crunch.  A poor non-choice on my part (meaning it just happened without a conscious decision being made), professional reading time was taken out of my daily schedule.  Prior to that, around an hour per day was devoted to reading one article or one chapter of a the book I was reading at the time, or a professional journal is I didn't have a book going.  I'm hoping to use blogging to reinstate some of that professional stimulation in another way, which provides for a new choice....and interesting dilemma.

Which blogs...which communities do we join?  The list of professional journals and books was at least finite, and I knew where to go to select those which would give me the most bang for my buck.  Blog choices, while not yet infinite, appear to be expanding exponentially, and I don't know how to choose the most effective ones for myself.

One thing I stumbled across was the World Cafe Blog (see link below)

http://www.theworldcafe.com/blog.htm

Seems to me the thinking would be cutting edge and creative, so I'll be checking that one out and letting you all know if it was worth the time or not.

Anyone else out there have great suggestions?

I should not have done this, but since Julie is home sick today, I uploaded the meeting minutes for the March 4, 2008 PLACES meeting in the files section of this community. To view the minutes, click the "File Storage" link in the right column, click the "Meeting Minutes" folder, click the "Meeting 3-4-08" file to view the document.

I would like to thank Jim for sharing the evaluation form that he uploaded, and encourage everyone to contribute to the site. The value of this site grows as participants share information. 

 "Staff development needs more follow up."  Yes, it does.  Is your district prepared to make it happen?  Do you have...

1. Scheduled staff development time on school calendar spread out across the school year

2.  A consistent method and scheduled plan for being in classrooms to collect the data of what is happening in the instructional setting (doesn't have to be solely work of principal)

3. A regularly scheduled leadership meeting in which data from the instructional setting and student achievement data are analyzed and used as a springboard for planning staff development (could be the SIP team, should include principal(s), curriculum director, teacher leaders, possibly superintendent)

"Structure is the first step toward organizational maturity."  AdvancEd

Until a district has these structures in place, effective follow up will only be something we talk about.

 "Staff development needs more follow up."  Yes, it does.  Is your district prepared to make it happen?  Do you have...

1. Scheduled staff development time on school calendar spread out across the school year

2.  A consistent method and scheduled plan for being in classrooms to collect the data of what is happening in the instructional setting (doesn't have to be solely work of principal)

3. A regularly scheduled leadership meeting in which data from the instructional setting and student achievement data are analyzed and used as a springboard for planning staff development (could be the SIP team, should include principal(s), curriculum director, teacher leaders, possibly superintendent)

"Structure is the first step toward organizational maturity."  AdvancEd

Until a district has these structures in place, effective follow up will only be something we talk about.