Introductions

Please introduce yourself, let us know a little bit about you, and where you are from.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jodi Rice on March 7, 2009 at 9:22am

Hi, all. My name is Jodi and I teach in Toronto, Canada. I've taught mostly English, but also some Drama and Co-operative Education (job internship).

My school is k-12 with a 1-to-1 laptop environment for students in grades 9-12 and mobile laptop labs for the younger students. I've been around computers most of my life (starting with our Apple ][e!), started on the net in about 1994, and I'm an early adopter of most things we use at school. Still, I'm always on the lookout for more ideas!

I've also recently started blogging here: http://blogs.bedfordstmartins.com/highschoolbits/?author=20 based on my experiences teaching AP Language.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Kerwood on March 8, 2009 at 2:43pm

Wow Jodi, Nice site! When I run across an exceptional teacher blog I add it to my Teachers Talk page. My site is intended to help teachers in the process of differentiated instruction. I hope to hear more of your work. You have some wonderful ideas here that I hope you don't mind passing along to other teachers. We appreciate it.

http://showandtell.edublogs.org/teachers-talk/

Best Wishes,
Deborah

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Permalink Reply by Heather on March 7, 2009 at 10:08am

Good morning,
This is my first experience with classroom 2.0 or any other like this-I am trying to get into this morning's discussion re: Twitter for Teachers (help?!- thanks)

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Permalink Reply by Marelity on March 7, 2009 at 1:23pm

I have been on Ning only a few times and I am hoping to improve my effectiveness in the classroom by communicating with other teachers. I teach 2nd grade and I love what I do. I started teaching in the mid 80's; however, I took about 12 years off to be a stay at home mom. I have been back now for four years and I enjoy it more now that my children are grown.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Jeffryes on March 7, 2009 at 4:33pm

Hello from Los Alamos, New Mexico,

I'm a retired teacher (science) who integrated technology early and later (Ed.S. in integrating technology in schools). Currently working with NMSTE (the ISTE affiliate in NM http://www.nmste.org) and NM RETA delivering professional development (http://reta.nmsu.edu). Now working full time at LANL (http://www.lanl.gov) as training specialist in radiation protection.

Of special interest: Check out RETA Webinars for K-12 Educators at http://webinars.nmsu.edu/ presented by growing group of enthusiastic, energetic, expert educators helping educators integrate technology to enhance teaching and learning.

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Cerveny on March 7, 2009 at 7:55pm

Hi all! I'm Caroline Cerveny, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph. I am especially interested in the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the area of faith-based educational technology. If there are others in this Classroom 2.0 website, who have a similar interest, I would love to hear from you!

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Permalink Reply by Victoria Hall on March 8, 2009 at 8:21am

I am an elementary library in Springfield, IL for five schools serving K - 5th graders. I would like to set up a Wiki for the librarians in my district to use for resource sharing. Which host site should I use? I am looking for a free one. Thank you for creating this Ning!

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Kerwood on March 8, 2009 at 2:08pm

pbwiki is the way to go. Perfect for education. http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki . I used it for Shakespeare class. Very educator friendly. Lots of support.

Best Wishes,
Deborah

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Permalink Reply by James Parker on March 8, 2009 at 11:33am

Hi everyone
My name is James Parker and I have been in the professional education business for over 30 years. Our company has seen the transitions from audio tape, to audio CD, to Multimedia CD-ROMs and DVD and now we have built and manage over 70 digital educational libraries for professional organizations like the American Academy of Family Physicians, and many, many more. We have recently launched a virtual platform for meeting planners looking for online 3-D virtual applications.
My goal is to bridge the gap between professional industry education and students. It is my belief that the ability to bridge this gap provides students with a much richer understanding of what they will be expected to achieve as a professional once they enter their field of expertise and that the countless number of educational sessions given at annual conferences are a great way of introducing students to the professional aspects of that industry.
Combined with this goal is the need for organizations to offer this content in a rich 3-D environment condusive to todays younger professionals. If you want to reach younger professionals you need to deliver the content in the formats they want to receive the content in, not the formats that organizations have been delivering their content in for years, ie; newsletters, audio only formats, etc.

I look forward to being a rfesource to those within this group that are interested in learning about virtual opportunities. To learn more visit www.virtualbeginnings.com

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Kerwood on March 8, 2009 at 1:45pm

Hello James,

Virtual Beginnings looks like a wonderful beginning to teaching teachers in technology. I tried to set up an account, but I ran into problems. It seems impossible to register. First I encountered missing information. I work from Egypt. We do not have typical states or zip codes, so I filled in blanks with the closest thing we have. Then, I have message that says "must not begin or end in whitespace" for my business name. It only has a certain number of letters. I found these impossible to correct.

Is is possible that I can use virtual beginnings to create a teaching site for teachers and students? What is the cost of this program?

Thank you for your time in answering these questions.

Deborah Kerwood

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Gerrish on March 8, 2009 at 6:06pm

Hello! Lynn Gerrish from Brownville, Maine - teaching Business and Technology at our local high school. I'm interested in anything that I can use to enhance my teaching and the learning of my students.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Salazar on March 8, 2009 at 9:56pm

Hello, Just joined and it looks like an interesting network. I teach high school math and statistics courses. I look forward to participating and learning especially about the effective use of technology in the classroom.