Jim Vennemeyer's Page

TI:ME/OMEA 2011 Conference Presentation

The Smartboard and You: Real Life Application for the General Music Classroom.

January 27, 2011 1:30PM Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Room CCC-238

Presented by Doug Parrott , Mason City Schools Music Teacher Marylee Vennemeyer, Mason City Schools Music Teacher, Jim Vennemeyer, Mason City Schools Technology Curriculum Leader

Do you have a SMARTboard in your Elementary General music classroom and are trying to figure out what to do with it? If so, join us for this exciting session that will give you great ideas of how to create fun, interactive lessons for your classes using the SMARTboard. We will share tried and true lessons, demonstrate ways to use the equipment, showcase online resources and create collaborative dialogue amongst attendees. This clinic is for an educator who is curious about how a SMARTboard can work in the music classroom as well as those who have basic SMARTboard skills but who are searching for ideas and ways to making learning come alive for their students.

Download the Presentation Materials

Jim’s Grant Writing Tips

Identify your educational objective. For example:

• Differentiate instruction to maximize learning for each student
• Enhance communication and collaboration with/among students, teachers, parents, and/or community members
• Foster student-initiated learning
• Enhance student awareness of other cultures
• Facilitate student creativity

The goal of the grant is SHOULD NOT BE to get the tools, materials and funding you want, the goal should be an educational objective.

Support your Ideas

Educational research and standards can help you discover your strengths and weaknesses. Standards help you to identify and support the opportunities and challenges that your grant proposal seeks to address. Your grant should be supported by research, standards and your subject-area curriculum.

For example: The NETS-S standard National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S) number two is Communication and Collaboration “Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. “ A teacher could write a grant to help Students “develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures”.

Target your Message

Learn about the mission of the company or foundation that is sponsoring the grant. Continually demonstrate and describe the alignment of your grant proposal with the mission of the foundation. If the foundation’s purpose is to develop innovative practices in education, be sure to highlight how your proposal is new and innovative.

Learn about the grant evaluators and target your message to that audience. Are they educators or business people? Use clear and concise language they will understand. Do not assume that a business person, or an educator outside of your subject area, will automatically understand terminology or nomenclature specific to your field.

Follow the directions

Make sure to follow the submission guidelines and question prompts to a “T.” Entire applications can be dismissed over something as simple as incorrect formatting.

Whenever possible, use the exact terminology requested in the prompts. This makes it easier for those grading the application to see that you are addressing the issues asked for in the application.

Funding

Plan for long term costs when funding technology with grant funding. Consider the cost of ownership and the need for long-term support. Technology tools purchased with grant funds must be approved and supported by your school district.

Be Persistent

If at first you don’t succeed, try again! You may have had a fantastic idea that the organization was simply unable to fund at that time. That failed grant can serve as the foundation for future grant applications. You can rework and rewrite your ideas again to a different organization. The writing process itself is extremely valuable to reflect on your practice and explore innovative ways to improve your own teaching.

Links to grant sources can be found on my bookmarks at http://delicious.com/vennemeyerj/grants

What is Social Bookmarking?

Instead of saving all my bookmarks on the computer, I use a free social bookmarking service called delicious.com. All of my bookmarks are related to educational technology, curriculum, instruction, and educational research. If you have similar interests you can view my bookmarks at http://delicious.com/vennemeyerj . You can also use the subscription and network features to keep track of my bookmarks and other delicious.com users you find most interesting. View the bookmarks of the people in my network at http://delicious.com/network/vennemeyerj . Each of my bookmarks has a title and description. The Bookmarks are organized using “tags” that describe the general topic of the bookmark. For example 21stCentury Skills, Math, Research, Web2.0…etc

Teachers can use Social Bookmarking to collaborate with other educators and effectivly communicate information with students, parents and the world.

What are podcasts and iTunes U?

Podcasts are free audio or video files that you can play on your computer, iPhone, or iPod. 

Podcasts are like a TV or radio series that you can subscribe to on your computer. iTunes is a free application for mac and PC that makes  getting podcasts easy. Open iTunes and click on the iTunes Store and click Podcasts or iTunes U.  Search for a podcast that interests you. You can listen to a single episode or subscribe to the podcast series so that new episodes will automatically be downloaded in to your iTunes library. 

iTunes U has over 100,000 educational audio and video lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. See below or Click here for a video introduction to iTunes U 

Podcasts are a great way for teachers to demonstrate life long learning and keep up with educational research. 

The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers #5 is to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. Podcasts can help teachers meet this standard. One related indicator is that teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. The second related indicator is that teachers evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.