L. Suzanne Shanks's Blog – June 2008 Archive (6)

It's only mid-June and I have already attended an international train-the-trainer event (held in the U.S.), presented at a tech conference, and am eagerly anticipating my state's big tech conference next week. I'll be facilitating some online and face-to-face trainings this fall so I'm preparing for those. And oh yes, I'm looking forward to teaching in my own air-conditioned classroom!



As you can see, I am totally pumped very enthused about the coming year and all that I hope my… Continue

I wrote recently to a couple of the higher-ups in my district to ask about next year's 21st Century Learning plans and directions because I had heard nothing since the first and only mention of it (within my hearing) last April. You already know about that Summit if you've been reading my blog.



The back-story is that I have not been able to get anyone from the district to provide me with any kind of mission or goal statement about educational technology for at least two years because… Continue

Where are you starting your journey with PBL? I’m already excited about PBL and have done parts of it before; never in a formal sense that included all the usual steps. I think many elementary-trained teachers do this instinctively but it is more rare to think like that at the junior high level. In the era of true “middle school” there was a lot more teaching with integrated units & projects, so although that’s sort of gone away in the era of high-stakes testing (at least around here), I’ve… Continue

During the next few weeks I’ll be writing quite a few posts about my journey through the book Reinventing Project-Based Learning – Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss. I determined that studying the book would be part of my Self-Styled Summer Professional Development Plan. Many of you have heard of the book and have been exposed to these two talented ladies’ work. I was lucky to participate in an Elluminate! session with them via Bud Hunt's… Continue

I was honored to present at the Technology and Teaching Conference last week in Bismarck (notes in previous post). I also had the opportunity to attend several great sessions by leaders in the field. I will be sharing some of the information I gleaned with you. Much of the material in today's Byte is derived from a session by Chris O'Neal who works at the University of Virginia. I'd like to publicly thank him for the insights and resources he presented. (More about Chris.)



Let's be… Continue

The show linked here does not include narration but you will find the notes below my contact information.



The address of the wiki with all the notes and the slideshow is http://thinkoef.wikispaces.com



Contact:



Suzanne Shanks, MA

Classroom Teacher,

Technology Integration Coach

PO BOX 8256

Colorado Springs, Colorado



On Think.com: Ms.… Continue