Technology Spotlight, Shayna Mitchell, Rice Creek Elementary

Shayna Mitchell is a 1st-grade teacher at Rice Creek Elementary. Mrs. Mitchell has been teaching first grade for eight years at Rice Creek Elementary. She serves as Team Leader and USC Coaching Teacher. Recently, she was recognized as SCEA Teacher of the Month for October.

Mrs. Mitchell is known on campus as an innovative teacher. She engages her students daily through the meaningful integration of technology with only seven student Chromebooks. This year, she is using Google Classroom to post assignments for her first graders to complete during Math Workshop. The tasks were created using Google Apps for Education, such as Google Docs and Google Draw. Students use the tools in each application to complete their "must-do" obligations. It is more engaging than worksheets. When asked about using Google Classroom, Madison, a student in her class, replied, "Fun way to let kids learn. A good way to do math. I feel grown-up!"

Westwood High Tech.B@r offering Free Technology Classes for the Community

Westwood High School’s Tech.B@r is hosting a series of free technology classes for the community.  Each class will focus on a new topic, and will be lead by our Tech.St@ff students.  Saturday’s 1 hour session will be on Parent Portal.  This is a great resource to keep you up to date with your student’s education.  Come learn how to create an account and see some of the features that help you stay on top of your child’s grades.  Computers will be provided, but seating is limited to 20 participants.

Registration is free.  Please register each person attending separately.Sign up here.

View future dates and class subjects.

Dates:

Saturday, March 21st: 10-11am

Tuesday, March 24th: 5:30-6:15pm

Friday, April 10th: 5:30-6:15pm

Thursday, April 30th: 5:30-6:15pm

Saturday, May 2nd: 1-2pm

Thursday, May 12th: 5:30-6:15pm

2nd Annual Richland Two Film Festival - Accepting Applications NOW

We are excited to announce the release of our 2nd Annual Richland Two Film Festival. Richland School District Two, in partnership with WeVideo, is hosting the 2nd annual Film Festival! 

We encourage Richland Two students and employees to participate in this event! This is your chance to show off all your creativity! The deadline for applying is March 26! Get your application in today and start creating.

Learn more about the film festival on their webpage.

Here are some tips on creating a digital story and recording better video.

SC Midlands Summit Call for Proposals OPEN until February 28, 2015

Have you had the opportunity to share the amazing things you are doing in your classroom?  This is your chance!  

The 4th annual SC Midlands Summit which will be held June 10-11, 2015 is accepting proposals now.  We are planning for over 120 sessions throughout the two day conference focusing on the use of Google Apps for Education, research tools, digital tools, and technology integration in the classroom. So feel free to fill out the form more than once if you would be willing to share more than one presentation. Submit your presentation proposals by February 28.  Notifications of acceptance or regret will be e-mailed on or before April 1. The main presenter will receive a complimentary registration.  

Please join us to make this 4th annual summit a memorable experience for participants and to ensure that the conference becomes an event that all teachers in the region look forward to attending every year by filling out the 2015 SC Midlands Summit Presentation Proposal Request Form.

Help spread the word. If you know of any other presenters that would like to join us, feel free to pass on this email. Visit the website for additional information about the SC Midland Summit.

Technology Spotlight, Tiffany Hawthorne, Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary

Tiffany Hawthorne is working closely with Dawnn Turner, the Technology and Learning Coach at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary through peer coaching. During the time she and Mrs. Turner have worked together Tiffany has increased student use of the technology with her daily lessons. Tiffany is very eager to add a variety of teaching strategies to ensure her students are involved with technology in all of the content areas. Her students are very excited to be using Chromebooks. Tiffany's students are becoming very confident using technology and the students are excited to share what they are doing with the Chromebooks. Tiffany is using SMART Notebook along with a variety of Google Apps for Education tools. She was also the first person to show interest in planning for the hour of code. Tiffany works with her students to create Google Draw and Slides. Most recently the students created their own version of a Thanksgiving plate in Google Draw. Then wrote a description of the drawing.

Tiffany is in her 7th year teaching and is currently teaching 3-5th grade at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary. She recently was named National Board certified.

-Submitted by Dawnn Turner

Learn about the Belk Service Challenge and Network with your Colleagues!

The Belk Service Learning Challenge is back! 

Join Discovery Education and Richland School District Two to learn more about this exciting service-learning challenge for students in grades 6-8. Let’s collaborate to share the details of the 2015 challenge, brainstorm ideas for meaningful classroom use, and kick things off over a meal. Dinner is on us!

The Belk Service Learning Challenge, is a way for middle school students to apply what they learn in their core subjects to their communities. Help your students apply science, technology and social studies concepts to their local area with this new video challenge. Students will create a 1-2 minute video that tells their service learning story for their chance to earn $10,000.

REGISTER HERE 

December 4, 2014

6:00 – 7:30 PM

Longleaf Middle School 

1160 Longreen Parkway

Columbia, SC 29229

Multipurpose Room

Technology Spotlight, Karen Brown, L W Conder Elementary School

Karen Brown has made teaching child development students her career for very good reasons - she understands 4-year olds and how to provide engaging and meaningful experiences for them! Karen has taught in the Clemson Road Child Development program for 10 years both on the Clemson Road campus and currently at L W Conder Elementary. Her love of nature led her to the Congaree National Forest where she was a teacher ranger for two summers and she continues to bring her students to the outdoors through grant funded projects and many recycled materials.

The name of Karen's classroom is the Terrific Turtles and her class has already learned a lot about sea turtles in particular, one of her favorite animals. In order to provide her students with the opportunity to meet a turtle expert and to learn more about their class mascot, Karen arranged a Skype session with a west coast authority on turtles. He presented lots of pictures and stories and the Terrific Turtles answered questions and shared their turtle school family song with him. The two-way exchange made possible by Skype was very helpful in keeping student engagement high!

Skype, Google Hangouts, Facetime and other video chat applications are a great way to bring experts to your classroom. How have you used applications like this in your classroom? 

Thank you to Debbie Brady for nominating Karen Brown. If you have a teacher or project on technology you want to showcase at your school in Richland School District Two, fill out the Spotlight Form .

October is Connected Educator Month!

Connected Educator month is October! Are you excited or what? "Or what?" You say. You don't even know what Connected Educator month is? So here is the skinny Connected Educator Month is brought to you by the U.S. Department of Education and it's partners to offer highly diverse and engaging professional development activities for all levels of educators. It is in it's third year. 

The goals of CEM include:

• Getting more educators proficient with social media to improve their practice
• Deepening and sustaining learning among those already enjoying connection’s benefits
• Helping schools credential/integrate connected learning into their formal professional development efforts
• Stimulating and supporting innovation in the field
   (http://connectededucators.org/about-connected-educators-mission-goals/)

Check out the web page to see all that is available for your to participate in ... Connected Educator Month. Don't forget to share what you learn. Be sure to hashtag it on Twitter with #CE14 and #RchlandTwo!

If you are new to Professional Learning Networks, Richland Two is offering a T for 2 online class - R2 Connected Educator - The goal of this course is to build a professional learning network, where you will build relationships and collaborate with other educators around the world, through various social networks. We will focus on 4 different social media types, Google+, Twitter, Blogging, and YouTube. This course is designed for you to work at your own pace, but collaboration is ongoing. Renewal Credit: 10

This class starts October 8 - Sign up in PDExpress today!

http://connectededucators.org/

Technology Spotlight, Keighley Wingard, Bridge Creek Elementary

Keighley Wingard is in her 9th year with Richland School District Two and currently serving as the Technology and Learning Coach at Bridge Creek Elementary. This year, Keighley working with her school has started a video newsletter to share Bridge Creek news with parents, the community, and the world! 

After being inspired by George Couros to "take the digital leap," Bridge Creek Elementary school is now communicating with parents through a video newsletter called The Cougar Roar. Students are given leadership opportunities each week by having speaking roles on camera. All of the newsletter footage is captured on a flip cam, and then imported into WeVideo. From here, chroma key effects are added and the video is published. The published link is posted to Twitter @BCETeam121 and it is also embedded on the school's homepage. The September 5th edition, has now been viewed over 2,000 times!  

What a great way to involve everyone with what is going on in your school! Share the positive #RichlandTwo



If you have a teacher or project on technology you want to showcase at your school in Richland School District Two, fill out the Spotlight Form .

NEW class in PDExpress! Reading in the Middle

Do you enjoy reading Young Adult Literature? Do you teach middle school? Do you want to learn more about technology tools you can use in your classroom? If you answered yes to at least two of the questions listed, YOU HAVE TO TAKE THIS YEAR LONG CLASS! 

SIGN UP IN PD EXPRESS today! The class starts October 1, 2014 online!

Instructors: Media Specialists Michal Hope Brandon, Christina Willson and Lorena Swetnam

Class Website : Reading in the Middle blog

Course Description: Ever wonder what your middle schooler is reading?  Get to know what’s trending in middle grades literature while learning some hot tech tools to help you implement these popular titles in your classroom.

Method of instruction:  Each month teachers will select a book to read from a different genre and will learn how to use a different technology tool.  Teachers will visit the Reading in the Middle blog each month to review the book lists and technology tool for the appointed month.  Each month teachers will write two posts and submit them to the Google + Community: 1) a reflection on the title he/she read and a connection to his/her students 2) a reflection on using the technology tool for professional learning and/or in the classroom.  If applicable, teachers will share a product created using the featured technology tool.  Teachers are encouraged to comment on the posts to build a conversation about the learning experience.  

Course Objectives:

1. Encourage teachers to read popular middle grade novels that their students are currently reading.
2. Facilitate online discussion between teachers to share ideas and resources for incorporating different titles in the classroom.
3. Teach teachers about technology tools tied to literacy and reading.

Credit:  The course will be held from October through April for a total of 7 months. Teachers will earn 3 credit hours for each class in which he/she participates through their posts on the Google + Community.  Teachers may earn up to a total of 21 credit hours.  This is a monthly course that teachers will sign up for each month they wish to participate.