Congratulations to Marriah Schwallier, DEN Star

Congratulations to Marriah Schwallier for becoming a DEN Star with the Discovery Education Network! 

What is a DEN Star?

A global community of education professionals that are passionate about transforming the learning experience with digital media, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) connects members across town and around the world through social media, virtual conferences and in-person events — fostering valuable networking, idea-sharing and inspiration.

If you are passionate about transforming learning experiences with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking we invite you to take the next step in the DEN. Become a STAR Discovery Educator. It's easy. Just remember STAR:

S – Share something you've learned  about using Discovery Education resources with your colleagues

T – Teach your colleagues about this idea or strategy

A – Assist your colleagues as they implement this idea or strategy

R – Report what you've done

Would you like to be interested in becoming a DEN Star? Log in to your Discovery Education Account and click on Discovery Education Network on the left navigation.

Archiving Your Google Data

The great thing about Google Drive is your data is stored in the cloud and accessible from anywhere.  But in the world of education teachers move and students graduate or transfer out of district and their accounts are deleted. And when the account is deleted there goes the data. What can you do to easily save all of your Google Drive data? 

If you are leaving Richland Two and want to take your data with you follow these simple steps to save your data.

Google has made the process of archiving your data very easy.  All you need to do is go to Google Takeout.  If you go to Google Takeout while you are logged in you will automatically be taken to where you need to be to archive your data.  Select the products you want to archive. In the image below I selected Drive.

After you have selected your Google product to archive, click on the Create Archive button and the archive process will start. Once you start the process you do not need to remain on the page. 

 It will archive in the background and you will receive an email when complete.

You can now download your data to an external drive.  In my situation all of the files were downloaded as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Note that the archive needs to be saved or it will automatically be deleted and you will need to run the archive process again.

If you do not receive your email in a timely fashion you can go back to Google Takeout and select My Archives to access your file for download.  

 Remember to never save your files to a public computer.  You should save these files to an external storage so you can take it with you.  

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Richland School District Two is honored with the 2014 ISTE Sylvia Charp Award

Original post 

Award Winners Will Be Recognized at ISTE 2014 in Atlanta, June 28-July 1

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 6, 2014 – Today the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE^®) announced its 2014 award winners. Each year ISTE recognizes individuals who are transforming learning, teaching and leading in the digital age. The winners will be honored at ISTE 2014, one of the biggest, most comprehensive ed tech events, to be held June 28-July 1 at the Georgia World Conference Center in Atlanta. 

South Carolina’s Richland School District Two is the winner of the 2014 Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology. Presented by ISTE andT.H.E. Journal, in honor of the magazine’s founding editor, this award recognizes a school system for exhibiting effectiveness and innovation in the application of technology. Richland School District Two is honored for bringing innovative practices to its classrooms, through both a 1:1 and BYOD programs that are being implemented with a focus on ensuring that the proper policies and procedures to support learning are in place. Technology integration coordinator Donna Teuber and the Technology Integration team will attend ISTE 2104 to accept the award on the district’s behalf. 

What is the Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology?

Presented by T.H.E. Journal and ISTE, this award recognizes a school system larger than one individual school (school district, school board, secretariat of education, education organization) that exhibits effectiveness and innovation in the application of technology.

Honoring Dr. Sylvia Charp, the founding editor of T.H.E. Journal, and her groundbreaking contributions and extended service to the education technology community, this award has two focuses:

• Widespread implementation: The winner will ensure equitable and appropriate technology use for all students in the system, aimed at improving learner outcomes and increasing learning opportunities.
• Innovation: Progress in education, as in all endeavors of our society, depends on new ideas.

Don't miss this summer learning opportunity - SC Midlands Summit COMING SOON!

Richland School District Two's SC Midlands Summit featuring Google for Education is scheduled for June 11-12, 2014! The SC Midlands Summit is a two day conference focused on the use of Google for Education, research tools, Web 2.0 tools, and technology integration in the classroom.  Over 100 unique sessions will be offered! We have a great lineup of featured speakers on hand to share their expertise with us. Steve Dembo, Catlin Tucker, Leslie Fisher, and Tim Childers are all confirmed presenters! Check out our featured speakers page for more information. 

Registration is only $35 for Richland Two employees and $50 for Non-Richland Two employees for TWO days of Professional Development and up to 14 hours of renewal credit.  Registration is open!

Sessions have been posted on the sessions page. There is something for everyone no matter what level or ability. 

If you have any questions, please comment below.

Congratulations to our new DEN Stars!

Congratulations to Emily Herbig, Chuck Holland and Lisa Knoche to the Discovery Education Network family! 

What is a DEN Star?

A global community of education professionals that are passionate about transforming the learning experience with digital media, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) connects members across town and around the world through social media, virtual conferences and in-person events — fostering valuable networking, idea-sharing and inspiration.

If you are passionate about transforming learning experiences with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking we invite you to take the next step in the DEN. Become a STAR Discovery Educator. It's easy. Just remember STAR:

S – Share something you've learned  about using Discovery Education resources with your colleagues

T – Teach your colleagues about this idea or strategy

A – Assist your colleagues as they implement this idea or strategy

R – Report what you've done

Would you like to be interested in becoming a DEN Star? Log in to your Discovery Education Account and click on Discovery Education Network on the left navigation.

Blogging and Skyping Through the Middle Ages: Learning Takes on New Meaning Using 1TWO1 Computing

Guest bloggers: Mr. Atkins, Muller Road Middle and Mr. Abernathy, Blythewood Middle

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Students in Mr. Atkins’s third period Honors Language Arts class at Muller Road Middle School (MRMS) and Mr. Abernathy’s Honors Social Studies classes from Blythewood Middle School (BMS) collaborated together as students researched and wrote about the Middle Ages.  Titled Blogging Through the Middle Ages, students in both classes researched topics and concepts about the Middle Ages based on Common Core Standards.  Students from both schools researched and wrote blogs constructing topics, event, and concepts about the Middle Ages. Students from each school read and responded to students’ blogs from the other school.

The culminating activity was a Skype Meeting between the sixth grade classes.  Mrs. Brandon, the Media Specialist from Muller Road and Mrs. Swetnam, the Media Specialist from BMS set up the Skype event.  Students collaborated using Socratic Seminar methods--students from each school were given ten minutes to discuss assigned topics they wrote about and the other school had five minutes to summarize what students from the other school discussed.  

Student examples: Blog 1; Blog 2; Blog 3

During the last five minutes, students reflected on the experience.  All of them responded to the experience.  Comments included the following:  

"It was nice to learn from students rather than teachers."  

"I enjoyed working with students from another school."  

"I enjoyed getting criticism from other students.  It made me a better writer."  

"Learned a lot from reading the other blogs."

Three or four years ago, students would have read about the Middle Ages and completed a project.  One-to-one computing has enabled them to become researchers, writers, reporters, and collaborators with students at other schools.   

Richland 2 Film Festival

Are you interested in participating in the 1st Annual Film Festival? If so, it's not too late! All the information needed for the Film Festival is located on the Film Festival blog.

The deadline for the entry form and parent permission form are due this week. You have until May 16th to submit your completed video using WeVideo! 

What is going on with 1TWO1?

Update on our 1TWO1 initiative.

Technology Spotlight - Elizabeth Catoe, Blythewood Middle School

Mrs. Catoe has been using VoiceThread in her French classes to help give students real feedback on conversations. Students in the class use VoiceThread to record conversations with each other. Students are not given much time to prepare and they are not allowed to make a script.

For their most recent assessment using VoiceThread, students imagined that they were shopping for new clothing from a real French store. All students were given was a copy of an ad for the store.  

VoiceThread allows Mrs. Catoe to keep a record of conversations that the students are having in class. Because of this, she is able to give students meaningful feedback on their conversations. Not only Mrs. Catoe able to listen to the conversation many times, her students are able to listen to their conversations again after receiving feedback.

Mrs. Catoe is the French teacher at Blythewood Middle School.