Now, the staff sustain their progress through several strategies. Collaborative Conference is a biweekly meeting of each grade-level team with Forest Lake's tech-integration triumvirate: Scullion, Williams, and library-media specialist Lizzie Padget. Teams use these meetings to address problems and plan their study units, brainstorming ideas for the pre-unit assessment, technology components, and hands-on experiences. Williams also serves as a real-time tech supporter, available to fight fires, coach teachers individually, or stand by in their classrooms while they try something new.
Monthly staff meetings are another essential venue for ongoing training. Scullion, Williams, and Padget often ask teachers to showcase the innovations that are working in their classrooms. Lowe, for instance, is the first to experiment with blogs in second grade. Scullion intends to ask her to teach her technique at an upcoming meeting. "Innovations seem more attainable if you see people next door doing them," she explains.
Maude Caudle on 21 Jun 10The goal of Signed Stories is to increase the literacy of deaf children; however, it is a great resource for all children. After choosing a story, you will see the text, hear the story and see it in sign language. Almost 100 titles are available and can be searched by topic or by browsing all titles. Some stories offer more options than others. Many stories have pause and rewind buttons, so you can replay to see signs again. 10902 In the Classroom: Use stories on the interactive whiteboard or projector to teach story elements - pause as the story is read to allow students to retell details to the stopping point then make predictions of what will happen next. Help students understand disabilities and adaptations to disabilities through watching the stories being told in sign language. This is also a great resource for students with deaf/hearing impaired parents or students/teachers trying to learn or practice sign language. In sign language classes, consider creating your own signed story videos for children's books and share them on a tool such as TeacherTube [ http://www.teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=9419 ]reviewed here.
