App of the Week - Puppet Pals HD

 

Puppet Pals is a simple, creative Animation App that students can use to demonstrate their understanding of many subjects.  Students can work collaboratively, or individually, choosing a backdrop and up to eight characters to create a cartoon/drama.  Their voices can be recorded and characters can move all over the screen, while changing backdrops.

Cost:  Free for the basic package. Other packages can be purchased for $0.99 - $2.99

Check out this video tutorial to see how it works:

Introduction to Edmodo

By now you should have received an invitation to join Edmodo today. If you have not please email me so that I can send you your school code. Edmodo has so many great features that can be used both as a collaboration resource and classroom tool.

Here are a few reasons that Edmodo is a great classroom tool:

• It’s secure, no weird advertisements


• Teacher-controlled online environment


• Facebook-like format, making it easy to navigate


• Share documents with ease


• Create assignments/quizzes/polls that are stored for multiple use


• There is an Edmodo iPad app

A comprehensive webinar can be viewed to learn how to use all the features in the classroom here.

For those that work a little faster and can like working off written directions find them here.

Enjoy!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Image via CrunchBase[/caption]

Welcome Back!!

Welcome back LVUSD faculty and staff!

The Media Specialists has been working hard to help the new school year start as smooth as possible. It may be helpful for you to know a few of the tasks we have completed in the last couple of days:

• Imported new students to the Library/Media Center Databases including Alexandria, Textbook Tracker, and Accelerated Reader. (We are working on Reading Counts now)
• Added new teachers to Teacher Place websites, Datawise, and Aeries.
• Uploaded new students into Moodle.


Library/Media Center site visits:
We will resume our Library/Media Center site visits on Tuesdays, starting on September 18th.

This is a time for the Media Specialists to help in the libraries and meet with teachers/staff regarding technology needs. We will also be providing research/library student trainings as well. Schedules will be made with the media clerks at each school.

The Media Specialists are assigned to visit the corresponding schools.

Karen Lagola                                  Brittany Sherman:                   Jennifer Peyrot:

LCMS: 8:30-11:30                      WO: 8:00-11:00                         CHAP: 8:00am-11pm
AHS: 12pm-3pm                          Sumac: 8:00am-11pm            RM: 12pm-3pm
BL: 8:00am-11pm                      WI: 12pm-3pm                           ACS: 12pm-3pm
LH: 12pm-3pm                             YB:12-3pm                                    CHS: 8:30-11:30

Drop-in Inservice:
We will resume our training sessions at the end of September. We will send out a schedule of workshops soon.

We encourage all teachers to invite us to grade level or department meetings to work with you in finding ways to integrate technology into lessons, find the resources you need to support your projects, offer database training and answer any tech issues that you may have.

If you haven't already, please subscribe to our blog http://blogs.lvusd.org/edtech/ to hear about latest news and get some great tech tips!

See you on campus!

The Media Specilaists
@lvusdmnt

Friday Mornings at Starbucks and Google Translate

Two years ago I discovered teachers from Lupin Hill Elementary and LCMS meet Friday mornings 7:00 a.m. at the Starbucks on Las Virgenes Rd. I try to attend these gatherings each week.

This morning a third grade teacher was explaining how she is using Google Translate with a new student who speaks almost no English. The student is from China and speaks Cantonese. The teacher is able to speak in English and Google translates her speech to Cantonese writing. Rapid learning is taking place for both the student and teacher. Cheers to our teachers who are embracing technology tools to do what ever it takes to foster a learning environment.

Each week I learn about great things happening at these school sites. I often bring ideas and concerns back to our EdTech team from our teachers working with students. We are off to a great start of the new year.

Cheers.

A Popping Online Resource: BrainPop

Welcome back LVUSD teachers!

The energy on campus was a buzz, and this resource will help keep your classroom Popping throughout the year. BrainPop has a lot of great resources to supplement your curriculum. Along with the free videos they have quizzes, activities and discussion starters, they also have free lesson plans and other resources. For the free videos click here, for the lesson plans and other resources click here. 

BrainPop Jr. has additional resources for K-3 teachers, found here.

For Sumac, AC Stelle, and Lindero teachers, your site has a subscription. Email me for login information if you can’t find anyone on campus that has the password.

 

Make the most of your MAC

For new MAC users (Lion version), or those wanting to make your notebook a more effective tool check out some of the tutorials.

1. Beginners Mac Guides and transferring data from P.C.’s


2. Features of the MAC OS X Lion


3. Printable Gesture Guide


4. Mission Control: Creating multiple desktops and flipping between screens/applications quickly

E-Reregistration Update

In the first 24 hours, 3,500 parents have successfully completed E-Registration.

We have responded to 500 emails and 150 phone calls and voice mails.

Go Team LVUSD!