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Showing posts from August, 2013

Painter 12 New Features

PAINTER 12 NEW FEATURES Aloha all, I wanted to share the features of the Painter 12 program. As I talked about in a previous blog this program is excellent to use to create paintings, pastel drawings, and many other fine art medium. Here are the main new features in Painter 12: Mirror painting so you can illustrate the half of the face and it automatically draws in on the other     side. Keleidoscope Painting, you can get intricate designs that cannot be reproduced this easily. Many beautiful images are posted on the web. Real Watercolor and Real Wet Paint, with this new feature you all heard of the saying, "Watching paint dry"? Well you can watch watercolor dry on texture paper. You can view one color blending into another color on wet texture paper. Painter 12 integrates well with Painter 11 and found no trouble using my Painter 11 files with the Painter 12 program. I am having fun with the new program. Please view the video to see the features th

Kamehameha Schools (KS) Teacher Leadership Academy 2013 Dorothy's Top 3 Highlights

Participating in the inaugural KS Teacher Leadership Academy with our facilitator Joeleen Killion and numerous KS teacher leaders was a great experience for me this past July.  My top 3 highlights for our three days together included: Teacher leader roles and attributes are numerous, yet essential.   Roles range from data coach, classroom supporter, school leader, resource provider, mentor, learning facilitator, instructional specialist, curriculum specialist, catalyst for change, and continuous learner.   Attributes of teacher leaders: their knowledge to understand information, theories & research; beliefs about the value of specific information and/or strategies; skills they possess to apply their knowledge; aspirations and desire to engage in a particular practices; and behaviors to consistently apply knowledge and skills. We summed up our thoughts of a teacher leader through a visual reflection image (posted here). Teacher leader standards provide a framework for m

Create Your Own Google Map

Google Map has changed the way we navigate the world, explore places we can't even fly over or walk in to, and share places we want others to go to.  It's easy to create your own map by dropping pins at points of interest, then adding text, photos or videos to those locations.  Descriptions appear in the side panel, and  viewers can click on them to be taken to that spot on the map. The above video take you through the basics of creating a map.  Your map has the features of any Google map - street or terrain view, the ability to turn on and view photos others have placed in the area, and zooming in and out.  Here are some examples of how easy it is to make your map interesting. To add media you must first upload the media to a website and have the URL for each item available. To add a photo click the Rich Text button, then the photo icon.  Enter the URL of the photo.   For a video watch this video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJU6e-mBhBg   To change the pin, drop a p

Teacher Leadership Academy, July 29-31, 2013

The Teacher Leadership Academy with Joellen Killion of Learning Forward was one of the most practical, useful professional development activities I've attended in a long time.  In exploring what teacher leadership might look like, we learned about teacher leadership roles, decision making, team building, and communication. The instructor, Joellen, was incredibly skilled in her craft.  It would be so amazing to spend a couple of weeks shadowing her to analyze her interactions, her choice of words, and her perspectives.  I appreciated the way she validated individuals and was able to reframe statements and situations to productively move along the conversation and extract deeper thoughts and information from participants. In addition to the skills and knowledge we worked on, it was a wonderful opportunity to connect up with educators at KS.  It was so refreshing to be around others who are passionate about education.  I loved experiencing their creativity through activitie

International Society for Technology for Education (ISTE) 2013 Conference Dorothy's Top 3 Highlights

What a blessing it was to have the opportunity to attend the ISTE June 2013 conference in Texas, San Antonio alongside 20,000+ attendees.  This was by far the largest conference I have attended to date. Imagine having to stand in Disneyland-type lines to enter the keynote presentation hall that could accommodate thousands and thousands of people.  Not having attended an ISTE conference since 2005, it was such a refreshing, inspirational, reflective, and enjoyable experience for me. My top 3 highlights of the conference included: Adam Bellow's closing keynote titled "You're Invited to Change the World"   (begins approximately at 23 minutes): His keynote was my favorite at the conference.  Not only were his slide deck an exemplar model of instructional design practices, his method of delivery appealed to diverse learning styles and inspired all types of audiences to change the world through educational technology. I especially enjoyed how he started his keynote with

Teacher Leadership Workshop

The Teacher Leadership Academy workshop put on by Kamehameha Schools Office for Educator Growth and Development introduced the important roles, functions and skills of teacher leaders. Teacher leadership is a key strategy to achieve successful student outcomes. In addition, teacher leaders can play an important role in the success of educational projects by working with administrators, fellow teachers and act as a change agent. The workshop covered the following: Various roles and functions of teacher leaders within a variety of contexts, and how teacher leaders work in tandem with administrative leadership to support effective teaching and student learning. Knowledge, skills, and competencies that are necessary for teachers to effectively serve in leadership roles and support colleagues’ professional learning and develop a personalized professional learning plan for preparing to serve as an effective teacher leader.  Effective facilitation and collaboration skills for engagin

Google Hangout Link Via Calendar Invite

When using Google Hangout for meetings, I noticed that we tend to wait for the hangout link before we proceed with entering our virtual meeting space.  I tested and modified the instructions from the Learning and Leading with Technology article and thought it would be good to share out with you. Go to plus.google.com . Go to Google Calendar and create an event. In the edit event mode, click on "Add a video call". Invite others via your calendar invite to your meeting. Save the event. When you click back into the event, you will notice a revised link "join a video call.  Simply click and you'll be transferred to your Google Hangout space. Enjoy your hangouts!