Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 5

Well it is the final day of the summit and the keystones are spending all day working ona portable professional development project. They will be developing their podcasts or vodcasts and uploading them to the Keystones Podcast Server. To listen to some of the podcasts that were developed at the summit, click here.

Finally after the summit attendees worked hard all day on their podcasts and learned how they could be developed using a simple laptop with a microphone and video cam, they were presented with their final gift - an 80 GB iPod Classic.

The picture above was taken at the conclusion of the summit. What a great group of Keystones and Keystone Staffers. This was a great opportunity for me to work the summit and hopefully I will got the opportunity next year to be part of the staff again.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 4

Today was a very exciting day. I was involved in leading a workshop for Principals from around the state. We had 25 Principals participate in the workshop. A few of my local colleagues attended the workshop. They included our own Kathy Furman, Tim Fausnaught, Matt Reitz and Eric Gee from Loyalsock, Brandon Pardoe and Justin Ross from Williamsport. It was great seeing them at the workshop.

The workshop focused on, What does effective teaching look like? How does technology support effective teaching? The principals also had an opportunity to sit in on two informational sessions on some web 2.0 tools. These informational sessions included Google Docs, wikispaces, and blogs. The focus was on how they as an administrator could use them in their role.

The principals workshop was very successful. Also each principal walked out with some cool gifts. I would like to thank my workshop colleagues, Ann Noonen, Rosie Parmigiani, and Matt Dancho. Also special thanks to Eric Rosendale, Keystone Director, Jim Beeghley and Shawn McDonough, from the Pennsylvania Department of Educational Technology, and fellow keystone staffers Kristin Hokansen, Chris Champion, and Alma Row.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 3

The summit again was a very busy place. The day began with four, hour and a half workshops. The Keystones had a choice of five different workshops to choose from during each session. Some of their choices were:

• Google Tools,
• Improving Elementary Writing Through Art & Animation
• How to Use iMovie
• Blogging to Encourage Student Writing
• Just Flip It
• Your Life with Comic Life
• Creating Curricular Wiki’s

These were just a few of the great workshops on Tuesday. Tomorrow I will be involved in a Principals workshop at the summit. Myself and three other colleagues will be leading the workshop. We have 25 principals coming from around the state.

I also would like to congratulate our own Keith Cremer, on his selection as a Keystone Technology Integrator. Keith got the opportunity to attend the summit.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 2

Today was a busy day. We had a great speaker, Steve Sassman, in the morning. He spoke to all the Keystones and gave them a very powerful message on the power teachers have to influence their students. What a great way to start the day and to get everyone excited for a day of amazing things that happened.

I also had the opportunity to teach two classes on Movie Maker. The sessions went well and the teachers really began to look at their curriculum on ways they can begin to use Digital Video in their classes. I want to thank all the teachers that attended my sessions and thank them for for their discussions.

The Evening brought us the opportunity to bring the Keystones together for small group sessions and discussions. The excitement our small group sessions was wonderful and it is great to see and listen to the ideas that these teachers are now going to take back to their classrooms.

If you would like to learn more about the Keystones Program, please click on this link:
Keystone Technology Integrators

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit

I have been fortunate to be able to be a facilitator at the Keystone Technology Summit at Bucknell University. The Summit brings in 100 top educators from across the great state of Pennsylvania to teach and learn about new ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.

As a staff member I have been here since Saturday afternoon preparing for the attendees that arrived on Sunday Afternoon. On Saturday we spent a lot of time in meetings, unloading vans, and getting meeting rooms ready.

The Keystones arrived Sunday afternoon and were given the royal red carpet treatment. Staff members carried the attendees luggage into their rooms, gave them bags of goodies, and treated them to a picnic dinner outside. After the dinner everyone interacted together and played games on the lawn. A great 1st day!

The Dark Knight

Have you seen the new Batman Movie? My family and I went to the new Cinema Center in downtown Williamsport on Sunday Afternoon to see the movie. What a great movie! The new theater is also very nice. I really liked the reclining seats. If you get a chance, go see The Dark Knight, and let e know what you thought of the movie.

TitleTown USA

ESPN was in town today to film for an upcoming segment that will air on SportsCenter on Saturday. They were filming a segment called TitleTown. Is Williamsport and Little League really TitleTown? I believe so. This is the only place where a true Champion is crowned on the field every year in the purest form of the game of baseball. Special thanks to Chris Downs and Little League for inviting a lot of the local ball players to be part of the taping.

The New iPhone by Apple

The new iPhone went on sale on Friday and Apple has said to have sold 1 million iPhones in the first weekend. That is incredible! One Million iPhones sold in 3 days! The new iPhone is very cool and I hope to get one soon. Do you know anyone that bought an iPhone?

A Day at the Races

We had a great family night at the Route 87 Speedway in Montoursville tonight. My family and I spent the evening racing go-carts. It was a great time and the weather was fantastic.

Rommelt Honor Roll Assembly

I would like to congratulate all of our 5th & 6th Grade Honor Roll Students. This morning we held our 1st Trimester Honor Roll Assembly and recognized all of our honor students. Each student was called up onto the stage, received a certficate and an honor roll ID tag, and a much deserved round of applause from the staff and students at Rommelt. This marking period the Honor Roll ID tag was red.

I would like to challange each and every 5th & 6th grade student to work hard to achieve honor roll for next marking period. Can you earn an honor roll ID tag? What color will next trimester's be orange or purple?

Remember if you make honor roll all three trimesters, you will also earn a fourth ID tag that is blue. Can you do it? I hope so, I would love to have a lot of students earn this high academic honor.

Veteran's Day Assembly

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Major Max Furman for putting together our Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday. Major Furman did an outstanding job of relating to our students what his tour of Duty in Iraq was like and the important missions they were involved in. Major Furman showed the students an awesome slide show of pictures he took while in Iraq. Thank you for taking the time to share your story with our students.

I would also like to thank Ms. Pat Russell and Mr. Jamie Flick for presenting the students of Rommelt with the Mounties Mission Homefront Map that will be displayed at Rommelt. The students of Rommelt will soon get to see all the servicemen and woman that have ties to South Williamsport. We will also have some of the classrooms adopt a servicemen or women to send carepackages overseas. What a great project. Look for more information on Mounties Mission Homefront soon.

Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. Linda Hawkins at the High School for putting together a very moving assembly at the high school. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the assembly due to a training demonstration, but I have heard so many wonderful comments on it. Thank you to all that took part in making the assembly one that our South students won't soon forget.

Thank you to all our Veteran's that have given so much for all of us to enjoy the freedoms that we have.

7th & 8th Grade Report Cards

The 7th & 8th grade students received their report cards today. How well did you do? Did you make honor roll? Congratulations to all students that made the honor roll. Check back soon to see your name posted for making honor roll.

If you did not make the honor roll this time, please work hard this marking period and make it your goal. You can do it if you just put your mind to it. Remember to return your signed report card to your homeroom teacher by Thursday, November 15th.

Please remember Parent Teacher Conferences are November 19th & 20th. Please make it an effort to make conferences and discuss your child's success so far. These are important times to hear about the successes they are having and where the struggles are as well.