sample+project+examples

Should be ready to go! -Lisa (Don't forget to sign in to edit and then, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!)

OK, I looked at the 3 Friends school projects (Germantown, Friends Central, and Westtown) as well as Solebury. Lo and behold...all 4 had to do with, basically, improving communication via. technology, especially amongst faculty! I actually feel much better since that's where many of our conversations/discussions have been trending. --Lisa

I looked at a few different ones. At Springside, they took an existing lesson that had been used for years, and updated it to reflect the enGauge concepts. It's pretty interesting as they compare the old and new versions, but works better for them with a fairly set, well-known curriculum. At Solebury, they developed several separate projects. One of the interesting ones was essentially taking one of their committees (diversity) that was struggling to find meeting times, and having them virtually meet through a WIKI. There were also several schools that looked like they did virtually nothing, or at least produced little in the way of observable results. Roger

I am very happy to be in this group with such insightful peers! I agree with Lisa that we are all feeling a need to improve our communication via technology. I can see the point of a wikki or some other web 2.0 communication tool. This would save time from longer meetings and give us the ability to weed out the information that does not apply to us. It would also give us a forum for teachers to share their expertise and maybe even SmartBoard lessons. Roger, I made the same observations as you. One team seemed to have produced only one page of suggestions. And as I see it we are actually doing what was proposed to the Diversity committee at Solebury. We are utilizing time management through our wikki!! Betty

Hi Friends, Can you tell I like this same color each time? I never wrote here what I learned about the 2 school projects I investigated. so here goes. One was The Hill School in Pottstown. This sounds familiar, I know...they wanted to help teachers and students expand their digital footprint, and use of new methodology, AND they wanted to find ways to know what sources on the web are reputable sources. In YEAR 2, they wanted to birng more faculty on board and have more content areas immersed in this process. They introduced faculty to the video Di You Know? and Digital Nation to start the conversation. The things I took away from this one are: Teach ourselves and then faculty how different technologies help kids with different learning styles, that our Ning could contain lesson plans, and that the short videos (like the one of the digital students sitting in our classrooms) could help us start the gentle mindshift.

The second one I looked at was pretty amazing. It was from the Avon-Maitland School District in Ontario. Faculty from separate schools chose to set up a Community of Learners by creating Room 21c, a Ning for the PLP participants to grow and learn. Passion based Professional Development. If you go there, you will see some of their work--like the cross-school partnership with a PLP school in Va for studying a social studies unit on civil rights. They did not seem bound by any one idea. The site ismore a collection of questions, trials, videos, personal stuff related to the PLPers... They also have a video. Go to Room21c.ning.com and I think you will be able to see it. It's clever.

So regarding Wed., is there any specific prep work before our meeting? Laura