Monthly Clicks

• Chateau MeddyBumps offers original games and stories with amusing characters, wordplay and humorous illustrations. K-8
• CountryWatch.com: This site is a school research portal with free and subscription-based resources on world regions including Russia and the newly independent states, the Middle East and North Africa. The site is designed for interactive learning about individual countries and their social, political and economic structures, with curriculum activities and related resources.
• Dositey.com: Printable worksheets, animated math games and quiz shows, lessons, and mindtwisters. K-8
• FableVision Place is an interactive web page that offers children many ways to explore stories.
• First World War.com: Numerous
  sections include: How It Began, Battles, Who's Who, Timeline, On This Day, Vintage Audio, Photos, first person accounts, and more. Also includes a Search Tool.
• Imagination at Work: just check it out!
• Kids Hub is a noncommercial educational portal for upper elementary school and middle school students. It includes free online interactive learning games, puzzles, and quizzes.
• Kids Read / Teens Read: These related sites are outstanding places for students to find information about their favorite books, series, authors and characters. Each site offers reviews of the newest titles, in-depth author profiles, interviews, announcements of book awards, games, puzzles, contests and opportunities for readers to write book reports and post ideas.
• Kizclub: PreK-2, provides activities to be used with preschool and early elementary students. Numerous activities are available for alphabet recognition, sound/symbol relationships, and early reading skills.
• Knowing Poe: Through the activities on this site, you can introduce learners to the literature, life, and times of Edgar Allan POE Included are lesson plans, primary source documents, and links for
  further research. Grades 9-12
• Lewis and Clark: The Ultimate Adventure traces Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's legendary 3-year expedition through the unexplored west. Visitors to the site can read and study original papers from the journals, follow the interactive maps to trace the journeys, or click on the names of the cities in the top navigation bar to follow the trail and view photographs of life along the trails, as well as find information about the men themselves.
• Maps that Teach is a collection of online interactive maps and free software downloads, great resource for teachers. K-8
• Math Resources: listed by subject and grade are some of the best resources on the Internet.
• Science Snacks: miniature science exhibits that teachers could make using common, inexpensive, easily available materials.
• Sports Media: provides a platform where athletes, coaches, teachers, students and instructors can learn and exchange ideas. It offers links to an extensive collection of online lesson plans and activities on various PE topics, coaching materials and resources for every sport, with opportunities to get questions answered by experts.
• Wonderville was created to spark kids' interest in science. In Wonderville, they can engage in scientific experiments, locate cool science facts, and even find out about careers in science. Grades 4 - 6
  

On-line Collaborative Projects

• Bucket Buddies: Students will collect samples from local ponds to answer the question: Are the organisms found in pond water the same all over the world? Participants will: Identify organisms in a water sample; Compare their findings with other participating classes;
  Determine which, if any, of the organisms are the same in other, more distant water sources; Look for relationships and trends in the data collected by all project participants. Grades 1-5, register by March 16.

• Earth Day Groceries Project The Earth Day Groceries Project is a cost-free environmental awareness project in which students decorate paper grocery bags with environmental messages for Earth Day, April 22

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

Willard District
Upcoming Trainings

• Using MS Excel in the Classroom, Mar 13
• Introduction to WebQuests,
  Mar 19
• File Management for Educators, Apr 10
• Revising WebQuests, Apr 16
• Virtual Field Trips, May 8th
• Writing a WebQuest, May 13

Resources Used in
Past Trainings

• Finding, Evaluating, and Organizing Web Resources
• Global Collaborative Projects
• Using MS Publisher in the Classroom
• Using MS PowerPoint in the Classroom
• Cool Tools for Teachers and Copyright
• Planning a Class Web Site
• Publishing a Class Web Site Using Composer

RCET-SW Workshops

Holidays

Women's History Month

• National Museum of Women's History
• National Women's History Project
• Women's History Month

• 3: Read Across America Day
• 4: Mardi Gras
• 12 Girl Scout Day
• 14: Pi Approximation Day
• 16: Freedom of Information Day
• 17: St. Patrick's Day
• 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• 23: Liberty Day

Fact File

Rainbows are caused by sunlight passing through very small water drops.

Mrs. Vicki Feldman, a sixth grader teacher at the Middle School, has recently revamped her class Web site. She has incorporated the Survivor theme that she uses in her classroom while using her Web site to communicate with parents, post student work, and as a resource when working in the computer lab with her students.

On her Web site you will find a Class Information page for parents and students outlining class rules and procedures. Parents have easy access to her e-mail throughout her Web site and can view the assignments for the week. On the Student Work page you will find entertaining proverbs written by the students. They are highly motivated by the fact that samples of their writing are posted on the class Web site. On the Student Resources page, Mrs. Feldman has listed hyperlinks for the students to use when in the computer lab or at home completing research. The News page is a student favorite. Here she posts photos of the class teams, announcing who has "Earned Immunity," "Was Voted Off", and "Won the Final Challenge" for that week.

This class Web site is an excellent example of how a Web site can be used as a class room management tool, motivational tool, and a means of parent communication.

If you have an idea to share, or would like to recommend a teacher to feature please
e-mail me.

Take a byte

Class Web Sites

Many teachers are now publishing class Web sites on our district's server. All Middle School teachers maintain a class Web site, posting their assignment weekly. North Elementary has a goal of 80% of the teachers publishing a Web site. The district eMINTS teachers publish class web sites. In addition, various High School and elementary teachers post Web pages.

There are district policies that must be followed when publishing a web site:

• Photographs or full names of individual students may not be published.
• Written parent permission is required to publish student work or photographs.
• No names can be associated with student pictures. (Group pictures labeled with group names, such as Willard Software Team are acceptable.)
• Published student work is to be labeled with only first names or numbers.
  
• All links and content shall relate to curriculum and school-authorized activities.
• No copyrighted material; Credit sources for all graphics and text.
  
• Each web page will be commercial free.
• Each web page should be accurate and current, and contain a date indicating when it was last updated.
• Each web page will contain school contact information including building name, address, phone number, and staff e-mail.
• Each web page shall contain a copyright and liability statement.

Reasons to Publish a Class Web Site

Communication

• Foster and simplify parent-teacher communication
  
• Publicize classroom activities, projects, and special events
  
• Share local curriculum and information
  
• Save time - visitors can get information directly from the Web instead of calling you

Instructional Tool

• Guide instruction by providing organized and prescreened links to online resources for students
  
• Provide access to student appropriate search engines
  
• Allow students to access assignments or other necessary information
  
• Promote collaboration with other classrooms around the world

Organizational/Storage Tool

• Organize teacher/education resources sites
  
• Store general education resources such as dictionary and thesaurus sites

Showcase

• Showcase student work and accomplishments
  
• Motivate your students to do their best for an authentic, worldwide audience
  

District Technology Planning Committee

At the February Board Meeting, the District Technology Plan was approved. It is now being submitted to DESE for scoring. The plan is available in PDF format, listed by section, in the table below. Copies of the Plan are available in all the Library Media Centers, Central Office, and on the District Web site. Each member of the committee also has a copy of the complete plan. All faculty members will receive a condensed version of the plan. A condensed version of the plan will also published in the Cross Country Times newspaper.

January Minutes: There was no meeting in February. During the January meeting we formed two ad hoc committees. One committee was in charge of updating our Technology Usage Policy. The other committee wrote a Resource Distribution Policy.

Agenda for the March 12th Meeting
3:45 PM, MS Library
Facilitator: Janetta Garton
Recorder: E Moore
Timekeeper: M Schnakenberg

Meeting
1. Team Builder 5 min
2. Read minutes from last meeting/Garton 2 min
3. Discuss Technology Usage Policy 10 min
4. Discuss Resource Distribution Policy 10 min
5. Discuss hiring considerations in reference to technology 15 min
6. Look at plan timeline and discuss what to do next 10 min
7. Assign roles for next meeting and set the date 3 min

Tech Tip: File Extensions

Files have to be identified so the operating system can address them. These filenames have specific rules. The basic form of a filename is: rootname.ext

The first part of the name to the left of the period is called the root name. The second part to the right of the period is the extension. It is optional and is usually, but not necessarily, three characters long. In the DOS and Windows operating systems traditionally the extension on a file name has been used to identify a program the file is associated with (e.g., the .EXE extension almost always represents an executable program, the .DOC extension mostly represents a Microsoft Word document file). Below are listed some common file extensions. The FILExt web site provides a comprehensive list.

If you can not see the file extensions when looking at your files in Windows Explorer follow the clicks below to change your folder settings.

1. Open My Computer
2. Click the Tools menu
3. Choose Folder Option
4. Click the View tab
5. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types."

23.06.02©JL Garton Updated 10 March, 2003
Copyright Notice: The Fusion logo and graphics may not be copied without permission. The remaining material may be freely copied.
Janetta Garton
Technology Curriculum Director
Willard R2 School District
460 Kime Street
Willard, MO 65781
jgarton@willard.k12.mo.us
(417)742-2584