The purpose of this page is to provide information to the employees of Paradise Valley Unified School District about opportunities to learn ways to integrate technology in their instruction and work productivity.
Cherie Stafford wins AzTEA Innovation Award for Technology Specialist of the Year 2008!
"Cherie has many strengths, including her organizational skills, ability to communicate effectively, and her positive interaction with teachers, students, and administrators. Her passion is empowering teachers to engage and enrich students in dynamic educational experiences through technology. One of her strongest attributes is her ability to think outside the box and create innovative professional development opportunities for teachers to discover technology integration skills."
Paradise Valley schools are experiencing internal success and garnering external recognition for their GenYes programs. This week, PVUSD was recognized in three different ways from the Generation Yes company.
Excerpted from GenYes Express, November 2007: Paradise Valley expands from 5 to 19 GenYES schools
This year, the Paradise Valley school district in Arizona started GenYES in 19 schools, expanding from 5 schools last year. Students in elementary, middle, and high schools are helping their teachers with technology, while learning 21st century skills like collaborating with adults, project planning, and of course-technology.
"Almost all of our students are computer-literate but the adults on campus are not, so we use the students to help adults use technology more at our school," said Ms. Marianne Bursi, principal of Explorer Middle School.
Secondly, of four school GenYes web sites recently featured in GenYes for Teachers bi-weekly nation-wide newsletter email, two are from PVUSD. Check out what Bryan Smith at Greenway Middle School and Bob Becke at Explorer Middle have created for their GenYes programs.
And finally, GenYes recently sponsored a digital photo contest for its 2008 calendar. They invited GenYes students in select schools to submit entries. North Ranch Elementary GenYes students, under the guidance of their GenYes teachers Linda Barker and Mike Burns, were invited to submit photo entries. It was just recently announced that two of their entries have been selected for the calendar. One will be the calendar cover photo and another photo will be used for one of the months.
Online Class: Digital Presentation Skills for the Classroom
Engage your students with digital presentations with your laptop and multi-media cart. Participants will learn to use PowerPoint from basics to using games and templates, United Streaming curriculum rich videos, video clips, and images, Inspiration software for concept maps and more, standards-based web resources for the class and home, and more. Participants should already know the basics of WWW navigation. Most appropriate for grades 3-12.
***Informational Meeting: in the Professional Development Center Training Room at the District Office, Jan. 14th at 4:00.
This class is designed to help educators get started with creative projects using digital photography and music. This course will focus on using iLife applications for the Macintosh in projects with students. Participants will learn to use iPhoto, iTunes, and some basics of iMovie (using still images only). *This class is a prerequisite to Digital Photos, Music and Video for the Learning Environment. Must have an iBook and digital camera. This is a beginning level class; only teachers who have had no iLife classes should register.
***Informational Meeting: 3:45 in the Professional Development Center Training Room at the District Office, Jan. 14th at 3:45.
Calling all adventurous teachers who are willing to explore the dynamically changing Read/Write Web 2.0 world! Just like the new Internet networking and communication tools of wikis, blogs, podcasting, RSS feeds, Google searching, and more…, this class itself will be designed differently involving participants to be learners and producers of technology, committing to exploring and sharing their newfound knowledge to their group, and the whole class!
It is our goal that by the end of this class all participants will have a better understanding of the tools of Web. 2.0 and how one can use them to improve their teaching, and engage and excite their students to want to learn more! Most appropriate for teachers of grades 4 - 12.
*ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO EARN iPBP!
Jan. 28th, Feb. 11th, 25th, Mar. 24th, 31st.
Online Class: GarageBand
This class is for teachers who would like to learn how to use GarageBand. GarageBand is like your personal recording studio where it's easy to make a song whether youÕre a first-time musician or a seasoned pro. GarageBand lets you record podcasts and assemble basic soundtracks from musical loops. With GarageBand, you can create your own recordings. You can record, edit, and mix a song exactly as you want it, in pristine CD quality. Even if you have no musical talent you will be able to create songs to use in your presentations, movies, slideshows and podcasts!
You will need to watch the video tutorials in Atomic Learning and complete the assignment.
Important: Before you register, check your iBook to see if GarageBand 3 (part of iLife 06) is in the Applications folder. You must have an iBook G4. Your STR or STS can install iLife 06 on your iBook G4 if you do not have it.
Those who successfully complete the class will earn 4 hours of Professional Growth.
NEW! Online Class: iWork (Pages and Keynote)
Register between March 6th and March 25th in Course Wizard.
The purpose of this class is to use digital photography as an educational tool to enhance the standards for Science, Language, Math and Social Studies. With iPhoto you can import digital images from digital cameras and other digital sources, such as photo CD’s, scanners, and the Internet. Learn how to organize, export, edit images and create simple slideshows. The photos can be used to add to Web Pages, make books, QuickTime movies, and add to other files. Technology Standards for teachers and students will also be met by taking this class and using the skills in your classroom. This is a Beginning level class - for those who have not taken iPhoto in the past.
1-10-2008 from 03:45 PM to 05:45 PM PDCTR iPhoto version 05 will be used for this class.
Check your version by opening iPhoto, going to the iPhoto menu and selecting About iPhoto. The version will be listed there.
Bring iBook, power adapter and power strip.
Optional, but advantageous: Bring your digital camera with some photos you have taken. Bring the cable or card reader that goes with your camera, too. If you do not have a camera, instructor will give you some photos to use in iPhoto
for the class.
Participants will receive 2 Professional Growth Clock Hours.
Disclaimer: You are about to leave the TechTIF web page and the Paradise Valley School District server. The PVUSD has no responsibility for the content beyond this point. The Internet is a highly volatile place and pages change suddenly and rapidly. Because we believe that everyone hs the right to exercise personal freedoms, we make no attempt to control or even monitoranother person's values or tastes. It is not unusual to find information or images that are objectionable. Proceed at your own risk.
Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection.
Atomic Learning provides web-based software training for more than 100 applications educators and students use everyday. The short, easy-to-view-and-understand tutorials are a valuable curriculum supplement and an anytime/anywhere training resource.
From the Arizona State Department of Education: A website of resources dedicated to the success and achievement of all Arizona students and schools. You will find ongoing resources for online professional development, educational streaming videos, AIMS preparation support and formative assessments.
Welcome to Classroom 2.0, the social networking site for those interested in the practical application of Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in learning.
We especially hope that those who are "beginners" will find this a supportive community and a comfortable place to start being part of the digital dialog.
Cherie Stafford wins AzTEA Innovation Award for Technology Specialist of the Year 2008! 