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INFOhio Virtual Bootcamp – Save the date!

INFOhio Virtual Bootcamp
Destination:  Spa!
August 5 – 7, 2013

Welcome to INFOhio’s Virtual Spa Retreat. Within these fiber optic lines, you will escape the day-to-day doldrums. Let our instructional therapists help you work out the stresses of Ohio’s New Learning Standards. You’ll relax, refresh, and rejuvenate your thinking and emerge re-energized and prepared for the 2013-14 school year.

Day 1 (Aug 5, 8:30
am – 3:30 pm EDT)

Pre-Session Intro (8:30 am – 9:00 am EDT)
Breakfast: Start Your Day Off
Right
Test your connection and speakers and get a quick overview of how to participate in our webinars.

Session 1 (9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT)

Detoxification with the Daring Librarian
First, enjoy this keynote session with Gwyneth Jones, aka “The Daring Librarian.”

Session 2 (11:15 am – 12:15 pm EDT)
Healthy Snack: Using Pinterest for Your Library.
Suzanne Dix, Middle & Upper School Librarian and Writing Workshop Teacher, The Seven Hills School, Cincinnati

Libraries and bulletin boards.  It’s a given! Learn how to create 21st century boards to easily move your library into your school’s 21st century classrooms with Pinterest. With this quick start guide and great buffet of library examples, you can bite into Pinterest and have boards ready to share for the start of the school year.

Lunch Break (12:15 pm – 1:15 pm EDT)

Session 3 (1:15 pm – 3:15 pm EDT)
Alternative Therapies: Tools and Resources for College and Career Readiness and Wrap Up
Gayle Geitgey, Instructional Integration Specialist, INFOhio

Have you ever stopped to think what College and Career Readiness means to your students?  Ohio has ramped up college and career ready work by adopting Common Core College and Career Ready standards, through its emphasis on the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, by changing the number of remedial courses at Ohio universities, and by seeking  higher graduation rates.  In this session, we will examine the many online tools available to increase your confidence in making your students college and career ready.

Day 2 (Aug 6, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm EDT)

Pre-Session Intro (8:30 am – 9:00 am EDT)
Breakfast: Start Your Day Off
Right
Test your connection and speakers and get a quick overview of how to participate in our webinars.

Session 4 (9:00 am – 11:45 am EDT)
Meditations on Common Core Instructional Shifts for English Language Arts/Literacy and INFOhio Resources

Marcia Barnhart, Director of Organizational Learning at Teacher 2 Teacher

Ohio’s New Learning Standards requires educators to rethink instructional delivery. In this session, we’ll contemplate the instructional shifts around close reading, writing to sources, marshaling arguments, and research. We will also reflect on how the many INFOhio resources can help educators meet the challenges of the new standards.  Teachers of all content areas will learn strategies and resources to support knowledge acquisition through literacy practices.

Lunch Break (11:45 pm – 12:45 pm EDT)

Session 5 (12:45 am – 2:00 pm EDT)
Ohm! Ohm! Ohm! Letting Go of Lesson Planning Stress with AASL’s Lesson Plan Database

Liz Deskins, Teacher-Librarian, Hilliard Bradley High School, Hilliard City Schools

Feeling pressure to add new lessons incorporating Web 2.0 tools, new AASL standards, and Ohio’s New Learning Standards. Take several cleansing breaths, relax, and join us to learn how to find high-quality lessons you can make your own through AASL’s online lesson plan database. You’ll also learn how to submit your own lesson plans.  Bonus: The database is free. Now you can sigh with relief!

Session 6 (2:15 pm- 3:15 pm EDT)
Deep Text Massage (or Materials Selection for the Common Core)
Barb Reynolds, INFOhio Contact, Lake-Geauga Computer Association
Greg Perciak, Support Specialist, Library Services, North Coast Council

If you’ve been wrestling with the concept of text complexity, this session is for you. We’ll look at text complexity from both sides. First, in an interactive session, we’ll help you analyze a text you want to use to determine its grade band using quantitative measures and qualitative rubrics. Second, we’ll discuss a number of resources you can use to find texts that are already rated and ready to use.

Day 3 (Aug 7, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm EDT)

Pre-Session Intro (8:30 am – 9:00 am EDT)
Breakfast: Start Your Day Off
Right
Test your connection and speakers and get a quick overview of how to participate in our webinars.

Session 7 (9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT)
Work the Knots Out of Your Presentations (And Your Stomach)

Laura Sponhour, Outreach Specialist, INFOhio

In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to work the kinks out presentations with well-researched methods guaranteed to make you more confident in front of an audience. You’ll discover how to apply the brain science techniques you already use in the classroom to connect with any audience, whether you’re presenting to a group of parents or a group of administrators. You’ll uncover little-known tricks to help you manage pre-presentation jitters. And you’ll learn how to take your presentation slides from dull and forgettable to sparkling and memorable. You’re invited to bring a presentation with you to transform during the small group work sessions.

Session 8 (11:15 am – 12:15 pm EDT)

Healthy Snack : Curating with Symbaloo

Milena Streen, Saint Ignatius High School, Cleveland

Curation?  How do you start.  Let Milena Streen be your personal trainer to easily curate project resources for your teachers and students.  Learn how to easily get started. Discover how your teachers can incorporate Symbaloo as a tool for students to use in their research projects.  Explore student work and start your own personal journey with Symbaloo.

Lunch Break (12:15 pm – 1:15 pm EDT)

Session 9 (1:15 pm – 3:15 pm EDT)

Happy Hour:  Fun Ways to Get Students and Teachers to Love the Library and Wrap Up
Angie Stitzel, Media Specialist, Butler Tech
Winnie Millner, Media Center Coordinator & Technology Integrator, Warren County Career Center

Two librarians will show some unconventional ways that they have reached out to students and teachers to promote their library.  Both librarians strive to make their library a fun place to be and break the mold of the shushing librarian, while making their library the heart of instruction.

Note: You can earn up to 15 contact hours toward professional development requirements or you can register with Shawnee State University to earn one semester hour of graduate credit for the fall for $130. See “Additional Materials” above to get the graduate credit registration forms.  Please mail or scan and email the forms to Donald Washburn, Ed.D,  Director of Outreach Services using the address below:

Shawnee State University
940 Second Street
Portsmouth, OH  45662
Phone (740) 351-3051
Fax (740) 351-3598
Email dwashburn@shawnee.edu

Archive and Clean Up Your Classes for Next Year…

Here is a little “how-to” to get you going….

Archive and clean up class

QM Summer Training Preview Webinar Recording now available

This webinar (recorded on May 21) is a preview for those participating in the Quality Matters summer professional development for teachers, administrators and others in the SCOCA Region. Thanks to Jeff Hunter (Clay Local Schools) and Andrea Hairston (Rock Hill Local Schools) for their help with this project!

QM Summer Training Preview

Blackboard Upgrade this summer….

In July, we will be upgrading the Bb server to Bb Learn 9.1, SP12.  There will be new features and several changes to the user interface.  One feature that you will find very useful is the Item Analysis for test items.  All the details about that feature can be found here.

There is also more information on changes and enhancements in the videos below:

Using the Content Editor »
Video Everywhere »
Profiles »
My Blackboard Posts »
Social Learning Tools »
Discussions »
Inline assignment Grading »
Calendar for Instructors »

SCOCA Webinars: Quality Matters Preview

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/819479614

Preview of Quality Matters Training for the summer of 2013 with SCOCA – if you have registered for one of the QM online classes for this summer and have questions, this webinar will get you up to speed! Please note that this webinar is intended to be helpful, but is not required.  We will record the webinar so that you can see it later if you are unable to attend in real time.

Title: SCOCA Webinars
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Time: 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM EDT
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.6 or newer
Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

Quality Matters Training at SCOCA

SCOCA is pleased to begin offering Quality Matters training for our teachers and other school personnel at no charge thanks to an eTech grant. 6 sessions are planned between June and August (details below) – registration details coming soon!

Grades 6-12 Applying the Quality Matters Rubric Online Course (K-12 APPQMR)

Description: This course is the most comprehensive approach to the G6-12 Rubric offered by QM.  This rigorous workshop covers all elements of the Grades 6-12 Rubric and its use in evaluating online and blended courses.  This course discusses the underlying rationale for each standard and provides some hands on experience.

Audience: This workshop is appropriate for teachers, instructional designers, administrators and regulators who wish to understand more about research supported best practices, mandates required by state and local governments, quality course design and the selection of high quality online classes and materials. We are recommending that teachers from the same school/district sign up for the same course if possible.

Length of time: The K-12 Applying the Quality Matters Grades 6-12 Rubric (K-12 APPQMR) workshop requires approximately 15 hours of work within three weeks. Participants may be awarded one (1) Continuing Education Unit on successful completion of the assignments and quizzes in the workshop.

Cost: Free!  This workshop is free to all teachers, tech coordinators and administrators in the SCOCA region. However, space in the courses is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis, so register soon!

The Sessions: SCOCA will be offering 6 different sessions of the course this summer to accommodate teacher schedules (we know you have vacations planned!), so choose the timeframe that best suits your schedule. Click the link to go to our training registration site:

Credit: You can earn a certificate for CEU’s and we are also offering Graduate Credit from Shawnee State University.  You can earn 1 graduate credit hour from Shawnee at a cost of $130 (payable to SSU).

Registration: Register by following the links above. Registration will be open untill each course is filled or untill 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the class. Once you have registered, you will receive log in information 1 week prior to the beginning of the class. We will announce a webinar in May that will help you get the most out of the training and we will follow up in September. If you need more information, contact Peggy Whyte (pwhyte@scoca.org).

Email issues – the guys are on it!

Careful if you go up to the NOC....

Whew – thankful for a snow day for most of our schools today!  That will maybe give our guys some time to get the issues worked out with email.  They are working with Microsoft to get the Exchange server working again with OWA. (Excuse my French – it’s all a bit over my head!) At this point, some of the guys are starting to resemble the zombies from The Walking Dead!

Advanced Placement Summer Institute at Shawnee State University July 15-18

See the attached flyer for more information about the Advanced Placement Summer Institute at Shawnee State University July 15-18!  Great opportunity for schools that want to get their teachers certified for AP courses.

SSU APSI 2013

Ancestry.Com from INFOhio – fun stuff!

If you haven’t tried it out, you really must try out the new Ancestry.Com database from INFOhio!  You’ll be totally amazed at what you can find.  What a great resource for our students! To get to it at school, choose the resources for middle or high school and you will see button for it.

This resource is a bit different than most of the databases offered by INFOhio – you can ONLY access it from school or from a public library. The INFOhio username and password do not work from home, sorry to say.  I would spend hours in there if I could do it on my free time!

Have a look and then maybe you can have your students research their own ancestry.  Here is a lesson plan link that may help – be sure to check out the forms to use with students!

“Grow Your Family Tree.”

ProQuest Ancestry Library Edition is brought to you by Libraries Connect Ohio, INFOhio working with Ohio’s other library networks, OhioLINK and OPLIN. Access to this resource is funded in part through an Institute of Museum and Library Services LSTA grant awarded by the State Library of Ohio. The content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the granting agencies.

Blackboard Training Webinars Special Event

This week our Blackboard Training Webinar is a special event featuring Chris Pope and David Small from Blackboard Mobile.  They will show us ways to use Bb Mobile in the classroom – great tool for schools leaning toward BYOD!

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/440516590
This week’s webinar is a special event with Blackboard.  Chris Pope and David Small from Bb Mobile will be joining us to answer our questions from our group about using Blackboard Mobile Learn in the classroom.