"My eCoach has so much to offer. There is
always something new to discover and I know I have only begun to skim
the surface of available resources!"
~ Elizabeth Austin
Princpal
San Diego Unified - San Diego, CA
"My eCoach has been the best tool I have
used. My eCoach is a user-friendly, time saving, and a universal website.
My eCoach does it all!"
~Donna Blanton
Teacher
Pinellas Park Elementary - Pinellas Park, FL
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Greetings!
The year is moving along quickly as schools in North America are inching towards Spring Break. We have so many wonderful new things to release that now is a perfect time to explore My eCoach. Please read below to learn more about our new themes, the new UB Lite for free members, new ePortfolio Process team, members' featured projects, our new My eCoach store, a monthly tip, and more.
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New Features
New Universal Builder Themes
Members can use all themes until 3/30/10
Several teams requested more themes for their projects, ePortfolios, and lessons so we went to work. Some of the themes include Beachcomber, Contemporary, Grunge, Ladybug, Journal and more. Select teams will have access to these themes on a regular basis. However, in celebration of the launch of these new themes, all Trial and Lifetime members will have access to them until 3/30/10.
New UB Lite for Free Members
Easily Publish a One Page Lesson
If you are a Free member, you can now use our Universal Builder Lite Version (UB Lite) where
you can quickly create a one page lesson or website. Free members do
not have access to the Universal Builder but now can go to Toolkit to
Builders to Universal Builder and can access the UB Lite Version.
New WRL Template for Lifetime Members
We also created a WRL Template for our lifetime members so they can also quickly create and publish a lesson using our cloning feature.
Follow on Forums
If you are on a team, you can now follow certain forum topics. This is now the default so you will receive an email notification if you have participated in that thread. more...
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ePortfolio Process
Instructions for developing a successful online portfolio
An ePortfolio is a collection of evidence drawn
from a digital file cabinet that represents what a person or organization
has learned over time. In this ePortfolio Process you will be following these steps:  Collect
Plan
Create
Reflect
Publish - Promote
Throughout this process, you will have several eCoaches and other
members to connect, share, and learn what works for your ePortfolio. There are multiple
templates and themes to choose from along with examples, resources, and
research.
My eCoach members can join this team for $15/year to receive ongoing
support as you build your ePortfolios. As a member of this team, you
will also have access to all of our new themes for the Universal
Builder.
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Featured Projects
Winter Olympics: Learn, Think, Show, What's Next
Roxanne Clement, a Library/Media Specialist at Bay Farm School in
Alameda, CA, created a project for her students on the Winter Olympics
in Vancouver that is more than following the Olympics. The central
focus of this project is actually access, content reading skills, response to content, organization and synthesis of information, and development of deeper understandings.
Pacoima Middle School Drama Page
In its fifth year, Center Theatre Group's Annenberg Middle School Program has been successful in providing opportunities and resources for Pacoima middle school students of LAUSD to enjoy and learn the art of theatre. Omar Contreras uses the
Universal Builder to connect his classroom, this program, Drama Club,
and Theatre Lab to the school community and the world with the Pacoima Middle School Drama site. Check out the fantastic comments page.
SAV School, Nepal
Govinda Panthy is the founder of SAV School in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Check out his blog where he is sharing pictures and information about his school. We are working together to develop cultural exchanges with his students and My eCoach member classrooms.
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CUE Conference Presentations
My eCoach President/CEO Barbara Bray will be presenting at this week's Computer Using Educator's conference in Palm Springs:
Web 2.0 in the Classroom
Come to this interactive session to learn about some Web 2.0 tools that you can use with your students. Friday 3/5/10 - 4:00-5:00pm in the Pueblo room.
eCoaching: Becoming a Successful Online FacilitatorCome to this session to learn tips and strategies on how to facilitate an effective online course or coaching program. Sat 3/6/10 9:30-10:30am in the Mesquite D room. HyperStudio PlaygroundCome by the HyperStudio booth on Friday 3/5/10 at 11 to meet Barbara who will share with you how the HyperStudio Playground in My eCoach gives you access to resources, people, and loads of projects. If you want to schedule time to meet, email Barbara directly. If you can't make it to the conference, follow Barbara on her blog or visit the CUE website for more information.
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Educational News and Updates
Noteworthy updates from the educational community
Articles:
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Love My eCoach?
My eCoach Gifts and Stuff
Some members have asked us to create a store with our new logo - so we did. Now you can get yourself or a gift for a friend a shirt, teddy bear, tote bag, and even a mug with our logo. Show off that you are a proud member of My eCoach!
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Winner of Coaching Scholarship
Cathy Keck of Pennsylvania wins coaching scholarship
Congratulations to Cathy Keck, Technology Integration Specialist at the
Academy of Notre Dame, in Pennsylvania for winning our Leadership
Scholarship! Cathy teaches grades
6-9 in a private, college-prep, all-girls academy in the suburbs of Villanova, PA. She helps the faculty integrate technology into their
curriculum and hold technology wokshops for faculty development. She was looking for an online community that can support and aid in
faculty training and collaboration: a place where faculty can go for
questions, resources, and general tech support.
After much consideration of the wonderful proposals we received,
Cathy's enthusiasm for her school and the support from her
administration was impressive. Her school received a team for ten teachers, training
and virtual coaching support for Cathy, and assistance in developing
the team and projects until June 30, 2011. Congrats Cathy!
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Tip: Wordsift
Monthly Tips and Tricks
WordSift lets
you sift through texts you capture and paste the text into WordSift. It
identifies important words that appear in the text with sortable Tag
Clouds, lists, and images. There are so many ways that you can use WordSift with your students. Here's a few: Give students the TagCloud in small groups to write or draw a page using the words in the cloud. Take the Visual Thesaurus® display of a word web and have students identify and discuss related words.
Use WordSift as they read text, or as they write a response or summary. The
creator of WordSift, Kenji Hakuta, uses it to preview and scout around
documents that promise to be boring, such as long education policy
documents, clicking on key words.
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My eCoach is an online learning community built on a coaching platform complete with collaboration, communication, curriculum, resources, and publishing tools all in one place. My eCoach works for everyone: organizations, schools, districts, classrooms, individuals, businesses, universities, families, etc. For questions or more information about how we can customize our services to meet the needs of your organization, contact us today.
Sincerely,
Barbara Bray
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Barbara Bray
President/CEO
My eCoach
800.633.2248
ecoach@my-ecoach.com
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