VSTE recognizes excellence in education through several different awards.  We are pleased to announce the 2012 award recipients who will be recognized at the annual conference.  Congratulations go to...

 

VSTE Teacher of the Year, Norene Skiles, a library media specialist at Windsor Oaks Elementary School, Virginia Beach City Public Schools

 

VSTE Leader of the Year, Mark Nichols, Special Education Supervisor for Assistive Technology and Individual Education Programs, Loudoun County Public Schools

 

Innovative Educator of the Year, Monica Kissel, Assistant Principal of Steuart Weller Elementary School, for Loudoun County Public Schools

 

You can learn more about the awards and the winners at our website.

Can't believe it is November and time to decorate with fall pumpkins. Join us tomorrow night, Monday, November 5 at 5PM SLT (8PM EST), for a VSTE Island Make and Take Workshop ~ Make your own Pumpkin Patch! All materials will be supplied. Bring a friend and come join us! 

VSTE is partnering with several organizations to provide discounts on licenses and courses of interest to our members. Taking advantage of these offers also benefits VSTE so it's a win-win for us all.

TakingITGlobal Education (TIGed) Online Courses: TIGed is offering three professional development e-courses for teachers this Fall: "Project-based Learning for Global Citizenship", "Education for Environmental Stewardship" and "Empowering Student Voice in Education". These graduate-level, accredited courses are designed to support teachers in bringing the world into their classrooms through the use of e-technologies and international partnerships to help students understand global perspectives, environmental issues and student voice. Save 10% when you mention VSTE.  Learn More

Tales2Go: Tales2Go gives teachers and students instant and unlmited access to thousands of audiobooks on desktops and Apple mobile devices. Save up to 35% on licenses when you mention VSTE. Learn More

Atomic Learning: With Atomic Learning, educators can streamline technology integration with Atomic Learning's 120+ classroom-ready projects utilizing Comic Life, Excel and more. And, the workshops on topics like social media, podcasting and blogging help school faculty and staff members learn essential communication skills. Save 10% on licenses when you mention VSTE.  Learn More

Sharon Bowers from Virginia Beach Schools will give us a peek inside two project-based programs within NIAUniverse: daVinci Worlds and the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge (RWIW).
Within daVinci Worlds, elementary, middle and high school students team to synthesize and organize their learning by constructing knowledge spaces in this virtual world setting. In RWIW, college engineering students virtually mentor middle and high school students to refine NASA-inspired engineering design solutions. Steps of the engineering design process are displayed and models built InWorld. Join us to learn how this space is used to support constructivist, student-centered learning. 

 

A special note from our presenter: Evaluators are needed for the InWorld phase of the RealWorld InWorld Design Challenge.  This phase takes place inside NIAUniverse, a 3D multi-user virtual world powered by ActiveWorlds. Interested?  You can learn more here.

VSTELive Webinars are usually held on the third Thursday of each month. The Fall 2012 schedule is available at the website along with the archived recordings of past webinars.

A Mobile App for Your School

Home-school communication continues to be a huge factor in student success.  Our school had a website, and a mobile app was the logical next step, but among our school staff no one had the technical skills to build a mobile app.  Enter webmobi.com! For a relatively modest $120/year and with no "app building" skills, you can put together a fantastic mobile app for your parents. You actually build a mobile site and then a parent can add the mobile site to the smart-phone home screen. All the most important school info is at their fingertips. 

 

The site you create works across platforms and also creates a tablet interface.  We have created our mobile site so that it links to our contact info and social media sites, so very little day-to-day updating is necessary.  Parents have been especially pleased with the "click to call" capability, which allows them to call or email Hamilton ES through the mobile app.  Push notifications are also available. 

 

Check out how Joe Mazza at Knapp Elementary in Philadelphia uses his Knapp App.  To get started building your own School App, click here.  You can sign up for a 15 day free trial and then switch to the "Bronze Package" using the school code SCHOOLAPPS which will give you the $120/year special pricing.  The WebMobi staff responds quickly and is happy to answer questions.  Email them here: support@webmobi.com  We have been using our Hamilton App for more than a year and parents love it.  If you'd like to give ours a try, use your smart-phone to visit http://hamilton.webmobi.com and add the site to your home screen.  For more info, feel free to contact me: katie.neville@lcps.org

This edition of The Big Deal Book of Technology features some great websites including Skype in the Classroom, a free resource for connecting your classroom to the world, and Historical Thinking Matters that features historical thinking investigations. 

The Big Deal Book of Technology supports educators who want to use technology in their classrooms.  Each edition includes links to grants, free & inexpensive resources, mobile learning information, STEM gems and other educational websites.