Mary Henton's Comments

Hi Mary,
Another technology coach posted a comment on the CFF (Classrooms for the Future) listsev in PA. I am excited to explore this site in more detail.

In reply back to the message you sent me I'm an adjunct faculty teaching computers at the community college level. I'm also a student working on getting my second masters and a teaching certificate in education which is how I end up here. My goal is to eventually start teaching math at the high school or maybe jr. high level, a career change. I'm involved in the ntec program through quincy university.

Hi Mary!

I am a state agency case manager for a competitive state grant that focuses on helping "academically unacceptable" secondary schools to redesign and restructure to improve student achievement. The majority of the schools are not performing up to standard in the areas of Math and Science.

Thank you so much, Mary! Sorry for the delayed response, I was out of town without email access from Thursday-yesterday evening. I am really excited about this site and will check out the etech thread you mentioned. Also, I would be happy to post more about my research. I will try to do that in the next couple of days. Thanks so much and I hope we can get together soon!

Hey Mary! This is all very cool! I'm glad to explore this one. It's been such a busy time -- even weekends -- with family and professional events, it's been hard to sign up for all the things I want to do. Debbie's nudge had perfect timing, however, so here I am. Isn't that the way it normally goes -- someone encourages you to think or do something helpful and that's all you needed to make the leap, eh? As a former math teacher and a former science teacher and someone who works intensely with middle and high school math teachers across the nation, membership in this Ning will be a wonderful asset. -- Rick

In our science teacher workshop yesterday, we reviewed the 7-8 reading strategies that we have been using during first semester. I expressed my fear that perhaps they had used the strtegies "just because the presenter was there." But, no, they REALLY have incorporated at least two of the strategies into their routine teaching day!
By the way, those strategies include anticipation guides, double-sided notebooks, K-W-L, clustering and brainstorming, probable passage, and others. Yesterday we explored gleaning, SQ3R, arguing on paper, graphic represnetations, choral reading, and skit-writing. I will go back tomorrow into the classes of the 7th grade science teachers and model a few of these new startegies for them.
These great teachers remind me that CHANGE IS SLOW -- like weight loss. It takes a bit of time to re-do our mind-set. This is ok. I am proud that they are willing to let me invade their space and try new things that will, in turn, help their students to be able to be more successful, and that my friend, is the bottom line.
Thanks, John D

I facilitated a workshop today for the science teachers at a local middle school, and we had a productive day. I did not have time before the session to look at this site, but I am excited about the possibilities. Thanks for your encouragement. JD

Thanks for the information , Mary. I will certainly sift through this material and see what I can use. JD

Sorry for my very slow response Mary. Although we are a commercial operation we believe in supporting educational issues and give over 20% of the site to the function. If you have any ideas please let me know. In the meantime you can take a look at these news items on keen2learn which are designed at promoting educational initiatives by the government and a charity
Information on Home Access “Free Laptops for School Children” Scheme
Peter Pan To Help Gt Ormond Street Hospital In Schools Challenge

Regards
Alistair

Thanks for the warm welcome, Mary. I have already found lots of great resources on the site. I also enjoyed the presentation of the Hubble telescope which was live on Thursday evening, January 28. I look forward to finding the time to view some of the archived webinars.They are a terrific resource, and I hope to involve my science teachers in sharing parts of the recorded webcasts with their students.
Thanks to Steve Hargadon for putting me in touch with your group. I am looking forward to having a webinar session aimed at students air during the school day when I can get a number of kids into the lab to listen and participate in the chat.
Thanks again,
Carolyn

Hi Mary!
Thanks so much for your warm welcome! I'm in the middle of a writing project right now, but I plan to do a lot of exploring this site when I get a bit more time. Feel free to ask me to weigh in on anything you think I may have missed!!

Debbie

Hi, Mary

Thanks for the Welcome..

Thank you for all these ideas and potential resources. I will be sure to check them out.
Tommy

Thank you for the welcoming letter. Yes, it is a picture of my cat (Zig Zag). I haven't had a whole lot of time to really explore the MSP2 site. I was mostly interested in the science resources that you have available and checking out this Ning format. In terms of content knowledge, I do a lot of teaching outdoors and incorporating the outdoor classroom into the curriculum. I teach 5th graders and 8th graders so there is a pretty broad range of developmental issues in how I teach my classes. I use computers quite a bit in my classes and try to get my students to "show what they know" using different formats. They use programs like Garageband to create podcasts, wikis to share project reports, and workspaces on FirstClass to do collaborative projects.
I am interested in learning more about teaching engineering and how to find ways to incorporate technology into my curriculum more creatively and effectively.

That would be an excellent conversation. Since I found MSP I referred it to the students in the middle school science methods course, but would be interested in utilizing it in a more meaningful way next year (I only teach the course in the fall). It would be interesting, and I think useful, to have students from around the state and country meet each other and collaborate in a virtual way.

Hi All!
I went to a session at the NMSA but the girl's computer broke so she didn't get to show much. I learned all kinds of neat things at the conference but I had a hard time getting into science ones, most were full and I couldn't get from one session to another to be first in line.

This is my first year as a science teacher and I control my curriculum. I really love it! I would really like to do more things with technology, but I teach in a catholic school and our principal is a little phobic of what might happen and the whole cyber bullying thing.

Aslo since I added the science to my license, my college classes were just curriculum, not teaching tools, like how to run/use equipment, how to set up labs with only 4 minutes between classes, and how to keep them busy when they are done with labs, those are things I need help with.

What I do really like is the picture of the day. I have started using that as a bell ringer, I have the kids journal and do observations on the pictures and then take a guess at what they think it is. They thought the octopus today was donuts!


Thanks again,

Stacey

Thank you for the welcome. I teach science eduation at Cleveland State University. I could see how this would be an extremely useful resource during a methods course. I look forward to participating with the groups.

Thank you for the kind note. I adopted an Italian greyhound mix from a shelter, hence the profile pic. In my backyard, squirrels and rabbits enter at their own risk! ;-)

Yes, I am a special education teacher, working in a program through which we are trying to 'bring back' students who have been placed out of district, (most often due to behavioral incidents). What is your role in the educational community?

Once again, I appreciate the welcome message, and I'll be looking forward to exploring the site. (As soon as I get some time!)

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the nice note. I am getting an NSDL project going and looking into using Ning as a platform for our community. Are you happy with the interface and features available? Do new users find it pretty intuitive?

-sam