DeWitt Tech Mentor KH

January 2010

khorrocks — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:15:05 +0000

Monthly report was submitted on the spreadsheet instead of here.

Do want to let people know that I uploaded to Bb a detailed guide to using Open Office with Microsoft applications.

December 2009 Report

khorrocks — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:08:05 +0000

Worked with Gary S and JoAnne P to understand how to enter grades and comments into Schooltool.

Helped solve printer problem with Marjorie I.

Helped Anne with blogs, setting up for her kids to use, talking to staff about use.

Took 3 classes to do an interactive activity on mummification.

Worked with Charlotte W. to get ready for her new computer. Taught her how to save to h-drive, how to set up a printer, how to do monthly maintenance, how to create shortcuts to email and schooltools. Worked with her to use a flashdrive to transfer all her documents off of her old computer to transfer to her new computer. Worked with her when she got the new computer, doing a brief tutorial, set up her color printer which had never worked to work with her new computer. Showed her how to download a printer driver from online.

Taught two workshops on Open Office and Neo Office.

Fixed printer (3 times) for JoAnne P. Her computer keeps losing the connection to the printer in her room.

Fixed several printers in Karen O. room and fixed two monitors that kids had accidently changed settings on. Helped make one computer mobile so she could use it in the front of the room with a projector, showed her how to set up a projector.

Helped fixed an problem with email attachments (I hope) with Charlotte W. Wondering if all new computers, which are using OO.o will have trouble opening Word attachments. I anticipate this is going to be a big problem as people get new computers.

Hooked up five computers to the color printer from Carol H. to Patricia F. rooms.

Delivered three new computers to Andrea V., Charlotte W. and Carol H. and reviewed basics with them.

Discussed options to typing programs (like Maivs Beacon) with Cathy M. Suggested she request Mavis be added to her classroom computers. She said she asked a long time ago and nothing has happened.

September 09 Report

khorrocks — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:59:57 +0000

A busy but not impossible beginning of the year. Worked with many staff members getting their computers set up, printers added, etc. Also gave two workshops this month. Overview:

Working with new nurse on a weekly basis to help her with technology. She has only minimal computer experience and has requested several sessions covering everything from school tools to email to word processing, to internet use. Had three morning sessions with her so far and will schedule those on an ongoing basis.

Worked with two new Phoenix Team teachers on attendance procedures, and just the basics of setting up and using their computers.

Set up printers for Volckmar, Porchedu-Ion, Epstein, Walsh, Gutman, Fishman.

Taught Excel basics workshop. Four staff attended.

Taught Tables in Word workshop. One staff member attended.

Worked with 2 staff members on problems with email.

Helped new staff member with showing kids how to log on and use email.

Helped deBoer with setting up projector, getting YouTube video downloaded (on using metrics) and able to run off her computer. Worked with her on getting a PPT from her MAC to a PC and then embedding a video in it.

Helped Ron fix his mouse and then showed him how to use Spybot on regular basis.

Worked with Walsh on setting up school tools, setting up her computer with wireless access, hooking up local printer.

Helped Clare with school tools.

Tried to set up 4 Special Ed printers but at the time did not know about new way to connect to printers so put in a track it instead.

Numerous “catch you in hall” questions about various tech issues.

May Report

khorrocks — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:02:10 +0000

(I accidentally deleted the April post for reasons that are too long to explain here. Apologies)

May 2009:

Had a good unit on monotheistic religions where students used Powerpoint to present their research on monotheistic religions. Had to use flash drive to save them all which made it quicker to present than having each student sign in and out. Most of the students knew how to use PPT on a basic level, but it was a good chance to talk to them about the correct use of this medium, staying away from unnecessary bells and whistles and extraneous things that take away from the content. I think many students were able to progress to a more mature level of presentation. Several kids in each class had never used PPT before. It was hugely helpful, and actually allowed the whole project to happen, to have Roger Sevilla come to my classes and work with those few kids while I worked with everyone else.

Joyce Turner, the office secretary, had several problems this month with her new laptop. I worked with her on WORD, to fix margins that seemed to have a mind of their own. I showed her how to change preferences, settings and auto features.

Helped Roger Ming with finding audio files and downloading them. Demonstrated burning CDs.

Worked with Fred K. on learning how to use the LCD projector and how to set up his smartboard. I suggested he sign up for an indepth workshop on smartboard as I could not take the time then to teach him much and I am also new with that technology.

Used several online resources with students to learn ASL in four workshops during our Focus Day. ASL browser is a wonderful resource for such things.

Helped figure out some problems with Class XP for a substitute teacher who couldn’t get it to work.

Taught 4 social studies classes how to scan pictures onto a flash drive to use in projects.

Met several times with the technology committee to get RFP submissions ready and submitted.

Helped fix monitor and keyboard for main office computer.

Taught a workshop in the PDC on creating jeopardy game.

Helped main office computer that was frozen, fixed wireless problems

Helped fix problems with ethernet connections and printing problems with main office computers.

Demonstrated how to import and export Favorites list from IE for SS teacher.

March Report

khorrocks — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:48:08 +0000

Spent time last month and this month helping people figure out how to register for Super. Conf. Day and then find out how to access their enrollment forms. It was not a very intuitive process, even though most know the basics of MLP.

Memo went out to use up our supplies money by a March deadline. Spent time with a few teachers on finding education supplies online and ordering. Spent time with SS teacher looking into several software applications. He finally decided on a mapmaking software package from Tom Snyder.

Spent 15 minutes trying everything I knew to get a printer in the art room to work. Everything seems right but it still wouldn’t work. Finally checked the cords and they had been pulled slightly out, still attached but not pushed in enough. So all that work for the sake of pushing in connecting cords. But at least the teacher was thrilled to have her printer back.

Prepared materials for and offered a workshop. Three people attended. Not great attendance but they were happy with what they learned and found it useful.

Spent some time with science teacher planning ARC GIS projects and observing her class work with the program. Kids are very excited about the project.

Put together a series of online activities and quizzes for English classes–Subject Verb agreement. A dry and boring subject that is made more palatable for kids when using online resources.

Researched and prepared an activity for SS classes on life in Rome. Using several websites that discuss social aspect of ancient Rome, including an interactive “mystery” that allows kids to figure out who or what killed a Roman citizen as they learn about Rome.

Spent several hours trying to get the Rome Reborn and the Google Earth 5.0 Ancient Rome applications to work smoothly for SS classes. Not there yet.

Helped Heather R. with her email, problems with deleting, full quota etc. Showed her different templates and how to purge trash.

January 2009 Report

khorrocks — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:22:14 +0000

As the RFP equipment came in, spent a bit of time doing mini-lessons with teachers receiving new equipment. Simple things like helping set up printers and class xp shortcuts etc.

Helped Karen R. figure out problems with file storage and h-drive limits. Also with email trash and limits.

Helped ELA teacher find materials online that support The Devil’s Arithmetic.

Went to ARC training and spent several hours finding materials to put together a unit on how climate and topography affected the spread of the plague in the Middle Ages.

Made a note to myself about working with PTA listserve but can’t remember what that was or what that means, or what I did–story of my life actually.

Helped teacher take old photographs and scan them and manipulate them to go into a book.

Prepared and presented a workshop on Cool Teacher Tools.

Helped art teacher clean, defrag, virus check her computer. Taught her basic skills for doing this monthly. Helped her figure out what equipment she could use to enhance her art curriculum. I talked to her about getting a projector for her room and a color printer. She is very excited now about teaching art using the projector.

Put together bookmark file for poetry unit for ELA class.

Put together several interactive sites for Ancient China unit.

Took several classes to do ELA parallel tasks online before the ELA exam.

DECEMBER REPORT

khorrocks — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:34:13 +0000

Very short month between snow day and vacation. Another big problem was the demands on my time for both going to, preparing for, and following on the Literacy Collaborative and Differentiated Learning workshops. These demands, along with trying to actually teach (!), grade papers and get grades done and in for progress reports made me decide to postpone my December workshop. One reason was complete lack of time to prepare on my part, but also seeing that the staff would not be inclined to come to a workshop this month. They were too busy trying to fit in all the other meetings, grade deadlines, department and building “social gatherings” for the holiday time etc. It appeared I wouldn’t have anyone come so I will try to fit two in one month after the holiday. Other than that, I dealt with several small issues this month. Problems with student computers in the Spec. Ed. room, calendar off, battery running down, wouldn’t allow students to log on. Worked with a staff member to find a good picture of the new president elect, hook up to a color printer, copy, enlarge and print. Had some good discussions with how to find resources that are public domain to use in the classroom. Worked with several English and social studies classes on using works cited resources (Citation Machine etc.). Worked with student on integrated science, English project creating a power point. Worked with Gecko team teachers for Egypt Day activities using online resources for Egyptian related games and activities. Tried to figure out if the fan was gone in a MAC machine in a CAS classroom. That was about it for the 2 weeks we had this month.

November 08 Report

khorrocks — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:59:12 +0000

The focus of this month was helping to deliver and train for the RFP materials that were coming in. Several teachers needed some minor training on new machines, and printers and class xp set up etc. Worked with four teachers in that capacity. Still working with several teachers to get them hooked up to new printers in the library. Demonstrated several sites that enrich social studies curriculum to SS teachers such as the Theban Mapping Project and the NOVA pyramid site. Worked with both 6th grade teams on British Museum mummy and hieroglyphs site. Worked with English classes on sites offering various webs and graphic organizers for pre-writing tasks. Helped teacher find and build a library for clip art. Demonstrated how to upload, import and use clip art with WORD. Taught English class on use of mind maps. Used a website that helped to demonstrate use of mind maps. Helped teacher figure out how to use and organize Favorites folder on browser. Worked with teacher to find various radio stations around the world and create folder to organize and find online radio stations from different countries. Worked with math teacher to use OCM Boces streaming media. Downloaded and set up projector to play a streaming video about Afghanistan. Tried (without success) to set up a wireless connection for an older laptop belonging to Spec Ed. department. Eventually got that straightened out and added printers to it. Prepared workshop on databases offered through library website. Did mini-lesson on cleaning and defragging regularly.

October 08 Report

khorrocks — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:34:55 +0000

Productive month. Taught a workshop on Atomic Learning, but have also done several “unofficial” workshops. I attended a workshop where my group was asked to read and present our information to the rest of the workshop. I used the time to teach and demonstrate Inspiration to my reading group and we used that to present to the rest of the workshop. The 15 attendees really liked it and wanted to know more about the application. Worked with several new teachers setting up their computers, hooking up printers, showing how to submit snoopy requests (Fishburn, Booth, Guttman). Set up Outlook for math teacher and showed how to use it.

The library is taking one main printer off line and setting up two new ones so this caused a spate of people to need help in connecting to those new printers (Ming, Fishburn, deBoer, Strong, Hornbrook, Rosenthal, Trisha P-I). Helped a staff member move files from a mac to a pc. Fixed a Class XP problem for one staff member but am still stuck on how to fix the problem of printing with a Mac from Class XP. I am really unfamiliar with Citrix and don’t know how to navigate around there.

Helped two staff members download and print color pictures of their “survival” projects. Their kids read “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” in reading class. They took their classes out in the woods to build shelters and took pictures of the kids reading inside their shelters. They now have large color pictures all over the hallway of all the kids sitting inside their brush shelters reading. The kids love it but it took a bit to get all the photos printed, especially given we had a new color printer that needed to be connected.

Fixed a problem the principal was having with WORD. Couldn’t turn off an auto function that was putting tabs all over the place. Eventually got that fixed.

Took an English class and four social studies classes to lab to use Inspiration as a pre-writing exercise.

Took English classes to lab to show several grammar games involving correcting and proof reading.

Taught a mini-workshop to Social Studies department on using Excel and Time Tube to create timelines.

Taught an impromptu workshop during a staff meeting working with out PLC’s on using Inspiration and Excel to create flow charts. They were trying to figure out how best to represent what they had come up with from their discussions. I suggested these two possibilities and showed them how it could be done.

Fixed a problem on Eric Pritz’s laptop. The laptop would boot up but then immediately go black, hard drive still audible in background. Tried several things but finally resorted to F8 on startup to get Safe Mode, choosing to start with earlier configuration which fortunately worked. I think the problem might have been connected to the fact that this is a loaner, very old computer and he was trying to run an Epson projector on it. I think that messed up the settings. Finally got it fixed however.

That’s about it for this month.

June Report

khorrocks — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:39:02 +0000

Hectic month with testing, field trips and getting the curriculum in. Most of the work done was triage with printers. Worked with English teacher on how to attach documents to email in WebMail and how to delete old emails. She had about 30 pages of old emails she wasnt’ even aware of. Talked to two staff members about using the Surge template because they were running into problems with the Panel template and deleting. Worked with SS teacher on how to use the drawing toolbar in WORD. He wanted to make new passes and had never used the boxes or draw tools in WORD. Also didn’t know about background colors etc. Helped Tami Hayes with creating forms to make a template for student information collection and for home letters. Showed 2 teachers SEARCH ME search engine which they loved and later said their kids loved when they showed it to them. Talked to several teachers about using SKYPE and also one department about using a free web based conference calling service. Fixed several computer/printer problems, especially problems in main office with Joyce Turner who wanted to print to the ricoh copier. Also worked with her to show her how to manage her email folders. Anne B and I met for an hour to plan out next year’s workshops and schedule dates for them for the whole year. I will teach morning workshops and she will do a repeat for afternoon workshops so we cover everybody’s schedule. We also planned out an introductory workshop for new staff for September. Just need to get them all onto MLP in September. Will be using the mobile lab at NE for summer school this summer we hope.