Introductions

Please introduce yourself, let us know a little bit about you, and where you are from.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by leslie schecht on August 2, 2009 at 6:58am

Hi
I'm Leslie and work for the New York City Dept of Educ, as the Director of Technology for the special education division. I'm an Apple Distinguished Educator, who loves everything Mac. I believe in exposing educators and students to all types of technologies that enhance teaching and learning.

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Permalink Reply by Allison Rousseau on August 2, 2009 at 8:39am

Hello. My name is Allison Rousseau. I am a fourth and fifth grade teacher at a montessori school in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. I am currently working on my graduate certificate for Microcomputer Applications. The first course in the program has been a review of material I have already covered: Microsoft Applications, Webquests, and Educational Portfolios. Therefore my professor has allowed me to create my own projects to count towards this course. I am currently working on setting up a student blog. My research brought me to this site. I am very excited to be part of this blog and look forward to learning and sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Arthur Hall on August 2, 2009 at 9:33am

Hi everyone, I'm Arthur Hall working as an EFL teacher in a comprehensive school in Gummersbach, Germany. I also teach English for Informatics at two universities of applied science and teach in a local company. I'm studying online for an MSc in E-learning from Edinburgh. My special interests are EFL / ESL programme design for the 15 - 18 age group, the education of the gifted and blended course management.

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Hampton on August 2, 2009 at 10:36pm

Hi - We at Talcott Mountain Academy have been fortunate to have as our intern a young lady from Germany whose aunt lives locally. Our G/T kids are younger than yours, ages 5-14, but perhaps we can set up an written exchange or even a video conference. Our students are involved in astronomy, meteorology, and geocaching, topics which ought to "translate" well and might overcome the 7(?) hour time zone difference. Our classes start 8 Sept., with teachers meetings the preceding week. A number are on campus now for our summer programs, so I can pass on any ideas you have. - BJ Hampton

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Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on August 5, 2009 at 6:33am

Welcome Arthur. I'm a German teacher in Indiana. I had to look up where Gummersbach is located. I haven't spent much time in Nordrhein-Westfalen. I'm sure my students are way behind in what your students can do. Europeans see a need to learn English. My students rarely see the need to learn German and their study habits show it, but I still enjoy teaching them and try to make classes as interactive and engaging as I can. If you have any websites that your students fine very useful and are also available for German learners, let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Hampton on August 2, 2009 at 10:27pm

Greetings! I'm an academic reference librarian (Sacred Heart University) -- my "day job" -- and am working extensively on the library at Talcott Mountain Academy, a private K-8 school for highly able students with excellent STEM faculty and resources. This supports my interest in gifted education as well as my maternal instincts, since two of my children have been students there.
After participating in dozens of graduate-level online courses as well as continuing professional education webinars, I'm moving to the other side of the internet podium to develop and present courses for teachers, graduate & undergraduate university students, and pre-college students. I've used various CMS software and am now working with Moodle.
I develop content for several information/research pages and use Twitter to enhance the presence of my groups in the community. We're beginning to use blogs and tools like Ning to facilitate interaction on the web. Many students (most under 14) use Facebook, although I'm cool to their format.
Other areas of interest: EMS, religion (Christianity), current events & politics, horses, and hiking/camping.

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Permalink Reply by Loh Wei Leong on August 2, 2009 at 11:39pm

Hi everyone. I'm Wei Leong, a Chinese language teacher based in sunny Singapore and is very interested in making full use of new media ICT tools in teaching and learning. Hope to exchange ideas and learn lots from everyone else!
Areas of interest: Teaching of CL, Use of ICT in teaching and learning.

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Permalink Reply by David Andrade on August 3, 2009 at 11:17am

My name is David Andrade. I am a high school Physics teacher and Educational Technology Specialist in Southwestern CT. I have been teaching for 8 years and was an Aerospace Engineer for 10 years before that. I am also a Paramedic and EMS-Instructor and teach EMT and Paramedic classes as well as working on the road part time as a medic.

My wife is in school to become a Biology teacher and is also an EMS-Instructor and EMT-Intermediate.

I have a class website, www.physicsmedic.org, a blog, http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/, and write a blog for Tech&Learning magazine.

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Hampton on August 3, 2009 at 3:08pm

Sounds like we have a lot in common. Ever been to Talcott Mountain Science Center?

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Permalink Reply by Peter Graves on August 3, 2009 at 1:40pm

Hi,

My name is Peter. I'm the Director of Studies at an private ESL school in NYC. Right now, we are using ning.com in the classroom in NY but want to expand to incorporate all of our schools across the country. Does anybody have a tip or two that they would like to share about using ning? What kinds of things do you do with it? Anything will help. Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Mirtschin on August 3, 2009 at 3:40pm

Hello Peter and welcome to classroom2.0 I have used nings with students as part of the flatclassroom projects. For these projects it is used very much as social networking for the students from the various countires to get to know each other. They can write blogs, comment on each other's page, share photos, add videos and join in discussions. Careful monitoring is required by the moderators to ensure that all memberships are moderated and that applicants are genuine. Students need to be taught appropriate digital citizenship, netiquette when working with others, copyright in regard to work added etc. I am a member of a number of nings from personal networking purposes and I feel they have great potential for students. You can let ning know that you are working with students to keep your ning ad free as well.

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Permalink Reply by tarak brahmi on August 3, 2009 at 2:48pm

Hi everyone! I am a teacher of English from Tunisia. Looking forward to meet all of you here and to share advice and tips about teaching techniques and tools.