The Director\’s Corner

How exciting it is to see our third grade students using a Wiki! The students from the challenge program, Ms. Restivo, Ms. Gentile, and Mr.Pitz’s classes used internet tools to collaborate on a variety of topics, ultimately creating a guide to Morse School for incoming second graders. Although these students could not work [...]

[Read more]

Students are motivated when they write for an authentic audience, and a number of our elementary school teachers have begun using class blogs to provide our students with this opportunity. Recently, Ms. Cristella (Ms. Cristella’s Class Blog) and Mrs. Chulla (Chulla Chatter) had students post their poems online. This was a big thrill [...]

[Read more]

On Friday night, April 20, 2007 the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC) presented the Distinguished Technology Leader Award for a teacher. After reviewing many applications for this prestigious award, the LHRIC stated that they chose to honor Tom, “as a leader who has been extremely successful at finding ways to use technology to [...]

[Read more]

I recently attended a presentation sponsored by the Rockland County School Boards Association and the Rockland School Public Relations Association billed as “The New Media: Old School? New School?” There were numerous board of education members, school superintendents, and public relations personnel in attendance, and the panelists included the local media and school district [...]

[Read more]

I glanced at my blackberry this morning and noticed a quick note from Tom Mormile, our high school’s multimedia teacher. It read, “What country ranked #2 last week, in number of visits to www.sleepyhollowhits.com?” The answer: China!
Hmm, perhaps it’s time I re-read some of Friedman’s book.
Later in the day I reviewed the [...]

[Read more]

A few weeks ago Jean O’Brien, our technology integration specialist for grades 4-6, and Nichole Conjura, one of our sixth grade teachers, had a grand idea to apply distance learning technology to solve a local dilemma. The results have been intriguing.
Recently, one of their students had injured herself and required surgery that promised to [...]

[Read more]

It’s more important than ever that the technologies we embrace for our schools are ones which will address a need, simplify a process, or allow us to do things we might otherwise be unable to do. Recently, John Calvert, our district’s K-3 Technology Integration Specialist, has used Web 2.0 technology to create a new breed [...]

[Read more]

It’s difficult to talk about these new Web 2.0 technologies with others who are not familiar with them. Casually using terms like blogs, blogosphere, social bookmarking and (my favorite) wikis usually draws a smirk or other non-verbal cue from a colleague, a cue that indicates that perhaps all this talk is “just a bit out [...]

[Read more]