On February 3, some DMS students  in Mrs. Hoelting’s 7th grade Language Arts classes were able to participate in a video conference with former First Lady Barbara Bush.  The video conference was provided by the Education Department of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.  Mrs. Bush read to the students from the book, Mr. President:  A Book of U.S. Presidents and answered student questions.  One lucky DMS student even got to ask Mrs. Bush a question!  All the DMS students who participated will receive a copy of the book.

A student example of the Weather graph

Students in Ms. Bish’s class took the opportunity to display the data  they collected about the weather in a graph created in MaxCount.  As part of the “Weather Share” collaborative project, Ms. Bish’s class has been observing the weather and posting their data on a wiki to share with their cooperating class in Pennslyvania. Participating in the project is enabling the students to incorporate their activities with their visits to the campus computer lab.

Yeah! We got the grant!  The Mobile Minds grant team members (Christie Rickert, Kris Peterson, Jennifer Hernandez, and Paulette Garza) are chomping at the bit to get started on the mobile devices project.  We are looking at this as an opportunity to do a focused study at the impact the IPod Touch has on student learning.   We’ll keep you updated on our progress, check back soon!

Mrs. Morgan and Ms Blansitt

This fall one of our Student Teachers completed her required observations via Video Conferencing.  We found this was another great use of Distance Learning for the Supervisor and the Student Teacher.

“I graduated from the University of North Texas in May 2008 with a BA in English. After graduation I moved to Austin in search of a career in nonprofit organizations. After a few months of unsuccessful job searching, I received a letter from UNT about their post baccalaureate teacher certification prgram. Luckily, they had an on-line option to take all of the required courses, but Iwould have had to travel up to Denton for meetings and final exams. UNT is one of the few schools that provides long distance supervision, so when it came time to complete my student teaching I did not have a problem.  I had four class observations by my supervisor via a Tandberg Video Conferencing system. We were able to talk and see each other in real time. It worked great thanks to the help from Mrs. Jurica and Mrs. Richert…….. We would conference after each observation and my supervisor spoke with my mentor teacher, Mrs. Morgan, at times as well. Using the Tandberg VC system was helpful and overall a great experience.”

Hays CISD celebrated the tremendous growth in Distance Education this week.  Some of the week’s highlights include webinars in topics such as online learning, curriculum videoconferencing, and mobile devices.  Teachers at Camino Real, Kyle, and Hemphill Elementary joined Region 13 for a “virtual party” as they casually were acquainted to the concept of videoconferencing and some of the applications in their instruction.