Tapped In Newsletter: February 2000
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...ON THE TAPIS
February 2000
Issue 27
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In This Issue
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[1] Alternative/Correctional Ed Discussion Group recognized by CEA
[2] California is TAPPED IN!
[3] ACT CUE Telecommunications Conference
[4] Creative Writing 101
[5] Technology Tips--Yes Virginia, you can change your password!
[6] School-Home Early Literacy Kits
[7] TAPPED IN Survey Report
[8] About ...On the TAPIS
Quote of the Month
"... I'm concerned about hate groups. ... We must create a climate where people agree that human beings are more alike than unalike. The only way to do that is through education." - Maya Angelou (Reprinted with permission from Parade, copyright c 1999)
[1] Alternative/Correctional Ed Discussion Group recognized by CEA
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Designed to address some pressing issues facing teachers in correctional and alternative education, the Alternative/Correctional Ed Discussion Group, led by BJ Berquist and Dave Fish, bring attention to the problems and special needs of this "forgotten population." The group meets the third Thursday of each month and tries to provide opportunities for these isolated educators to go 'out of the box' in looking at solutions to their unique situations. An article about TAPPED IN and this discussion group was published in the Correctional Education Association Bulletin.
[2] California is TAPPED IN!
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The New Haven Unified School District has begun to facilitate discussions and provide ideas and web links for parents and teachers. Teach the Teachers (TTT) is offering a twice a month refresher course led by John Rivera in addition to a new K-3 reading group sponsored by Cheryl Lee. Read the next newsletter item to learn about TAPPED IN workshops coming to the LA area!
[3] ACT CUE Telecommunications Conference, by Carole Gilmer
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Come to a fabulous educational technology event! The Association for Classroom Technology, a CUE affiliate, sponsors a Telecommunications Conference every year to enable K-12 + educators the opportunity to venture into the world of cyberspace with talented educators guiding them to success.
The 5th annual ACT CUE conference will be held on Saturday, March 18, 2000 at the Pasadena City College Community Education Center at 3035 East Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena. There is a map and a registration form on the ACT CUE website at http://www.actcue.org.
The Conference is offering 12 hands-on workshops in a variety of categories (including TAPPED IN workshops led by Judi Fusco) for $15 a session as well as vendors and over 54 presenters. The cost is $35 for CUE members, $40 for non-CUE, $30 for groups of 4 or more and $25 for full time students. If you have any questions please email ACT CUE at actcue@earthlink.net Don't miss it!
[4] Creative Writing 101
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...ON THE TAPIS is a newsletter about what is happening in the TAPPED IN Community. We need your news articles to keep the Community informed. Heard of an interesting event or participated in a seminar? Here's an example: News Flash! Ferdi Serim, a member of TAPPED IN, and leader of the NetTech Technology Coordinators' discussion group, has just been elected to the Consortium for School Networking (http://www.cosn.org) board of directors. Congratulations, Ferdi! Share your experiences with our TAPPED IN members. Just email your idea or short article to BJ (berquist@pa.net).
[5] Technology Tips
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Yes Virginia, you can change your password!
If your TAPPED IN password looks something like this: xerisskjue and you just can't remember it, don't worry... you can change it! Log in with the alphabet soup password and then type PASSWORD with no quotes. Follow the prompts to make an easy to remember personalized password.
Advanced Tech-Tip of the Month - MailMe
When you are logged in to TAPPED IN you can mail yourself any note, whiteboard contents (PRINTB makes a note of the whiteboard contents) or transcript of your recorder (while it is still recording) by typing MAILME name of object/note/name of recorder.
[6] School-Home Early Literacy Kits
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400 LEARNING ACTIVITIES for strengthening children's reading & writing skills are now available on the U.S. Department of Education website. The activities kits (one kit for each grade level, K-3) are organized around the skills frameworks in the National Academy of Sciences' report "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children," & a reading framework developed by Edward Kame'enui & Deborah Simmons of the University of Oregon. For more information - http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/
[7] TAPPED IN Survey Report, by Judi Fusco
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A BIG wholehearted thanks to all those who participated in our first comprehensive survey of membership experiences in TAPPED IN. 1269 of you filled out the survey. For those who participated in the survey we had a raffle and we've picked the four winners. We are notifying them by email and will announce them in next month's newsletter (with their permission).
Each month we'll take a little space at the end of the newsletter and tell you more about what we are learning from the survey. For example, we learned that the average age of TAPPED IN survey respondents is 43.72 with a range of 21-67.
We were also pleased to learn the range of teaching experience in TAPPED IN. Teacher members have taught from .5 years to 39 years (25% of respondents have taught 5 years or less, 25% from 6 years to 13 years, 25% from 14 years to 21 years and 25% from 22 years to 39 years).
Because we are a community of practice where we often learn from each other, it's important to have a wide-range of expertise. It's easy to see how experienced teachers would be an important resource in TAPPED IN, as they have most likely learned a great deal throughout their career, but everyone has something to offer. Often people who are new to a profession raise questions that cause experienced people to reflect on issues that they all to often take for granted. TAPPED IN can be a wonderful place to have a reflective conversation with another teacher regardless of how long you've been teaching.
[8] About ...On the TAPIS
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Postings of all ...ON THE TAPIS issues are available on the TAPPED IN website.
Contact us if you have any questions about your subscription, password or user name, or if you have any news items that you want to share with the community for ...ON THE TAPIS.