Reaching an estimated 1400 people, the iConnect Technology Showcase was a huge success. With 116 teacher and 249 student presenters, visitors saw a wide range of examples of technology uses in the classroom to enhance learning and enrich the curriculum. Tax payers were able to view first hand how the bond, which provided much of the technology demonstrated, supports accelerated learning through technology and prepares CISD students for their future! Special thanks to all who spresented and to the campus Instructional Facilitators, Technicians, custodial staff, and all campus staff and students who made the event a success.

Comal ISD teacher websites are becoming more than just a resource for contact information and planning times. Teachers across the district are extending their classrooms and interacting with parents and students in innovative ways. This week's Website of the Week winner (shown above) is Jennifer Smith, Specht Elementary School. Jennifer uses her website to send weekly newsletters, spelling words, online resource links for students, and to post podcasts of the student's learning. Congratulations, Jennifer.

To kick off the Instructional Technology website, we want to recognize the exciting work that Comal ISD teachers are doing with their websites. Our â?Website of the Weekkâ? feature will spotlight the best in CISD teacher websites that, not only provide information, but serve as a dynamic communication space with parents and as a publication outlet for the great student work. Each week a new website will be featured. Each teacher whose website is selected will receive an InterWrite tablet for their classroom! So spruce up that old website, create a new one, and think about how this medium can serve your students and families in innovative ways!

Students have access to information, experts, and data in ways that have never existed before. They can utilize tools to create in ways that have never been seen before. This challenges the role of traditional education to provide engaging, relevant learning environments for students to learn the 21st Century skills they will need for their future.

Kelly Braun's 4th grade science class demonstrates their in depth learning of animals and their environmant in their Animal Adaptations podcast. Student groups researched an animal, wrote a script, and recorded their findings in an audio format released around Earth Day. Check out the student's work as well as great links to student resources, and images of other classroom activities on this week's Website of the Week.

Comal ISD Instructional Technology is excited to announce our end of year Technology Showcase, highlighting incredible student uses of technology in learning. Parents, students, and community members are encouraged to attend this event and see incredible examples of the ways in which CISD educators and students use technology to fulfill the district mission of preparing students for the Information Age. The use of technology tools in the classroom enhances learning by empowering learners to undertake authentic projects. Technology makes possible engaged learning experiences for diverse learning groups and provides access to rich resources and expertise previously unavailable. Technology enables student learning that extends beyond the traditional classroom. These experiences prepare students for the Information Age by requiring them to move beyond information consumers to become information producers.. At CISD, the use of instructional technology provides our students with important 21st century skills, such as inventive thinking, digital literacy, effective communication, problem solving, and productivity, that prepare our students for our changing world. Students will showcase innovative projects at each of the three district high schools. During the event you will have the opportunity to experience: Technology workshops conducted by students, *Displays of student projects *Technology Playground where you can play with the types of technology used in the classrooms. *Film Festival *Information about Internet Safety *Great DOOR PRIZES At Comal ISD, thanks to support from our community and hard work of our teachers and students, we have transformed the way we teach and the way students learn. Come see how our students are learning and what the future holds. Comal ISD is leading the way!

When Ashley Osborne’s second grade students learned about the states of matter they wanted to demonstrate their knowledge in a story. Students first brainstormed what type of character would deliver the message of matter. The class decided on “Horton the Elephant” and divided into small collaborative groups to develop stories of how Horton interacted with matter in varying states. Students created hand drawn story boards and gave their story voice by pulling those images into Comic Life where Horton’s experience becomes a comic book tale of water from ice to steam. The overall result was a collaborative project demonstrating the student’s in-depth understanding of matter in a creative way. TPES Instructional Technologist, Trish Lowe, complimented the staff, “Our teachers are learning how to integrate technology with their curriculum.” By utilizing technology within the core content students are able to understand and express understanding in a way aligned with building critical 21st Century skills. Congratulations Ashley Osborne and Timberwood Park Elementary School for your leadership in teaching with technology!

Comal ISD students collect data right through the USB on their MacBooks using probes and software that graph results instantly. Students shown here are measuring the pH of different liquids and comparing them while determining their acidity. Other probes collect information on temperature, motion, carbon dioxide levels, and electrical conductivity. Even early elementary students are building their understanding of hot and cold using these probes and watching the temperatures graph. Every elementary school has a set of temperature probes and a hand held microscope that can collect images and video for students to use in presentaions. Middle schools and high schools utlize these microscopes as well as probeware to support more advanced testing. All probes support the new Science TEKS which specifiy the need for students to use the "tools of the trade", probes, in the collection of data as 21st century scientists.

Okay, we have great technology resources with all of the incredible applications on the student and teacher MacBooks. Now, how do we use them to engage students and increase achievement? The answer to this question has as many solutions as there are teachers in Comal ISD. Fortunately, Apple Professional Developer, Dan Schmit, is here for the next 14 months to help not only train teachers on which buttons to press and what to click, but to provide great resources to making their classrooms into a 21st Century teaching and learning environments. Dan comes to CISD from the University of Nebraska where he worked in the College of Education with pre-service teachers in the integration of technology across the curriculum. He began his career in education as a high school music teacher and ultimately taught all levels of music. He moved from the classroom to the Nebraska Department of Education and was involved in referendums which brought technology to districts across the state. A published author of two books focused on the use of technology in the classroom, Dan also produces a noted educational podcast, “Kid Cast: Podcasting in the Classroom” featuring tips and tricks for creating effective podcasts with students. Having experienced education from many vantage points, Dan brings more than technical insight; he brings an understanding of how to utilize technology as a tool to address the way students learn and engage them in their learning.

Second grade students at RBES utilized video conferencing technology to conduct a book discussion with Elaine Scott, author of "When is a Planet Not a Planet: The Story of Pluto? (winner of the 2008 Golden Spur Award for Children?s Literature from the Texas Reading Association) and "Mars and the Search for Life." The event was part of the ASK ((â?Authors Specialist and Knowledgeeâ?) program. ASK provides students with the opportunity to interview an author or a subject specialist in the topic they are reading about in a novel. The program uses excellent literature, journal writing and interviewing to promote reading for understanding. Each Comal ISD campus has the equipment that enables students to reach beyond their classroom, their campus, and their community to learn from people wold wide. For more information on the Disctance Learning/Video Conferencing Project visit the Distance Learning link on the IT Website.

Always anxious to share new ideas and best practices with Math teachers across the district, Math Specialists Shannon Piles and Danielle Frei hit upon an idea to use a website and podcast to get information to more teachers faster and with 24/7 access. The “Real Math World” podcast was born. Joined by Math Curriculum Coordinator, JoAnna Henry, the trio now publishes great videos, tutorials, and insights into successful Math strategies, for their teachers. The website will soon include a question and answer blog. See how Math applies to the “Real World”.

iPods are more than just music players. In the classroom, they can be used in many different ways for teaching and learning. Why teach with iPods? With the ability to play both audio and video files, save a review digital photos, play PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, record voice, store files and notes, review digital flashcards, and take handheld quizzes, among many others uses, the iPod is a portable classroom. iPods facilitate individualized instruction and the utilization of enhanced resources while increasing motivation and engaging students in their learning. With funding from the 2008 Bond, CISD began an ambitious project to enhance the learning experience of middle school Science and ELL students by providing three iPod carts to each middle school campus. The carts sync and charge twenty five iPods each and are currently in use across the district as teachers receive training in their many uses and applications within their content areas. iPods are finding a niche in higher education, medicine, business, research, and in recreation across society. iPods are recording heart arrhythmias and storing specialized instructions for medical procedures, they record flight data in small aircraft, wiretap recordings in criminal investigations, and are even used in professional sports to review batting and pitching techniques. Major universities record lectures and make them available in iTunes for students to download and review as they study for their tests. Quickly the iPod has grown beyond a music player and found use as an important tool for learning and teaching in the 21st Century.