AHS participates in Virtual College Tour

Through Ohio’s ATM video network, Avon High School joined 27 schools from across the state to view the LCDLC Virtual College Tour. Each hour a local University provided students with a 30-45 min presentation about their university followed by Q & A lead by the LCDLC staff. 6 sites each hour were designated as interactive while other schools could submit questions via email which were read by the LCDLC.

The college from this years event included Lorain County Community College, Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, The Ohio State University, Wright State University and Miami University. The program lasted from 8am to 2pm with limited breaks for connecting presenters and roll call for participating sites. LCDLC members schools that participated were Avon HS, Brookside HS, Firelandss HS,Amherst Steel HS, Elyria HS, Lorain Longfellow MS, Keystone HS, Oberlin HSLCCC - Elyria Early College Program and Lorain Whittier Tornado MS.

The program was a huge success and we look forward to participating in the Financial Aide program and the LCDLC Virtual College Tour II.

Thanks LCDLC!

The Avon High School Video I class competed against other Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium (LCDLC) Member Schools in the Henkel Adhesives Duct Tape Commercial Contest. AHS turned in six projects to compete against Elyria HS, Keystone HS, and Lorain Longfellow Middle School for the regional judging. The winner of the LCDLC judging advances to the State level judging on December 14th at WVIZ PBS 25 in Cleveland. Winner of the state competition will receive a Cannon GL2 video camera.

The scores were tight only two points on the scoring rubric separated first through third place. Avon HS’s Adventures of Duct Tape Man took a close second place in the judging out of 17 projects. The scoring of the projects were done in a multipoint videoconference with judges making up members of the local advertising field. After the projects were shown and the scores tallied the top three projects were shown and comments were made by the judges to the students.

The Avon Local Schools congratulate the students from all the participating schools and wish Lorain Longfellow Middle School the best of luck in the state judging in December.
All of the projects showed creativity and good use of video editing and production.

Great Job Everyone!

Freedom Calls from Heritage North Elementary School

Avon Heritage North Elementary School was proud to assist the Freedom Calls foundation by providing the use of our videoconferencing system for a happy birthday wish to a sibling in Iraq.

Tasha and her two children contacted the
Freedom Calls organization requesting the opportunity to say happy birthday to her sister stationed in Camp Cooke Taji in Iraq. After a couple of Emails, a two test calls the two sisters were sharing stories and updates as if they were in the same room.

Freedom calls is a non profit organization created to help soldiers abroad the opportunity to communicate with friends and family through phone and videoconferencing. They have been uniting families, creating new ones through virtual marriages and even connecting to hospitals for live births to help our soldiers. It makes you wonder if there are any limits to this technology!

To learn more about Freedom Calls. You can visit them on the web at www.freedomcalls.org/ .

Local Artifact Exchange

The clues have been delivered, the artifacts exchanged, students have met their partner school, but where are they from???

Mrs. Michelich and Mrs. Clark’s third grade classes met with their partnered school today over videoconferencing to ask questions about their community, geography and artifacts sent to their school. At the end of the videoconference the schools guessed their partners state. Stuffed animals representing species found in the Smokey Mountains, Moon Pies and pictures of trains help Avon’s students to identify the State of Tennessee as their partner’s state.

Our partners used buckeyes, carnations, a stuffed slider toy (Cleveland Indians mascot) and duct tape to identify Ohio giving some key clues as to our proximity to Lake Erie and Cleveland. The students will exchange one more series of poems providing clues to our cities and schools. December 15th the students will connect and provide their partner schools a presentation about their community followed by one last chance of Q & A before the sites guess their locations.

The students from both sites are very excited about the project and can not wait until their next connecting in December. We are so pleased that our friends in Tennessee shared this project.

Great job classes!

LCDLC Updates

Attached find our most recent updates for the week of 11/28/05. Don’t miss out!

1) SHARED VIDEOCONFERENCING LESSONS AVAILABLE FROM EXISTING TRAINED TEACHERS – WOW!!
2) LESSON AVAILABLE “Native American (Southwest U.S. & Central America) Student Projects”
3) LESSON AVAILABLE “Career Overview of a Clinical Laboratory Scientist”
4) FASFA SESSION “NOW I GET IT, GETTING MONEY FOR COLLEGE”
5) LETTERS TO THE OLD WORLD

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1) SHARED VIDEOCONFERENCING LESSONS AVAILABLE FROM EXISTING TRAINED TEACHERS – WOW!!

Don’t miss out on an opportunity to participate in some GREAT lessons our existing teachers have developed that can be shared over videoconferencing! This year, we’ve asked our existing teachers to develop three lessons that they would be willing to share with another school. Each teacher has developed a brief lesson plan describing their lesson. Additionally, many have created short streaming video clips to describe and promote the available lessons. The sessions with a icon of a clip beside the lesson is a hyperlink and will allow you to preview a short 2 – 3 minute video describing the lesson. You can view both at our website under our new section, “Projects” at http://lcdlc.lorainesc.k12.oh.us/projects.htm.

Please view these and don’t miss out on any upcoming that might be available to you!

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2) LESSON AVAILABLE “Native American (Southwest U.S. & Central America)

Our existing teachers are providing three lessons that they’ll be teaching out to other schools this year. Herb Fiske from Lear North Elementary school will be providing a program on “Native American (Southwest U.S. & Central America) Student Project “. The event is 30 minutes – December 5, 2005 (10:00 – 10:30).

For more info, see Herb’s web promotion describing the lesson or click on the video clip icon to view a short streaming video of Herb’s lesson available to your students!

http://lcdlc.lorainesc.k12.oh.us/Projects/Lesson%20Plans/NativeAmericanStudentProjects.mht

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3) LESSON AVAILABLE “Career Overview of a Clinical Laboratory Scientist”

This lesson by Barb O’Malia, Elyria HS on December 2nd is available for other schools to view. View Barb’s lesson at http://lcdlc.lorainesc.k12.oh.us/Projects/Lesson%20Plans/ClinicalLabScientist.mht

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4) FASFA SESSION “NOW I GET IT, GETTING MONEY FOR COLLEGE”

Join us for a one hour session as Amy Kovalsky, College Advisor, gives an overview of how the college financial aid process works. Topics covered will include applying for aid and the importance of understanding the terminology. Amy currently works with students and families at North Ridgeville High School and is available to come to one of the participating sites to present. This is offered on a first come first serve basis. Sign up today!

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5) LETTERS TO THE OLD WORLD

Hi all,
I wanted to let you know about a unique video conferencing experience that is filled with Ohio history and community significance. Zoar Community Association, in Zoar, Ohio has developed an interactive and engaging video conference unit called Letters to the Old World. Through the eyes of an historian, the students will learn about this one of a kind community that existed for many years in Ohio. Zoar was a developed as a commune style of living, and the settlers were completely self supporting as a community. The content standards are available on the website below as well as all registration information. The cost of this program is $50, payable to the Zoar Community Association. Zoar is able to connect ATM or ISDN at speeds of 384kbps. A purchase order is required prior to the connection. This content is geared toward 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes. For more information, contact Michele Carlisle at michele@tchesc.org (330-308-9939 ext. 220) or Marilyn Roder at marilyn@tchesc.org (330-308-9939 ext. 251. Please check this out on the web at www.tchesc.org/zoar

Thanks,

LuAnne Jackson
Technology Director
TCHESC
834 East High Avenue
New Philadelphia, OH 44663
phone: 330-308-9939 ext. 250
cell: 330-243-4538
fax: 330-308-0964
www.tchesc.org