LCDLC launches Technology Toolbox Professional development programs

The LCDLC offered their first of several technology professional development sessions to member schools and to schools outside of the consortium. Schools from Lorain, Lima, Steubenville and Tiffin connected to Avon Middle School for an interactive discussion on how to use Microsoft Outlook 2003 to improve organization and productivity.

Sessions were offered at 2:30 and 4:00 PM to meet the dismissal schedules of LCDLC member schools. Technology Toolbox is the consortiums first effort to provide Technology PD to schools through videoconferencing. The next opportunity will be October 24th with a presentation on best practice of Microsoft PowerPoint titled “Yawn, oh your PowerPoint is Finished??”. Sessions will be offered at 2:30 & 4:00pm from Avon Middle School.

Want to learn more about Technology Toolbox? Check out the LCDLC programming schedule at www.lcdlc.org/TechnologyToolbox.htm

Students make gourmet dinner for worms with home made composts

Second grade classes from Avon East Elementary School created composts to develop a better understanding of chemical change, decomposition and the difference between organic and inorganic objects. The students chose several items to place in the compost piles making predictions to whether they would decompose or remain in the same state. Students from Avon, Ohio and Miami Florida discussed the items and their predictions.

Classes started with large freezer bags half filled with dirt. After adding organic and inorganic objects, the groups added water and worms for the feeding to begin. The worms will enjoy their new dinner for a couple weeks as they are only disturbed for class observations. The students from both schools are looking forward to comparing their results.

Compost recipe

One large freezer bag with six small holes in the top
½ a bag of dirt
¼ cup of water to moisten the soil
Several pieces of lettuce
Dried leaves
Grass from the playground
1 paper clip
A piece of Styrofoam
A piece of plastic
1 banana peal
1 acorn
A handful of clover
A sprinkle of rosemary

Serve cold and wet for two plump and juicy worms.

Isopods make Avon East their home away from home

Mrs. Masin and Grabert’s second grade classes at Avon East took a closer look at isopods with their partner classes in Miami Florida. The students observed pill bugs or potato bugs as they are commonly called in Northeast Ohio before they added them to their terrariums.

The students shared the changes that took place in there terrariums with their partner classes and observed the pill bugs as Mrs Gerber explained the unique characteristics of the isopod. The students will collect additional insects to add to their terrariums and observe the environment from week to week.

The LCDLC uses video podcasts to update consortium members

You get hundreds of email messages listing program opportunities for videoconferencing. Why not just watch them???

The LCDLC has been creating video updates for over a year, but for 2006-07 school year the consortium has converted these to video podcasts available on iTunes. With video iPods becoming more and more popular the consortium started to convert their updates to MPG4 for easy viewing with quick time player. Using the RSS feed, the LCDLC has subscribed their updates to iTunes for teachers to view and for updates to come to them automatically. The LCDLC video update podcast is compatible with iTunes, Google, Yahoo, Newsgator and many more...

Want to subscribe to our Podcast??

1) Go to the LCDLC weekly update page at http://www.lcdlc.org/streaming.htm
2) Drag the XML icon or use one of the links to be subscribed to on of the RSS readers
3) Start watching!

You can also search iTunes for LCDLC. Subscriptions are FREE