Your Stories!

Use this discussion area to share a text story, upload a video or animation, or find some other creative vehicle to tell your most creative, endearing, surprising story of how Tech4Learning tools have impacted your teaching and student learning!

If your entry submission consists of (or includes) a video or image, upload these files to the discussion or to your Connect member page and create a URL link to the resource.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Hernandez on April 20, 2009 at 6:44pm
I am currently reading An Ethic of Excellence by Ron Berger . It's an inspiring portrait of how good schools can be when there is a community-wide commitment to excellence.

It seems so simple--a commitment to excellence. And yet, it's not easy to find schools like Ron Berger's. It's equally rare to find commercial organizations that embody an ethic of genuine caring and commitment in everything they do. It is easy to see why Tech4Learning shines. You don't just buy your software and move along until it's time to buy an update. You become part of a unique partnership between the company and the educators who use its software. As happy as I was to find the T4L software, I have been amazed by T4L the company.
Here is my story.
Permalink Reply by Angela Allen Matthews on April 21, 2009 at 1:57pm
I have a long history with Tech4Learning. I have used their tools to train teachers and to engage and motivate kids. The ease of use and excitement that the T4L tools generate in teachers and students keep me coming back for more!
Click here to see my story!
Happy BIrthday Tech4Learning!
Permalink Reply by Stephanie Penniman on April 21, 2009 at 5:02pm
My students and I did not consider ourselves to be "artistic," especially when drawing characters in our movie scenes; however, Pixie allows us to paint on photographs and feel amazingly successful. Watch our video!
Permalink Reply by Shelly Laschkewitsch on April 21, 2009 at 10:29pm
Tech4Learning's software, Frames, has opened a new world for a couple of my students, those with Asperger's syndrome. This software has allowed them to participate in a classroom that is usually "unavailable" to them by giving them tools that both inspire them as well as provide them with communication skills. It is the only software that has allowed them to really focus on learning and be creative. They loved using Frames to make their own clay animation movie based on a historical event. The software was simple enough for them to use yet allowed them to explore animation, language arts and history. These students now have found a new way of learning and focusing on an academic topic. It helped them also to sit still and follow directions which is often very difficult for them. Thank you T4L for bringing this incredible product.
Permalink Reply by Linda Oaks on April 22, 2009 at 8:04pm
Shelly - You reaally hit the nail on the head! The beauty of project-based software is that it allows ALL students to express themselves.
Permalink Reply by Tina Groff on April 22, 2009 at 4:35am
Every year South Jefferson Central School has a hatching project. Students K-5 learn about life cycles, oviparous animals, how a chick breathes in it's shell, how it grows, differences in ducklings/chicks, etc. and much more! Check out our website at www.spartanpride.org/hatching. Our students during this time create poems, raps, karaoke songs egg-speriments, and more. This year we are videoconferencing using the tandberg to author Laura Backman, who wrote "Lemon the Duck" to kick off our hatching project. She is an author who wrote a children's book about a duck with a disability. Our third graders have just completed a unit on disabilities and what a wonderful way to finalize that lesson and kick off our hatching project. Last year we hatched a gosling with a disabled web foot. He is 1 year old now and has compensated for his disability and our students learned a lot from that experience last year. During the hatching project we use web cam for our egg cam online, proscope to take time lapse photography of hatching, computers to read ebooks on ducks, chicks, etc., digital cameras, smartboard for classroom activities, green screen and visual communicator to create our movies on hatching, chicks, we also videoconference lessons to other school districts state wide and they become our "flock friend" classrooms, and more. It is a wonderful experience. I am uploading some files the students created and our memory book from last year.
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Permalink Reply by Tina Groff on April 22, 2009 at 4:41am
Every year at South Jefferson we educate our Kindergarten through 5th graders on Internet Safety. I go into the classroom and educate each classroom and the students do a project of their choice to finalize our experience. Our students have created cyberbullying psa's and internet safety psa's using green screen and visual communicator. Our 5th graders have created calendars on internet safety and given them to students in K-4, we have created posters to hang in the hallways at school. Getting students involved has created a sense of responsibility and each student assumes ownership of his/her own internet activities. Attached are a couple of psa's the 5th graders have created and a copy of their calendar.
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Permalink Reply by Ruth Verhoef on April 22, 2009 at 9:52am
Each year Redlands Christian School 8th Graders have the opportunity to take a week and travel to Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York. Our students begin fundraising in 6th grade in planning for this experience. Our Social Studies Teacher uses the weeks before the trip to prepare students for what they will see and hear.
Each Student is assigned one of the sights that will be visited and must then make a TriFold Brochure in Publisher as well as prepare a Podcast using audacity. We post most of this information on our web site: http://www.redlandschristianschool.org/rcsweb/08-09/08-09Pictures/podcast/podcasts.htm . Also, during the week of travel, pictures are taken and shared with parents and the general school family. This becomes an experience for all to learn and participate in http://www.redlandschristianschool.org/rcsweb/08-09/WashDC09/main.htm . You will notice the pdf documents as well as the movies (photostory 3). Many different pieces of software are used in this process along with a blog ( http://ushistory8.blogspot.com/ for the students to discuss the events. It is an all-around great learning opportunity for students and families alike using technology in today's world preparing for tomorrow!
Permalink Reply by Gloria Wood on April 23, 2009 at 5:50pm
I teach several computer classes at a private middle school in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm also the "Technology Integrator" for my campus, which means I instruct teachers in how to incorporate technology into their classes.
I and the rest of the school especially enjoyed a particular project that I had my students do; I wanted my middle schoolers to be creative with their hands, since they rely on their technological prowess for most of their creative projects and seem to have moved away from manual creativity. So, I assigned a claymation project through which they could incorporate physical artwork with technology. They used the application "Frames" and created amazing projects using clay, art supplies, music, etc. The students were quite proud of themselves and their final products, which they had two weeks to work on.
One of the projects that stood out was about the "Honor Code" for the school, which is a pledge that all students make to turn in only their own work and to report any cheating or plagiarizing that they become aware of. I was amazed to see what they came up with (they even recorded their own audio!) and we shared the videos with other classes as a fun way of learning the Honor Code.
All of the students put a lot of thought into their projects and I was very pleased to see them working so hard on modeling characters, putting them in place, and talking and recording their dialogues in their groups of three. They took hundreds of pictures and finally made a video in "Frames." The project was a success and I will definitely assign it next semester. I think it was everyone's favorite project; it gave them confidence in their abilities away from the computer while still allowing them to work with technology.
Permalink Reply by Tech4Learning on June 24, 2009 at 3:58pm
Here is the Honor code movie!
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Permalink Reply by Linda Oaks on April 23, 2009 at 10:48pm
Please enjoy "Eddie's Story"

Although this story occurred three years ago, it always touches my heart when I think about it and the difference this Tech 4 Learning project made in Eddie's life.
If you'd like to view the "States" project the story refers to, you can find it on my web page. Click the file "50 Nifty States".
"Eddie's Story" is also on my Connect Page
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Permalink Reply by Marsha Goren on April 24, 2009 at 6:55am
http://connect.tech4learning.com/video/marshas-story-2http://connect.tech4learning.com/video/marshas-story-2">
I am Marsha form Globaldreamers. (http://www.globaldreamers.org)
Even though we are more than 6 million miles away from Tech4learning we feel
very close to them. It is not every day you find a company so dedicated to
education and not only to their software products.
Tech4learning software has become an integral part of our learning
environment and an extremely powerful tool in my work.
I am grateful to all of these wonderful people especially Melinda who has
been so caring towards me, my kids and my work. I am proud to be a
tech4learning innovative educator.
Happy birthday and here is my story.

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