I attended a session on voice threading at TCEA convention in Austin, TX. This is my first post on several sessions I attended and what I took from them.

Voice threading uses voice and drawings to comment on a picture or video. Though it is a little difficult to set it up, I think it is a fun tool that students will use. I see all sorts of ways for students to collaborate. You can have students comment on pictures, video, essays and graph and solve equations. I have created a simple word scramble to demo this. I have posted it on my blog for you to comment. You can use your cell phone, webcam to comment as well.

To comment by phone, press the phone icon type in your phone number and you will receive a phone call to record your comment.

To comment by typing, you press type and type your comment.

Use a webcam to make your comment via webcam and draw while you talk.

You can just simply record, like I did.

You can see and hear others comments by clicking on their avatar. You don't need to create or upload an avatar, various icons are available for you to use.

Next post will be on google tools that are new to me.

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Printing costs are increasingly taking more of the schools technology budget and so this post will address how to cut back on printing. Less money towards printing costs means more money for technology in the classroom. Always ask "Do I really need to print this?" What are some options?

1. Save documents in your folder and refer to them as you need to.
2. Save documents on your desktop for easy access. I save phone directories on my desktop and open them up everyday. When I need to call someone, the number is right there. When the directory changes, I save the new one over the old one and I have the most current copy.
3. Use print preview to make sure you are printing what you think you are printing.
4. Check to see what printer you are printing to. You should not have to hit print twice. If you are hitting print twice you are printing twice.
5. Adjust the margins and font to fit on one page.
6. Print your document as a draft to save ink.
7. Share documents using google docs.
8. Use Wikis to collaborate.
9. If you must print a power point, print handouts 3 to 6 slides per page.
10. If possible, email grades, reports, etc. to students and parents rather than printing them out. 11. Archive those emails instead of printing them out.
12. Post handouts on Teacher Web or Moodle so students can print them out if they
lose them.
13. Use Print Shop.
14. Use the copier.

If every staff member were to cut back printing 1 page per day, that would save 266 pages per day, 49,742 pages per year. That is 8 toner cartridges per year we would not have to buy. The savings would be $2400.00 per year or 3 document cameras and 1 airliner or 4 laptops. If some of you cut back 2 pages per day, that would start to add up.

Trying to break old habits is hard. We used to have to print, because there was not a way to share otherwise. Today there are lots of ways to share information, but we have to access that new technology and use it. Start with one thing you are not going to print and move from there. Before long you will wonder why you ever needed a printer.

My list is only a start. I am sure there are other ways to avoid printing, so let me hear from you. And please, don't print this post.

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This week's Reflection Post reminds me of an email I received from a parent of a student. The parent wanted to share a comment their child made as she worked through a study guide for a unit test. Her comment was "Why is Mrs. Bauer always making us think?" The parent went on to thank me for making her daughter think. Thanks to Nicole and Robin for making us think. Just like my student had to think about the material I was going to test them over, I have to think about why and if I want it blog. So instead of putting it on the back burner, I need to take care of it now.

The blogs we were asked to read this week all dealt with education and technology in some way. The audience was teachers. The information was about teaching and technology. All of them had a unique message. I was particularly interested in the blogs about students blogging. They had different messages about the impact of blogging with students. If I were doing a blog with students, I would participate in the discussion more as suggessted by Konrad Glogowski in his post, Thought on Assessment. The blogs I read this week either gave me new ideas to try or helped me to better understand what I thought.

I have thought a lot this week about what I want to do for a blog. Since I am beginning a new position as an Instructional Technology Specialist for a High School, I thought about what I could do to better serve the teachers on our campus as well as reflecting on my job. As I read through the different blogs, including some of our class blogs, it became apparent to me that blogging is a way to solidfy thoughts and ideas. I like Will's comment "I blog to remember". As I acquire new knowledge and skills, I find that writing about them helps me to remember. It is especially helpful for those skills that you may not use right away or very often. I appreciate the blogs written by our RRISD Technology Specialists. I am not always ready to use a particular idea when I hear about it. When I get around to using something I heard about, I like that I can go back to a blog and retrieve the information. One of the questions I thought of this week was "Is there too much information out there?" The answer has to be yes, but I am beginning to see that it is OK to have lots of sources to turn to.

During the beginning blog class, I read a Blog by Dareen Draper, Drape's Takes. He wrote 8 reasons why teachers should blog. My favorite one is reason 8, "Blogging allows you to finish what you had originally intended to say." As teachers, we are often side tracked as we reflect or try to write or say something. Blogging gives us a reason to finish what we started. I am going to blog so I can finish what I start. I hope to have useful information about topics that are brought to my attention as I work to spread technology and ideas on our campus. Of course all of this will require thinking and reflecting as I allow myself to finish what I originally intended to say.

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This week I learned that you can really go crazy with widgets. There are many more widgets I wanted to add to my blog. I didn't think my blog should be more widget that posts or comments. I also learned that getting a template from some other source isn't always easy to work with. Thanks to Will for explaining the edit button and how to edit it. Will you need to let me know how you figured that out.


I will use what I learned and pass it on to anyone that wants to use it. I think widgets are a good way to make a website interesting. Teacher Web has an enhanced page feature that allows you to paste html code. I saw lots of widgets that a teacher might want to add to their Teacher Web pages. I think the information is fun and useful.


I like templates that fit my personality. I picked the messy desk, because I usually have a messy desk and I like the iphone. I suppose I should probably look for something that has more columns. I do think it is important that the posts and comments can be read easily. I don't think it should look too busy, but the more widgets you add the busier it looks.


I added the following widgets: time and day, Nasa picture of the day, quote of the day, blog links, followers, labels, and blog archive. The time and date, Nasa picture of the day and quote of the day were third party widgets from widgetbox.

Widgets make blogs interesting and fun to visit.

My questions are:
1) Is there anyway to size the widgets so they are not so big?
2) Can you rotate widgets on a blog page, so you can have different ones at different times, without remove and adding them all the time?

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Had a wonderful time in Colorado. The highlight of our trip was a performance by Sir Angel Romero, a classical guitar solist with the Music in the Mountains Orchestra. It was a beautiful performance by all. We did get out and do some rafting and sightseeing on the Durango to Silverton train. My husband Chris and I are on the last row of the raft. I am in the middle wearing a white cap (letting everyone else do the work) and Chris is on the left. There is also a picture of us on the train and a picture of a rainbow that is caused by the train letting off steam. The weather in Colorado was warmer than usual in the daytime, but not nearly as warm as Round Rock. The nights and mornings were cool and we enjoyed those times very much.

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This week I learned how to remove the next blog feature from my blog. I also learned how to set up an email to blogger. I also learned about guest blogging. I think the guest blogging makes the blog more collaborative. I can see using a blog to share ideas within a department, a team or grade level. A school blog could include posts from parents, teachers, administrators.


I will use what I have learned this week on my blog as opportunities arise. I think the information is good to know and expands my knowledge of blogging.


I think that comment moderation is a benefit in a school setting, when lots of children will be reading the blog. I can see the benefit of not having a blog moderated. When you read news blogs, the comments are not moderated and you get some passionate discussions. I don't think it is polite to use foul language no matter what your opinion is and so I would not want to have that on a blog comment.

I used the Mail-to-Blogger feature to send a post about my trip to Colorado. Anyone interested in being a guest blogger to my blog? I would use this feature to let others share what they are doing with technology and what new uses they have found.

I don't think there is anything I want to forget about this week's information.

I think the music on the Advanced blogging site is neat, but how do you turn it off to listen to the videos?

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I am a former 6th grade science teacher beginning a new position as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Stony Point High School. I am looking forward to working with teachers and using technology in new and different ways. My goal is to equip our students to graduate with skills that will make them life long learners; ready to use technology to help them learn and succeed in the 21st century. This blog is my learning blog. Right now I am enrolled in an advanced blogging course. I hope to become more comfortable using blogs as a communication tool.

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