Somewhere along the line I stumbled upon a website called Photoshop Ping Pong.  This intrigued me.  It is open to the world.  The idea is that one student finds an image and posts it. Another student picks up the image and makes a change to it and repost it.  This goes back and forth for five rounds, for a total of ten rounds.  Students rate their posts and the best rating wins.

I thought why not start this through Moodle so that it would be geared just toward high school students.  I would start of small - just between two students in independent study. Then move on to getting Graphic Design 2 students involved.  Next, I sent an e-mail to the two other high school Graphic Design teachers in our district (at different high schools). So far the other schools are considering it. There is a technical difficulty hoop I need to get past before I can bring this outside of the school district. I created a Moodle with no enrollment key on our district Moodle site just for Photoshop Ping Pong. The hitch is that only students with an our school e-mail address (whether real or not) can register with our Moodle.  I will need to see how we can work with this hitch, because my next idea is to post something on the Facebook Adobe Education Leaders Facebook page and possibly the Adobe Education Exchange website looking for teachers interested in having their high school students participate. The exciting thing about this, is that it will have worldwide impact. Who knows, just thought I would give it a try this year.

Presented a collaborative session for the Flat Classroom Project about Google Apps for Education (GAFE).  This was rather hard for me, as we have not fully implemented this in our school district.  I explained that I was piloting this for our school district and what I have done so far.  Other teachers Theresa Allen from Joliet, IL, and Cynthia Sandler (fellow Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Program) from North Salem, New York) presented what their schools have been doing.  Theresa is a technology teacher and coordinator for a private PreK-8th grade school and Cynthia is a Library Media Specialist in a Middle School. This was a great experience in collaboration and I hope to do more of these types of things - reaching out globally. To listen to the presentation: F.L.A.T.s Ways Classrooms and Schools Use GAFE

This has been something that I have been wrestling with.  At first I didn’t see the point. After listening to several presentations and doing some reading I now feel that I have a better understanding of why you would want to gamify your curriculum.  I heard a presentation at the Adobe Education Summer Institute that really intrigued me.  I followed up with Mike Skocko who is a teacher & Tech Coordinator at Valhalla High School in El Cajon, CA.  For years I have followed Mike (and the MAC Lab) and Rob Schwartz (and Brainbuffet) from Seminole Ridge High School, Loxahatchee, FL (both Adobe Education Leaders) who teach what I teach.  They are awesome and I love their method of deliver and philosophy of education.

I followed up with Mike and found some exciting things.  He and several students have developed a Wordpress website gamifying the education he has been delivering for years (and I have been following).  While this overwhelmed me a little, I was fascinated.  I have been follow all of the posts on the Adobe Education Exchange through the trials and tribulations of getting something like this setup.  I truly feel like he is on to something.  Check out his new site:  Mac Lab 3.0
I thought about re-creating this through Moodle, especially the new Moodle 2.3 which has the ability to not let students move on unless they have completed certain requirements.  I actually started to create this.  I had a student test it out.  However, I see several things that he is able to do with his site that I will will not be able to do with Moodle, or would be quite complicated and possibly confusing.  

I decided, after that experience, to contact our computer science teacher, Dave Hamilton, to see if he had a couple of students that might want to get involved in something like this.  Dave is also the Track Coach for Sentinel High School, and he said he would not be able to do anything for two weeks.  He was very interested, however and had a book (with many bookmarks) that support gamifying education.  I will be getting back in touch with him, for sure.

Considered submitting a presentation proposal for ISTE 2013.  Worked with Joe Dockery and Ryan Visser of Clemson University in Pendleton, SC. Joe connected me with him.  He has been presenting a Dreamweaver beginning session at ISTE for years.  He would like to collaborate with another teacher and teach two 3 hours sessions - more of a beginning, intermediate six hour course.  Since this may be my first year presenting at NCCE, I did not feel I was quite ready for this.  I wanted to see how things went at NCCE.  I do plan on attending ISTE 2013, however and hopefully helping him and work towards further collaboration for 2014.  I also hope to have an opportunity to help out in the Adobe booth at ISTE 2013.

I have been asked to develop a new Web Design course for the Montana Digital Academy.  When I was at the Adobe Education Summer Institute, I met a couple of people that started the Adobe Generation.  The Adobe Generation is a series of free online creative courses, including Animation, Games Design and Photo Imaging. It´s your chance to learn from the best digital and creative designers in the world. You'll study the latest techniques, share ideas and develop practical skills that will help you stand out out from the crowd.  The courses run for 1 hour a week per course, for nine weeks. You won't have to pay a penny and you'll even get an Adobe Generation certificate at the end.

I have been working with Roxana Hadad from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.  She is an Instructional and Project Designer. and Greg Hodgson from The Chalfonts Community College,  Buckinghamshire, U.K.  I would much rather develop a course for the Montana Digital Academy Consortium (three other states) with Adobe software than with free, open source software.

After (Adobe Connect) connecting with Roxana and Greg Hodgson from The Chalfonts Community College,  Buckinghamshire, U.K., there appear to be several hoops that have to be dealt with before we can really move forward. I will keep working on this.  I may have to develop the course for the Montana Digital Academy and then create another, maybe level 2 course for Adobe Generation that the Montana Digital Academy could use.

I submitted two proposals for NCCE 2013.  One on InDesign and one on Dreamweaver.  While I have done a lot of teaching both to students and adults, it seems a little intimidating to teach to teachers that also know the software and may even know it better than me.  I have had a good role model, however.  Joe Dockery clearly knows a lot about Adobe video software but does not purport to know it all.  How can anyone know it all? There - now I feel better. I have to admit every year I push myself to do something that I am not always comfortable with but in the end, I have learned that I can do many more things than I think I can. Good lesson to learn.

TEDxMCPSTeachers

Towards the end of the school year last year, we held our first ever TEDx event.  It was held at Hellgate High School.  It was a lot of work but wonderful to see so many dedicated teachers, students and community members chip in and help get it up and running.

I want to include a couple of my favorite presentations that are now available for viewing.  My first and absolute favorite presentation was one done by a fellow master's student and co-worker's wonderful outlook on life, learning and family.  Wendy Lofthouse is currently teaching second grade at Paxson Eementary in Missoula, Mont., and after 17 years of teaching she marvels at the wonderment of childhood. With a master's degree in Technology Education, Wendy advocates for technology in schools by sharing best practices and implementing technology use in her classroom. Currently she serves on the iPad Leadership Team working to develop and implement a 1:1 iPad initiative for Paxson students. Wendy takes pride in being the mother of three teen boys, and in her free time she loves to ski and travel.  All I can say is what a great lady and what a great mom!

Another presenter I thoroughly enjoyed was Mackenzie Lombardi.  Mackenzie was a student of mine last year in Web Design.  She was a junior at Sentinel High School in Missoula, Mont., in 2012, Mackenzie is active in Speech and Debate, Theater, and community service. She recently qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament with an original piece on apathy in our schools. An inspiring student leader, Mackenzie is also a Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador for Montana and a member of the National Honor Society. Mackenzie was a great student and has a bright future!

Kasey Dirnberger teaches Computer Applications/Business at Meadow Hill Middle School in Missoula, Montana, and a beginner computer course at the Adult Education Learning Center. She has a bachelor's from the University of Montana in Elementary Education, a Master's degree in Technology Education from Lesley University, and Business Information Technology Education endorsements from the University of Montana. She has taught for 12 years in several school districts and at all ages, and she leads technology workshops for teachers.

Scott Chook currently teaches an exploratory Creative Communications class at C.S. Porter Middle School in Missoula, Mont. In his 7th year of teaching, Scott's current class is designed to engage students in the production of authentic products, while grounding them in the standards of Communication Arts. Although he was born in New York City and has lived throughout the country, Scott has called Montana his home for the last 20 years. He has a 16 year-old son and enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and playing guitar and mandolin.