IMTS News for Teachers
Important IMTS Meeting Notes!
Message: to all Teaching Staff and Administration
From: Patricia Muir, MTSD Liaison to IMTS, I.U.#5
Minutes from the November 19, 2008 IMTS Meeting
Attendance
Destiny Aldridge, Iroquois School District Mathew Caro, PENNCREST School District Kim Crotty, Fairview School District Jen Dildine, Perseus House Community Charter School of Excellence Nicole Drabic, North East School District Bobbi Dzricky, Gannondale School for Girls Jean Jenkins, Northwestern School District Melissa Leonard, Girard School District Michelle Lippert, Harbor Creek School District Amy Lynn, Crawford Central School District Pam Mackowski, General McLane School District Patricia Muir, Millcreek School District Cheryl Nirmaier, Union City Area School District Glenda Patterson, Wattsburg Area School District Gary Santillo, Erie City School District Jeanette Walter, Warren County School District Gay Zeigler, Fort LeBoeuf School District Wendy Carson, Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit Jim Gallagher, Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit Abby Stafford, Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit
A warm welcome was given by Jim Gallagher to begin the November IMTS Liaison Council Meeting. Jim introduced Michelle Lippert who is the new IMTS Liaison from Harbor Creek School District.
1. PETE&C – February 8 – 11, 2009
(Pre-conference workshops on February 8, 2009)
Jim highlighted the PETE&C Web site and focused on the pre-conference workshops. http://www.peteandc.org/.
2. NPAECT – March 19, 2009 – dinner meeting
Technology Fair and Student Showcase – April 30, 2009 - Jim explained that the Technology Fair and Student Showcase is not a competition, more of a way for students to showcase projects. Edinboro University is the tentative site. www.npaect.org
3. PA High School Computer Fair Competition – The Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair is an annual event that highlights Pennsylvania high school students’ application skills and computer knowledge. Students are able to unleash their creativity, learn how to convey information more dynamically, and enhance the learning process. IU5’s Regional Computer Fair is scheduled for February 27, 2009. The Computer Fair is held at IU5. Information was sent to Curriculum Directors, Regional Technology Support Group, and Principals. There was an informational meeting held on November 12th for advisors. Not many attended the informational meeting. Please pass this information on to any educators you think would be interested. The state competition is May 19, 2009 at Dickinson College, PA. Please go to the PA Computer Fair Web site for information http://www.pacomputerfair.org. IU5’s regional information is linked off the main page.
4. PAIMS Update - Jim attended the November PAIMS meeting. The Wide Area Network (WAN) was of major discussion and a merger across the state is being investigated. PAIUnet was discussed. PDE is in the middle of technology audits. Digital content was discussed.
5. Professional Library Update - Abby highlighted new resources that have been added to the IU5 Professional Library.
6. Fifteenth Annual Young Writers and Illustrators Contest - IU5 and WQLN are again co-sponsoring this annual K-3 contest. Information will be going out to building contacts starting in January. The entry form, rules, and contest information will be posted to the IMTS Web site when available.
Per the September meeting discussion, 1G and 2G jump drives will be included on the IU5 cooperative purchasing plan. In the past, CDs and DVDs were included, but districts did not purchase many of them.
Wendy will be working on creating a newsletter template to post on the IMTS Web page for council members to use for their staff. Abby suggested a web tool, which would be compatible on any platform.
7. Intel Update - Jim attended Intel training in September. Jim highlighted the Intel Web site and discussed the training he had attended. The training Intel recommends is 40 hours. This information was taken to Curriculum Directors and many of them were interested in having some of their staff attend this training at IU5. This training will be coming in the spring. Jim highlighted one of the training components www.intel.com/education
8. iSafe - Abby and Jim are taking an online class to get iSafe certified. Kim Crotty mentioned that Fairview received grant money for this and are focusing on cyber bullying. There is a bill that is going to be passed and districts will have to teach Internet safety. There is no cost for the training. http://ilearn.isafe.org Abby highlighted what the training entails. Jim and/or Abby will be glad to do a training at your district once they are certified. IU5 may contact iSafe to see if they can come to IU5 to do training for our districts. Jeannette Walters, Warren, is certified and has been doing trainings at her district.
9. Building Contact Training Update - Abby explained how building contact training (for new and returning bc’s) went, as there was a new format. Per feed back, the new format was well received. A council member asked if IMTS could identify building contact dates and send information out before the end of the school year for the next school year. We will include this information in the May meeting, along with the 2009-2010 liaison council meeting dates.
11. netTrekker Break-Out Sessions – The council was split up into 2 groups – seasoned netTrekker users and novice netTrekker users. Jim and Abby each took a group and reviewed the netTrekker Web site.
All employees must now register for their professional Personnel I.D. Numbers. Social Security numbers will no longer be used to get credit for Act 48 sessions. Please log onto the PDE Act 48 reporting site to register for your new number at: PDE Act 48 Be sure to register to use a great curriculum search engine–NetTrekker! DOIS sent out a one-page guide to “Create a New User.” I’ll be glad to guide you through the easy registration. Give me a call at JSW Library, 835-5541. NetTrekker has many new features and links to our PA Standards. The thousands of Internet links are evaluated by educators. Our use is being tracked by I.U.#5. We hope students and staff use it extensively, thereby ensuring that we get to keep this wonderful resource! Remember that students will log in differently than staff:
example: 90student
jswilson
IMTS Services is always looking for suggestions for new materials to be added to their Professional lending catalog. Go to New IMTS Material Request on the IMTS website.