I wanted to start an online discussion on how the classes are going and maybe provide some best practices for the new teachers in NFTE this year. Although this is a competition we still cannot lose sight of the goal that we have as educators. No matter who wins the competition we all win when we are collaborative in our efforts to teach this curriculum. Take a moment to discuss any problems you may be experiencing, offer some constructive criticism or provide best practices among each other. I look forward to your postings.
Sincerely,
Verles Page
Monday, December 7, 2009
New Tools For Your Class
Hello all NFTE teachers. I wanted to show a few interesting tools that you can use in your class and for your aspiring new entrepreneurs. The following two tools I have used quite a bit to accent my course.
PollEverywhere
www.polleverywhere.com
During the Market research portion of your class, it has been tedious for students to gather data about their products, compile it and come up with useful data. With this free open source site, students can create their own survey and participants can use their cell phones to provide data, it's much like they do on American Idol. The site takes all calls that are made to the poll and compiles them into a graph and a series of reports that they can use to make decisions. It is completely free and extremely useful. It only takes a few minutes to setup and you can have as many polls as you want.
SimpleVoiceBox
https://www.simplevoicebox.com/
With privacy issues and students who have some very "colorful" caller tunes on their phones, the need for a professional message line is very much needed. This site allows for a person to create their own professional message line at no cost to them. You can even have the option of having messages forwarded to an email in the form of a .wav file for play back via email. This will allow for students to practice creating a professional message that promotes the validity of their business. Although the latest song by Lady Ga Ga may be a favorite of some hearing it as I call a business owner about professional babysitting may hurt a business more than they know.
I will begin to post more tools as the school year goes on. If you have any questions about anything on here or you would like to know if there is a special type of technology available, please leave a message in this forum. Thank you.
-Verles
PollEverywhere
www.polleverywhere.com
During the Market research portion of your class, it has been tedious for students to gather data about their products, compile it and come up with useful data. With this free open source site, students can create their own survey and participants can use their cell phones to provide data, it's much like they do on American Idol. The site takes all calls that are made to the poll and compiles them into a graph and a series of reports that they can use to make decisions. It is completely free and extremely useful. It only takes a few minutes to setup and you can have as many polls as you want.
SimpleVoiceBox
https://www.simplevoicebox.com/
With privacy issues and students who have some very "colorful" caller tunes on their phones, the need for a professional message line is very much needed. This site allows for a person to create their own professional message line at no cost to them. You can even have the option of having messages forwarded to an email in the form of a .wav file for play back via email. This will allow for students to practice creating a professional message that promotes the validity of their business. Although the latest song by Lady Ga Ga may be a favorite of some hearing it as I call a business owner about professional babysitting may hurt a business more than they know.
I will begin to post more tools as the school year goes on. If you have any questions about anything on here or you would like to know if there is a special type of technology available, please leave a message in this forum. Thank you.
-Verles
Thursday, August 20, 2009
How Are We Doing?
Many of us are in our first week of school and the NFTE program for school year 2009-10 is in full swing. Id like to hear some of the things many of you did in class this week. I am not sure if many of you are familiar with the Moodle program but it's a free open source online classroom. With my population of students, it helps when they have the ability to interact with their NFTE class at anytime day or night. If any of you are interested in learning how to take advantage of this great technology tool please let me know.
This year I am taking a different approach. For the first two weeks I am teaching my students how to learn. By helping them understand what type of learner they are (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, or Kinesthetic)I can adjust my teaching method to better reach them while at the same time giving them an understanding of themselves. This ties into how an entrepreneur has to deal with employee's. Please feel free to login into my online class as a guest by accessing the following link:
http://moodle.k12hsn.org/login/index.php
Once you are at this site click on "log in as guest"
Locate "West Fresno Elementary" school district in the list.
You will see my NFTE class here, click on the title.
Feel free to explore the site, you cannot hurt anything so go through and look at all parts of the course.
I am requiring that students do weekly postings and they will complete replies to case studies that are located in our NFTE materials.
Useful Links
These are some useful links that I have found that has some great resources.
http://www.k12hsn.org/calaxy/ This is a great resource page with a lot of free resources for teachers.
If you have been following the new legislation on state approved online books, you can follow and download approved books at www.clrn.org. The California Learning Resource Network has information and links to State Approved pdf books that can be used in your course at no charge.
If you want to create free interactive voting polls via cell phones that show real time results you can use http://www.polleverywhere.com/ It's really cool and it can be used when soliciting votes on class projects or issues.
I hope that these resources will help you to better your teaching experience this year. Please feel free to email me at vpage@agapecorp.com or call at 559 230-3007 if you have any questions or comments. Thank you.
This year I am taking a different approach. For the first two weeks I am teaching my students how to learn. By helping them understand what type of learner they are (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, or Kinesthetic)I can adjust my teaching method to better reach them while at the same time giving them an understanding of themselves. This ties into how an entrepreneur has to deal with employee's. Please feel free to login into my online class as a guest by accessing the following link:
http://moodle.k12hsn.org/login/index.php
Once you are at this site click on "log in as guest"
Locate "West Fresno Elementary" school district in the list.
You will see my NFTE class here, click on the title.
Feel free to explore the site, you cannot hurt anything so go through and look at all parts of the course.
I am requiring that students do weekly postings and they will complete replies to case studies that are located in our NFTE materials.
Useful Links
These are some useful links that I have found that has some great resources.
http://www.k12hsn.org/calaxy/ This is a great resource page with a lot of free resources for teachers.
If you have been following the new legislation on state approved online books, you can follow and download approved books at www.clrn.org. The California Learning Resource Network has information and links to State Approved pdf books that can be used in your course at no charge.
If you want to create free interactive voting polls via cell phones that show real time results you can use http://www.polleverywhere.com/ It's really cool and it can be used when soliciting votes on class projects or issues.
I hope that these resources will help you to better your teaching experience this year. Please feel free to email me at vpage@agapecorp.com or call at 559 230-3007 if you have any questions or comments. Thank you.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
New School Year
Welcome to the NFTE central valley network of teachers. I apologize for not making the first meeting, but evidently traveling this summer had an affect on my return. I will be back in action Monday. It is my understanding that many of you had the opportunity to take a look at the site and possibly had a chance to view the features of this site. For those that do not know me, my name is Verles Page and I am the Technology Director for Agape Inc. charter schools (W.E.B. DuBois and Carter G. Woodson). This will be my fourth year with NFTE and it's an amazing program. With this site, we can share best practices, create online meetings and have guest speakers. If you would like anything added to this site, please feel free to let me know. My office number is 559 230-3007 and my email is vpage@agapecorp.com or mrpage1775@gmail.com. You can also contact AJ or Janelle if you need any additional assistance pertaining to the course.
Take a moment to share some best practices from the senior teachers that have taught the course and expectations from the newer teachers who are about to embark on teaching the course. Discuss challenges that you have had and solutions you have found. I will continue to monitor and moderate discussions throughout the year in addition to updating this site with new tools and NFTE information as it comes. I look forward to an outstanding year. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Verles Page
Technology Director
Agape Inc.
Take a moment to share some best practices from the senior teachers that have taught the course and expectations from the newer teachers who are about to embark on teaching the course. Discuss challenges that you have had and solutions you have found. I will continue to monitor and moderate discussions throughout the year in addition to updating this site with new tools and NFTE information as it comes. I look forward to an outstanding year. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Verles Page
Technology Director
Agape Inc.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Welcome
Take a moment to introduce yourself and your class to the rest of the NFTE students. This will be the first posting for the NFTE Central Valley blogspot.
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