Staying in Touch
HeightsNET maintains a searchable list of all staff with e-mail addresses (http://tiger.chuh.cleveland-heights.k12.oh.us/FMEmail.searchform.fcgi). You can search by school as well as by name. Use email to stay in touch with colleagues over the summer. The address book feature of most email programs allows you to send the same message to multiple people. Create a nickname and add the email addresses of a group of friends. Whenever you use the nickname, the email program will send the message to everyone on your list.
If you use America Online or another service provider, let me know your address and I will include you in the HeightsNET email database too. If you have more than one email account, your mail can also be automatically forwarded from your HeightsNET account to another account you check more often.
I will maintain a list of faculty that would like to be notified via email of new features on HeightsNET, technology initiatives, and negotiations updates over the summer. Send an email message to (whatsNew@tiger.chuh.cleveland-heights.k12.oh.us) and I will add you to my notificaition list.
Vacation Plans
The Internet is a wonderful source for vacation
planning. Most cities have multiple web sites with information
on local attractions, calendar of events and area
businesses. Use Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) or other another search
tool to find sites about the locations that interest you.
In addition to the city site listings, Yahoo has a very useful yellow pages section. You can find all the rental car agencies, hotels, restaurants, etc. in an area. Type in a street address and you can get a listing of businesses sorted by distance from that location. Then print out a map with selected businesses marked and even receive driving directions.
The Yellow Page Maps is actually a link to Vicinity Corporation which provides the same service to Infoseek, Excite and other Web Sites. Using Vincinity Corporation's free MapBlast site (http://www.mapblast.com/) you can create a customized map for your home page, email message or just to print out. For example, try this is customized map to Heights High.
Microsoft (http://expedia.msn.com/) has an online travel agency where you can compare prices, check availability and actually book rental cars, hotel rooms and airplane flights. In addition many airlines and travel businesses maintain their own web sites with Internet only discount offers. Some have very special deals if you can travel on short notice. You can find these sites in the Yahoo travel area. (http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Travel/)
Professional Development
A series of technology workshops offered by the Northeast Regional Professional Development Center (NRPDC) (http://www.csuohio.edu/gcedc/nrpdc/) were inadvertently left out of the Summer Instructional Institute Brochure. The workshops are offered at various times and locations throughout northeast Ohio. The school system will pick up the $20 registration fee if you would like to attend one of them.
There are four workshops topics: Internet Training (World Wide Web Intro), Information Tools (World Wide Web Search Strategies), Productivity Tools (Word processing, database and spreadsheet), Multi-Media Tools (Hyperstudio). All workshops will stress how you can use these tools with students in the classroom. The complete list of dates and locations is available online at (http://www.chtu.org/NRPDC.html) or call me at 7380 for fliers describing the series in more detail.
I will be teaching a novice level Internet workshop at Heights High on August 13,14 (6 hours each day). Because this workshop is offered within the district you will also receive the contractual inservice rate for attending this workshop ONLY.
Because these workshops are open to all schools in northeastern Ohio, you should sign up immediately if you are interested.
Graduate Credit
A number of colleges offer graduate credit for courses that you can take via email and the Web. If you like to work independently, this is a great way to pick up some expertise and a step up on the salary schedule at the same time. Unlike a summer workshop you can work at you own pace during the early morning of late evening when the sun is down. Begin your exploration from the Yahoo list (http://www.yahoo.com/Education/Distance_Learning/Colleges_and_Universities/)