Follow Us on Twitter

If you've been following the activities in CFISD recently, you'll notice that Twitter is becoming increasingly popular with our administrators and our teachers. It's everywhere! Well, your district Instructional Technology Specialists are no exception. We are all on Twitter and would love to have you follow us and our hashtags.  So find us and click "Follow" to find out what's going on with tech around the district.

Hashtags in the #Classroom

I read an article today from the TCEA's (Texas Computer Education Association) magazine TECHEDGE (August 2014).It had a lot of great articles, but the one that caught my attention the most wasHashtags in the #Classroom. Like the author, Sherry McElhannon stated, "Those tiny symbols..hold great power...that can open lines of communication, create community, or offer insight..." Hashtags do convey voice and like she reminded the reader:

1. They are made by the people, for the people

2. They appear in conjuction with major events (#fergeson), social movements, or just fun (#jff just for fun)

3. Chose a hashtag for particular projects or your campus

The elementary reading department has created their own CyFair PLN(personal learning network) with a hashtag. Teachers and admin can tweet with #cfisdelar  to share celebrations/successes, room designs, ideas, and more.

You never know how it might spread if you never #getgoing!

Hashtags Twitter Tweet classroom

The Rundown: Digital Learning Conference 2014

This summer was full of many awesome opportunities to learn new tech skills. Notably, we hosted our 2014 Digital Learning Conference (DLC) on July 30-31 at Cypress-Woods HS. Presenters ranged from local, district "techsperts" to more broadly known #edtech superstars who got teachers fired up about cutting edge tech integration tools. The over 600 participants came from all campuses and grade-levels within our district, but we also had a healthy turn-out of participation from districts in our area like Klein ISD, Spring Branch ISD, Navasota ISD, Coldsprings-Oakhurst Consolidated ISD, and even a few private schools.

We were fortunate enough this year to have been able to bring in some high profile presenters: Brad Waid and Drew Minock were crowd pleasers with their sessions on Augmented Reality and cool Web 2.0 Apps to use in the classroom; Todd Nesloney and his TechNinja crew got teachers excited about flipping their classrooms and adopting innovative teaching practices; Matt Gomez brought teachers to the Twittersphere with his Twitter 101 session as well as showed some awesome websites for tech integration; and finally, Randy Rogers covered several topics during his sessions, including Web 2.0, BYOD/BYOT, and most impressively, coding resources for students.

Our Instructional Technology team did a great job with the help of several district groups like Cypress-Ranch and Cypress-Woods Key Clubs and the administrative and custodial staffs at Cypress-Woods HS, who helped get our classrooms ready and were more than accommodating hosts.

We can't wait to see you all again next summer at our 2015 Digital Learning Conference to be held July 28-29, 2015.  If you're interested in presenting at the conference, check the eConnection for the call to present and upcoming registration dates. 

Let's Get it Started!

The Instructional Technology Specialists welcome you all back for a wonderful new school year! We are so excited to kick off the year with this blog to spotlight all the wonderful techie happenings we see around the district. Check in often and follow us through this blog and don't forget to follow #cfisdtech on Twitter!