Valley Wood Tech

Hi, I am Mike Kaechele, your student’s technology teacher, and I would like to introduce my class to you. This nine weeks your child will be involved in cooperative and hands-on projects along with computer applications. We also have a goal of creating a “paperless” classroom. We will do this by using student blogs, wikis, and other on-line applications. Our class blog is http://woodtech.edublogs.org/.

I will be using Google Calendar as my lesson plans and will send an invitation to your e-mail address so that you can see what assignments we are working on. I also post the directions for assignments on our class wiki at https://valleywoodtech.wikispaces.com/.  Please feel free to visit these sites and check our progress.

One thing that students will be required to do is set up an e-mail account through Google. We will be using it to sign up for Google Reader, Documents, and other applications. We will also use Delicious for social bookmarking. Federal law requires parental consent for students under 13 to use sign up to sites such as this.

Students will be taught proper netiquette, and on-line safety is a priority. Students will not be posting any personal information including their full names or pictures of themselves. Some other applications that we will work with include Flickr, Slideshow, podcasts, and Skype. Skype is a free video phone service. I am working on setting up a Skype call with a class from another country for a cultural exchange. Other projects that we may work on is creating podcasts, stop-animation, and/or programming with Scratch.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.