GVSD is pleased to offer a third option for Tech College, which represents a broadening of our Tech College options to better meet the needs of our teachers. Teachers participating in option #3 will have opportunities to attend 15 1-hour sessions being held throughout the division. Sessions will be offered at three different levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In addition to taking part in sessions held at their own schools, teachers will also be free to attend technology PD sessions being held in other GVSD schools. Sessions are generally not limited in terms of the number of participants. Teachers will be asked to keep track of the sessions they attend, and may wish to use their session certificates as part of their record of completion. Teachers who have formally signed up for option #2, but missed some sessions in the summer, may 'tap' into the option #3 sessions and accumulate PD hours throughout the school year. Similarly, teachers taking option #3 may participate in the summer and/or Mini-SAG sessions and then accumulate the remaining hours from individual after-school sessions.

 

*Note: some 'short snapper' sessions being offered in the schools may now also run as Tech College sessions. Teachers participating in these 'short snapper' sessions will accumulate hours towards the completion of Tech College. All GVSD teachers are welcome to attend any of these (option #3) sessions, regardless of whether they have formally signed up for any of the Tech College options or not. Participants are free to just show up for the sessions they are interested in. Contacting the instructors ahead of time isn't required, although teachers can feel free to contact the presenter(s) to confirm things should they want to.

 

Sessions: The below sessions are being offered in GVSD for all teachers. Full session descriptions are provided below in the "[View by School]" section. All sessions are after school from 4:00pm - 5:00pm.

 

[View by Date]:

 

Date	Session Title	Location
Wednesday, October 29, 2008	Intermediate Excel	WES Computer Lab
Wednesday, November 26, 2008	Video Games as Motivators	GVC - Rm. N249
Wednesday, November 26, 2008	The COWs and Open Office	WES Computer Lab
Thursday, November 27, 2008	Microsoft Photo Story	JRW Computer Lab
Friday, December 5, 2008	Open Office Impress (12 - 1 pm)	Southwood School
Thursday, January 15, 2009	Power Point Presentation Tips	ECS Computer Lab
Thursday, January 22, 2009	Photo Story 3	ECS Computer Lab
Tuesday, January 27, 2009	Good Ol' MS Paint	ECS Computer Lab
Wednesday, January 28, 2009	Google SketchUp	WES Computer Lab
Thursday, February 12, 2009	Exam View Pro	GVC - Rm. N249
Monday, March 9, 2009	Intermediate Excel	GVC - Rm. N246

 

[View by School]: 

 

Border Valley School

296 Border St., Reinland, MB Ph: 204-325-8674  [ download map ]      

 

[to be announced...] 

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Emerado Centennial School

675 Prairie View Dr., Winkler, MB Ph: 204-331-4533  [ download map ] 

 

Title:  Power Point presentation tips (multiple monitor)

Date/Time: Thursday, Jan. 15/09   4:00-5:00pm

Instructor: Gerald Letkeman

Location: Emerado Centennial School

Level: Intermediate

Description: This session will deal with presenting your Power Point slides using a data projector in “multiple monitor / presenter view” mode. Your notes and thumbnails are shown on your notebook, while the audience sees only the slide you want them to see. This is a very convenient, but seldom used feature in Power Point. Participants are encouraged to bring their lap top computers with a ready made Power Point presentation to work with. 

 

Title: Photo Story 3

Date/Time: Thursday, Jan. 22/08  4:00-5:00pm

Instructor: Gerald Letkeman

Location: Emerado Centennial School

Level: Intermediate 

Description: Photo Story 3 is a powerful but friendly program that does an excellent job of presenting still photos. This session will deal with importing photos, adding text and narration, transitions and more. Participants are encouraged to bring their own computers and photos to work with. 

 

Title: Good Ol’ MS Paint

Date/Time: Tuesday, Jan. 27/08  4:00-5:00pm

Instructor: Gerald Letkeman

Location: Emerado Centennial School

Level: Intermediate

Description: MS Paint is a friendly program that most people are familiar with. Adding a little creativity, it can be used in a variety of ways to enhance your teaching. One-Point and Two-Point perspective drawing, map puzzles and even photo manipulation will be covered in this session. Come with a thumb drive, and take home Paint files to use at your school, including map puzzles of Canada and many other samples and templates.

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Garden Valley Collegiate (GVC)

736 Main St., Winkler, MB Ph: 204-325-8008  [ download map ]

 

Title: Video Games as Motivators

Date/Time: Wednesday, November 26 from 4:00-5:00 pm

Instructor: Jeff Osinski

Location: GVC - Rm. N249 computer lab

Level: Everyone

Description: This session will focus on the use of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf video games) in the classrooms as educational tools. Information will be presented regarding research, curricular outcomes, and motivation associated with video games. The session will also look at a variety of games and how they could be implemented to achieve outcomes. 

 

Title: Exam View Pro

Date/Time: Thursday, February 12, 2009

Instructor: Rick Schroeder

Location: GVC - Rm. N249 computer lab

Level: Beginner

Description: Exam View Pro is a test creation program. It features a user-friendly testing environment that allows you to not only publish traditional paper and computer-based tests, but also Web-deliverable exams. It includes a Test Wizard which can be used to create tests in a short period of time. The program also contains question banks or lets you customize your own exams.

 

Title: Microsoft Excel

Date/Time: Monday, March 9, 2009

Instructor: Susana Hawryshko

Location: GVC - Rm. N246 computer lab

Level: Intermediate

Description: Electronic spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel, are versatile tools for both personal and business use and are designed primarily for organizing and analyzing numeric data. Participants who are already familiar with entering basic data will have an opportunity to explore formatting and basic formulas and functions. Important essential functions will also be introduced in this session, including SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, and IF (time permitting).

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J.R. Walkof School

800 Southview Dr., Winkler, MB Ph: 204-325-7765  [ download map ]

 

Title: Microsoft Photo Story

Date/Time: Thursday, November 27 4:00-5:00 pm

Instructor: Kath Penner

Location: JRW Computer Lab

Level: Beginner

Description: Everyone is talking about Photo Story. Here is a chance to learn the very basics of Photo Story. Importing pictures, adding text, voice, and music to create an impressive little "video clip" using still photos. A program that can be used in every class. Bring your notebook with some photos in your picture file.

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Parkland School

1100 Roblin Blvd., Winkler, MB Ph: 204-325-6373  [ download map ]

 

[to be announced...] 

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Plum Coulee School

155 Government Rd., Plum Coulee MB Ph: 204-829-3277  [ download map ]

 

[to be announced...] 

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Southwood School

224 Hespeler Ave. E, Schanzenfeld MB Ph: 204-8592  [ download map ]

 

Title: Open Office Impress

Date/Time: Friday, December 5  12:00-1:00 pm

Instructor: Dave Hildebrand

Location: Rm. 6AH

Level: Beginner

Description: This is an introductory session on using Open Office's Impress program (like PowerPoint). Participants will learn how to create new slide show presentations that incorporate the common elements of text, graphic objects, special effects, etc. This session will include a general orientation to the mini-notebooks (ie. COWs) and making the transition from MS Office to Open Office.

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Winkler Elementary School (WES)

284-8th St., Winkler MB Ph: 204-325-9501  [ download map ]

 

Title: Intermediate Excel

Date/Time: Wednesday October 29th from 4:00-5:00

Instructor: Wes Neufeld

Location: W.E.S. computer lab

Level: Intermediate

Description: This will be an intermediate level session, so participants should at least have a basic knowledge of what a spread sheet is. The following are the topics that will be covered: Basic formulas, Formatting Cells, Making Graphs, Logical functions (Formulas), Conditional Formatting.

 

Title: The COWs and Open Office - No Word? No Problem! (Just a bit of learning)

Date/Time: Wednesday, November 26 from 4:-5:00

Instructor: Wes Neufeld

Location: W.E.S. computer lab

Level: Beginner

Description: An introduction will be provided on each of the programs listed below, with more of a focus on Writer and Impress. An explanation will also be given regarding the issue of going back and forth between Microsoft Office and Open Office.  A one hour session is obviously not enough to teach 5 programs, but hopefully this session will help you to transfer your Microsoft Office skills to the Open Office programs. The programs covered include: Open Office Writer - Word Processor like Word; Open Office Impress - Presentation software like PowerPoint; Open Office Calc - Spreadsheet like Excel; Open Office Math - A cool tool for doing math stuff; Open Office Draw - A drawing program

 

Title: Google SketchUp

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 from 4:-5:00

Instructor: Wes Neufeld

Location: W.E.S. computer lab

Level: Beginner

Description: Google SketchUp is a 3D drawing program that is very simple to use. It does amazing things and kids catch on to it very quickly. This session will demonstrate how to do some basic drawing and how you can use this in your math class or other curriculum. Google SketchUp can be used in many grade levels and subjects, and can be used for creating nets of 3D objects, calculating volume and surface area, visualizing objects in 3D, etc. To see what SketchUp is before attending this session, check out  http://sketchup.google.com/index.html . Don't miss this chance to see what this powerful and free program can do!