Just a blog away......

Well it looks like I am just a blog away (or so) from completing this class and it has been an eye-opening experience for me. I have learned so much, and even more important, I have become much more comfortable using and dealing with technology. Who would have thought that was in my future. I came into this program with visions of books, people, books, people, books, people, and some technology. I still see lots of books and people in my future but the technology has broadened my horizon. I will admit, I am still in awe of the people in the cohort that are sooo comfortable with all things computer. I will never be at their level because they have such a jumpstart on me. As I learn new things, they will also be learning new things. But .... at least I now know where to start and how to function and it will continue to grow easier and friendlier for me.

The Action Learning Project was invaluable to me. Not only did I learn more about the wonderful technology available to me right there at my own little school, but I feel I did a real service to the staff at my school by offering up some helpful training....provided by our own staff. The training will be continued this summer as new updates are added onto our SB this summer.
I have also sparked the interest of many staff members to further explore the usage of the SB with broadcasting and such. I have caught the interest (to put it mildly) of the principal and he has proven to be a big asset in everything I have put forth to him. As a side note, we are exploring small, inexpensive hand held video cams to use in the classrooms to record student activities to then share with the class on the ....... oh yes..... the SmartBoard. I videoed our workshops using one. I still need to iron out a few of the kinks, but it appears to be a very useful tool.

I respect and love my group. We work well together and these ladies have been very helpful to me. I look forward to working with them on other class projects.

This class has been a delight. The blogging has helped me put things in perspective and it has kept me on track......I have even gotten the swing of the discussion boards. That has really been a bear for me. I have enjoyed reading them and I am now comfortable with sharing my thoughts there. I have enjoyed learning from the cohort and hearing so many different opinions. It has been a very good thing.

WOOT WOOT workshop is a done deal

I completed my faculty workshop on Wednesday and it really was very successful. The feedback I got from each group was very favorable and they all seem excited about phase 2.....which will be another workshop this summer. We are having SmartBoard updates and the newer version of things being installed this summer so we decided to wait until then. This will be an all day workshop with the first half being optional for teachers wanting to review techniques and look into building up their SB expertise. The second half will be for more in-depth study and application....sounds exciting.

The faculty was separated into four groups for the workshop on Wednesday....K-1, 2-3, 4-5 and sp. ed., and 6-8. Our non-classroom teachers were invited to attend in whichever group they felt most comfortable and classroom assistants were invited to attend with their teachers. I videoed snippets of each group. It was wonderful to see each level working and discussing issues that were relevant to them. I had teachers with excellent SB skills leading each group. Non-classroom teachers were using the SB for the first time and they were amazed. Teachers were learning how to set up programs to benefit their classes. Teachers were learning the technical lingo and usage of the menu items on the remote. This in itself was an excellent lesson that few knew. The websites shared were amazing. At the end of the workshop, evaluation sheets were completed by each group and they were great.

Each participant received some tech credit and that was a big drawing card. But.....once the workshop began the worth of it became evident. I had teachers thanking me and sharing how much they enjoyed it and learned from it.....GREAT!! AND I met up with our system's curriculum specialist yesterday (at a funeral of all places) and she asked if my ears had been burning. It seems my principal was also very impressed with my project and its outcome. He was sharing it with the other principals at the principal's meeting.....wow!

ALP workshops for SmartBoard training

I met with my school's School Improvement Team to discuss the plans I had been making toward offering training for SmartBoards and also our new AirLiners. They were very interested and receptive to the plans I had formulated with the principal. As it stands, workshops will begin Wednesday after school. I am hoping to video a bit of each group as they meet and work with each other. I have separated the groups by grade level and have combined both people who are well versed in SmartBoard uses and people who need mentoring with SB techniques. Each group will be led by a member who is comfortable with their SB and who use it everyday in a variety of ways. Each of these people agreed to work with their group in their classroom. I am hoping these small groups will be very work well together and be comfortable within their group. I will send out one last email outlining the whole process and I will also talk with the whole group before they break off into their small groups. They will be able to earn technology credit for participating in this workshop along with some SB "homework". This is very exciting for me.

After this workshop to get everyone more on the same page, more indepth training will be offered. I have talked with the county tech people about doing this one. All that we have to do is set a date. I have also been collecting websites to share with the staff. Hopefully this will be ongoing as we explore and use more and more websites. There are sooooooo many of them out there.

Can't wait for it all to finally happen!! I am still itching to get into the possible broadcasting, but right now I can only do what I can do......

Whither the Postmodern Library?

Oh my William H. Wisner certainly does have his undies in a bundle. He gets so carried away with his rhetoric that I am afraid his meaning is lost. I was very confused by some of his writings. And what is it with The Pearson Integrated Humanities Program. Students actually got credit for this? It sounds all so very cult-ish and I would hate to think I had to sit through hours of 3 professors talking poetry with each other.....with no apparent curriculum or syllabus.....whatever their whim was their discussion.....Oh my goodness but the Spring Waltz certainly sounded romantic. He so eloquently waxed and waned on it enough...sorry I missed it.

When I first began to read his book I thought some of his ideas were sound and true, in many ways, to how I feel about libraries and librarians. I was increasingly more shocked and appalled as I read on. The man surely has some strong opinions and he is not afraid to state them.....I was wondering.........did he had to pay to have his book published? As he becomes more rabid, his writing becomes more disjointed and confusing. And I was really befuddled with all the talk of his father and his relationship with his father. And what of Mom?? She would drop him off at the public library when he was six or so.....all day.....unsupervised.....and leave him all day??

I did not and do not understand why his childhood literature is so painful to him?? Why?? I have always felt joy when sharing my favorite books as a child to both of my children and my classrooms of children. I may feel a bit nostalgic but that is to be expected with any of the wonderful memories you have of your childhood. I have read Wind in the Willows many times as a child and as an adult, to myself and to children. I do not understand his dread of this delightful children's book. Maybe it goes back to his days of being dropped off at the library, all alone, in the quiet (even if that quiet is timeless), without someone to share it with.

That is enough for now. I will continue this at a later date when my brain has had time to reflect more on these writings. I can't wait for class discussion to shed insight on some of his musings.

Web design

Well I have discovered another talent that I am sadly lacking......I am sure I can learn and become more comfortable with web design.....but not right now. I have a GeoCities website somewhere out there. I set one up for a tech course I was taking and then conveniently forgot about it....years ago I am afraid. Also in the Intel I course was PowerPoint and the finer points of Publisher, so I really did learn a lot ..... just not in Web Design.

My son has created many web pages......of varying interests. His best was on Haunted Houses and such. My daughter...a NYC girl ... has her own domain, but she had someone design that for her. She does keep it updated and it is soooo funny. Very much her own thing.

I can add a webpage under my school's web site. This is the only way I would do it right now. I may go and browse around on it and see if anything prods me into action. I doubt if it will but I will give it a shot.

Well our school web site is sadly out of date. It lists a librarian that has been gone a year, the 2006-07 TOY (we have just selected our 2008-09 TOY), and includes a 2006-07 calendar. I don't feel quite so prehistoric as I did before I checked. ha

Maybe next year..........or not........

Action Project thoughts (email to Dr. Rob)

I am planning face-to-face one-on-one or two-on-one mentor/mentee
> type training to get everyone on an even playing field. A teacher
> of moderate skill level will work with teachers who feel they are
> on a low to needy level. We only have one person at my school who
> feels like he is working on a high level of skill with SBs. These
> will be after our Easter break. Once everyone has a good
> understanding of the basic tools and basic SmartBoard usage, I have
> planned whole group training provided by our Director of Technology
> and Media Services. We will either do this in a few afternoon
> sessions, or (hopefully) on a Saturday.
>
> All of our classroom teachers have SBs. Some have had them since
> last year and received summer training if they were able to
> attend. Some received SBs this year with no real training at all
> other than what a neighbor has shown them or a few 15 to 20 minute
> whole-group mini-sessions (two to be exact). New staff who came in
> after school began are really at sea about all the boards can do.
>
> We have just gotten more technology this past week. Our principal
> (bless his heart and soul) has gotten Clicker sets, to be housed in
> the library, for the upper grades and AirLiner boards for all
> classrooms. (I am proud to say I was about the only staff member
> who knew what these were...thanks to our class and our cohort.) We
> are going to need training on these that can be incorporated into
> the SB training. We had about 20 minutes of training on each of
> these as a whole group. They will not be up and running until the
> county tech-team can install the software computer by computer
> (because of the deep freeze on the computers).
>
> Our librarian can troubleshoot most problems with our SB but he
> does not know how to use one. I think the training will certainly
> be an asset for him because it will enable to use this technology
> with his students. He will also be able to go into the classrooms
> and use this technology with students.
>
> I want to continue with the broadcasting project. I would like to
> see the whole school connected via SBs with the library being the
> MotherShip. It would be the studio from which the students (junior
> tech team....junior news team....junior reporters...something like
> this)along with the librarian, tech people (person) and classroom
> teachers, broadcast. Eventually perhaps the team could become a
> roving team.
>

The Machine Stops

I was fascinated by the short story The Machine Stops. I have always enjoyed Science Fiction/Fantasy but this story was amazing because of when it was written. I would have thought it to be contemporary SF. It was also really depressing. There was no quality of life. People did not leave their room----they barely even left their chairs. No family ties, no face-to-face socialing, little sensory enjoyment, no ambition, no recreation as we know it.....nothing real except what you could get virturally from the chair, in your room, all alone. This is not living, this is just existing. I do realize the woman was content with this. She had her lectures and her contacts but she also had such fears of the outside, which wasn't even outside but inside. There was little to no emotional ties with her son, who, bless him, tried to make a better life for himself and even tried to include his mother, but her world (her life) had just become too small.

As the machine began to fail and the world as they knew it became smaller and less comfortable, the people just accepted it. They made calls and complaints, but nothing was ever fixed or improved. The people changed their outlooks and their lives to fit their world as it became less and less and less. They did not communicate with each other. They did not try to escape. They did nothing but sit there and let the time pass until the machine finally stopped and the world ended for them. How depressing!!

I grew up in a big, rambling house outside of town. As my brother, two sisters, and I grew up and moved away, we always returned to the big house for family get-togethers. After my dad passed away, Mother stayed in the big house, but she lived in 'less' of it. She closed off some of the rooms not being used. As her health began to fail, she once again lived in 'less' of her house--she moved her bedroom into the den. By the end of her life she was living in barely three rooms of her big, rambling house. She rarely left her three rooms unless it was for a visit to a doctor. This was not from want of us trying to get her out. She would rarely leave her comfort zone. We brought everything she needed or wanted to her. So I can see how people can give up all independence and live on the whims of others. But I sure don't understand it. I do not foresee a world such as was in the story or a world such as the one chosen by my mother.