meL’s Word

For many of you school has been going for a month or more.  For my district, this is the beginning of the third week.  The new school year brings many changes for us – a new student information system and along with it a new gradebook for everyone to get used to.  Neither of my middle schools made AYP this year so the pressure is on.  Everyone is under stress – teachers, building administrators and central office administrators.

I started the new year off by moving into a new office – no mold, I have a cubicle to call my own now (hence a place to keep my stuff so I can move out the pile from my dining room floor). 

Hopefully I can move some teachers to try some new technologies that might make a difference.

So, here we are on Day 16 and the last post was day 10.  I must confess, some of the challenges for days 11 to 16 were in areas I am not yet ready to delve into.  However, day 14 did suggest to make sure even an untrained monkey can get in touch with you.  So, I added an email link to my sidebar, just below my avatar and the link to my about page.

Day 15 was to find yourself.  I guess I should make more of an effort here.  I did a search and found a few of my posts.  No one links to me (duh!).  Day 16 is a challenge to create a “greatest hits” of sorts – a way for guests to find your best posts.  I think I should work on this one.

Ah well, that time of year we teachers use to recharge our minds and bodies is almost at an end.  August 25 we return to our schools to begin preparations for the upcoming year.  September 2 the students arrive refreshed and (hopefully) ready for a new year.

Over the summer I taught a course for our teachers on Web 2.0 (or the Read/Write Web.  It was interesting reading the forum topics on wikis and blogs most comments leaned towards the negative at the beginning of each topic.  However, by the end of the course, most teachers had changed their minds and saw the benefits and uses of Web 2.0.  Hopefully I have some converts now.

Another school year has come and gone.  Now is the time for me to reflect on the last year – did I accomplish what I wanted to accomplish?  (Heck, did I accomplish anything???).  Did I accomplish anything – you bet.  Did I accomplish everything I wanted to – are you kidding?

I have gotten new users for all the technologies I have tried to introduce.  A lot? No, but you have to start somewhere.  I have given other teachers some ideas for next year.  My fellow ITRTs and I have a plan for our new teachers academy in August that ought to produce some results.  I am constantly hearing about new things and thus coming up with ways to integrate those items into classrooms.  I know I will never get every classroom and every teacher on board, but each one I do manage to jump on the wagon is a success of its own.

I will spend the next six weeks teaching a course in Web 2.0 to 15 teachers across our district.  Surely at least one of those teachers will use at least one of the tools.  My hope is that all fifteen will use at least one of the tools for the upcoming school year.  Ask me in September.