Spring Break began yesterday with a plane trip to Florida to enjoy some golf, take a short trip to Disney with the kids, and simply relax and get away from school for a while. I'm sure many educators look forward to the break to unwind, recharge, and simply remove themselves from the daily grind of school. For the first time in a while, I can't seem to get away. Thanks to the wonderful world of technology, I CAN"T get away. I'm finding myself checking Twitter messages several times a day. I'm reading blogs way too much - I know they'll still be there when I get back. I'm writing. I'm finishing up a grad paper that I have to turn in today. It's only the second day and I'm hoping this won't continue the rest of vacation.
Perhaps it can be looked at as a positive. Over the past several weeks, my professional learning environment has grown. I'm learning a few things- like how Twitter can be addictive. I've discovered a few new blogs. While I'm always interested in learning new things and sharing what I know with others, I'm wondering how much I should let it control my daily activity. Much of this is exciting and good, but only in moderation.
I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. Have you been able to get away? Do you even want to? Is your Spring Break really a break? I'd like to hear thoughts and suggestions!
Okay, so I've jumped in to Twitter and have a few thoughts.
1. Thanks to those of you who have given me tips.
2. Ryan, thanks for my only direct message so far.
3. Jamie, thanks for the welcome!
4. I'm amazed that people have over 1,000 followers. Wow, that's amazing.
5. I'm amazed that some people follow hundreds other people. Why? Is that too much?
6. I did set Twitter up to send the tweets to my iPhone - it was kind of cool, but so many of the tweets were directed @someone I thought it was kind of a waste- but maybe some aren't.
7. I'm wondering who sees my tweets.
8. Do only my "followers" see my tweets?
9. How do others find me - word of mouth? Does "word of mouth" even make sense in today's world? Should it be word of fingers or word of keyboard?
10. I'm having a hard time following conversations - should I be worried about this at my beginning stage or will I figure it out?
11. I like the connections I'm making, I'm just not sure if I'll learn as much compared to blogging and reading the blogs of others.
I'm sure I'll have more as I use it, but for now, those are some initial thoughts.
One of my jobs as the library media specialist at my school is to work with all students using technology. I see each grade for an hour a week, part of the time for typical library stuff - book checkout, story time, etc. and the rest of the time in the computer lab working on technology skills. In addition, I try to work with teachers on integrating technology into the curriculum. When possible, I try to share new technologies with teachers in hopes that they jump in. In some cases, teachers simply dip their toes into the pool. Some other teachers are in knee deep. I'm not sure anyone is in it up to their waste yet, but we're making progress.
I couple of weeks ago, I sent out an email to our primary teachers about an exciting online project for St. Patrick's Day. I was hoping this project would be one way teachers could participate in a fun, worldwide project. I offered any assistance teachers would need, hoping that we would work together on this project, put together by Technospud. After several days, I didn't receive any responses, which disappointed me. Oh well, I thought, I at least tried.
To my pleasant surprise, I ran into one of the teachers this morning carrying a box of Lucky Charms. She said, "Hey, remember that email you sent about that project? Well, we're doing it!" I had two reactions to this: 1-YEH!!! and 2-Why am I not involved in this project with the teacher? After reflecting on this for a little bit, I realized that one of my personal goals is to get my teachers to a point where they don't need me to help them with projects. I want them to feel comfortable integrating technology into the classrooom. I want them to jump into these kinds of projects on their own. After thinking about how I feel a little more, I'm excited. I can't wait to see how the project turns out. I am really excited about this teacher participating in this project, it's too bad she's retiring this year and won't be able to do it again next year.
Okay, I'm not sure how this is all going to play out, but if I have any intentions of figuring out a way to use this with students, I better learn it myself first.
I'm jumping on the Twitter bandwagon - user name "imcguy" If you tweet, please follow me. I have no idea where I might lead you, but if we're are lucky, it will be to a place where we can all learn something new. I currently have 6 people I'm following, Steve Denbo, Darren Draper, Bud the Teacher, Jen Wagner, David Jakes, and David Warlick. These are people who write great blogs (if you're not reading their blogs, you're missing out) and I noticed they discuss their use of Twitter quite a bit.
Through blogs I've read, people seem to learn quite a bit via Twitter. However, there's also been some discussion about the impact Twitter has on blogging.
I wonder how many people are using Twitter with their computers vs. cell phones. Talk about being connected! As a teacher, I'm not sure having messages sent to my iPhone is the way to go because I'm busy with students all day, but if I was at a conference or something like that, I can see a value. If you are using Twitter, are you receiving your messages on a mobile phone? I'm not going to go that route, at least not until I get a better hang of Twitter and if I'm find it valuable.
Until then, let me know if you're using Twitter so I can follow you - and please follow me. At this point, I'm the only person on my train and it's going to get a little boring unless my network grows. I'm in this to learn - please help me!
Over the past several weeks, we have been working on our school district technology plan, which is required by our state. Every district must put together a technology plan, which covers three years. We looked at the previous plan we had in place and took a look at the goals of the plan to see the progress we were making. We then worked on the next steps by writing new goals and coming up with action plans on how they were going to be met. I'm pretty sure having the plan is somehow related to some type of funding we get from the state, but I can't say for sure. Anyway, the group I was working with dealt with the topic of Educator Proficiency. We had to write, as part of the plan, how we were going to improve educator proficiency when it comes to technology and computer use.
What is educator proficiency as it relates to technology? We had a hard time defining this. Did it deal with simple management tasks like answering email and completing attendance and report cards online? Or, is there another component of this dealing with integrating technology into the curriculum effectively. If this is true, how do you measure educator proficiency? Is there a set of skills that you can simply check off? Do the skills needed for a first or second grade teacher vary from those of high school teachers? I think the answer to many of these questions is yes. If I judge this proficiency of the teachers I work with based simple management tasks related to technology, they are all proficient for the most part. If I start looking deeper at their technology use as it relates to instruction, many are not even close. These are many teachers who rarely integrate technology into their lessons. I'm not going to get into the "why not" part, but in some cases their reasons are understandable.
I do wonder about the educator proficiency levels of other teachers. What about the teachers at your school? Would you say they are proficient? Are you? What is proficient? I'd be interested in the tasks you feel teachers need to be able to do to be proficient. Comments welcome on this one.
Well, it's been a week since my last post. With the stuff I have going on, it seems I'm going to be lucky if I post more than once a week, so that will be a goal for now. If I manage several posts, it will be a bonus. Maybe not for you, but for me.
A potential opportunity has been tossed out to me. We recently upgraded our library automation software and my school library was one of the first schools in our district to get the software. The company, Companion, has contacted a colleague of mine about becoming a Certified Trainer of their software. They wanted to know of any other people who might be interested and she tossed out my name. A rep for the company called me on Friday and we talked a little about the proposal. Basically, we would be trained by Companion and then would travel around training librarians in other districts on their automation software, Alexandria. To me, this sounds like a neat opportunity. If the pay is good and it can fit into my schedule, I'm very interested. The only downside is the fact that much of this may occur during the summer when I'm on "Dad Duty," which may not please my other half.
Grad school. Uggh! Taking this online class is becoming quite an adventure and we really haven't gotten to any of the difficult projects yet. It's not that the work so far is hard, it's just time consuming. I'm checking the discussion boards daily and finding myself spending more time than I thought thinking about this class.
I woke up this morning and it was 2 degrees outside.
I love where I work, but some of the kids are starting to get to me. The blatant lack of respect and poor behavior by some is having a bigger impact on me than it used to. Am I going to leave? No.......not yet at least. I've read some articles about why teachers leave their school and professions (if I had all the links, I share them, but I dont'). One specific article caught me eye and really made me think - it dealt with working conditions. I was thinking about this as I was driving around town looking at various schools, not only where I teach, but where my kids go and where other kids attend school. I wish I would have had my camera. There is such a difference in not only facilities, but students, that it really makes a person think about their job. None of this is news to those of us who have been teaching a while, but sometimes it takes an article to bring ideas back to the forefront. Take a quick read at the article and tell me what you think. Do you agree?
Okay, I need to describe a situation that happened today and it completely through me. I had some upper elementary grade students stop in the library to ask if they could work on an assignment in the computer lab. I asked what the assignment was and they described a project where they had to choose a place they wanted to visit and then do a little research and then create a tri-fold brochure about it.
Great project to integrate technology with, right? Use MSWord, talk about formatting a document into 3 columns, the internet for maps, pictures, research, etc? WRONG!
The teacher handed out a sheet of paper, slightly larger than normal typing paper, and is having the kids create this by hand. They are actually writing the stuff right on the paper, finding pictures and maps online - then cutting them out and glueing or taping the pictures on. Now that's meeting 21st century skills, right?
I happen to run into the teacher shortly after this and since I was going to be seeing her class later for their weekly time with me, asked her if I should spend some time in the lab helping the kids out with this - perhaps finding maps, or whatever. She said NO, that's okay, they have to do this all on their own. WTF? Let's not help them out, increase their technology skills, or even suggest things to help their project? Let's not teach them? I was floored.
I did decide to help the kids who were in the lab a little and did talk to the class about it when I saw them, but I didn't take it too far. When the teacher picked her class up, I, very nicely, suggested this would have been a great project to do on the computers. She responded, oh yeah, I didn't really think about that.
She mentioned future projects that could involve technology integration, but I'm not sure how much I want to push the envelope. There are a few of reasons for this - the first is her lack of interest in using my expertise to help her students. I know it's part of my job, but she also needs to take a step forward. Another huge reason I'm probably not going to jump in head first is because I can't stand her class. There are so many rude, obnoxious, and disrespectful kids that I truly can't stand the hour each week I see them. Sure there are some good kids, but the bad definitely outnumber them. Lastly, as far as this teacher is concerned, I'm not a big fan.
What would you do?
Here are a few random thoughts......
This time of the year marks the half way point of the school year. I'm assuming you are probably in the same boat, give or take a week. I think we always say how time flies during the first half of the school year and now we begin the long stretch until Spring Break around Easter time. Either way, I'm looking forward to the second half of the year. I've got some things I need to continue to work on and learn, but there's time for that.
Our 2 sixth grade classes this year contain a rather large number of pains in the butts wonderful students. There are several good kids, but because the classes overall have too many troublemakers, the good kids get the short end of the stick. It sucks, they know it, I know it. Most of the same kids are in lunch detention, which happens to be in the library so I can enjoy their company (at least I'm not supervising them) several times a week and generally don't give a rip when they get in trouble. There's very little support from the parents - surprise - and not much seems to work to get them in line. It's to the point now, where our principal is setting up a temporary office in the orchestra room near the sixth grade classrooms so she's closer to the chaos and can monitor them closely. We'll see how this works.
We are getting 3 new students from a refugee camp in Thailand on Thursday. Apparently, they've been visiting a doctor lately to try and determine the grades they should be in. They've NEVER been in school and can't speak ANY English. It seems as though they will be in 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade. I already feel bad for their teachers- this is going to be tough. Hopefully they will be great kids and quick learners.
We had a work day Monday and an inservice day today (Tuesday). Things went just fine, but to me, they were better than ever because I missed both of the sixth grade classes this week! : )
Today's weather near Milwaukee - woke up to 43 degrees - it's now 9. Yes, that's a drop of 34 degrees in one day. Oh, did I mention the quarter inch sized hail my daughter and I collected earlier as well as the wind gusts over 30 mph? Gotta love Wisconsin!
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
Posts
