Dud...

So no one showed up for our meeting on 10/18 except for me...One of the techs was out on an emergency leave and the other totally forgot. The first 9 weeks has really kicked our butt! Thank God we got fall break to recuperate. We have reconvened and decided that we will be hosting a professional development for teachers in our school system who want to learn how to set up a class webpage. We are still in the early stages of planning, but as soon as the school board gives us an exact date we can offer the class I will let you all know.

We really hope that this PD will get teachers fired up about using technology in the classroom, even if it starts simple like for displaying class work, informing students and parents about upcoming events and assignments in their class rooms. The PD we offer will be the basics and we will lend ourselves on a per person basis if they want to learn more advanced items by appointment only.

My responsibility during the PD is to be the hands on demonstrator and walk teachers through what the process is like when setting up a class webpage/site. I've had a class page since I started teaching 4 years ago. I only could get 3 teachers to set up a page in this amount of time. I hope that will change after this PD we offer.

Fall Break...Finally

Week 10/7-10/16

Thank God it is finally here....FALL BREAK...

It is much needed as this first 9 weeks have been all over the place. I can use this time to recharge, relax, and be ready to return back to work 10/17. All of us (techs) did schedule to meet up after school when we return 10/18 to really pick apart the school website. We figured, that we would really see an increase in teachers returning their school forms so we wanted to be ahead of the game with website updates. I was the only one doing the school website for the last 3 years so this will also give me an opportunity to bring the techs up-to-date on how-tos and answer any questions they may have about it.

Week 4 & Week 5

9/19-9/23
This is homecoming week. Not much is going on in the tech scene other than trying to get to get the school website up to date. Teachers are slowly and I mean slowly submiting forms we can use to update the site. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think. I sat down with the new tech coaches and we are still working on removing files from the sites database to free up some space on the server for new files. We will be backing these files up on a jump drive that will be kept in a neutral zone for all 3 of us to access.

9/26-9/30
Last full week of school. Midterms are next week and that means that teachers will be going nuts over GradePortal, our state database for inputting grades. Only our administrator has clearance to open and close it, but teachers, especially new teachers, will have questions on how to access it and use it. We (tech coaches and I) are meeting to review the procedures and making sure we use the same lingo when helping each teacher with possible issues. As a school last year we starting using Engrade which is a site that lets teachers create and keep and online grade book. It is accessible by the parents and students so they, too, can see their grades in their current classes at anytime.

10/3-10/7
Midterms...Yay...All of us can't wait to get to get away from work for a week. It is much much needed. From our Graduation Coach (he helps to keep targeted/struggling student on track for graduation) we learned that not all the teachers have link their Engrade Gradebook under the School names. THis needs to be done in order for administrators and people like Guidance and Graduation Coaches can access students grades and assignments. I met the GC on how to proceed with linking all teachers accounts. From there he sent out a mass email to the faculty and staff with a simple, handy set of directions and even a screen cast!!! I felt so accomplished! Still have 2 more days to go in the week so we will see how quickly teachers respond and comply. We are giving exams today and tomorrow.

My Last 3 weeks

Hello,

It's been a tough several weeks I had, but nonetheless, I've finally come up for air to make a report of it. I have condensed my last 3 weeks of working with my tech coaches and decided to put it in one blog post.

Week 1: 8/29-9/9
- As of this week we had no tech coaches in the building. My principal (newly hired) asked that I fill out an application for 1 of the 2 positions, and I did. Because I previously taught Web Page Design (now no longer offered) my main role for the last 3 years I have been at SHS has been to maintain and update our school website . In the past I take summers off from working on the site, because most of information does not change. Small changes that are made are related to guidance and registration, in which they have access to this portion the site to make their own changes. My plan since school has started was first to update our faculty members, create a link to our newly hired administration, post announcements, and gather rosters and schedule for Fall sports.

Week 2: 9/5-9/9
-As of this week I'm still in the process of getting teacher cooperation. Updates to the school page are being made as I receive them. I still have received no word on my tech coach application. I met with my principal to verify, and his reply was " he would check on it and get back to me." I am still posting new announcements as they come, but I really would love to here from RBOE on my application. I'm started to feel like my work is in vein.

Week 3: 9/12-9/16
-As of this week I finally get an answer regarding my application. It appears that 2 other teachers had also applied prior to me and were awarded the position. I must admit, I am a little devastated at this point. I was kind of looking forward to learning all I could and incorporating it into my practicum class. It was even crazier the way that I found out....VIA email (lol). One of the newly hired tech coaches sent out an email introducing herself and the other tech coach. I immediately emailed my principal to confirm. It appears that the tech coaches were hired over the summer/prior to his arrival (he came July 1 and has been running every since). It was an item on his list of things to do, and he was not informed that it had been "checked off for him". That made me feel a lot better, but I was still concerned about the school website. Would that be taken away from me and now given to the tech coaches? ....especially since I'm not even teaching Web Design anymore....Or could I remain on this assignment this year and train the new tech coaches on how to update/maintain the website? In a way I'm kind of relieved because, already as teachers we have so many shoes to fill and so many hats to wear. I'm a mother of a 2-yr old, a basketball coach, 2 different club sponsor, active in my church, and just started working as head of public relations for a non-profit organization....WHEW....
I will be mentoring with/to the new tech coaches, so my job description has changed a bit. I will no longer be "ultimately" responsible for the school website, but will train and consult the new tech coaches on how to maintain/update the site. I will also team up with them to tackle any teacher issues with computers, printers, etc. I also plan to host a session (dung faculty meeting) to discuss ways to implement technology resources into the classroom as well as a tutorial over the school website- How Teacher's Can Set Up a Class Page/Site

Personal Finance: E-filing

Congrats on learning about taxes! Your final quest is to expand on your new found knowledge and apply it to your world. Since we are in the age of "online technology" it is appropriate that you know and understand e-filing. From the class site you have explored and studied the ropes of what e-filing is and how it works. Please post your findings below according to the assignment found in your agenda. Assignment is worth 15 points.

Personal Finance- Final Exam Comments & Financial Advice

Congratulations! You are approaching the end of your 9-week Personal Finance Course. I hope that you have learned tons, and I hope that you take what you have learned out into the world and apply it in your daily lives when it comes to your finances and money management. It's that time....EXAMS...and that means it's time for review and preparations before enjoying your Christmas Break.

As your last extra credit opportunity, I'm asking that you post a comment on my blog. I would like you to give some feedback on the class and what you have learned. Also, provide some financial advice to those who won't have the opportunity or have yet had the opportunity to take this course. The best advertisement is by word of mouth, so share your knowledge with others.

You will be awarded 2 extra credit points per posted comment. REMEMBER to leave your name at the bottom of your comment so that I know who to award credit to.

It has been a pleasure getting to know each of you & and even bigger pleasure being your teacher!

Happy Holidays!!!

WPD: Case Study- We Need an Intranet!

Mary Kate is a project manager in the IT department for a university. She has been asked to manage a project to create a faculty intranet. The university has multiple campuses in various locations, and professors and other faculty need to be able to easily post questions, schedules and other documents to share in a secure environment.



Mary Kate performed the following steps to begin the intranet project:

• She performed a needs analysis. Mary Kate interviewed the university faculty to determine their need for an intranet and the uses they foresee for it. She discovered that several of the professors were working on a research project and wanted to use the intranet to facilitate group discussions, as well as host periodic Webinars for professors at other universities.
• She chose the project team. Mary Kate enlisted members of the IT department for the project, including someone to install firewalls so users have more secure access to the Internet, and someone to set up the site to host Webinars.
• She determined the project constraints. Mary Kate determined when the intranet needed to be live. She considered how long she would have the services of the various team members, how long team members could work on this project before being assigned to other tasks, and when the first Webinar was scheduled. Once she gathered all of this information, she was able to determine the project scope and constraints.
• She created the project schedule. Mary Kate worked with the project team to outline the tasks and task relationships required to complete the project. She assigned resources to specific tasks so that each person was aware of his or her role in the overall project plan.
• She scheduled weekly meetings for the duration of the project. Mary Kate included the CIO, project team members, faculty members and all other stakeholders in the meetings.
• She created a project status and an issues log. Mary Kate used these documents in each meeting to apprise stakeholders of the project's progress and to introduce any problems or issues that had arisen since the last meeting.

Once Mary Kate had performed all these tasks, she was ready to begin the executing phase of the project.

As a class, we will discuss this scenario and then you will individually comment below on the following questions:

• Which steps already performed by Mary Kate are part of the initiating phase for this project? Which steps are part of the planning phase?
• Has Mary Kate overlooked any steps in the first two phases of this project? What other tasks might she need to perform?
• What tasks might Mary Kate perform in the executing phase? In the controlling phase? In the closing phase?
• How might scope creep occur in this project? How could it be managed?