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.
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
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.
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.
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