Week 10 Professional Development

One would hope when faculty sign up for Professional Development that they sincerely wish to take a class or session that interests them, that will motivate them, bring awareness and add to their classroom environment to the benefit of students But we know that isn't always the case. Teachers, aides often choose what fits into their schedule for the day something that is light, not too taxing. I think that by doing a flyer, I might promote my sessions a little better, not saying my sessions would be better, just that I might reach more of an audience.

I'd like to get something accomplished that I haven't so far, and that is to do a 5 minute tech info session each faculty meeting on just about any topic or something that a lot of teachers are asking about. New websites, change of passwords, adding a new database, etc., hoping to get all the librarians involved from around the district. I think this class has given me a stronger voice, and I'm liking that.

Week 9 Field Trip

Again, so much to read/learn, once I went to the first presentation I kept listening, choosing another one and listening. What a wonderful format, as it allowed me to do some other chores with my hands while listening and jotting notes from time to time. Doing what we like, or what interests us, or what we're good at increases the chance that you'll learn more thoroughly. This week, I had a student that was unable to stay engaged with reading his biography about Henry Ford. He was becoming angry with me, frustrated and distracted when in the SLMC. My principal and I sat down with him and asked him several questions and discovered he really hated his choice of Famous Americans and ended up changing to Jeff Gordon. We also learned he has 8 brothers and brother #5 is in prison with a young girlfriend and child. My student is anxious to move to California to live with his brother when he gets out of prison. We talked with him about choices and life and speaking up for himself and not using behaviors to speak for him. I hope we made a difference in his life (no matter how small) and he can move on to reading and learning about Gordon, a really focused young man.
Learning....there's soooo much more to it than most of us know. The field trip had some good examples of what makes a great presentation and what does not.

Week 8 Staff Developement

Two successful things happened this week. We have a conference day coming up, there was a lot of individualized grade level learning offered, and I was at a loss for something to do with staff I generally don't come into contact with. My final project, Famous Americans with our 5th graders (my Seniors!) is just in the beginning stages. This class is challenging (reading well below grade level) and I have made some slight modifications to the project ,adding some Web 2.0 items. I brought my principal in on the topic and is solidly behind it. So I invited all the reading teachers, blended aides and computer/library aide to work on the project for half a day. Our proposal includes, giving time for the Reading teachers to see each facet of the multi-layered project, creating better rubrics for each section that increase writing parameters, and practising with my new Blue Snowball USB microphone with Audacity. (finally got Audacity on each computer) This will be exciting (and new)for the reading teachers so they can each try it out. I thought their rooms would be great for the recording as they are small and isolated in the school. I have added a PP this year and it will be after they have finished their typed report so I don't get a PP lengthened into a paper. The last slide will be each student recording their thoughts on "why is this person important to the world? and why are they important to me individually?" New this year will be handing in a word cloud, (sadly everytime I go to Wordle someone has posted some trash talk) and I will be showing them Obama's innaugural speach and Lincoln's done this way. Finally they will debate one other student via a blog on why their person has contributed more to the world. I'm hoping for collaboration this day and not me taking the teaching role as I usually do.
Secondly, the blended teachers came down to the SLMC to tell me that every spare moment the 5th graders are asking to take out their biographies (all new, right on target for their reading levels) to read and take notes..YEAH

Week 7 Collaboration

Google docs, certainly satisfies the problems plaguing colleagues, classmates, business people, or collaborators who live a distance apart, who must produce a product with everyone's cooperation and input. It provided the vehicle to produce exactly what we wanted/needed to accomplish. Just when I thought, 'hmm I wonder if it can do this?" I found the link easily and it performed the task exactly as I wanted.
“Necessity is the Mother of invention” (Plato); I wonder if someone saw a need to find a vehicle that would bring together people from different worlds who needed to work together . As more companies are cutting back on travel expenses the need to communicate face-to-face still exists. Or did someone come up with the idea and then ‘sell’ it to those of us who didn’t realize we needed it, until we were told??
The websites we looked at were amazing and very inspirational! I hope to make some major changes to my site very soon. I want our databases on the first page, citation information right next to that and our OPAC more visible. I want a more PR look also, promoting classroom blogs, Moodle projects, and podcasting.