I'm DONE LIKE A TURKEY!!

It feels good to be finished! Today I had my Informational Technology Workshop after school from 3:15 - 4:30. I had 11 participants. Everything seemed to flow really well that was planned. I wish we had more time to show everyone a little more about all of the equipment, but the whole point of this workshop was to inform everyone of the many things we can do with the technology we currently have. I opened the workshop with letting everyone know what the workshop was for and encouraging them to be more proactive with technology. I felt like it was all worth it, when one teacher said, " OH..I didn't even know we had an LCD projector that you can check out!" I think everyone walked away with a little excitement about using technology. We started out with a demo of the LCD projector, then to GPS units, and information on Microsoft Publisher. I thought it was great to talk about Publisher because it was just recently installed as of this past Monday. So maybe the word will spread about that. The next presenter spoke about United Streaming and everything that is cabable with this program, such as sounds, lesson plans, video clips, and much more. He also briefly touched on Windows movie maker. I was the next presenter with talking about Wiki's. I actually didn't make one, but I had an example to show everyone and how it could be best used. And where to find how to make on our county website. The server was actually down to show our example of a blog, but another presenter talked about how she incorporates into her classroom. The last presenter finished everything up with an Intergration technology power point. She showed examples of how she adds sound clips, movie clips, and much more. This teacher actually has her own Mimeo Board from a grant that she received. Many of the teachers were impressed with this equipment. This presenter also showed everyone an example of a claymation project her students made last year.
Once the workshop was all over with, I received a lot of good feedback from everyone. They thought everything was really interesting. I was so appreciative of everyone that came and everyone that helped me to present this workshop. One teacher gave me the idea if I have to do anything like this again, then she would like a whole workshop on just one area. Maybe I will be able to do that in the future. That is actually something I think a media coordinator should be required to do is offer certain learning experiences with the technology that is available.

What I have left to do....

In the past few days I have been working on my portfolio and my tri-fold board for Thursday's class. I really wasn't sure what I was going to put on the board until about a week ago. I was driving to Raleigh and thinking about what could I do that is related to my AL project. My whole AL project is basically informing teachers what Burke Co. has to offer and to get them more interested in using technology. So I thought I would create a board that listed a definition and a picture of all the materials that are available. I was able to get everything cut and pasted. I even included what a blog, wiki, and website is on the board. It's very simple, but informative. I hope! I am having a meeting Monday with my presenters for my workshop on my Monday. I will feel better once that is over and things are organized a little better. I have an idea of what I want...now it's just getting it all out of my head and into real life! I can't believe I'll be finished with my first semester of grad. school after this week!!

Updating

Today I worked on getting some things organized. It's slowly coming together. I went to the technology department and I thought the lady was going to give me a lot of technology equipment. The only thing that I got was the temperature probes and laser pointer pens. The laser pointer pens would be really cool in my art classroom to work with. I am going to set up stations that show small demostrations for everything that will be there. I think I'm going to have an LCD projector station, laser pointer pen station/ whiteboard, blog example, wiki page example, claymation example, United Streaming example, microsoft publisher example, and I don't know what else! I've set up a meeting with the people that I'm working with for Dec. 1st. It will all come together!

Still organizing

I am still doing some organizing with my Action Learning project. I sent an email to the technology coordinator for the county and she never responded. So I sent another email this morning and she called me right away. I was able to get some questions answered. Tomorrow I am going to pick up some materials from the Tech department that I will use for my workshop. I am going to play around with some of the materials so I will be more comfortable with telling others how they work. The tech coordinator gave me a few suggestions...like giving a time limit to all of the presenters. That way everyone there will have time to look at all the technology available. I found out that I am not going to be able to have the GPS units. Which stinks b/c my librarian knows a lot about them. I think I will have plenty to show to everyone. Still a little nervous......

Tonight's Class

Tonight we had a great seminar discussing the "Whither the Postmodern Library". We split up the class into 2 parts and we started out with a debate. We began the discussion by asking ...are libraries on a downward spiral or deconstructing due to the rise of technology. I don't think that technology is taking away from libraries, but patrons need to learn how to intergrate technology more in their daily lives. Technology is something that isn't going to every go away, but will continue to get bigger and bigger. We need to learn to embrace technology and to be the captain of learning new tools! I'm preaching to the choir here about embracing technology and understanding it more!

AL project still going.....

Things are starting to come together. I have just emailed the person in charge of the Burke Co. Technology Department about descriptions on everything that is available for checkout. I made a poster listing everyhting from what is available to how contact information and how to learn how to use the equipment. I would also like to put together some descriptions of some of the equipment of some lesson plans on how to integrate the technology. I have decided on Dec. 3rd from 3:15 -4:30 for the workshop. I have about 4 people signed up so far. I also made a sign-up sheet for the workshop to keep all organized. Everyone that comes will get .1 CEUs. I'm so glad that went through because everyone needs sometime of an incentive. I also bought a notebook today to start putting some of this paper information in order! HOpefully I will get alot accomplished between now and Thanksgiving so I can actually enjoy Thanksgiving!!

Action Project continued

Currently the update on my action project is...I am trying to decided on a date to do my workshop. I wanted to do it on Dec. 4th which is a half-day for students, but of course my school has some writing workshop already planned!! So it looks like Dec. 3rd it is. I wish I had come up my ideas a little sooner so I could get this thing finished. Oh well... Friday I emailed a little in the county to check on CEUs, b/c my principal didn't seem to think it would be possible. I'm glad I did b/c she gave me the go ahead. Now I just have to get it all set it stone. I just need to come up with a timeline or something to organize everything I want to happen at the workshop. I am having 3 people to help me present this workshop. I need to get all of the little details worked out. It's just finding the time to sit and talk with each of these people! It will all work out!

Action Project Plans

Everything is starting to come together for my action project. I have emailed my principal about actually doing the workshop and receiving credit for teachers that come to my workshop. I also asked if it could be made mandatory that the ILT's come to my workshop. I want them to come the most because as a first year teacher technology is probably the last thing on their mind. They probably do not even realize that we have an AV cart that can be checked out and some may not even know how to work the technology. I also talked to another teacher that knows a lot about United Streaming and he is going to work with me to present my workshop. I just need to find out now if he and I will get more tech. credits for presenting!! That would be great! Especially now that I have to have credits. I'm starting to get a little more excited about this project. My goal is to get more teachers excited about using technology!! One extra thing that I'm doing for fun....is listening to a presentation that will help our school get $2000 worth of technology. All we have to do is have 12 people listen to the presentation. I figured, what the heck,...might as well help out a good cause!

More Ideas on AL Project

Okay...I have most of the surveys in from the teachers at my school. It looks like many teachers would like to know more about Smart Boards. So I thought about...why not do a workshop on smart boards. But I was talking with one of my group members tonight and she gave me the idea of a workshop on just basic things that are already at the school. Like LCD Projectors. We have one that teachers can check out, but I don't think it is checked out very often. I could possible to show how to set it up, then maybe use United Streaming as the next part of the workshop. I would be letting teachers see what the could be doing in their classrooms. Hopefully that would help them get more excited about using technology in the classroom. I am thinking about pairing up with another teacher who knows a lot about United Streaming and LCD projectors. I've got to get this project moving along a little quicker!!

My survey

Okay..so I've finally have my survey put together. It's only about 7 questions. I am basically trying to see what kind of interest there is for technology in my school and figure out a way to get more folks interested. I was telling Tiffany that this is going to be hard for me because I really don't get that excited about technology stuff. I mean I'm glad I'm able to type things up, and email things for convience. And I think the whole virtual world is cool, but I just don't spend hours on facebook and listen Ipods. Maybe it's just because of time. I know I don't have to time to waste on the more "fun" side of technology. I have to do the "work" side of technology all the time. Also, I wish I were able to use more technology in my own classroom, but I don't have AV project in my room. My classes are only 45 mins. long and I'm afraid that by the time that they get it to my room, set up, and ready....then it will be time for the next class to come. Also, I think about things like...what if the computer/technology program doesn't work after you've spent all of this time preparing this cool activity. :( Anyways....I will say that lately as I've been teaching, I keep thinking how much cooler it would be to present this lesson with a power point...or to demo this activity with United streaming..... Hopefully I will get to a point where I more interested and comfortable with using technology in the classroom.

Case Brief and AL project

Well...I'm starting to feel the stress more and more. It's mostly with just keeping up with all the stuff that is due! I am so afraid I'm going to forget something! And besides that I'm slacking in every other area of my life! Okay I feel better now that that is out!

I have my part of the Case Brief finished. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm so glad we were ble to work on it class together b/c it really wasn't that hard. My group met in the zone on Tuesday afternoon and broke up each part. We are meeting again on Sunday at 3 to talk about the last part. We didn't get to work on that part in class. Tiffany is doing Appendix C. I am so glad this was a group project! That really helped the work load.

Now to my AL project. I am constantly thinking about my survey and what kind of questions I need to ask teachers for how much technology is used on a daily basis in their classrooms. I have completed the planning tools for the project. This has helped the thought process tremendously. My concerns right now are I'm can't decided on what type of action that I want to take with this project. My first thoughts were a workshop. I spoke with my librarian at school again this past Monday and we talked about some possible ideas. Another idea I have thought about is something about blogging. I am going to a blog workshop next Wednesday, Oct. 8th. This is just to see how might you intergrate blogs for the classroom. So we'll see, One other thing I have done is email our part-time technology instructor for advice or suggestions on my action. So far I haven't heard any ideas or thoughts. We currently in the process of finding a new tech. instructor at our school and this lady is just trying to fill in.

I don't feel like I'm doing enough for this project right now. I start to work on it, but then I realize else that is due first! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Action Learning Group Meeting

Today my group met on the AET zone to give each other some socratic questions to think about for each of our projects. It was kind of neat to hear everyone's thought processes. It was also hard to stay on track with socratic type questions. I think I kept trying to give advice. Some good questions that they my group asked was "How are you going to get your school interested or excited about technology"?, "What are your plans or What type of process are you planning to start with for this project?" My first thoughts were to do sometype of survey to find out who is using technology and what types of technology is being used in the school. I also shared with that I thought about doing afterschool workshop with anyone that wants to come or with our 8 first year teachers. For the first year teachers, I thought about doing something that shows them all the technology that available for them to intergrate into their curriculums. Another good questions was, "How do you get them excited to be there and to not think that this is just another meeting afterschool"? I thought about asking the principal if we could offer some CEU's for attending the meeting. For first year teachers, it would have to be something else.....I mentioned there's always candy to give out! So that's what I gained from our meeting today. I think everybody walked away with something to think about for their own project. We also asked each other about , what are some different resources that we'll need for this project. Mine would be my librarian, maybe instruction coach (she's over our ILT's), principal, and of course school wide support.

AL Thought Process

Action learning project- The biggest problem that I see right now with my library is the lack of interest to use technology. I would like to do a survey to see how much technology is being used in the school right now amongst teachers. Maybe see some reasons why.. Then I would like to maybe conduct a small workshop informing teachers on how to intergrate technology better into their classrooms. The only thing I worry about with that is, what if no one shows up to my workshop!!!! I am going to try to think of some other options as well!

Librarian Interview Reflection

Today I went to interview the librarian at my school. I came up with 16 questions that were about the use of technology. My media coordinator has been at my school (a middle school) for two years. Before she came to our school she was at the high school for 6 years. She was able to talk to me about both schools and the amount of technology that is used. While working at the high school, she was constantly using technology with teachers and one on one with the students for research and various projects. She said that there were not many days that the AV cart was not checked out or not being rolled from one classroom to the next. At the middle school level, there has not been as much interest for technology use with teachers. A program that is used a lot is power point for students, but she feels like she is not being used as much as she would like as a librarian. At the high school, she was able to coordinate and teach with the technology coordinator, but at the middle school she has not co-taught together. Right now we are currently without a technology coordinator. Another point that was brought up was that there was a lot more technology programs available for students to use at the high school than at the middle school. At the high school, students were able to use microsoft publisher program for many of their projects, where as, the middle school mainly has microsoft word. We talked about how to get more teachers and students involved with using more technology and she felt the best way would be to have the money to get the better programs, then to educate the teachers on how to use the programs. She said many teachers will say that they don't have time to use technology in their classrooms, but she wants them to understand that it's about intergrating technology into their lesson. Another answer I thought was interesting was that how technology has changed from the time she began as a librarian till now. When she began as a librarian she did more teaching students how to make power points and slide shows. Now it is making power points more intersting with video clips and digital images. Most students today already know how to make power points. Our librarian tries to make everyone aware that she is available for use in the classroom and available to plan with teachers. Our interview was kind of an eye-opener for myself. It made me realize that I should be using more technology in my own classroom.

first day

Hello!