February 17, 2009

Over the mountain and through the woods, off to the IU10 I go; yep, quite stupid, but you have to know where our IU is, and you might understand. I took teacher K with me, and she did a great job showing some of the things she did. I loved the questions she generated from the group of CFF coaches. There was another teacher there from another school (she also was a PV grad like K), and she did a great job on some of the things she was doing in biology. We had an oovoo discussion with Beth, who is from PDE, and talked about other ideas dealing with CFF. I am going to digress here and write bout two concepts from my soapbox. First, I am going to talk about K. I had no hand in her hiring, but I must admit that I am so proud to have her in my former position. She has great vision and is not afraid of dealing outside the box. I like her pizazz, and her ability to ascertain situations. What a great addition to PV and the teaching profession. She will create a great footprint on her students. Secondly, I am going to promote an IU10 regional conference for CFF. Do not get me wrong. I attended PETE&C and loved it, but I feel a regional conference hosted by one of the school districts would allow more people to attend and would allow more interaction among the participants and presenters. The important part to all of this I feel would be more collaboration among the schools and the teachers. We need to break down the barriers that exist and promote more with the internet 2.0 concept....For all of my Italian contacts.....Addio.....flick

February 16, 2009

Another week and still no internet, etc. I know that it will be fixed, and I am still catching up on other things. Again, it is still neat to observe my colleagues and their innovations. I love it. I have nothing new to report and nothing witty to say (I know that there is a first for everything). I have a CFF meeting at the IU tomorrow, and I am taking one of my teachers to it so I can share with the group some of the things she is doing. I love my teachers taking chances and going outside their comfort zones. I have done that for years, and no, not always successful. I sometimes have learned more from my failures than from my successes. Well, off I go..........flick

February 13, 2009

Like I said I am getting caught up. We had in-service today, and I did a presentation on Promethean boards. The main purpose of the in-service dealt with the looking at the data from the preliminary testing. The data looked good and that is a credit to a lot of people. My presentation could have been better. We lumped people who had experience with people who had none. This is not a good move, and in future in-servicings, I will separate the groups so I do not have redundancy for those who have more experience. I am also going to have trainings per department to help alleviate all of this. I know some people learned some things; therefore, it was successful. Hagoone' for all of my Navajo readers...........flick

February 12, 2009

As you can tell by the post date of this, I am far behind blogging. There is a good reason for this--our network has been down due to viruses, etc. The down time has given me a chance to catch up on paperwork, etc. I am glad that this has happened (I try to find a positive ion in all of those negatives). This has given me the chance to view how dependent we have become upon our technology. I postulated that the older teachers would be more resilient in crafting alternatives for their classes than the newer teachers. After spot checking various teachers, I had to revise that immensely. All teachers were able to cope well without it by simply going to Plan B. I was proud of all. I guess the surprise came at the district level. The district has become so reliant in its gathering of information electronically that it had a hard time adjusting to the outage. We as a society need flexibility to adjust to the these problems. Technology is a tool, and it is important to have the right tool to do the job. We still need to have the foresight to adjust and create other tools when forced to do so....later.....flick

February 5-11

As you can tell from the title of this entry, I have combined many days into one blog. Oh, there is a reason for those uniniated to my blog, and I am going to reveal this to you right now--I was conferencing. I had two conferences--both in Hershey. The first was one for football, and the second dealt with technology and CFF. It was a long time away, but I did have a good learning experience with both. This was my first time at the PETE&C conferences, and it was good; the problem is that it is huge. Some of the sessions I could not attend because the rooms were packed, and I had to rely on Plan B and Plan C--I refused to go to Plan D. I felt it I learned a few new ideas and sites; there are some things I need to add to my wiki. I am happy walking away from a conference when this happens. There were some probs back at the home school with the server, and to this day, they are not solved. All I will say is that could have been.......I will leave it at that. The Janus project is moving ahead well. I am preparing for in-servicing, and did some interviews for the elementary tech position. I just wanted to post all of this for ya, and I know that some of you have been waiting with anticipation for this update. There will be more. Be back later.....flick

February 4, 2009

The phone is ringing incessantly today and the emails are flowing in and out of the mailbox. The topics range from board problems to needing ink. I also met with the principal today, and we had a long discussion concerning CFF and technology integration--a very productive meeting and some great direction. The embedded learning talks about reflection, and I have done a lot of that. I am glad to really be blazing a new Cumberland Trail. There is always something new with the position--some revelation or concept. I love that freshness and anxious to find ways to incorporate. I have to prepare more for the Photostory presentation tomorrow. There are some modifications due to subject matter, and I am going to have visitors from the powers. I looked at my schedule for February, and it is filled trainings and conferences. Wow, the GPS unit will be working full-time. Friday thru Wednesday, I will be attending back to back conferences (same town, thank goodness). My philosophy concerning conferences, etc is "I will keep an open mind, and if I learn one thing, it was worth it." It has sustained me so far. Hey, to work I go...........flick

February 3, 2009

Go Embedded Learning, Go, Go--Ahh, it takes me back to my old cheerleading days....yeah, right. It is difficult working with getting all of this together, but I finally had to release the class because some are chomping at the bit while others have not even registered. I have seen them all and will just now await the fallout. My presentation on Photostory last week prompted some interest from others, and I have another presentation on Thursday. I like it. I met with the SS chairman and outlined some ideas. It was good. I also met with 7 other teachers today to go over concepts and ideas. I do believe a lot of them are unsure of my role. I will model that and the word will go out. I have to curb my impatience on some things, and I know I can do that. It is a process that takes time. I am thinking of trying to buy some time because I do run out of it. Anyone have some for sale? Tomorrow.............flick

February 2, 2009

The groundhog saw his shadow; that %$&$##&*(&&^%^ furry rodent. I got that out of my system. Extremely busy day yesterday, but also memorial with respect to technology. One of the music persons came to me excited about using a wiki for the music area. We talked about it, and all of the light bulbs went off about some of the concepts I have been discussing. He is quite excited about it, and I am glad. I see some great use there. I met with several teachers today and also did a tremendous amount with embedded learning. We picked up some more interactive whiteboards so there were some installations. I retired....oops, that is for my blog in five years. I do not want to jump the gun yet. I am really impressed today with my teachers starting to think and branch out from the norm to try things. They are inundated with so many initiatives right now, and I refuse to pressure them for more. They are a motivated group and will develop ideas to infuse the technology. I can talk with them and aid them, and they are using me more and more for that. My strategy is working as I knew it would. No, I am not patting myself on the back; I worked the same strategy last year with a lot of success. I know it works. I do have to tweak it now and then depending upon the person. Be back tomorrow.................flick

January 30, 2009

Still working on the various duties I have to get done. Yesterday, I forgot to talk about working with two students on the Janus project. I have alluded to this before, and we did interviews last night at Penn State. Whoa, I cannot believe that January is almost over. The presentation went well; I will have to arrange a time to talk to the powers and get the official assessment. Even with the network glitches, I thought it went well. K does well in the classroom and is a good fit here and for me. I also talked with some teachers to help them with some technical things. The meetings were all good. I do love working with them. I began working on some things, and that is when I got sick and had to go home. I do not regret my surgery, but I do hate what happens to me sometimes. I know I have to live with it, but it is quite incapacitating; Friday was bad. I will just have to catch up next week. Have a great weekend.........flick

January 29, 2009

Yep, snow day yesterday. I was going to come in and live up to the CFF motto, but I did not invent one yet so I did not have to live up to it. I am preparing for the presentation for Friday's class, and I talked with another teacher who wants a similar presentation next week. I am going to be observed; I guess after over 30 years it does not bother me anymore. I also arranged Atomic Learning accounts for students in a fellow teacher's classroom. It will help teach the in's and out's of Indesign. I am also working on the Embedded Learning material. Sometimes this can be frustrating to get everyone on board. I will save that for another time. In the next few weeks, I will be oot (for all of my Canadian readers; love your country) in the next few weeks for many days attending conferences. There is a lot to do and little time to accomplish. Uh oh, I see the making of a motto. Next, there will be official pocket protector and uniform. I will have to get the designers ready for that one. As I recline on the Chesterfield awaiting my puck, I will bid you adieu.