Integration of Technology:   Monday was the last day of our Spring Break such as it was.  It was nice having a few days to recoup from the hustle and bustle of this job.  It continues to amaze me when the day is over.  I am so caught up in the day's events I do not realize the time.  

  Several of my teachers have been working with Storybook Weaver and loving it.  The student's stories are wonderful and they have really enjoyed writing and illustrating their own stories.  I have plans to publish them as soon as possible.  We are waiting on permission slips from a few.  One resource class created short stories using topics that interested them.  The ideas were fabulous and it was inspiring to see these students  who have so many difficulties in the regular classroom create and excel on this program.  There were a lot of "puffed up" kids walking around when we bragged on their achievements.  Writing is a weakness in our school and Storybook Weaver has encouraged our students to write and be creative.  Many are using words that they never would have used prior to this program.  I am very pleased with this software.

  Progress Indicators:  I think that I have probably indicated the area of progress above, but I will go on.   It is so thrilling to me to see this grant work.  It is sometimes frustrating sometimes overwhelming but ultimately, it has been fabulous.  I have enjoyed every minute that I have spent training and  supporting these teachers.  They continue to work so hard and love the ideas they have gotten from all of our new software.  The lab is never still.  The Alpha Smart lab has begun it's travels and several of our parents are looking forward to our community nights.  Plans are to take them on throughout the summer and possibly into next school year.  This is success!  I continue to worry about Terra Nova and the bonus money,  but I have decided that no matter what my teachers and these children are learning and experiencing things they never would have without this grant.  I pray daily that I am doing it justice and I know without a doubt there is always room for improvement.  I want this grant to continue.  It has been a valuable tool in the learning process and I know that gains have been made by these students whether they show or not. 

   Students who have never researched information on the internet are not only researching but creating fantastic slide shows about Explorers and Native Americans.  They are creating Hyperstudio stacks and writing stories.  If this is not success, then what is?

Management Issues:  Same old song, different day.  I am struggling with getting all of my contracted services scheduled.  People just don't call you back.  I am looking into alternate individuals and we have decided to look in house for a few of our trainers.  Most training has been completed but the last few are killing me.  I am hoping that by next week all will be scheduled and I can rest easy.  Say a little prayer for me.

Integration of Technology:  We have had an extremely busy week here at MES.  Terra Nova testing has been going on and we have been very stressed.  I think that the students worked hard and did their best.  Only time will tell.  Technology integration has been slow.  Most teachers were too tired to stay after school for training but we did have Alpha Smart training and our first grade trained on FrontPage.  Two of our first grade teachers have their web pages published.  The other four are working hard on it.  I am very impressed with their work.   We are in the process of scheduling training days for each of the other grade level teams who are interested in building a web page.  The most impressive thing is that many of these teachers did not know how to surf the internet before this grant and the TLG grants.  Who would've thought they would be building web pages and instructing their students on how to build one.  

Progress Indicators:  Web publishing, Awesome slide shows, teachers training teachers, what more can you ask for?  Technology is alive and kicking at MES!  I love the excitement and the quality of projects these teachers have submitted.  It is a continuous process.  When asked the teachers really want this program to continue in some form or the other.  One of our fears is equipment management if we are not funded through bonus money next year.  I know that it will work out regardless of the outcome.  I may not be over it but it can be managed someway.

Management Issues:  Each week a new idea arises on how the lab can be better managed.  Of course not everyone puts the lab up the same way and this has created a few problems.  I have trained several teachers how to put it up and they are in turn going around checking on their peers.  We are now attaching a list of the computers for the teachers to list which laptop was not working and why.  This has helped me to keep each workstation working and charged.  It is not a perfect system yet, but we are getting there.   

April 15-20

Integration of Technology:  This week we have been very busy.  It is getting down to crunch time and I am struggling to get everything in.  I held a FrontPage training 2 days this week.  We are working diligently on making sure every teacher is provided with the training to design and build their own web page.  I have been working with small groups and by grade level for the most part.  It has gone very well.  I now have three of the six first grade teachers web pages published and all six third grade are building their pages.  They all seem to really enjoy it.  I am thankful for that.  It has been wonderful to see these teachers get excited about designing these pages.  Many of them did not believe they could build a page and were astounded when they saw it all come together.  It has been a lot of fun for me as well.  I am impressed daily by the amount of creativity that these teachers exhibit.  They are such a hard working group and never cease to amaze me.  It is a very busy time of year but that has not slowed them down.  They still continue to come to training after training and never complain when I ask them to do something else.  I know that this grant would have been impossible to complete if these teachers had not been so willing to work for it.  I feel that I am blessed as a coach to be fortunate enough to work with these individuals.   I have planned three training sessions next week and I will be attending another myself.  I look forward to the knowledge we will take away from it.  It has been an exciting, stressful year.  Well worth it of course.

Progress Indicators:  We have made great strides in technology this week.  3 new pages published, two teacher best practice lessons published and I am working on getting three more published.  I strongly believe that the amount of work and the time these teachers are taking indicates the vast amount of progress we have made.  Last year over half of these teachers could not check email, this year they are building web pages, creating Venn diagrams, slideshows and Hyperstudio stacks with their students.  Who would have imagined?!  Not me.  I have grown as well.  I think that our progress has been wonderful.  85% of my teachers are actively involved.  The other 15% are working but not yet completed their tasks.  For whatever reason.  I think the fact that well over half of our faculty has participated is amazing.  If that is not progress, what is?

Management:  SCHEDULING!!  This is such a weakness for me.  I am probably having more trouble with this than anything else right now.  I normally have no trouble spending money, but the contracted services have been difficult for me, ( my fault of course)  I am struggling to do better and I have lined up several for the end of the year per teacher request.  Some of them are concerned about losing knowledge over the summer so I have scheduled a few workshops to help with this.  Community night will also continue throughout June.  I continue to struggle with time balance (mine) but the lab has begun to smooth out.  Teachers are more comfortable and are doing much better with their time.  I just hope I can say the same next week.

April 22

This weeks Journal is a Technology Narrative written by Ms. Murr one of my fifth grade teachers.  

My 3rd technology project was a Native American slide show using KidPix Deluxe 3.  My students had to use the internet to research their Native American tribe and write a report based on this information.  Normally I would have stopped here with this project but this year we have been given new tools to use to aid in the education of my students.  

After my students had written and given their reports to the class about their Indian Tribe, we used this information to work on a slideshow on their Indian tribes on Kid Pix deluxe 3.  the students chose the background for their title page and typed their tribe and whom it was by.  The students selected pictures that went with their Indian Tribe and wrote a statement or two to go with the pictures.  Then these pictures were saved to a slideshow and a copy was printed.  When each student finished his/her slideshow, one of the two students that Ms. April had trained on how to record the voice on the slideshow, helped the students record their voices.

When the slideshows were completed the students emailed Ms. April their slideshows. She gathered them into on large slideshow and put them on a CD.  I did not know how to do any of this before the grant nor did my students.  This project was a lot more involved then I had thought it would.  We had to use the lab several times on order to finish the projects.  Although we had several problems, I feel that we all learned a lot from this project.  

Look for Ms. Murr's project on our Best Practice Page!!

April 29-May 3

Integration of Technology: This has been a busy week.  We have had two separate training workshops this week and I have worked with teachers on the trainings I have attended in the past couple of weeks. I will be training on Marco Polo in a few weeks so the teachers that can see and use this wonderful site.  I must say I was very excited by what I learned at that training.  I am very grateful to Tonya for extending the invitations to us all.  

This week we have been working very hard on FrontPage.  My teachers have been so excited about using this program and it has been a lot of fun for me as well.  Many of the teachers have taken this training and are using it in their classrooms with their students.  In the next few weeks you will be able to check their sites and see the student pages and what they have decided to publish.  Our excitement over the WebPages has crossed over to our T.C.  He normally does not have the time to work on it and now that we have all been publishing he has turned the UCPS simple page into one handy site for our community.  This week alone we have published 6 sites for the teachers and I have 5 more waiting to be published.  I love this job.  

When the teachers were asked what training they felt was the most important for the end of school, they all said FrontPage.  They want to be able to get their information out there for their future students and parents and they want to be able to work on it this summer.  We have held other trainings but none are as full as the FrontPage.  I have been limiting my numbers to 12 at each training and they are full each time with extra people coming in to work on their pages.  All of this training is held after school!  Tell me this is not progress.  The best part is that it is approaching the end of the year and they are not to tired to stay.  Who would have thought?  Not I!   Did I mention that I love this job?!  

Management issues are much better.  The lab is running smoothly and the teachers are handling little problems with it themselves.  Everyone is a lot more comfortable with the lab and the technology.  It is a nice site.  My time is the hardest thing to manage.  So much to do so little time.  Paper work is not my favorite thing and although I know it is a necessary evil, it takes away from my teachers.  I struggle daily getting things done and my journal is one of them.  It is simply the fact that I make sure that my teachers know that I have an open door policy and that nothing is so important that they can't interrupt me.  I feel that if they need me bad enough to call or come to my office they deserve my attention.  I am doing better with it, but not as well as I would like.