Last day before break. I worked with teachers on SMART and some printer issues at Gardner Park

Worked at Ashbrook to do a few websites and to assist Mrs. Nelli with her PLC presentation. Then Lowell to fix Mrs. Collins' SMART board, but she was out with a sick child. I will try that again in Jan.

Finally went back to Gardner Park and worked on misc. things.

Snow day and Lots to do

We had a two hour delay today. I went first to Lowell for my first sit at the school day. I didn't get to sit down very much. I helped teachers with a few minor tech problems, but I also helped set up a document camera and did a lot of informal discussion about the SMART initiative. I'm going to start spending Fridays at Lowell for the next few weeks, starting in Jan.

From there it was on to Sherwood, where I worked with a teacher and the learning coach on a math video. It turned out great. I will be finishing it up for them as a .flv, computer version and DVD.

Throughout the day I have gotten emails from Ashbrook about the NCWISE outage. I get the feeling they aren't ready and will have crises on Monday.

Busy at Ashbrook

Today at Ashbrook the pace of website construction really picked up. I helped probably another 6 people get their basic sites in order. I also helped Ms. Kiwala again with her airliner. It seems that it loses the bluetooth connection if the dongle is unplugged. Unfortunately, it won't let her reestablish the connection if she is logged in. It wll let me do it if I am logged in. I told her it was job security ;-)

I also worked with several teachers to show them how to save documents as .pdfs and why we would want to do that. Finally, I worked wiht Mrs. Nelli, the learning coach on a Notebook PLC presentation she will be making next month.

Monday, Dec. 13

Today was a half day for my arm appointment. I helped some teachers at Gardner Park, sent out some information about the NCWISE outage, and worked on the document about a course repository for our meeting Friday.

Tuesday

Met with 3rd grade teachers at Gardner Park to disucss NCWISE issues.

Today I worked at Sherwood and helped a number of teachers. I worked with one teacher who was having problems aligning her board. I showed her the proper technique. I also talked with the guidance counselor who wants a counselors group on Gaston Digital. Kyle is making me an admin so I can set that one up.

I worked for a while with stickam and livestream to test ideas for a announcements broadcast for Sherwood. I like Livestream best at this point, but I need to get Ustream unblocked.

Finally I went to Gardner Park and worked with Mrs. Barker, who is still having trouble editing the website from her home comps. I will try it myself.

I also gave a quick spreadsheet lesson to the assistant principal.

Thursday, Dec. 9

Today I was at Grier where I taught a SMART intro class during planning periods. I had a good turnout, with 18 people total. I also downloaded the rest of the Grier TLA results. I helped several of the teachers get their SMART boards working that had minor problems. I need to go out there one day next week to sort out a few other SMART issues and check the version of SMART in the lab.

Wednesday, Dec. 8

I spent today at Ashbrook helping teachers set up their web sites. We had a number of people come by and it was pretty successful.

Tuesday, December 7

On Tuesday I worked with one of the groups in Ms. Coombs class at Ashbrook to finish recording their rap.

Later I went to Gardner Park and helped a few people with misc. things.

In the afternoon I went to McAdenville to make sure their lab had the latest SMART software.

Monday, Dec. 6

Back from the Learning.com training and off again.

I spent most of the morning working finalizing my schedule for the week and doing a few other tasks. I spent a while working on some video issues, mainly dealing with some new features of Premiere Elements. It will now format and upload directly to YouTube, which is nice. It will also easily make videos in .flv, which is useful for uploading to teacher tube. I also worked with anoter app to address the opposite problem; getting videos downloaded from TeacherTube in .flv into a format that can be placed into Moviemaker for editing. Movimaker will not accept flash video. I found and downloaded a program called any video converter. This is the free version. The pay version does fancier stuff like convert to ipod video. But the basic will let you go .flv to .mpg or .avi, which is perfect for our needs.

In the morning I also worked on my November report.

Friday, Dec. 3

Met with counselors Debbie Rhyne and Ashley Warren to discuss TLA scores at Grier. I agreed to separate the passes and fails and provide them a list for remediation.

I also worked with Mr. Clontz a bit on Glogster.

After lunch it's off to Cullowhee for Sky training.

Thursday, Dec. 2

Today was SMART training part 2 at Rader

Wednesday, Dec. 1

Today was an Ashbrook day. I spent time in the lab, helping about 10 teachers update their web sites. Some will be coming back next week after their initial site is set up. I need to put next weeks workshop in the staff development system.

Tuesday, 11-30-10

I met with Chrissie at Grier and she showed me how to pull the reports off learning.com. It's pretty straightforward. I will bring the results to Grier later in the week.

Next I went to Sherwood for the day. I worked with several teachers, including 2nd grade teacher Christy Turner in room 204. She uses delicious to prep links for her students to use, but recently, the filter has started blocking her from using the required Yahoo login. This is making it impossible for her to add new sites at school. I need to check in to this.

Next time at Sherwood I need to talk to Tracy McClean about Ustream.tv and using it for their morning announcements.

Monday, 11/29

I started today at Grier where Chrissie and I were going to meet to discuss the TLA results. She had to cancel so I went over to Gardner Park. I planned for two workshops later in the week, a SMART intro and an update for wesites.

Grier and catch up

First, a recap of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Nov. 23 - Took sick day for dentist appt. and Lily's 2-year checkup
Wed. 24 - Took day for workday
Thursday 25 - Thanksgiving
Friday 26 - holiday

Today I started at Grier for a meeting with Chrissie to discuss the TLA results and go over learning.com. Chrissie had to cancel so we rescheduled for tomorrow. While there, I finalized plans for the SMART workshops on Thursday.

During the rest of the day I finished my comic creators blog entry and posted it to my blog. I need to crosspost to Gaston Digital.

I also put together the presenation for SMART quick tips that I will use on Thursday.

Grades and looking ahead

Had an interesting day today, mostly at Ashbrook.

I went there today mainly because they are posting grades and I wanted to be around in case there were any questions since I probably won't be here on Wednesday.

I helped a few folks with grades and with some projector questions, but the most interesting things was talking with Ms. Gibson, a math teacher. She wants some sort of interactive program (I'm thinking for the SMART board, that has interactive flash cards that she can use to show and practice algebra skills. This would involve bringing equations up and then solving them, but mainly focusing on techniques and tricks used to solve them. She would have to be able to change plus to minus, negative to positive, etc. and the problem would update as she does.

We both decided that it could probably be programed, maybe in flash, but how and who to do it? We're both going to keep looking at it. I researched it and found a few web things, but I'm still thinking.

Later I went to Grier and talked to the principal. I was going to do a survey to see what teachers were intersted in, but it turns out they are clamoring for SMART ideas so I am going to do 40 minute workshops during their planning on Dec. 2.

Sherwood and SMART

Ashbrook

I started today helping with Ms. Coombs class doing their lab safety videos. The group doing a rap had some non-technical difficulties recording (nerves). The other two groups are nearly done with their movies. Ms. Coombs will be setting up a half day in the lab to finish the projects up.

I also worked with a few other teachers. Ms. Ortiz needed some help with generating and saving reports in NCWISE, and Ms. Kiwala needed some assistance with her airliner.

Enthusiasm at Lowell

This morning I went to Lowell and worked with Ms. Medlock, who I set up G-compris a week or so ago. I worked out a problem she was having with Scholastic's BookFlix. She just needed a little help zooming in on the video to make it full screen. She and her students are also enjoying gcompris, with a little confusion due to the French origin of the program.

Most importantly, she was happy to learn that she could call on me any time for tech integration advice and help. I don't think she realized that I am here to directly help teachers.

I also talked to the sysop and tech at Lowell to try and resolve the Kidpix problems. We have at least tracked down the licensing info.

Later at Gardner Park, I helped teachers with display issues and set up a meeting with a teacher who wants to integrate a SMART/Google Earth lesson on Christmas around the world. That should be fun.

I also resolved some scheduling issues with SMART training at McAdenville. We're going to make one big training for everyone that I can then manage as individual teachers take the sections.

Work Day

Today was a teacher workday. I worked at Gardner Park where I advised the guidance counselor on moving her files to a new computer. I also helped the kindergarten teachers with hiding and showing columns on a spreadsheet.

Later I went to McAdenville and assisted teachers with SMART board setup and projector maintenance.

Today I was at Gardner Park to help teachers with web sites. Unfortunately the teachers didn't get a heads up and I had few takers. I need to make sure I know how the info will be put out there next time to maximize support

movie making

I started today at Ashbrook, where I worked with Ms. Coombs and her class on lab safety videos. It went well and I’m going back next Wednesday to help them finish.

The rest of the day I spent working on several projects. I set up my printer finally, sent a copy of my calendar to Roxie, and looked over some SMArt board training materials. I also evaluated several comic creators online in response to a request from a teacher. I’ll Post my findings to the gastondigital blog tomorrow.

Busy Busy

I have two entries for today. Yesterday (Thursday) I was in SMART training all day.

Today, I spent the morning working on my monthly report for Roxie. Then I went to Sherwood to help Ms. Fallin install and learn how to use a document camera and digital microscope. Both worked well and were really cool. While they are not also checked out a few new SMART board installs. One was perfect, but the other had a bad set of speakers. While they’re on top two Ms. Smith about the SMART board training. She did not seem thrilled to learn how extensive the training was. I don’t believe she was opposed to the training, just surprised that she did not have clear communication on how much was going to be involved. She was planning to contact Debbie Core about this.

Finally I went back to Gardner Park to finish up a few things and killed this and help the sysop with some excel. I also emailed details on SMART training to principals at Gardner Park and McAdenville. Now I need to set up the training in the staff development registration system. The first day of developing training at McAdenville is Wednesday afternoon.

Ashbrook likes me

I was quite the popular guy today at Ashbrook. I helped a number of teachers and staff with a variety of problems and questions, including response device setup, NCWISE issues, moviemaking, PowerPoint, smart board, and more. I also did a 20 minute mini lesson for ninth grade science students to get them ready for a moviemaking project on lab safety. We will continue this project in the lab on Monday.

I also helped troubleshoot some report card issues at McAdenville via phone.

Moodle

htpp://gcsmoodle.gaston.k12.nc.us

Today was Moodle training.

Yesterday

Whoops, I forgot to update the blog yesterday, so here goes

Monday, Nov. 1

Started at Gardner Park where I talked with Shay Matthews. We set a date for me to do informal training on web sites. I spent the morning working on my site, but I need to sit down with someone to work on it a little more.

Later I went to Grier and tried to work out a problem with viewing channel One videos online. Still working on that .

Afte School I went back to Gardner Park and worked on my movie presentation for Wednesday.

NCWISE adventures

A busy day today with lots of NCWISE stuff. I started at McAdenville where I helped the autistic class teacher setup her NCWISE classes. Apparently a recent decision was made at the county level that required the autistic class teachers to provide report cards through NCWISE. At Lowell I worked with the media specialists and introduced tux paint to a kindergarten teacher. I also showed her gcompris, which she will really liked and was very enthusiastic about testing. I’m going to submit both gcompris and tux paint for approval for widespread install. From Lowell I went to Gardner Park where the autistic class teachers also needed help setting up their grade books. I’m going to again meet with Miss Parker next week to work on the school web site at Gardner Park.

Sherwood

I spent today at Sherwood. I helped Mrs. Colvin with her Smartboard. She is using it well and I gave her a few tips. Her laptop is doing something odd. It will not allow objects to be dragged. I'm going to research this this week.

I helpedMrs. Fallin get her document camera connected, but I need to get a login that works here to load the software and drivers.

Sometime in the next few weeks, I need to set a time with Mrs. Falter, who wants me to observer her and then give some pointers on using the smart board more effectively.

Overall, the last few boards are being installed soon, then I will need to begin Smart training.

Ashbrook

At Ashbrook today I worked with several teachers. I helped Ms. Ortiz get familiar with the staff development system. I worked on Senteo clickers with Ms. Burt and got Mr. Cloyd's Airliner working.

TLA and Sherwood

Started at Grier again today to do the TLA. We only had a few problems and we got them resolved. I need to get Chrissie to switch me over so that I can administer the remediation and retakes.
Next I went to Sherwood and spoke with principal Leigh Smith. Sherwood seems to be in very good shape for technology. Their pinnacle leaders are very active and teach a number of workshops. Everyone except for kindergarten already has their smart board installed and the kindergarten boards are being delivered now. The plan is to go and spend the day they are on Thursdays for the next few weeks and act in a support role. The kindergarten teachers will need some refresher lessons on smart once they get their boards installed. I will send an e-mail out to the staff at Sherwood today to tell them I will be there in the library on Thursday. I will mainly be working with their media specialist who he is the sysop. They also have a class works lab teacher.

I’ve also worked today on preparing some video resources for working with the science class next week.

Short Day

Today I started at Grier, where Chrissie and I were troubleshooting for the TLA test. Things went pretty well although we have a few problems.
Next was Ashbrook where I met with Ms. Coombs to talk about a video project her ninth grade students have already started up on lab safety. I agreed to come back next Wednesday and give students a short lesson on making videos to prepare them for going to the lab to edit. I will also work with them in the lab November 8.
Finally, I went to Gardner Park, answered emails, and figured out how to sync my Google calendar with Lotus notes.
I took a 1/2 day today, for a doctor's appointment to look at my arm.

TSS meeting

Exciting news about apps and Race tom the Top money

A busy day

I went to a lot of places today. I started Grier middle where I met with Chrissy, several teachers, and guidance to discuss the TLA computer tests being given on Monday and Tuesday. Chrissy and I are are going to to some prep for the test tomorrow. While at Grier, I also helped Mr. Edge the science teacher with his document camera and microscope. After a recent update they stopped working it appears to be something about the computer recognizing the devices. I will ask about this tomorrow.
I left Grier and went to Gardner Park for a short time and checked the results from the Ashbrook survey. I was surprised to find its 16 teachers had already responded to the survey.
At 1:30 PM I met with Dr. Ramere, the principal at McAdenville. He wants to begin training on smart boards as he will have boards installed for almost all teachers soon. I will e-mail him early next week to set up web training and other training for the teachers who have boards now. Dr. Ramere also asked about training with Classworks.
I then went to Lowell we’re amit briefly with principal Juanita Knight. She indicated that she probably would not need much training at the school because for pinnacle teachers would be doing that. This was somewhat disappointing. She did ask about Classworks and I told her I would ask about it at the meeting. I did speak to a media specialist Melanie Burton and I think she will be a good “in” at the school she’s very interested in smart boards so I will forward her some links on Friday about the smart initiative. But I also asked Ms. Knight if I could contact her smart Board teachers to offer them assistance. She said I could. I asked the school Secretary, Anita, I believe, to forward me a mailing list of teachers at the school so I can send out an open invitation to smart training.
Finally I went back to Gardner Park to finish up notes on the day.

Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010

Today I spent the day at Ashbrook. I met a number of teachers and assisted a few with tech issues and questions. The day was somewhat hectic at Ashbrook because of the funeral of a teacher.
I spent a good bit of time talking to Sherri Sparrow the class works teacher. They are having trouble logging on some students and I will ask about that tomorrow at the TSS meeting. I also prepared and sent out a staff development interests survey for teachers at Ashbrook.
At four I went back to Gardner Park to finish a few things off in the office.

Smart training

Today I assisted with 6th grade science training on Smart Notebook software at the Rader center.

I started today at human resources to drop off paperwork. I met with Roxie Miller for a while to discuss my progress so far. For the rest of the day I stayed at Gardner Park, working on setting up my office, installing the monitor, and scheduling for the week ahead.I salo set up my facilitator blog.

I want to install Tux paint on my laptop to show people at the meeting on Friday. So that we can possibly get it approved four installation everywhere. I got the idea from a teacher at Lowell who wanted to use kid pix

A new start

As of last Monday I started a new job as a tech facilitator in Gaston County. I’m liking it so far even though I’m still getting my feet underneath me. I’m going to again blog what I do each day to keep a record and for a reference. I have recently broken my arm so I am dictating most of this. What follows is a record of my first week.

Tuesday, October 12
Starting today in office at Gardner Park. Set up phone, familiarized myself with e-mail. Set up telephone and voicemail. I met with school principal Shay Matthews who is excited about getting 12 new smart boards. I also set up speech recognition so that I can type without having an arm which is very annoying. The school is working on getting a key for the door soon until I can lock it I will not bring in the monitor. While at lunch I’m going to purchase a headset microphone to make it work better and I went by Ashbrook to introduce myself to the principal, but she is out until Thursday.
After lunch I went to Rankin elementary to observe a smart day one developing workshop with Leslie Noggle. I worked on adapting smart software for windows seven.

Wednesday, October 13
Started at Gardner Park again. Worked through half of the smart board training videos. After lunch went to Kiser Elementary in Stanley to assist with smart board training.

Thursday, October 14
Started today at Gardner Park. Worked with smart board for a while and finished all smart board training videos. After lunch I worked through the developing smart board curriculum for elementary.
In the afternoon I did orientation with human resources.
Later I met with Ashbrook principal Page Carver. She has a staff that is eager to learn more tech. The previous facilitator spent Wednesdays at the school. I am going to start by doing that, starting next Wednesday. She pointed out that it was often good to mix staff development with working with individual teachers to backup staff development.

Friday, October 15
Met with Gardner Park principal Shay Matthews. She is very convinced of the value of technology and seems eager to work with me. Our focus will be mainly on smart board training. Some teachers have some training already but most have not dealt with boards that are mounted in their classrooms.
Smart boards will be a major initiative. Two of two Computer Labs each has a smart board.
Grades one through five will have mounted smart boards in every classroom. Kindergarten, I believe, will share a board or two, as will the autistic classes.
There has been some smart board training, but it will probably be best to start at the beginning. All grades have common planning and the principal says that this is a good time for training. They also stay until 3:30 each day and the principal also says that this would be an ideal time for large group training.

Continued to work with smart board developing and proficient notebooks. Set up tungle and updated calendar. Added principals to a contact group and sent e-mail inviting them to meet with me at their convenience.