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.