VSTE is looming on the horizon. The Movie Maker workshop for the art teachers is getting close. Am I ready to work on a Masters through Va. Tech? How’s Internet Safety coming along? Time to schedule meetings with the primary teachers about the Gradebook report card roll out. Orchard training on Tuesday–need to review that one more time. When’s your next morning Starbucks session? I need to prepare for Kerry D’s visit to sixth grade and prepare for the luncheon. The Promethean Board punch list needs to be completed. The QX3 microscope is being ugly–could you come upstairs and take a look at it? I better update my weekly log. Get the COW cart to first grade early so in case there’s a problem, it can get fixed before class starts. Spring workshops need to be prepared.
The life of a TRT! And, my colleagues and I still will get that nagging feeling in the back of our minds, “How can I better serve my staff?” It’s a constant struggle of wondering how to better meet the needs of teachers of encouraging, serving, and assisting.
One way is by empowering through training.
This can be done in small groups, before school (i.e. Starbucks Sessions), after school, and city-wide workshops. We (I.T.) are preparing for workshops in the spring that will address needs listed in the assessment survey that teachers filled out in the fall. The most requested workshops were Movie Maker (and it will be improved even more for those who have taken it before), PhotoStory, and PowerPoint strategies.
Even though I want to be all things to all teachers, I realize that the best way for me to meet the needs of my 71 teachers and 1,000 students is to remember what I went through in my 20 years in the classroom and roll up my sleeves.
Huzzah to my wonderful staff members! Thanks for being the kind of wonderful teachers that make it fun to come to work and come into your classrooms! If you ever need help in the classroom, don’t hesitate to shadow my office threshold!
