Ruth’s Ruckus2

My thanks to Christine Southard who shared this mid-year check-up via plurk.  Christine is a fellow DEN Star in my Personal Learning Network (PLN).  For those of you who don’t know, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. I maintained my membership in the CEC while I worked in educational diagnostics when I lived in New York. 

The CEC maitains a blog for first year teachers, and while I would like to direct this post to the many new teachers that I am working with, the information is truly applicable to all.  Their recent post “Your Mid-year Check-Up” includes some questions that you might want to consider.  Now is certainly a great time to assess the physical, academic, and social environments in your classroom.  It is also a good time to take stock of how you are coping with what life looks like right now.  Sometimes we need to make changes mid-year to avoid burnout.

Okay so in my never-ending quest to learn more about edtech, I have begun to investigate Second Life.  It’s funny how I find learning this new application really overwhelming.  When I was beginning to look into MUVEs over a year ago, I was so overwhelmed by Second Life that I took up residence in Kaneva.  I’ve got my own apartment over there and a little coffe shop that I’m working on furnishing.  I realized that life in Kaneva would be short lived when all of the edtech people had no idea where Kaneva was or even that it existed.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a great place to start. 

So over the summer, I took advantage of the opportunity to have help in getting acclimated to SL.  The DEN has a presence in SL and offered a session on it while I was at the National Institute.  Still overwhelmed and a little frustrated I realized that I still wasn’t ready.  But I had to get there.  The Office of Science is thinking about SL and asking questions.  Someone in Instructional Technology needs to be able to help if they intend to take the school division into SL.  So I’m trying.

I’ve been joining the DEN for professional development in SL on Wednesday for the last few weeks.  I’ve learned a lot, but I am also learning about SL.  Folks are always helpful and I pick up a new skill every time.  Last week I actually was in a snowball fight!  So I was feeling brave tonite and I actually decided to go to a discussion on ISTE Island.  I got an email from my supervisor, Karen Streeter, with all of the details last week.  Warlick was going to be talking about Personal Learning Networks.  Funny ’cause that was the topic last week at the DEN session. 

I was listening and learning and the all of a sudden David Warlick was talking to me in front of all of those people asking me how my network was helping me…I couldn’t type fast enough…I hadn’t set up voice chat because I intended to fly under the radar.  I was ever so glad that the webnazi (he’s a great guy) had unblocked plurk today, so I was actually able to be connected.  I told them about the website that I got from Alice Mercer.  I didn’t remember the name of the site, but I was able to say I posted it on my blog.

Ok so What did I learn?  Tons…things like:

•  I need to revisit building my PLN - but I knew that from last week. 
• Got a great idea for a class I would LOVE to teach for TEACH Academy 2, but I’m not sure our folks would be ready for it.  Kinda a mix between INTRO to Web 2.0 and Advanced Blogging.  Teaching teachers about the power of RSS and helping them to start finding alternate forms of professional development.  I want to call it something like “Professional Development 2.0 - Learning to work the web”
• I learned new things about SL - how to clap, sit and nod.  Learned about notecards.  Don’t know how to take the info out of SL yet though.  Learned how to see the archived chat. It’s cool how the hyperlinks work when you are in the right view… Learned to take pictures - learned how slow my connection was…Then I had to learn how to get back to the DEN, because I’ve never left there before.  I was in luck that one of the DEN in SL leaders was in world - she got me back to where I belonged. 

Don’t laugh at my pictures.  It’s the best that I could do. 

 

 

Ever wonder what a TRT does during the summer?  I mean, TRTs are responsible for staff development…there’s not a whole of teaching staff around during the summer, so what do TRTs do?  Well it depends on their contract.  Some school divisions hire TRTs on a 10 month contract – they are around when the teachers are.  Other school divisions have TRTs around during the summer to do teacher academies and other special projects.  If you are a TRT in Portsmouth, you could be in either situation.  I have the distinct pleasure of working all summer.   It’s great for me – I always know what my summer job is going to be … and there is no learning curve…

So this summer I am working on 13-14 projects in an attempt to get ready for the opening of school.  It’s a lot of work, and there are days that I am not sure I will get it all done, but my goal is to close 2 projects a week and beg for mercy when the others don’t get done.  Our summer project list was huge…Here’s a picture of it…

When I did training on United Streaming earlier this year, I mentioned the DEN and recommended that folks check it out.  The DEN (Discovery Educator’s Network) is a community of educators who use digital media among other things as they integrate technology into their practice.  The DEN sponsors an annual national institute to provide additional professional development and networking opportunities for a limited number of DEN STAR members.  I am fortunate to be one of the 100 people selected this year.   I will be attending the institute this summer and hope to bring back lots of information for everyone!

Since I was notified of my acceptance, I have been reading the blogs and discussion boards at the DEN more often. (Surprised?) On my visit today, I stopped by Matt Monjan’s blog and found out about this commercial for Discovery. 

Ok.  So they are absolutely cute, and Matt’s post inspired me.  So I wrote this little ditty for you all:

It’s so obvious
For anyone to see
I’m a geeky girl
I love technology

I love Ms. Streeter (my boss); she’s very good to me
Boom de yada, Boom de yada, Boom de yada

I love my flip cam
I love Avatars
I love VoiceThreads
My blogging’s come real far

I love Web 2.0; something’s always new you know
Boom de yada, Boom de yada, Boom de yada

I love del.icio.us
And portaportal too
All my teachers should know
I love harassing you!

I really love my job even when it’s frustrating…
Boom de yada, Boom de yada, Boom de yada
Boom de yada, Boom de yada, Boom de yada
Boom de yada, Boom de yada, Boom de yada

I got to thinking that this might make a great meme about our jobs…and if I were going to tag some folks on my team I would choose Christine, Brian, and Deloris

WOW.  The last two months have been absolutely like a whirlwind.  When I think of everything that I’ve been doing, I’m grateful for the lull that this week has afforded me.  I looked at my schedule and thought ‘I have time to update my blog at work!!’ Don’t remember the last time that happened.  What have I been doing?  More like what haven’t I been doing…In the last two months I have been to three conferences - EdTech 2008, VSTE, and VSRA (I presented at two of them), finished a PBL curriculum project, took a five hour class on using the Promethean board and completed Thinkfinity bridge training.  I also gave two workshops on blogging for the social studies folks and built a ning group for the math department.  I get tired just thinking about it, especially since I still had to do all of my regular work with my teachers.  My next few posts will be reflective…better late than never.

I’m at a technology conference in Ashland VA today.  The session I’m in is interesting.  It focuses on 21st century skills in the classroom.  So far they’ve talked about:

•  adminstrative leadership to challenge teachers to use technology
• using blogs as student centered endeavors - very interesting
• using video conferenceing with students
• online class systems for students to facilitate discussion for students
• Technology Lead Teachers - Teachers paid a stipend for troubleshooting in a building.  This makes sure that someone is always available to help teachers troubleshoot.

The TRTs had a work session yesterday geared on our blogs.  After looking at Brian’s Blog, Christine’s Blahh Blahhh Blog It and Nibs from Nancy I felt the need to work on my blog.  I’ve added a few new pages in the hopes to provide you with a better resource.