I’ve been updating machines and trouble shooting small problems. By doing this, I am assuring that a teacher has a working computer and is able to be productive with technical tasks.
I’ve been updating student data bases such as AR, Study Island, and FCAT Explorer. By doing this I am saving some time for the classroom teacher and helping to make the task of class creation move a bit more smoothly.
I’ve been attending meetings four mornings a week. By doing this I am participating in a leadership role in the school and am helping to make decisions that will impact the entire school community.
I’ve been involved in car rider duty in the afternoon and lunch duty during the day. By doing this I am helping to keep our students safe and encouraging responsible actions.
I do try to make a difference every day. How do you make a difference at your workplace?
Many uses for a timer in class. Use it for standardized testing, physical education activities, bus evacuation and so forth.
Get a few objects for Keynote and iWeb.
http://www.ipresentee.com
Here’s a great link for math activities for elementary and middle school students.
http://www.mathplayground.com
I recently was told that “concept mapping is obsolete”; this from a teacher in another district. There is still a need to represent our thoughts visually. Do you agree?
Inspiration
Graphic Organizers
http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/
The website Wordle.net is a site that can be used for classroom project title pages, spelling words, book report facts, synonyms and antonyms, etc. Make a “word cloud” for yourself. It is easy to do. The page may be printed. I took a screen capture shot of it and turned it into a jpeg. Due to Java, I used Netscape as the browser of choice for this.
The end of the year always brings mixed feelings. When I was in the classroom I was already looking ahead and planning for the new school year. I was usually one of the last teachers to leave for the summer. One year ended and it would be a new beginning. Now, I am in a job where I must walk away from whatever tasks are incomplete. They have to wait until I return to work in August. It feels different…never seem to finish, multitasking has taken on a new meaning.
This coming year will be more difficult due to budget cuts. Decisions are being made regarding salary, benefits, using in house staff before substitutes are hired. Spending per child is down statewide. Florida depends on sales tax revenue. No surprise that it is at an all time low. Even the lottery money that was supposedly going to help education amounts to about $5 per child.
A teacher popped her head in my office this afternoon and said, “thank you”. I said, “for what?” Her reply was “for always working so hard. I never see you slack off.” Compliments aren’t always easy to hear. That one made my day.
Leopard 10.5.3 will be released shortly. I cleaned 35 iBooks today and ran updates for Safari 3, Quicktime, 10.4.11. More to do tomorrow. The machines are 7 years old. Can’t replace them at this time. Must accept the things I can not change.
As Annie says, “the sun will come out tomorrow.”
I’ve set up the Leopard Server 10.5.2 and am using iWeb for the school web page, intranet page, and “back to school” page. Three web sites easily built in one program. I have been able to set up the blogs for users and have three individuals who created pages thus far. The teachers have expressed that they like having access from home and can manage the page themselves. Others are interested, but there just isn’t time for more training this year. I’d like to see some team/teacher pages using iWeb. With Easy iWeb Publisher, http://www.plyxim.com/free, teachers can easily upload their pages to the server at work.
Class configurations and team members are changing for next year, so it is a good time for the teachers to make the transition.
Our old WebStar server, running OS 9.2, lacked the memory and capability for Web 2.0. I am having trouble setting up Wiki’s on the Leopard server. Any suggestions?
Yesterday a classroom teacher asked for help ‘downloading’ a video from You Tube…Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America”…to use in class. I did a quick Google search and discovered vixy.net. At home last night, one of my Tweets suggested I use Zamzar to convert the file. I did try it and just needed to fill in a couple of blanks, The link was emailed to me , I downloaded the converted video and I now have a copy for the teacher to use for an educational purpose. Yes, at the moment, You Tube is accessible here at work, but she wants to show it in May. Who knows if it could be pulled up directly from You Tube at that time.
I heard a report the other day that schools in the USA were beginning to use Singapore Math. I heard that Florida is going to demand 30 minutes of daily consecutive PE. I heard that Science and Social Studies are two subjects that are increasingly absent from daily lesson plans in the elementary school.
What needs to change? Perhaps it is time to revisit the length of the school day? Summer vacation? School calendar?
Has technology really saved teacher’s time?
