Long Overdue

Hard to believe Thanksgiving is upon us and the last time I sat down to write a posting was near the end of September.  The good news is that PowerSchool is up and running fairly well, given this is our first year in implementation.  It has definitely been intensive in the amount of time and people resources that have been consumed with making it successful in this school district.  I know everyone on the implementation team is happy when our teachers, students, and parents are pleased.  All have worked long hours to make it successful.  Personally, I will be able to breathe a sign of relief when we get the first semester completed and all those grades moved successfully to historical.  Then and only then, will events begin to become routine, and we can focus on other projects with greater attention.

Speaking of other projects…we in the CMCSS district will begin using Avatar to register for professional development starting in 2009.  This is a robost system with many features we will all enjoy.  There is a calendar on board so that if you are interested in seeking professional development during a particular time frame, you can search to see what is available.  There are also a few differences we will be adjusting to with this new system; however, I think they will assist us in providing the strongest professional development possible.  Even if some take a bit of getting use to they do provide best practices when giving professional development to a district as large as CMCSS has grown.  First, always remember it will take you three (3) clicks to be truly registered for a class.  You put your selection in your “shopping cart”, confirm your choice, and then register.  Second, if you must drop an offering you will need to provide more lead time when dropping or withdrawing.  Three days prior to the professional development the participant looses the ability to drop a course online.  This is a very good feature from the provider’s stance.  Numerous times last summer we would have capacity sessions showing on the day before only to walk into sparse participation the day of training as several would drop at the last minute.  This is frustrating and difficult for those planning to provide quality sessions.  It also shows a lack of consideration.  Forgiveness will be granted for EMERGENCY situations only and will require a phone call.  Failure to cancel appropriately will mean the participant is fined for non-participation.  Next, the wait list system is even more refined.  When a wait list is generated and space becomes available the first person on the list is contacted via email.  That person has 24 hours to respond.  If they do not log into the system and accept; they are bumped to the end and the system contacts the next participant.  This allows a very long wait list to be placed into a course as speedily as possible.  Another feature being provided is an online course evaluation.  In fact this can take several forms and even be sent out weeks later for follow-up evaluation.  Some will reserve credit being awarded until the online evaluation is complete.  Last for today’s post, those submitting an inservice to be held will need to work further out on the calendar to get them posted.  We are looking at four weeks from submission to posting to allow all parties sufficient time to review and respond with the need for revision before it becomes available.  This work flow system is a bit different, but will allow more diverse offerings and allow those who approve professional development to make sure we are offering quality, needs driven professional development at all times.

Web2.0 tools continue to intrigue and consume other parts of my day as we strive for ways to assist our students in becoming sought after as they enter the job market.  Collaboration continues to become more and more important.  The ability to problem solve and work as a team are skills the best in the corporate world will be searching for as they look for employees.  Balancing that with providing technology literacy will have to be another posting for another day soon.  Just know it continues to be on my mind.

Have a very restful and blest Thanksgiving Holiday!