Welcome Back for School Year 2009-2010

Where did summer go??  I know for us summer always means training and we certainly exceeded our previous quota this summer.  It was a great summer of training here in CMCSS.  We have disaggregated the input from our surveys, and made notes for how to improve for next summer so reserve some hours for technology professional development next summer!

Today I want to share Wolframalpha with you.  If you teach math, science, social studies, or even a course like music you owe it to yourself to check out this website.  They have a novel/unique/slightly different way of presenting a return of a query.  The results you get back are loaded with data and information that is readily usable for you as you teach and your students as they investigate new material.  Give it a try and spend some time with this product…read and explore the right hand navigation bar “New to Wolfram|Alpha” before you begin.

More soon.  My goal this year is to post more often and shorter segments!

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!

Taking a Breath

Wow, it feels good to actually be able to take a breath, even a short one… Normally, our summers are non-stop with technology training, and those first few weeks when schools are back in session, we here in instructional technology get to catch our breath before we are out in schools modeling lessons and holding professional development experiences.  Not the case this fall with the district rolling out PowerSchool.

Let me say here, we appreciate all the positive comments on the training experience.  We were able to train 1000 teachers in a week and with our Point of Contacts in each building many more were reached.  We could not do without the POCs as they are the eyes and ears of where we have trouble spots.  My appreication goes out to each and every one of them.

We have made it past the first progress report and are busy designing the Kindergarten progress report and then Report Cards.  I say cards because we have several to design to meet the needs of all grade levels.  Please be patient as we work to make each the best we can make it.  We always look forward to feedback.  Remember also that what maybe a good idea is not always feasible or possible given the diverse grade levels/needs and the program we work within.  Still all ideas and suggestions are considered and honored whenever possible.

Let me turn now to technology integration for a bit.  We are going to try some Saturday offerings this year.  My teachers, all 1900+, are tired at 4:30 when we hold afterschool sessions, and with all the other district work going on after school it is almost impossible to find a date that works for all.  I realize some do not want to give a Saturday, but we promise to make them outstanding learning experiences for those who need professional development sessions.  The Technology Integration Coaches will also hold some sessions in the buildings they are working in, but only when sufficient numbers are willing to meet.  Last year sessions were held with an expected crowd of adequate size due to participate, and for one reason or another few would come.  This Saturday will be our first with a target audience of our new teachers, model classroom training, and InterWrite training / usergroup.  In the future as we do a Saturday offering there will be a variety of sessions held.  Some will be 6 hour while others will be 3 hour and the many topics will be varied.

Teacher ICT Certification sessions will be held this year but most likely not until next semester.  During the school year we will be revamping that course to match the new National Education Technology Standards for Teachers adopted by ISTE this past summer.  Stay tuned for details.  The revised training will be held for the first time next summer.

Going into Overdrive

May has arrived! Teachers across the district can see a light at the end of the tunnel. This year’s class will soon be moving on, students will be heading to the pool, and teachers will be taking that much needed breather. Well, a short breather at least. Just as my teachers are gearing down a bit; we here in Educational Technology Professional Development are gearing up to go into overdrive. What a summer we have planned. Already many of our professional development experiences are filling up.

Just a few reminders to consider. When you come to training at Greenwood you will need to park in back of the building. Spaces in front are limited to those making use of the Teacher’s Center and a few staff. Our inservices will be daily from 8-11 and 12-3 with an hour break for lunch. If you attend a 3 hour session you would attend either morning or afternoon. We will train Monday – Friday and we have something in store for you each day of each week with the exception of June 30 – July 4. we have no training scheduled during that holiday period.

Our goal is to provide something for everyone. I am often asked, Helen, why did you not schedule more of this particular offering? Why did you not add more __? With over 1800 teachers and many, many differing levels of technology integration; we strive to offer a menu that will satisfy everyone’s palate. New offerings are on the plate as well as some we continue to offer because the demand is there.

Understand also that if there are not at least 6 people signed up for a session that session will be canceled. It is not economically feasible for us to offer it to a smaller crowd. We will try to schedule it again in the future if there is a demand. Also, when it comes to online professional development each cohort must be large enough to sustain and be interactive. We are offering several this summer and it maybe necessary to combine the Teacher ICT Advanced courses to have a large enough cohort. That offering needs additional participants for it to be as interactive as it needs to be.

We strive to provide the best most comprehensive learning experiences possible. At times decisions must be made to safeguard the fidelity of the program. I would rather reschedule an online course and be successful than try to run it with insufficient participants and it fail.

PowerTeacher is filling up fast. Of course we realize not all will be trained during that week in July. We will make every effort to see that all receive the training they need. You will hear more about that as plans are finalized.

I hope to see everyone at some technology inservice over the summer. Your students… will love you for it!

Work Orders for Technology Issues

We invest a great deal of money into technology for this school district.  We want to make sure that the hardware; meaning computers, printers, lcd projectors, document cameras, microphone systems, and more are in good working condition at all times so that technology can be integrated whenever and wherever possible throughout your instructional day.  The same can be said for making sure software is functioning correctly and updated as needed.  There are some measures you as a classroom teacher can facilitate yourself, such as running software updates when they “pop-up” on your screen to be run.  Other issues need to be reported so that a network technician or building tech coordinator can resolve the problem for you.  What we cannot afford to happen is for that resource to sit idle because it is not working correctly.

It is then everyone’s responsibility to turn in work orders when they have technology issues.  This includes issues found when using a mobile computer lab.  Even though many teachers share that resource it is up to the one who first finds the issue to turn in a work order.  Everyone who uses that mobile lab in fact owns that mobile lab.

Now let’s talk about how to go through turning in a work order and steps you should do when following up on a work order:

1.  To submit a work order log onto www.cmcss.net > Departments > Technology > find the Work Order button and click

2. You must now enter a user name and password.  The username is your building acronym and password is apple.  If you try this and it does not work speak to you others in your building or contact me and I will let you know what it is for your building.

3. On the next screen you have the option of entering a work order number.  Use this option if you are checking on the status of a work order you have submitted.  OR, Add a work order.  Choose this to add a new work order.

4. Fill the form out as completely as you possibly can.  The information being asked for is important for us to complete your work order in a timely manner.  For example when we ask for a serial number and you provide it you may be cutting days off the work order being completed because the correct part is brought out on the first trip to repair your hardware.  Go slow and complete all boxes where necessary.  It is also important you put your email address in the box requesting it.  You will get the first email that your work order has been submitted and is in the work order queue and another email when your work order has been completed.

5. This next step is optional but definitely speeds up the process.  Once your work order is submitted print out a copy and attach it to the piece of equipment that is having an issue.  I print out another for my records so I can use the number to check on the status when it takes more than a couple days and the issue is still not resolved.

6. If your work order is outstanding after two weeks time I would certainly log into the work order system as described above and enter that work order number to see what had been done to resolve the issue.  If you find that your work order has been closed without being resolved then you may certainly enter another work order and in the notes field make note that this work order has been previously submitted.  You may also alert your administrator that it has happened so they can help you resolve the issue.

We work hard to get all work orders turned around and resolved as quickly as possible.  There are times a part must be ordered or the number of work orders coming in is very high.  In that case you may be waiting more than two weeks for a work order to be completed.  By using the work order system effectively you will know when your issue is resolved or why it is taking longer than normal.