Where the Learning Happens...

After spending a rainy February Saturday with a group of teachers charged with training teachers for One to One environments, I've confirmed again what I've been suspecting: Professional Development sessions are excellent places to learn things..............however....

It's often during those little side conversations or during brief coffee breaks that some of the most potent infogems get passed between folks.

I was there to co-teach two sessions. And I did learn some things in the process of presenting the ideas to the people there. But in the end, I think I learned much more than I taught.

It's just a funny truth that you sit quietly, patiently, attentively - then hit the jackpot with new tricks during the intermissions.

Business is picking up - A good day

Well, after months of delays, missteps, ill-informed advice, and crises of the moments...finally put the last software into place that we purchased through the Title IID Grant.

I have a considerable amount of training and experience in reading intervention, and one of the researchers I've always liked is Louisa Moats. She consulted in the development of "Lexia" software and I chose to add it to our school's applications. So today it finally blossomed on our screens!

Maybe it's a flaw of character, but I think so much better of myself when the projects I'm involved in go well......and the opposite as well. So Wednesday's PD caused a loss of my 'techno-mojo' and today put it back in place.

So as I strolled downtown heading to my apartment...the air was sweeter, the sky was bluer, the evening was delicious...Or was it just because I pushed the pebble up the hill......and it stayed there.
Here's a picture of Washington Square Park this evening.
Maybe the air WAS really sweeter.

Bumps along the road

"We regret that we are currently experiencing technical difficulties....."

Well, during a Smartboard training for a group of teachers in our Region, that was an understatement.
Just one of those occasions when one snag upon another until momentum and confidence are broken a bit and all you want to do is crawl away or move the hands ahead on the clock...

There's another session next week, and it will surely be different.

A Place for the Manual Arts

In Seventh and Eighth grade, I had wood shop.

I also grew up in my family's hardware store in a small town in northwest Indiana.

Here in New York, kids still like to work with their hands, and my school's MOUSE Squad always responds when there are machines to open up and get into.

Today with much curiosity about creating their own podcasts, half of the group still chose to chase down some iMacs in need of new clock batteries. Clearly, showing skill and technique with their hands still holds a lot of pleasure for young people.

It's a loss that "Industrial Arts" are no longer available to them.
Let's hope that desktops remain subject to screwdrivers for a long time to come.

Trickle Down....Or Grass Roots

The January days seem truly gloomy...or maybe it's this sense of "limbo" as to how and where we are in bringing knowledge and new ways to the teachers and students we serve.
Teachers seem so overwhelmed. It's painful at times to ask teachers to spend the little planning/thinking time they have during the day to spend talking about techno-wizardry that may take time to learn that they simply don't have.
Just away from the classroom for a year and a half, I have a lot of sympathy for the teachers and am caught between this sympathy and my wish to bring a potent, strong impact on these schools with technologies that could refresh these typical urban school environments.
But do I PUSH in, or should these priorities (and hence schedules) be set from school administrators with vision of what's to come? In the midst of test preparations, expanding academic expectations, high-stakes assessment, and micromanaged teacher schedules, how to make room for a future in schools that are so dictated by the past? It seems like these issues will only be resolved by educational leadership that is more agile, more thoughtful, more curious, more secure, less dogmatic, less backward-leaning, less frightened of bold policy.
Can demand in the classrooms push reluctant, overwhelmed administrators to allow new processes to blossom within the walls of their beleaguered buildings? Will it rest on the student's enthusiasm to push the school's instructional path from it's traditional ways? Will teachers catch fire to this new element and use their influence to alter their student's future?
Or will it take a few Principals, Superintendents, State Education Officials to look ahead to see what opportunities must be made for those who need a new education.

Opening Entry!

I've been reading some of the great ed-tech blogs (Will Richardson, David Warlick, Stephen Downes, Clarence Fisher...) but decided to finally wade in to this new world. Hopefully as I learn more about the possibilities first-hand, I can lead other teachers and students in this as well.
Of course my initial concerns about this venue for the kids include: online safety, regular and easy access to the web, appropriate use of the blog environment....and then making good use of blogging in a way that fits with their "school life" and their "life life".
So it will start here and today. I'll find out how this can work in a way to make the words they read "Theirs".