Two weeks to go
Preparing for our upcoming Tech Fest is taking it out of me...and more importantly taking up my blogging time. I find myself eager to just sit, relax and blog....funny that writing has become a relaxing activity for me....never in my life did I ever think that would happen. The biggest crime of the last week and a half is the neglect of my netvibes page. A quick look shows a 146 unread posts....and of course I want to read them all. So what's been keeping me busy.
Our first ever Tech Fest is just over a week away. Trying to organize a conference for 400+ educators on two campuses 2 hours apart and continue to teach full time is difficult. Add to it that over half of our administrators are gone recruiting and the other half leaving next week when this batch returns makes it difficult to keep information flowing.
Everyone really likes our logo though. Created by David Gran, one of our techies, I can't wait to see the shirts...I hope they turn out.
On top of this my 5th grade teachers have taken off with the blogging. I spend 3 hours today teaching 5th graders how to insert a picture, edit their categories, posts, and pages. As I write our blog site is up to 227 blogs spanning 4-12 grade. I have a blog Everything Tech that each day I try to go through the latest updated blogs and list my favorites of the day. I do it for a couple different reasons.
- Students like to see that others like their writing
- It's cool when you get an "Incoming Link" in your Dashboard
- Helps to highlight some of the good posts, which in turn (hopefully) other students read, respond, or learn about a new topic, or how to write better, or a new approach to blogging
- Because it amazes me what our students write about...and I learn too.
Today with both classes we had time to go read and comment on other bloggers. At first they weren't really into it, but then they started reading some posts. The boys who where following the Super Bowl during the lesson online found a couple other students in American who had blogged about the Super Bowl and left comments. After about 5 minutes students where up out of their seat checking out what others was reading. It was fun to watch and see their excitement grow.
I'm also in the process of writing our 3 year technology plan to propel us into the 21st Century. Not an easy task...but one that has to be done.
The break neck speed of the past two weeks has completely over shadowed the fact that I applied/interviewed/and was appointed a new position for next year. It's a position that I helped write the description for and have to thank Justin Medved and Doug Johnson for passing along some of their resources. So next year I will be the Technology Resource Facilitator (TRF) on the Pudong campus. No more two campuses, as a partner position was created on Puxi campus as well. The position is non teaching and basically supports teachers in the use of technology in their classrooms along with creating a Technology Professional Development plan for the K-12 campus. I'm excited as I think it's a step in the right direction for our school.
After our Tech Fest is over I hope to be able to spend more time blogging and reflecting...although I keep putting everything off until after Tech Fest...so I'm sure it won't slow down for awhile....the only thing that is saving me is knowing that on Feb. 17 I fly to Bali for a week. A week in paradise....now you don't feel sorry for me do ya. ;)
[tags]SAS[/tags]