Chanatown

I've been following the Apple Tablet, " iSlate" , and the now official iPad rumors for a long time, so I was glad to finally see the most anticipated piece of hardware since the iPhone finally came to fruition.

So, I tried to time a Tech Tools Workshop (see embedded post below) prior to the start of the second semester for our faculty/staff, but despite a promising 6 teachers in attendance during Period 4, I was only conversing with a few others during the remaining two lunch periods. I'm beginning to think that lunch is not the optimal time. Honestly, I would probably think long and hard about giving up my lunch period as a teacher to attend some internal PD, so I don't blame them. However, I think that I have something to offer with these presentations, and I have been receiving positive feedback on nearly all of my workshops and individual coaching sessions. Therefore, I ask, "When is the best time for teacher training?" How do other schools implement technology professional development for their teachers? My next move might be to hold a workshop after school. As a teacher, I might have an easier time focusing and making an effort to attend if it was not in the mid

Just recently, we switched over to Microsoft SharePoint for web page development for our department and teacher websites. Having a website and using FrontPage for several years as a classroom teacher, I was not exactly overwhelmed with the idea of switching over, learning a new interface, and moving all of my materials over to the new site. I felt worse for other early adopting teachers who made the move to Moodle only to find limited support not too long after. Thus, I am being cautious with how I handle the rollout of Google Apps in my new position as Technology Staff Developer. On one hand, I see this great potential for an application that is for the most part, very user friendly, allows for nearly real time collaboration, and is all housed externally. On the other hand, I can already hear the teachers (and I wouldn't blame them) yell and scream about yet another technology tool that in their minds and with good reason could soon be replaced. In what might be the s

In these first few months since leaving the classroom and becoming a full time Technology Staff Developer, the most often question I get asked is "Do you miss the classroom?" My stock response now is "Well, I definitely miss certain parts. You know, I miss interacting with students, and I sometimes feel a bit out of touch with the classroom environment." As I've logged in more hours at my new job, I've been adding the following: "But, I really love my job." If the conversation continued, I would expand on why I love my job. "I love working with teachers. I am passionate about my subject (technology), and I feel that I can effectively bridge the gap between the IT department and the Faculty." And then I watched a TED talk forwarded to me (Thanks Aleks!) about Motivation that effectively expressed why I love my job. More on this after the video: So, Mr. Pink (wonder how many times he gets Reservoir Dogs mentions) highlights Autonomy