Snapshots of Technology Integration

Professional Development Key Rings

So, the cool thing at NECC was the Professional Development key rings developed by Kevin Honeycutt and his team. I have to say .. I am so excited. Upon returning to work after NECC, I shared the rings with our department and we have decided to create them for our teachers! We are starting the teachers off with a base set of “keys” with all of our online district resources. I love them!

Technorati Tags: professional_development kevin_honeycutt keyrings

Meme Passion Quilt: I’ve been tagged… and I am slow on the up take!

Well, I was looking through my technorati account and I noticed. I have been tagged! IN MARCH! First off, Wendy, I am SO sorry I didn’t see this until now.

Ok, here we go…

My passion is learning, creating, and living technology. I have had different teaching experiences from classrooms without a computer to classrooms with every child having a computer. When technology is around our students and used properly its almost like creating a symphony. Its beautiful! Everything the learning, development, community building (within the class) and end product expectations are surpassed when students see your passion for the content with technology. They embrace it.

Directions: Find or create an image that captures what you are most passionate for kids to learn about.

• Post a picture from a source like Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Here are the lucky people I’m tagging:

Julia
Steve
Jeff
Dean
Technicolor

Image Credits: Emily’s Mind. Question of Passion.  http://flickr.com/photos/emilysmind/428373544/in/set-72157600300396628/

Getting excited for 2008-2009 School Year

Last week I was fortunate to attend the Richland One Leadership Institute. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very interested in hearing our new superintendent, Dr. Percy Mack, speak. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by him. I think he has the personality for Richland One. He was very personable. I was also happy to hear his goals for our district. A few of the things he talked about were:

1. Data-Driven decision making (which really is a natural for all district’s or should be)
2. Customer Service - I like this goal/focus. We need to treat all stakeholders in our district the same. It doesn’t matter who has money or who doesn’t. Everyone should be treated as you would want to be treated. This may sound simple but it’s one of the “golden rules” and at times we forget, we as educators are providing a service.
3. Relationship Building - Internally we as a district need to build relationship between departments. My district is so spread out and district offices are in different locations. Sometimes we may not know the department/people in the department.

While talking about the goals he discussed the characteristics of being a leader… and we need to be leaders daily in every aspect of our job. We need to lead with a positive attitude and be the change. It may sound a little like sound bites from a leadership marketing company but I have to say it is good to hear. I want to work for someone who knows what a good leader is and hopefully he will live up to the expectation he has set.

During the second day of the leadership institute, I was able to sit in on an afternoon session with David Cottrell.  He is a great motivational speaker who helps you look at what you can do to be a better leader as well as how you can grow more leaders. After sitting in his session, I plan on picking up a copy of his book Monday Morning Leadership. My favorite quote of his is, “You can never not lead.” That statement hit me hard. What ever you are projecting as a leader will trickle down to everyone. Whether you are projecting a positive attitude, passion for what you do OR you are unhappy and disgusted with your job… people feel it and will start projecting what you project. Recently, I have been feeling a little disgusted about small things at work and you know the exact things he was saying was happening. Negativity was creeping up on me and those around me. This got me thinking… I don’t want to be negative. I want to be someone that anyone I work with can 1. work with me and  2. call on me to be “that leader” who does her best.

So over the weekend, I thought a lot about my own goals and objectives for the 2008-2009 school year.

1. I want to be a part of the team. I don’t want to be the team. I have a tendency to take control of my projects and do most of the work myself because I know I can/will do a good job. I need to learn to loosen the reigns even if that means things don’t turn out the way I think they should. EVERYONE deserves a chance and the experience.
2. Figure out innovative ways I can meet the needs of my schools. I really don’t think I did a good job with that second semester last year. I need to look at each school as if I were looking at each student when I was in the classroom. What do they need to succeed?
3. I need to MAKE the time to continue to grow and develop professionally. Even though my department is very good about allowing me to go to professional development. I need to make sure I am keeping up with journals, blogs, etc. in my field. Scheduling time on my calendar to do so is the only way I can make it happen.
4. I need to remember… not everyone is skilled at the same level. I need to be patient … and do what I do best… teach AND learn.

Technorati Tags: leadership professional_development Dr._Percy_Mack RichlandOne goals david_cottrell

NECC 2008…

I have to say after wrapping up NECC… I am a little disappointed. I have been to NECC many times before like I have mentioned in previous posts but I don’t know.. it just left me a little hollow. I don’t know why… I guess I was just expecting to take away a big ‘WOW’ or ‘Aha’ moment and it didn’t happen. The biggest disappointment for me was most of the sessions I wanted to attend were full and the NECC guards closed the door. I know in our technology age I can find the session online and I have but it was the point that I wanted to be in the room to hear it first hand.

My first session at NECC was the celebration of the new NETS for teachers. Um, I spent an hour of my life listening to people pat themselves on the back or listen to people who are supposed to be using the new standards but just said they haven’t done anything yet but they will be good.  The standards themselves were only mentioned in about 3-5 minutes of the session. After the session I looked them over on the ISTE site. I have to say I like the new standards (check them out here). They are in direct line with the student NETS that were released last year. It also moves the teacher from skills based to “transformative teaching.”  The aspect of no longer using technology for the sake of using technology.

My final impression of NECC was the keynote at the closing session. I have to say as far as closing session keynotes, I wasn’t excited. I felt that Idit Harel Caperton was spending too much time looking at the past. A woman on the shuttle after the keynote said, “You know I know what happened in the past. I want to know what we should be looking forward to.” Although Dr. Caperton talked about her wishes for the future I think she should have focused more on them. I didn’t like her reading to me either. Her site Globaloria is a great resource but as a keynote to get me excited as I left NECC she fell short.

Of course there were bright moments in the conference too. The brightest moment for me was talking with Chris Lehmann and then attending his session School 2.0: Combining Progressive Pedagogy and 21st Century Tools. What was wonderful about talking with him was 1. I don’t think Chris has ever met a stranger and 2. It is inspiring to see an administrator so passionate about the success of his students and faculty. He is willing to get in the trenches with the teachers for student success. The Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia seems to fully encompass Understanding by Design. I have always been a big fan of Understanding by Design and it great to hear how the entire school lives and breathes it. Thank you Chris for making my conference.

The Blogger’s Cafe was always full. It was an interesting place. Some people willing to talk and share others looking at you like you were an alien from another planet even though they chat with you on twitter. One of the best conversations I had in the Blogger’s Cafe was with an old friend, Jeff Giddens. He recently returned from the Google Teacher Academy and was very excited about the Google-mecca visit and his learning. It was great to catch up with him. Thank you to those who I did meet/see again and talk with (too many to list).

Coolest thing that happened at NECC?
So this really has nothing to do with a session, the exhibit hall, blogger’s cafe, or anything in the conference. I was leaving the convention center on Monday. The bus was full and people were standing. When the bus thinned a little a woman sat next to me and started talking to me. As we talked I thought, hmm… she looks familiar. So I asked her were she was from. Turns out after a few leading questions… she and I went to high school together! Its been at least 21 years since I have seen her! It was really cool to make that connection… I just want to give a shout out to Laurie Vitale. It was great to see you again after ALL of these years.

So what am I taking from NECC?
The human connection is SO very important in our ever growing technology world. It may bring us closer in many ways but we must not forget the human side of all of this and take every opportunity to share.

Technorati Tags: NECC08 jeff giddens chris lehmann science leadership academy google teacher academy understanding by design

Online ID … What’s in a name?

Since my return from NECC, I have been giving some thought to changing my online ID. My present online ID for every network I belong to is techforschool. During NECC, it was amazing how many people I talked to who didn’t know me as MaryAnn or even know my first name was MaryAnn. It was weird and I may be thinking stupid thoughts but … I am thinking it would be nice to be able to say, “Hi, I’m MaryAnn” and not “Hi, I am techforschool online”. I have had this ID for years… you know before it was cool to be online with networks. But I wonder with the vast social networking available and leaving my own digital footprint if I need to change to a form of my name.

Here are some options: maryann_s, sansonetti, msansonetti

What do you think?

UTC … meeting and learning

I returned home from the Upstate Technology Conference (UTC) yesterday afternoon. I have to say it was a great two days for meeting my PLN and learning. First off, kudos to Greenville County Schools for hosting the 3rd annual UTC.

UTC ended up being a snapshot of what I am preparing for at NECC. It was the first time I was able to be meet people from my personal learning network face-to-face on this scale. What I mean is .. on Wednesday at lunch I was at the same table with Ewan McInstosh, David Jakes, Chris Craft, Julia Davis, Cathy Nelson, Heather Loy, and Pat Hensley. I have met some of them prior to this conference but the power of this lunch table had me in awe. I can’t wait for who all I will meet at NECC.

The conference was definitely an Adventure in Technology. What I was impressed with the most was the forward thinking of the folks in Greenville County Schools to bring keynote speakers like Ewan McIntosh and David Jakes. This is a hugh step for the upstate and the state of South Carolina. I think SC is on the verge of a instructional technology shift and beginning to see its value or at least I hope that is the case!

Though Ewan’s and David’s keynotes were very different… there was a common thread: the idea of building community. Ewan called it Shared Awareness. Being able to utilize the spaces our student use…
Secret spaces – Mobile, SMS
Group spaces – facebook
Publishing spaces - blog sites
Performing spaces  - second life
Participation spaces - meetings , markets, events
Building community starting with your classroom and then expanding outward…

David Jakes poised the question: “Is today’s cheating tomorrow’s collaboration?” Again focusing on the aspect of texting, social networks, etc. to build a collaborative learning network. We as educators really need to look at ways to meet the needs of our students by using tools that they know. Do you have to be an expert with the tool? NO, but allow them to explore learning in their way. I think this will help bring meaning and ownership to our students as the learn.

Ewan live blogged during David’s keynote and does a much better job of expressing meaning of the presentation.

As I continue to reflect on what I learn and prepare for NECC, I just want to tell my PLN, it was great to finally meet a number of you face-to-face.

Technorati Tags: upstatetechnologyconference utc2008

NECC 2008 … approaching fast

This morning was the first time I was able to sit down and look at the conference planner for NECC. Of course there are more workshops I want to go to than I have time for… I will try to figure out how to divide my time … Then the sessions that are going to be available on podcast or video-on-demand, this will keep me busy for the week after I return home from NECC.

Every year, I get very excited about NECC. I have been very fortunate. I have been to 6 NECC’s since 2001 in Chicago, IL (except Seattle in 2003 and San Diego in 2006). Thinking back to ‘those days,’ the conference has evolved. In 2001, there were 357 total sessions. Last year, there were 226 concurrent sessions and 547 other presentations.

My first experience with NECC 2001 was attending with my colleagues to present a workshop on the ‘eSchool Model’ at the school I was teaching. The conference to me, was all about the exhibit hall and the FREE stuff. In 2002, in San Antonio, I spent more time in the exhibit hall than I did in the at the sessions.  Over the next few years, my position changed from in the classroom to training classroom teachers. With that shift, so was the shift of why I was attending NECC. I was no longer attending for me but now attending for my teachers. What did they need? What did I need to attend to learn for them?

Last year, was probably the largest shift that took place for me. Over the years, you begin networking and meeting people who become eFriends for most of the year and NECC is a reunion time to meet up with all of them. But last year, not only did I meet up with friends… it was very exciting for me to see the shift of learning. Learning moved from the sessions to the hallways. The Blogger’s Cafe was overloaded with people throughout the day. Learning and conversations were taking place that could never happen in a workshop. There was a sense of community with people. The conference no longer was a group of strangers gathering to sit and get. It was a place you met up with friends to learn about a common topic/goal.

This year, I can’t wait to meet those whom I have met through Twitter, the blogosphere, Facebook, Classroom 2.0, and all of the other virtual ways I have met people. The conference is almost an annual homecoming for me now. I am looking forward to the learning, conversations, and good times I will have next week. See you all then!

Technorati Tags: NECC2008 twitter facebook classroom2.0 professionaldevelopment 21stcenturylearning

Buttom-Up input

This morning I have been trying to catch up on some journal reading … I have a stack of educational technology journals on my desk and the stack seems to be growing and I think it may over take me soon. Anyway, I just finished reading Young Minds, Fast Times from the June/July 2008 issue of Edutopia. Marc Prensky discusses how important it is to invite students to the technology conversation. He compares it to the corporate world asking consumers what they want. After all aren’t students our consumers? Prensky asks all schools where he presents to invite panels of students to the presentation. The students see the presentation Prensky gives and then he turns it over to them and asks three basic questions:
1. What experiences in school really engage you?

2. How do you use technology in school as opposed to outside of school?

3. What are your pet peeves (about how tech. is used in school)?

This article really got me thinking. When I taught, I was fortunate to have a technology-rich classroom. I did my very best to expose students to the content as well as new technologies but you know I never asked if it was what they needed. It makes me wonder now if it was. Maybe I can get a few of my past students to answer Prensky’s panel questions.

When we discuss technology changes, strategies, etc. in our district the idea of using students always comes up… but it is never initiated. I wonder how different things would be if we did involve the students in the decision making process?

I would love for students to answer Prensky’s questions in the comments. PLUS, for any of you who have used students in the decision making process what was it like? What were your outcomes?

Technorati Tags: student input, Marc Prensky, Edutopia, technology decision-making

Summer has begun… for most

Students in Columbia are now sleeping late and enjoying summer… so are most teachers for that matter. But as I have talked about before, I don’t get summers off. This week we kicked off our summer workshops. To help with with the laid back mood we decorated our hall in a tropical theme complete with a lounge chairs and coconut cups (with nothing in them!). The only thing we are missing is the sand.

With the theme in mind I had to create a bulletin board…. Julia says I am too proud of my board. But I have to say I like it . I like it a lot. We are making a big splash (haha) with SMART boards so it seemed like a natural fit to me.

The department theme has brought smiles to people’s faces as they show up to classes at 8:30 on a summer morning.

Upstate Technology Conference 2008

I received word on Friday of the times I will be presenting at the Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville. I will be presenting my iPodabilities in the Classroom 2.0 workshop. I have presented this session many times but it is updated. If you came to a this workshop in at SCASL or SC EdTech 2007, it has been updated changed and I am more pumped about all the things I have to share. Of course I wouldn’t have 1/2 the ideas I do to share if it weren’t for Tony Vincent. The work he has done on iPods in the classroom has helped all of us reap the benefits.

Anyway, back to the Upstate Technology Conference. I have to say I am more excited about going there than I am about SC EdTech. I am presenting June 25 at 2:15 and June 26 at 8:00 am. Why am I excited? Not because I am presenting… I am very excited to see David Jakes and Ewan McIntosh. Its funny in educational technology, we all have our ideas of celebrity and I have to say the two of them are celebrities to me. I haven’t met either of them but I do follow them on Twitter and read their blogs. I am looking forward to the opportunity to talk face-to-face with both of them.

Have you registered for the conference? If you are in or near Greenville, SC at that time register for this conference. Did I tell you it is FREE. Yes, FREE! You can’t pass this opportunity by.

Technorati Tags: upstatetechnologyconference UTC TonyVincent ewanmcinstosh davidjakes professionaldevelopment