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Year
2
Page 6
Day
One/July 6, 2004
Well,
here we are again. Only this year, we'll add another 30 hours of
training for a grand total of 80 hours of summer training. That's
right, count ‘ em , 80!! If you asked most people how teachers spend
their summer “vacations” I bet they would NOT guess working 9-5
learning how to integrate technology into the curriculum!! In fact,
between summer school, curriculum committees, and our STAR-W training
crew, there was hardly an empty spot to park this morning! I wonder
if any teachers really have a summer vacation ?? Anyway, with the
3 rd , 4 th , and 5 th grade teachers, Marilyn, Art, and a host
of techs in the room, we were buzzing with enthusiasm and back into
the swing of things within minutes!
As
we settled down and enjoyed a cup of coffee, I consider how I'm
really looking forward to taking my progress to the next level.
Last year, I had one major goal and that was to help the students
see technology as a tool and not a play thing. This year, I am once
again thinking about my own personal goals for improving my instruction.
I think my main concern this year is how to make the use of technology
more “ seemless ” in my classroom. My goal is to integrate technology
in a natural and effortless way, so that it isn't just another requirement
that I squeeze into what is an already jam packed To Do list!
Art
seemed to be heading in that exact direction as he began his presentation
of BIG6. I feel that this is a very interesting, new idea which
would surely benefit our students. I am always open to new strategies,
but we often breeze through a workshop and then never hear any more
or follow up on the initial training. I hope we'll spend enough
time on BIG6 so that I'll be comfortable using it throughout this
school year.
Unfortunately,
wireless connection wasn't possible today. I hope we'll be up and
running tomorrow. Although I haven't been online much in the past
week or two, now that the STAR-W crew is back in action, I can't
wait to start working on new projects and special “Back to School”
pages!!
Day
Two/July 7, 2004
Good
news, we're hardwired to the Internet today!! So, of course,
everyone got right onto Contribute and started working away!!
After
lunch I decided to check my students' journals to see if anyone
has been writing during the summer. Good thing I did!!
Here are a few of the messages I received. They are so sweet!!
I was almost in tears!!
Dear Mrs.Riggins:
I really
miss you so I had to write to you.Hey Mrs.Riggins are you having
a good tlme in your new house? What are you doing?Are you doing
something special this summer? I hope you are getting this message.I
really miss you.I'm going to summer camp this summer it starts on
July 6-August 20.I don't think I ever said this before on a day
of summer vacation but I want to come back to school. If you are
getting this message it's me Elle and again I really miss you! I
guess I'll talk to you later or maybe next September.Any way have
a wonderful summer and a great time with your new house!
From your,
Sweet Stacey
{p.s see you next year} Oh did anyone elsein the class write to
you?
Dear Mrs.Riggins,
I really like you alot your the most likeable teacher of all and
i want to thank you for giving me the best fun learning year ever
your the most fun educator of all kind and i think your the best
educator in the whole school and i wish every year they could move
you up a grade so i can be in all your classes and if you have kids
i know their happy to have such a wonderful mother as you and i
will miss you through out my whole summer and im hoping i could
come visit you in your claassroom when im in the 5th grade and i
hope i didn't give you a hard year cause i see all the work and
effort you put into the classroom to try and help us learn the basic
skills we need to pass and i really learned that thank you so much
i love you and here's a poem just for you :
roses are red violets are blue
you're the best teacher i ever knew
good-bye!
Day
Three/July 8, 2004
I
am sooooo excited!! Today we had a really great day.
Art finally had the chance to introduce us to Web-and-Flow!
Wow. This is good stuff. Half way through, I could
see how useful it was going to be, and I said to myself (and
to Art) you know we're going to end up being so mad that you
didn't show this to us last year. But in a way, I think
it's better that we saved this for year two. I feel
that after a year of training and working with the STAR-W
program, we are all more "techno.-comfortable" now
(I just made up that term, you get the idea). We are
also much more open to these types of activities. In
fact the new teachers (5th grade and Dr. Loper) are doing
a fantastic job keeping up, but I can see in them some of
the same things we all experienced last year: feelings
of confusion, excitement, leariness, so many things.
Meanwhile,
I plugged away all day on my newest obsession: National
Peanut Day!! It's September 13th and I figure that will
be a perfect time to begin some basic lessons on the computer.
Knowing the kids, they'll want to get on the computers day
one, but I really want to start off right. Kelly and
I were talking about doing some computer basics right in the
beginning of the year. I think that would be a great
way to start the year and get the kids excited about the program.
As you can see, this Web-and-Flow site has really sparked
my enthusiasm and once again I'm all gung-ho to develop web-based
projects. I have so many ideas, and I really think that
we'll get better and better at using the site. It took
a great deal of time today, but that was mainly spent searching
for websites. That's the big part. And also going
through it step by step was time consuming. So, it will
really start to Flow soon I'm sure. Well, until tomorrow!! |
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