Day 7

Wednesday/July 14, 2004

  Wonderful day with the trainer from AlphaSmarts.  I picked up so many little tidbits that will be helpful this year!!  Not least of all, we learned how to print via beaming and by connecting with wires.  Fantastic.  I cann't wait to start the kids on the Danas.  There are so  many great uses for them and they are a wonderful classroom management tool.  I will happily  help the other classes get started too, so we'll all be on the same page and all maintain standard procedures.  I can just see it now, we'll be fighting over who gets the cart on which day!!

Day 8

Thursday/July 15, 2004

  Slowly but surely we're getting things done.  Brook's group showed us another great video episode of this new character, Polly.  It's really Ms. Hyland (who I think has an alter-ego named Polly) doing some fantastic acting!!  The students will certainly get a kick out of this!!  But I hope they'll learn alot too!  I just hope they can keep from laughing, because all of us are cracking up watching our group of actresses!

   In the afternoon I worked  on tweeking the Power Point  presentation for Open House.  Tomorrow Kelly and I can go to a quiet spot to work on taping the narration.  It's running automatically, so once we plug in the audio, we'll be good to go!!  One thing off the To Do list!  Time is really going fast now, and we're getting down to the wire.  I guess at this point, the other major issue for our group is to finalize the survey.  Then I would love to get a few more pages up for September so we can start off the year with a bang!  We'll see.  Only 2 more days to go.  At least for now.  We're also planning 2 more days in August for training w/ the Apple reps.  I don't want to miss that.  I know it will be valuable.  So much to learn, so little time.  Well...until tomorrow!!

Day 9

Friday/July 16, 2004

   Exhausted.  That's all I can say.  And for good reason.  Taped Kelly's narrative for the Open House Power Point, which took hours, and then spent more hours, literally, editing the final product!  I hope the end result is worth it!  To think it will only be used for a 4-5 minute presentation that night....I don't know if the end justifies the means!  ??? 

  After lunch, we took the survey at the Loti site.  I think I have really come a long way since last year at this time.  I know that the students will all benefit from our training.  Although I complain about these long days I know that I would have missed extremely valuable information if I had not participated.  It's amazing how far ahead we are than most of our colleagues.  It's hard to keep up with technology, and without STAR-W, I wouldn't know one-tenth as much as I do now.  So, for the fact that we really are on the cutting edge, I'll grin and bear it!  (Plus, 2 more days in August!!)  Well, until Monday!!  Only 1 more day--yikes!!

Day 10

Monday/July 19, 2004  Well, we made it!!  The last day of training!!

    Let's see.  What have I learned during the past 10 days?  Well, as always, the small stuff is the best.  All the little tidbits are so valuable!!  We all increased our scores on the Loti survey.  The results were very interesting.   We know how far we have come, but seeing the results in graph form was neat!  I learned more about the Danas.  So I have ideas for how to better incorporate them into the daily routine.  I learned a ton about HyperStudio.  I'm still brainstorming how I'll use that program this year.  I have mastered Contribute, and we have all collaborated like never before to create B2B activities.  I can't imagine how great it's going to be for us to have an entire library of "stuff" online to pull from throughout the year!

    And what do I feel about the future?  I'm excited.  I know that I have learned alot, but I learned alot last year too.  This year, the difference is I feel more ready to integrate.  I feel more confident about integrating.  Now we're more focused.  The program is really flowing and the Bullies to Buddies project is going to be great!  I really think that we're going to take this beyond just a technology program.  It's more about changing lives, through the use of technology.  I can't wait to get started!!  This was a great opportunity for professional development, and I really enjoyed working with my colleagues!!