Earnest - Week Eight

My last blog entry for this class is now upon me. I have truly enjoyed all the assignments and have found so many beneficial sites that I have saved for future reference. As I have begun my duties as our District Technology Resource Teacher, I feel confident that I will utilize the textbook and all that I've learned as I help our teachers integrate technology more fully in their classrooms. How many classes have you taken that you have continued to use the text? I bet not many!

There are so many online tools that we have discovered that will be useful to me, such as real-world applications of Word(r), Excel(r) and PowerPoint(r) as well as using digital images and WebQuests(r). Our district is focused on teaching digital citizenship to all our staff and students, so the tools that I now have at my disposable will be invaluable to me as we move forward with this emphasis. I also found multiple resources for lesson plans that I believe I can use. But perhaps my most favorite discovery throughout the class was the knowledge I gained about the Microsoft Mouse Mischief way to use wireless mice with a projection system and PowerPoint(r) so that a classroom or school doesn't have to spend an extraordinary amount of funds to purchase a "clicker" system. I hope I can find a resource to purchase a classroom set of wireless mice to try this out for real!

As far as security and protection of our district network, I was not surprised to hear of my classmates' issues with viruses. I've been fortunate that our district has been pretty much Mac-based through the years, although we have purchased more Windows-based machines for this year. We were concerned about the security of our network and making sure that we complied with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) so that we could continue to apply for and receive e-rate funding. With that in mind, we went to a new Internet security provider, Lightspeed. We've hit a few bumps so far getting it implemented and fine-tuning it for our district, but I think it will be an asset to our district in protecting our students and our staff. I am proud of our tech team (even though we only number 4 with the addition of 4 technology resource teachers for a total of 8). I feel confident that we are doing everything we can to serve and protect our district. (Does that sound like I'm married to a police officer? Oh, . . . yes, I am . . . at least a part-time one for our city.)

I have enjoyed adding to this blog each week and hope any of you out there reading it have gotten something out of it. It will be a great tool that I can share with my teachers. If I was a parent of a school-aged child, I would love seeing an end-of-week entry by the teachers to let me know about the previous week and how it went and then a little bit of what is coming the next week. I think that would be a welcome addition to our communication avenues.

As they say in text speak . . . C U! Over and out.