Blogs are great!

Here I was, worried about what to put in this blog entry because I was still feeling pretty conflicted, unimpressed etc. with the progress I have made on my project. So, before posting, I opened up the blog and I read. What a very good idea that was! First of all, it still impresses me the number and type of projects that people find to do with technology. Many of them sound so interesting. I found a couple of ideas to try and even left a comment or 2. This was even better than reading! Leaving a comment made me feel more like a part of a 'team' and then when read the comments on my previous post, I hit the jackpot!! Thanks for those comments!! I definitely needed to hear some good, positive advice and I am going to take it. Now, feeling infinitely better, I am ready to press on.

I have been encouraging our staff to use our Del.i.cious book mark site. Today when I checked it, I actually found bookmarks I hadn't put there!!! Success. Here is the link: http://del.icio.us/abbystaff
I'd like to network with other staff who have done the same thing so we can all help each other and together, some day, take over the world............ Sorry, too much Pinky and the Brain over Christmas! But seriously, if anyone can tell me how to network or wants to join us, please let me know.

The next thing I have done is set up our staff wiki and again, when I checked it, someone had posted some material. Another Success!! We officially started adding stuff at our last staff pro-d. Each department presented a lesson on literacy and they were supposed to post it and any related worksheets, etc. on the wiki. Here is the link to that:
http://collegiality.wikispaces.com/
The positive side is that some people did add things. The disappointing side is that most did not, even those who were specifically asked to do it. Never mind! Thanks again, Gary and James! I can hear those precious comments ringing in my ears :).

As I was reading through the wiki, I figured that I should lead by example and add something new to my "technology" page. So I added a link to http://www.teachers-pet.org/
This is a great little site if you teach English or Socials or Elementary. If you have Word (Mac or PC) installed on your computer, it will run . It makes flash cards, puzzles, takes out punctuation etc. for grammar exercises and it is FREE!!!

Finally, I have done an on-line survey for my staff about their use of educational technology in their classes. I got quite a few responses. One of the most interesting things I learned is that it is really hard to write a good survey question!! I am looking forward to our session on the 16th so I can learn what I am supposed to do with this data now that I have it. I hope that I can use it to focus in on areas that might encourage people to try some new things.

Pressing on,
Les