The Winds of Change

I am going into my 8th month in my new job. I decided in January that I wanted to visit all 75 schools we have in our district to determine the concerns, needs, and wants of technology and leadership. Some visits have been better than others. I have been fortunate in the last couple of weeks as my boss and I have been invited to come and talk tech with a few middle school principals and tech facilitators. I love to see the lightbulb come on when leadership finally gets it! We have talked equipment (my least favorite of the discussions), furniture (surprisingly fun when we are looking at cyber cafes in schools!), and staff development. There are so many possibilities for these schools and I can't wait to see it develop.

To Twit or Not to Twit?

For the past year, I have been reading about Twitter from some of our greats in educational technology. I have to admit that I could not see the purpose in telling people what I am doing in 140 characters or less nor reading what they are doing. At FETC this year, I decided to fold under the pressure and finally take a look. After setting up my account, I immediately started following some of my favorite bloggers (whose updates in my Google Reader never seem to get read and up-to-date). WOW! I did not realize that I would get little quick updates on their resource findings, ideas, and general information. By using Twitter, I did not have huge blog posts to read at night but through the day, I am able to read quick updates. Talk about the power of just-in-time staff development. I love to find new web 2.0 resources from Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher), keep up with the latest ed tech news with Will Richardson, and get provoking thoughts from David Warlick. I have also found others who give me information and inspiration. I have been TWITTERIZED! Come and join me!

Making a change

I am again reminded how easy it is to become locked into your four walls and forget that other people have different realities and ways of doing things. I left my former school system and have started working in a system a little over double the size.

Where I have always felt tech literate, I am realizing that there are a lot more ways to do things with technology. My new school system uses technology for EVERYTHING! Grades, attendance, progress reports, report cards, automated calling to parents/staff, staff development registration/tracking, approval/tracking of leave, approval of software, lunch menus, data warehousing, locating/scheduling substitutes, and much more! It truly gives me a picture of what our students are going to face in their futures.

I am so excited about the possibilities and the amount of learning ahead of me. It is time to grow...