Holy cow, I am behind on my blogging. It's been a busy week and it's only going to get busier. Like the Wizard of Oz, this is both "Great and Terrible". Great because our iPads arrive tomorrow, which means we start our pilot on Monday. I'm so excited to be able to work closely with my pilot teachers and to see the awesomeness that is going to happen in our classrooms. We're starting out with ELA 3 and 4, and our pilot goals are focused on using Google Classroom as an online space, digitizing Socratic seminars to engage all students, and trying to make "boring" novels not so boring. We have some great things planned, and I can't wait to share those with you in the coming weeks.
It's also terrible because while I want to spend as much time as possible in classrooms, the administration part of my role is pulling me in a completely different direction. I'm getting inventories completed, budgets analyzed, workshops and trainings planned for my staff. This month and next, I've been working and will work with the admin team and staff to establish our criteria for evaluating our tech initiative, to detail our tech initiative objectives and expectations, to define our tech initiative at high level, to conduct a site survey, to evaluate software needed for the initiative, and to evaluate our overall technology proficiency. These are all works in progress, so I'll add to them as we continue throughout the year.
Trying to balance each aspect of my role plus my personal life is also a work in progress. I hope I'm doing well with that balance, but I do know some items have been pushed to the back burner, like my social media'ing and my blogging. I'm going to try harder to improve that communication piece for you!
It's also terrible because while I want to spend as much time as possible in classrooms, the administration part of my role is pulling me in a completely different direction. I'm getting inventories completed, budgets analyzed, workshops and trainings planned for my staff. This month and next, I've been working and will work with the admin team and staff to establish our criteria for evaluating our tech initiative, to detail our tech initiative objectives and expectations, to define our tech initiative at high level, to conduct a site survey, to evaluate software needed for the initiative, and to evaluate our overall technology proficiency. These are all works in progress, so I'll add to them as we continue throughout the year.
Trying to balance each aspect of my role plus my personal life is also a work in progress. I hope I'm doing well with that balance, but I do know some items have been pushed to the back burner, like my social media'ing and my blogging. I'm going to try harder to improve that communication piece for you!
Create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes your Instructional Technology Specialist philosophy. For example, "an instructional technology specialist is a..."
An instructional technology specialist is a worker bee. This sounds not so positive, but trust me, worker bees are the integral part of the hive. They collect pollen and transfer it from plant to plant. They also bring that pollen back to the hive to use as food and to create honey. They make sure the baby bees and the queen bee are fed and happy. They keep the temperature of the hive stable. They have a unique language of buzzing and they can see UV light and hear magnetic frequency. In other words, they're non-stop workers of awesomeness. That's what I do. I go out and find great resources and research that will sustain our staff and students. I support the staff and students and make sure they're happy and healthy. I can understand the tech language and relay that to my staff. Over 75% of our food depends on worker bees. Without worker bees, we don't have awesome foods like zucchini and bananas and strawberries and pumpkins. Without me, we don't have awesome technology that makes our teaching and learning easier.