I survived our PC Refresh last week. Through tech bond monies, we turned in 72 old desktop computers and received 80 brand spanking new ones. Nice! Of course, that meant days of plotting, mapping, and moving equipment -- thank you, Mr. Bobby and Ms. Pat, our custodians! -- and prepping for the team of movers and shakers. We also just setup four more laptop storage carts which included 60 more laptops.
While most folks would see this as an incredible addition to our technology resources, right now, I'm seeing it as 1000 more headaches and fires to put out when stuff doesn't work the way it's supposed to work. Printers need to be installed. Virus definitions need to be updated. Software needs to be installed on specific machines in specific rooms.
When did I sign on to be the technology facilitator at my school?!
The role of media coordinator has definitely changed, even in the almost 12 years that I have been out of the traditional classroom and in the library media center. There are tons more instructional technology resources to integrate into the core curriculae. The information skills that students need in order to navigate resources and the vast amounts of information have changed my instruction as well....or sometimes that lack of instruction. (See Please Don't Google Search!)
I'm not necessarily tired of the technology itself; I'm just tired of dealing with the equipment.
With over 200 desktops and 150 laptops on my small middle school campus, that's a heck of a lot of equipment to service! In most business models, there would at least be an IT person or some sort of technology specialist in the building to keep up the maintenance on the machines. While we have an incredible group of technology service folks in our district, there's only about 10-12 folks for over 150 schools that actually come out to take care of the equipment. A handful of others perform duties and updates remotely. But at the school level, that can be an overwhelming job for a classroom teacher, media coordinator, or instructional resources teacher who also is expected to wear the hat of technology coordinator.
I think my staff views me more as their technology specialist than as a library media coordinator and teacher. When I offered to work with one teacher's classes today, he looked at me with surprise and responded, "You can do that? Teach my kids?".
I've got to reclaim my true job description: planning, collaborating, teaching and integrating the information literacy skills into the curriculum.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Going Public and Getting Organized
I haven't really shared my blog with anyone....at least not until today. I was working with three teachers on blogging, sharing some of the educational blogs out there and inviting them to search professional and personal interests to find some of the incredible entries and conversations going on about any topic imaginable.
So in a teachable moment, I shared my personal blog site with them, as well as the TriangleMommies blog site to which I contribute. One of the teachers was ready to create his on blog, trying something simple -- he came up with the I Am Awesome Blog -- and hoping to revisit blogging later on to really setup a neat mathematics conversation.
I can see the power of information and connections with blogging. There are blogs on absolutely everything out there. But filtering through the information can be overwhelming. I attended a session at the NCTIES conference last week in which Will Richardson talks about organizing your blog reading through Google Reader. It was just what I needed to feel less insane and just as informed and sparked to read some of my favorite sites without traipsing all across cyberspace. Google Reader is basically one stop reading for me. I've read my daily dose of news, my mommy stuff, and my tech talk entries without having to pull up each and every one of the sites.
I should have gone public and gotten organized sooner!
So in a teachable moment, I shared my personal blog site with them, as well as the TriangleMommies blog site to which I contribute. One of the teachers was ready to create his on blog, trying something simple -- he came up with the I Am Awesome Blog -- and hoping to revisit blogging later on to really setup a neat mathematics conversation.
I can see the power of information and connections with blogging. There are blogs on absolutely everything out there. But filtering through the information can be overwhelming. I attended a session at the NCTIES conference last week in which Will Richardson talks about organizing your blog reading through Google Reader. It was just what I needed to feel less insane and just as informed and sparked to read some of my favorite sites without traipsing all across cyberspace. Google Reader is basically one stop reading for me. I've read my daily dose of news, my mommy stuff, and my tech talk entries without having to pull up each and every one of the sites.
I should have gone public and gotten organized sooner!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Choosing Elizabeth
Today I was offered a job, a position that I truly enjoyed when I held it for two and half years a few years ago. The job offered great opportunities to work with educators across our state, to travel to conferences to present to eager attendees, to visit other school districts and meet with folks who genuinely care about students and want to improve their own skills in order to to help students achieve.
When I was in this position before, my days were packed with many telephone calls. From anxious teachers working on their portfolios to district coordinators looking to get answers to their questions, my phone rang non-stop for the eight hours I was there. I also came in each day to several voice messages to return.
My days were also packed with emails, tons of emails. Again from teachers to coordinators to university faculty and research students, everyone looking for information about the program that I coordinated for our state. I would rapid fire emails -- send, send, send -- giving each one appropriate information with links to legislation and data and websites.
My days were also spent creating materials for workshops, whether that was drafting basic handouts, developing PowerPoint presentations, designing brochures and flyers, or updating the program website. I used my creativity to come up with powerful, exciting presentations for those many educators and coordinators across our state that counted on me.
Many of my days were spent traveling, sometimes as much as four hours one way to conduct a two hour workshop or meeting just to turn around and head back home for another four hours. But the graciousness and appreciativeness of folks made every mile worth it. I had the opportunities to attend and to present at national conferences, networking with colleagues in my field for three, four, sometimes five days at a time.
Today I was offered that job again. But today I turned it down, instead choosing Elizabeth, my two year old.
When I was in this position before, my days were packed with many telephone calls. From anxious teachers working on their portfolios to district coordinators looking to get answers to their questions, my phone rang non-stop for the eight hours I was there. I also came in each day to several voice messages to return.
My days were also packed with emails, tons of emails. Again from teachers to coordinators to university faculty and research students, everyone looking for information about the program that I coordinated for our state. I would rapid fire emails -- send, send, send -- giving each one appropriate information with links to legislation and data and websites.
My days were also spent creating materials for workshops, whether that was drafting basic handouts, developing PowerPoint presentations, designing brochures and flyers, or updating the program website. I used my creativity to come up with powerful, exciting presentations for those many educators and coordinators across our state that counted on me.
Many of my days were spent traveling, sometimes as much as four hours one way to conduct a two hour workshop or meeting just to turn around and head back home for another four hours. But the graciousness and appreciativeness of folks made every mile worth it. I had the opportunities to attend and to present at national conferences, networking with colleagues in my field for three, four, sometimes five days at a time.
Today I was offered that job again. But today I turned it down, instead choosing Elizabeth, my two year old.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Sick Day
I've been home the last three days with a sick child. Obviously that means that I've had to take a few sick days from my job to stay at home to take care of my child. Sometimes I wish every day were a sick day. Not that I really want my child or myself to be sick, but I find that I get so much of my household work done while I'm home on a sick day, chores that are otherwise left to the weekend or put aside until some undetermined time.
In-between dosing out medicine, rubbing her back, and holding her so she's comforted, I've managed to fold a load of laundry, put in another load to wash and dry, wipe down the kitchen counters, pay a few bills, pick up the living room floor of toys, sort through holiday cards to pull out the pictures, and wash a sink full of dishes.
I wonder when I'm working when I actually find time for living, not that doing chores is real living in the sense of the big adventure, but it surely helps to keep me sane if my house is fairly organized and clean and everyone has clean underwear to wear!
When I first starting teaching almost twenty years ago, my principal was very big on "mental health days", encouraging us to take a day every once in awhile when we weren't sick to do something for ourselves. She wanted us to make sure we were healthy and happy and not burned out and sickly and then missing a week of work. It made sense to me then, and while it makes sense to me now, sometimes it's harder to justify that mental health day for myself when I have that little one that may need a sick day here and there.
In the meantime today, I'll keep loving on my cranky little one, wiping her runny nose, and soothing her cries while the dishwasher runs in the kitchen, there's a casserole in the oven, and the cleaner works in the toilet waiting for me to come scrub it.
In-between dosing out medicine, rubbing her back, and holding her so she's comforted, I've managed to fold a load of laundry, put in another load to wash and dry, wipe down the kitchen counters, pay a few bills, pick up the living room floor of toys, sort through holiday cards to pull out the pictures, and wash a sink full of dishes.
I wonder when I'm working when I actually find time for living, not that doing chores is real living in the sense of the big adventure, but it surely helps to keep me sane if my house is fairly organized and clean and everyone has clean underwear to wear!
When I first starting teaching almost twenty years ago, my principal was very big on "mental health days", encouraging us to take a day every once in awhile when we weren't sick to do something for ourselves. She wanted us to make sure we were healthy and happy and not burned out and sickly and then missing a week of work. It made sense to me then, and while it makes sense to me now, sometimes it's harder to justify that mental health day for myself when I have that little one that may need a sick day here and there.
In the meantime today, I'll keep loving on my cranky little one, wiping her runny nose, and soothing her cries while the dishwasher runs in the kitchen, there's a casserole in the oven, and the cleaner works in the toilet waiting for me to come scrub it.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Baby, It's Cold Inside!
The Monday before Christmas was a teacher workday for me in my large suburban district. I had two options: 1) take an annual leave day and enjoy my day off or 2) go to work and mark some items off my "to do" list. I decided to go to work.
Too bad our school district decided to turn the heat off to all its buildings on the students' last day of school, the Friday before the workday. The half dozen or so of us that ventured to our school building found frigid temperatures. Even though our custodian hit the override to turn the heat back on, the temperature never seemed to make it above 60 degrees.
Am I overreacting when I ask that the heat be turned on -- on one of the coldest days we've had so far this winter -- on a day that I am expected to go to the "office" to work? Am I making too big a deal out of the fact that this just seems like one more of those little things in the list of things where teachers find themselves being treate unprofessionally?
When stumped with such a question, I result to the the "education vs. corporate world" question: what would Bill Gates do? Would Bill Gates expect his employees to work an eight hour day in unacceptable temperatures? I don't think so!
When we talk about teacher working conditions, facilities certainly play a part in what we expect to be appropriate and professional. I don't mind a smaller than usual classroom. I can deal with having no windows, if I have to. I can make do with concrete flooring, even though my feet may ache at the end of the day.
But I've got to have heat!
Too bad our school district decided to turn the heat off to all its buildings on the students' last day of school, the Friday before the workday. The half dozen or so of us that ventured to our school building found frigid temperatures. Even though our custodian hit the override to turn the heat back on, the temperature never seemed to make it above 60 degrees.
Am I overreacting when I ask that the heat be turned on -- on one of the coldest days we've had so far this winter -- on a day that I am expected to go to the "office" to work? Am I making too big a deal out of the fact that this just seems like one more of those little things in the list of things where teachers find themselves being treate unprofessionally?
When stumped with such a question, I result to the the "education vs. corporate world" question: what would Bill Gates do? Would Bill Gates expect his employees to work an eight hour day in unacceptable temperatures? I don't think so!
When we talk about teacher working conditions, facilities certainly play a part in what we expect to be appropriate and professional. I don't mind a smaller than usual classroom. I can deal with having no windows, if I have to. I can make do with concrete flooring, even though my feet may ache at the end of the day.
But I've got to have heat!
Please don't Google search!
One of our teams is starting a big project on Africa. Each student chose a country to research and will create a product (brochure, flyer, etc.) with a travel itinerary. It's an okay project, giving kids the chance to hone their research skills and some autonomy and creativity in choice of product and presentation.
Today was their first day in the media center. Today you CANNOT do a Google search!
Why is it that folks see Google as the be-all-end-all in the cyberworld search?! Yes, it is an intuitive search engine for the most part, finding the most likely hit for which I'm looking. But then I use pretty good search terms with some boolean search strings, too. Most of our kids aren't that savvy....yet.
But they are getting more savvy. They were able to tell me some specific websites that they might visit to find factual information. Imagine that?! Facts! Most ended up pulling up the CIA World Factbook for their country overviews. Nice place to start, guys.
But don't forget the books! The kids need to include their country's flag in their final product. We have a whole set of books, Flags of the World, that includes color images of the flags and a few facts about the country. I also directed kids to Junior Worldmark's Nations of the World. And we actually have about 60 books on various African nations.
It was a good day not to Google!
Today was their first day in the media center. Today you CANNOT do a Google search!
Why is it that folks see Google as the be-all-end-all in the cyberworld search?! Yes, it is an intuitive search engine for the most part, finding the most likely hit for which I'm looking. But then I use pretty good search terms with some boolean search strings, too. Most of our kids aren't that savvy....yet.
But they are getting more savvy. They were able to tell me some specific websites that they might visit to find factual information. Imagine that?! Facts! Most ended up pulling up the CIA World Factbook for their country overviews. Nice place to start, guys.
But don't forget the books! The kids need to include their country's flag in their final product. We have a whole set of books, Flags of the World, that includes color images of the flags and a few facts about the country. I also directed kids to Junior Worldmark's Nations of the World. And we actually have about 60 books on various African nations.
It was a good day not to Google!
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Year of Skinny
During our Christmas celebration with the family, my parents said they had an "offer that I couldn't refuse". At first they made no other indication what this offer was or what the whole sordid deal was about, but the conversation soon turned to my constant battle of the bulge!
Yes, I've been overweight most of my adult life. Chalk it up to bad eating habits learned in college and late night paper-grading sessions with snacks close at hand. Or maybe it's the desire to feed others -- the way to their hearts is through their stomachs -- and the constant supply of sugary baked goods and rich casseroles and other less-than-heart-healthy fare that I have been known to cook for family and friends.
After three rounds with Weight Watchers where each time I was successful at counting my points and tracking my food and weighing and measuring, I'm not sure I want to go back there. Each time I would fall off the wagon. Mostly I was like the schizophrenic or the manic-depressive who decides he feels great; therefore, he must not need his medicine. After a year or so, I would decide that I did not need the meetings, the journaling, the counting, the weekly money out of pocket, and I would abandon the way to a healthy lifestyle.
But I turned forty on Saturday -- the big 4-0! And I need to get healthy. My foot hurts lately and my knees aren't doing much better and I just seem to have that general "falling apart" feeling all the time. I know in my head what to do. I'm just not sure why I'm so scared to do it...
....and while there were no specifics about "the offer I can't refuse" -- they want to see some results first -- I know what price I may pay if I don't lose weight. I just don't know what price they'll pay if I do!
Yes, I've been overweight most of my adult life. Chalk it up to bad eating habits learned in college and late night paper-grading sessions with snacks close at hand. Or maybe it's the desire to feed others -- the way to their hearts is through their stomachs -- and the constant supply of sugary baked goods and rich casseroles and other less-than-heart-healthy fare that I have been known to cook for family and friends.
After three rounds with Weight Watchers where each time I was successful at counting my points and tracking my food and weighing and measuring, I'm not sure I want to go back there. Each time I would fall off the wagon. Mostly I was like the schizophrenic or the manic-depressive who decides he feels great; therefore, he must not need his medicine. After a year or so, I would decide that I did not need the meetings, the journaling, the counting, the weekly money out of pocket, and I would abandon the way to a healthy lifestyle.
But I turned forty on Saturday -- the big 4-0! And I need to get healthy. My foot hurts lately and my knees aren't doing much better and I just seem to have that general "falling apart" feeling all the time. I know in my head what to do. I'm just not sure why I'm so scared to do it...
....and while there were no specifics about "the offer I can't refuse" -- they want to see some results first -- I know what price I may pay if I don't lose weight. I just don't know what price they'll pay if I do!
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