Week Two

Alright, so Mike Bachrodt reviewed the tablet training with me during my tech. duty time, to not only ensure I knew the different portions, but also how to record when I trained different teachers, so that we all were on the same page, literally (the log). I did field some questions about "break downs", web page updating, and such. Finally, I spent 45 minutes creating a hand made (high tech, eh?) poster on Tablet Training to hang in my department as a simple reminder and clarifier for the tablet use. It's cool. I can't believe it took me 45 minutes to cut, paste, color, draw, write, design.....but it works.

The rest of week 1

To say "busy" is to be redundant. Mike showed us tech. coaches how to utilize the tablet training log and refreshed with us any bits of which we were unsure. Training and questions gobbled up the tech. time plus most other almost 'free' time, which really is wonderful and shows how much the faculty not only is willing, but, wants, to learn more.
I credit the small group training, plus the "if you want a tablet, come get it, and get the training or lose the tablet" set up. It really isn't the threat of losing the tablet, but the offering of training on individual's schedules, rather than the large group, scheduled for everyone already that makes the difference. Heck, we try to empower the students the same way into making educational choices for what they want/need to learn, rather than just shoving it down their throats. Of course, there are always those who are hungry enough to have it shoved down their throats (I think they call them 'tech. coaches'.).
Surely, training is the priority for now. "I have a quick question..." will be the mantra I hear in my dreams, just as I heard it each day as I walked into the office door, bag still on my shoulder. Of course, I don't help myself with time management limiting help time to tech. duty time when I spy someone attempting a tech. task and I spit out, "You know, there's a faster/easier/better way...if you have five minutes, I can show you...". Angenette commented about the lag time in copying files to her SD card and to her jump drive to be able to take them home from her H drive to work on (and then copy back to the H drive). I showed her SyncToy. She smiled.
Those moments start easily, and typically end with more questions and ideas from the individual, or others around the moment. It's great to have colleagues really asking questions about how to do more or what more they can do; that's the same part I love in the classroom, too.

First day fun

On the first day of school, I probably spent over an hour on tech. coach duties. After school I made a few necessary updates to the department page and design, which with computer lag time did drift into 30 or so minutes. Otherwise, numerous quick question came to me like blind robins landing in a nest. Some were answered or assisted, while others had to wait as class duties superseded (although lunch did not). The tablets are a great hit with the department users, and even though lingering troubles with mainframe issues exist, the tech-a-tude remains positive!

Summer

Since it is summer, and I am a teacher and not collecting a pay check for anything for the first time since I was sixteen, I, of course, am sitting poolside each and every day beneath a white, wide-brimmed hat and reading Harlequin novels by the handful. While this may touch some truth, I, as a teacher, still find myself irrevocably succumbing to work.
This summer I took the two day course for OneNote, and sprung from there into attempting to establish some solid notebooks for course planning. The number or hours donated to learning the next, new technology always surprises me, as does the turn over of the next, new technology. OneNote really seems like an advantage and time saver, once learned and set-up; it is also intriguing in how it can be utilized in the classroom, as well. Now, if students only had access to the program on their own! The added benefit of the in-district course was that many of us were able to share "here's what I do" with the tablets. This is always invaluable time that we could certainly use much, much more of throughout our institute days: learning pods!
A few other technology tidbits this summer include: enticing teachers with whom I have summer contact to grab a tablet and learn/play with it, discussing training options, fielding email q's/ideas, sorting through optimal web design with the technology staff at Fremd (they are GREAT!), and tracking my email time. The email time froze my medulla oblongata (which eliminates breathing and such...): I discovered that WORK email WHEN I'M NOT IN ANY SESSION, over the summer, took between 1 - 1.5 hours each day. This only applied to when I checked my email daily. I strolled away from all computers for a week or so, and suffered partial blindness when I opened Lotus Notes upon my return to technology.
I suspect the email time warp is due to reading and re-reading for accuracy/tone/understanding taking longer than listening one time to a person speaking. Also, there is delay in conversing and discussing questions and ideas so we think more (more redundantly?) about the topic before responding; and do our response first mandate clicking to check something first? For time management, this lack of processing organization must cause more time loss than discussions that are in person.
Our schedules are constantly disturbed by email, not just in receipt or sending, but in our to-do list of the day. It's as though we are building a barn, and keep getting new plans and designs as we construct, not just for our one barn, but for new ones that must be started immediately. So, jump from task to task and barn to barn; we really struggle when our supplies for the one barn assigned to us run out due to the othe barn designs emailed to us. Lastly, it is obvious that there is much more communication due to email (a good effect), which clearly takes task time, and our composition of emails surely takes more time to compose, type, read over, edit, attach, and send, than a dialog in person. So, the question is then, which is easier, in long-term truth? Both, I believe, but more desgnated time for the additional technological tasks born new to teachers would alleviate stress and overwork, better enabling stronger teacher contributions over all.

Last Time

With finals coming to a close, I am frustrated with Apperson scanners. I did not just dream of drop kicking it from my own experiences, but from my department members overwhelming frustrations with them. Whether it is ID error or form Mis-Match error or just simply grading it wrong errors...frustrations grew. The ideal of scanning into the e-gradebook is wonderful; hopefully, the delicate nature of the machines will mellow.

teachable moments

At the ice cream social, I pounced upon an opportunity to share and enlighten several teachers about the tablets, most notable, the Driver's Ed. department. While asking about laptops to Carol and Jason, I jumped in with tablet information, whipped mine out, gave a quick powerpoint on tablets, and let them play with it for a bit.
You never know when tech. coaches will pounce!

May-Day! MAY-Day!

The full and busy month of May had me weeding through small department problems at computers and fertilizing tiny seeds of tablet intrigue in the department and faculty. Most of the trouble shooting was on the spot , or, "hey, Nicole.." moments of availability. Many discussions circulated around the DEG, attendance, amount of email and time eaten by email and how to handle email efficiently, Apperson scanners, and time eaten by technology (and not just the glitches and email!)
More on that below.
For now, Mike hosted a Tablet OneNote session for tech. coaches, and I will attend the summer class on Tablet use in the summer. I'm looking forward to it. I did not know some of the OneNOte features that I may utilize, like the templates. That really opened some doors in my mind. Also, Karl Craddock mentioned some of how he has used it, and how he envisions using it more, which gave me ideas. I suppose I could keep ALL my planning on the program, with the links and EVERYTHING I need a click away. I will have to grow into that rather than leap; I think the sharp, chilling shock of the metaphorical water will cause me to panic and consequently drown. That'd be bad. I am looking forward to building at least one course in on OneNote over the summer course.
Back to Apperson Scanners: OMG. omgomgomg. (I'm also trying out more text language in my tech. advancements.) So, we have to give frosh. 3 assessment tests late in the year, specifically editing and lit. in the month of May. Well! We now also have to scan them into the DEG, a diversion from faculty services assistance. Not a big deal, unless it takes FORTY minutes to scan 17 tests. augh! The sensitivity is TOO sensitive, and students make mistakes on their id's, as well as the directions on their id's, so it can be messy. Besides, sometimes the scanner just doesn't want to help. As a result, several answer sheets didn't work. The computer identified that the id was wrong. So, I erased the errors. It still misidentified the id.
I erased more.
Nada.
I scratched at it to remove paper bits.
Nada. The extra numerical value was still apparent to the Apperson scanner.
I peeled the paper off the id area, leaving a white middle splice of the answer sheet: it worked.
I repeated that process several times with many grunts, aurghs, and hurrumphs in between.
In the department others complained about the same error; in fact, Jim Weaver asked me to help. I explained the problem and process of recovery. He opted for the white-out technique offered by Minitti. The scanner read the same extra numbers, plus additional ones where the white hit.
Much noise and many minutes later, Weaver opted to remove the offending 2's from the answer sheet with a set of scissors. Surely the scanner could not perceive marks on numbers that no longer exist, he rationalized as he morphed into McGyver.
The scanner still recognized the 2's that were now hiding in the garbage. The period ended without the ONE test making it into the grade book. In short, grading those assessments into the DEG takes dramatically too long, from loading the key to getting the scanner to accept the sheets without fussing, rejecting, and eating time from the work day. I realize that is a complaint without solution, but it is identified.
For the email conundrum, we are growing more aware that time seems to be less available to us in education, and find that an entire planning period gets lost to emails. With increase of communication between parents/us and students/us (in electronic for, at least). Speaking of emails, I have a few to coordinated right now, so this blog with have to wait along side the grading.