Welcome, Jorge!

I ran into a quote on my iGoogle page today that seemed very appropriate:

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it."--Margaret Thatcher

Today was our new computer technician's first day, and boy, did he ever work! All the odds and ends of different brands and ages of individual computers that we haven't found the time to repair are first on his list. Some have hardware to fix or replace. Then, most don't have images to throw at them, so it's a process of loading Windows and all the other things that need to go on them. All in all, it's very time consuming. I can't tell you how great it is to know it's finally getting done.

Welcome to Jorge who has jumped right in and made SLCSD a better place for learning already!

Teachers and Students Sell the School Board

I am just so proud of the teachers and students who presented to the School Board tonight, showing how they are using the various technologies we've acquired in the district for learning. Both the students and teachers not only showed what projects they were doing, but they also showed their excitement. I have never been to Board presentations that were so full of exuberance!

Proud is an understatement.

Not Another Boring Presentation

Update: It looks like the privacy settings on this video were changed to "private" sometime since I posted this blog. Too bad. It was a great video.

I ran into this video on Twitter this morning and had to post it here. We have all been in presentations like this. Here is my question:

How many class periods a week do students have to deal with this exact scenario?



Technology integration is not the same thing as "using technology." We must change the way we teach. Give the students the technology. Set them free.

Equipment failures

We had our email spam filter malfunction starting sometime this weekend, and it is now replaced. Whew! We never know how dependent we are on various technologies until they don't work quite right. Email slow. Can you imagine? Luckily, the replacement unit is deployed and fast. I will reach a final verdict on success after a night of email goes uneventfully, but I am confident the crisis has passed. Like I said, whew!

What a great day of teacher learning!

All District Educational Technology Professional Development

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

More Pictures from the Day