We meet at least once a month to attempt solve all the problems of the EISD Tech World.  We have quite a bit of fun, sometimes lose our focus, but generally manage to take care of everything we set out to do.

We have found Google Docs to be the most useful way to manage our communication. We use the docs for posting our agenda and note taking. We useGoogle Spreadsheets to collect information for items we need to purchase, work that needs to be done, image information and updates, and any other collection of information that we all need to put in one place. 

Here’s who we are:

Paula Murray is our Director of Instructional Technology. She tries to corral this herd of cats on a regular basis….we try to cooperate.

  Joel Adkins is the CTC for Westlake High School. To me this is an uncomprehensibly huge job. However, he is so good at it that he was named TCEA CTC of the Year last February. His blog is the Twain Blog: http://techxas.edublogs.org/

Marianna Husain and Reba Goodman are the CTCs at Westridge Middle School and Hill Country Middle School.  Marianna also does a very popular summer camp for 5th-8th graders called Camp Wired, in which kids have opportunities to learn Flash, movie creating, web site development, and cartoon creation.

The elementary school CTCs are Linda Schaffner at Eanes Elementary, Janice Friesen at Barton Creek Elementary (her blog is Texas Malahini  http://malahinitx.blogspot.com/ ), Sandy Medina at Bridge Point Elementary, Carl Hooker at Forest Trail Elementary, Debbie Smith at Cedar Creek Elementary, and me (not pictured because I’m taking the picture), Margie Brown at Valley View Elementary (this is my blog).

I appreciate this group. We frequently email and call each other for hardware trouble shooting, sharing tips and tricks for application and software problems, emotional support, humor, discussions about programs and peripherials, and any other thing that may come up. They are my support network.

They are my comrades in the trenches.

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School hasn’t started yet, teachers aren’t due to report for another week, yet, the well oiled machine of EISD (which has been running all summer)  is starting to fire up it’s school year, a few engines at a time.

We are getting our welcome, get together, and inservice week plans via emails, list serves, and snail mail from principals, superintendents, and team leaders.

I have been by both schools and worked with new ctcs, new teachers, principals and secretaries, just to get as much done ahead of time as possible. Because I know the week that everybody “officially” returns will be very busy. Everybody loves their technology, they want to set it up and turn it on right away, and they want student accounts so they can start using their technology on the first day. These are fantastic things to expect, and expect them they should.

Some teachers are already in their rooms, untangling cords, plugging in machines, firing up doc cameras and projectors, going through materials and files, putting up bulletin boards. There’s an air of excitement and expectation and possibilities as a new year begins.  Which is always so refreshing, because at the end of every year, we are all so exhausted.  I don’t think anybody but an educator can appreciate or understand this “cycle”. Our spouses and significant others try, and are very supportive, but you have to live it year in and year out to know it.

 So here are some “gearing up” things I am doing:

I am preparing a work session for our New Teacher Institute on our District Curriculum Resources and Technology Applications. I have included a lot of Read/Write web tools this year and an emphasis on what the 21st Century learner needs as well as an emphasis on higher order thinking skills.

I am rethinking keyboarding, as is JCalvert, because it is an important part of student skill developmnent.  I’m going to talk to the tech committee and see about the idea of, in addition to flexible lab times for tech integration, if they want to schedule a 20 minute time every week for keyboarding only. By the time transitions are made, the students should have 15 minutes of keyboarding practice, which research is showing is enough. I plan to, initially, co teach the skills, then the teachers will begin to take over as they feel more comfortable with this. The challenge here is for teachers to find additional instructional time each week for this. Their days are pretty packed.

I am trying to un pack and set up my workspace, since I have all my stuff at one school now (WHEW, huge sigh of relief).

I have bounced around a  few ideas with other ctcs about how to continue to support tech integration in a relevant way. One thing I will enjoy having time to do this year, is to get together with teams on a regular basis (maybe monthly) and informally to discuss upcoming units. I look forward to helping to integrate technology tools into these activities, through co teaching, modeling, setting up templates, etc.

See my New Technologies page  for more about new equipment and resorces.

 I’ll be getting new schoolyear information on our website.

I’ll be making sure all of our grade level and department email address lists are correct, as well as making sure all new folks have accounts set up.

I’ll be getting our online Assignment notebook (sample) calendars and templates ready for an hour work session with teachers as they get ready to use these every day with their students.

And of course responding to the troubleshooting emails and just-in-time requests that pop up all up and down the halls….

I’d love to hear about gearing up activities from other ctcs, instructional technology specialists, etc. out there.