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August 31, 2007 01:14 PM
Personal Motto
A friend shared this with me today and I found it to be inspirational and a personal motto, to live by. Click the picture to play the movie.
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August 30, 2007 03:53 PM
What A Wonderful LIfe
THis is a great little Youtube video ... an afternoon sidenote...
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Instructional Prgrams Coordinator
We posted a position last week to close this week for a Coordinator to run the OVSD and help with mini grants and other various projects that will expand Instructional Programs. We have had lots of great applicants. It is, as you know, time consuming and mind stuffing during the interview process.
As my days are crammed with the cadres, closing out mini-grants, getting locations for future events and just like you the hustle and bustle of the start of the school year.
If anyone hasn't seen the Bend Convention Center, it is beautiful!
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August 29, 2007 04:38 PM
NETS for Students
ISTE has revised the new technology standards for students. I will use this in my work with the Oregon and Montana cadre's. NETS PDF Download. 
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August 18, 2007 09:28 AM
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
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August 16, 2007 04:11 PM
ODE, NClack, Tabula... oh my..
I worked on some productive projects this week:
- ODE pulled together an advisory group for the Essential Skills the state board wants students to know and be able to do when they graduate. I was brought in as a rep for business and education and technology. It was a thoughtful difficult meeting, and was glad to be invited and speak about the 21st Century Skills that I think are essential for students to know when they graduate.
- I met with Amy Petti from North Clackamas to walk her through setting up a district moodle hosted at Eduhost, and to talk about having OETC do some consulting and training around the tool.
- Tabula Digita is an amazing company that has designed an online game environment, DimensionM, for middle school algebra. It was very stimulating and they are finding excellent results in students understanding and testing levels after using this gaming approach to algebra. ODE and Intel may be willing to match funds this year in using Tabula, which also has a competition component that has students competing. I will have a student competition at ITSC. I am hoping to show this to the cadre as one of the aspects of preparing our kids for the 21st Century.
- ODE released the RFP for the Oregon Virtual School Professional Development Instructor. I have two weeks to complete the RFP.
- I posted a job opportunity for an Instructional Programs Coordinator for OETC today. This would be based primarily on receving the RFP from ODE, but the timing is essential to get someone in to help Instructional Programs roll out. I am looking forward to an excellent candidate.
- Planning for both Montana and Oregon Cadre and logistics as well as the leadership meeting for Oregon.
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August 10, 2007 09:16 AM
Learning and Innovation Skills
Learning and innovation skills are what separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century and those who are not. They include:
- Creativity and Innovation
- Critical thinking and Problem Solving
- Communication and Collaboration
These are the focus of the Oregon and Montana cadre for 2007-08.
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Action Packed
This week has been intellectually stimulating and challenging. I spent two days at the ODE Summer Leadership Institute. Willard Daggett shared his message and the two highlights for me are that our public schools are museums. The other analogy was that public schools are the titanic and we keep rearranging the chairs. We are preparing kids for the 20th Century with memorization of facts, where in their generation facts are doubling every 72 days, no need to memorize, look it up. Therefore there are skills that they DO need.
Ken Kay from the Partnership for 21st Century Schools nicely summarized some initiatives and solutions. After researching what skills kids need to be 21st Century citizens, they have a list of standards and skills we SHOULD be teaching in our schools. I am so challenged by this concept, so will take one of the strands and weave it into the Oregon and Montana Cadre's this year.
I spent some time in Gresham doing a moodle training. It went well, although not enough time to adequately grasp the tool.
I was able to dialog with some of the Oregon Cadre Leaders at the Symposium, so today i am working on the leaders agenda. I also have been working with Kim on getting a location for the leaders meeting in September, along with opening up registration for both the Oregon and Montana Cadre.
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August 9, 2007 09:11 AM
Always Be Thinking About This....
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August 2, 2007 10:25 AM
Slammed
This has been a busy week for me:
- Working on ITSC website, adding content, working with facilitators (badgering in some cases) and vendors for program info. Fun addition, Adobe will help sponsor bringing Leslie Fisher to ITSC. This is a great addition.
- Cadre Leadership: I have been tracking down a perfect location for the leadership meeting. Following up on the registration system that was suppose to go live on the 1st. Hopefully I will be testing it this afternoon and sending out the registration emails.
- INX had a vendor open house. I went and came away with some great ideas I could use in ITSC for doorprizes. Also thought the strategy they used would be good for vendor road shows.
- I am presenting Moodle in Gresham next week, so I spent a lot of time preparing for that. I created a moodle intro page here.
- Submitted two proposals to NCCE for a workshop and short session. I will not be going to ASTE as NCCE conflicts, so Aaron will go to ASTE. Both of these conferences are RIGHT after ITSC.
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Ahhhhh!
Colette Cassinelli quoted Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s blog and this quote gave me goose bumps because it stated exactly what I believe.
It’s All about the Learning
Teachers like tangibles. I think the reason there is so much focus on the tools, rather than how to use the tools to support learning is because when we are learning something new we want something concrete to manipulate. Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis and podcasts give us that concrete fix. Teachers, like their students, need time to explore the tools before getting on with the learning. However, at some point in a PD 2.0 workshop the focus needs to switch from the tool itself to making the tool a seamless medium for mastery of standards-based objectives and 21st Century life skills.
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