#15 - Reflecting, Connecting and Planning

• What were your favorite Essentials during the course and why?
- Skype was one of my favorites. How cool to be able to speak to someone in another part of the country (or district) and see them at the same time. It was sort of the ‘science fiction’ type of ability shown in movies when I was young.
- I enjoyed learning how to use Google applications. It has enabled me to have the courage to try it out with my staff and our title 1 program.
- Being able to upload and edit photographs was also a positive learning experience. I am excited to put this new learning to use on our web site.

• What one activity really worked well with your students?
- Google documents is the activity that has worked with my staff. I have used it to share Title 1 information that I collected from them.

• How will you continue your learning as you go forward?
- I think I am now prepared for “Making the Connection 2” or “Re-Connection” or “Maximum Connection”
- Carol was sharing with me that RESA will be offering an online program this summer and I think that will be beneficial to continue my learning.

• What resources will you use?
- I am excited to continue using many of the resources to which we were exposed. I have loaded Delicious at home to manage my favorite websites. I have committed to communicating more to our school families via technology and will be surveying them soon. I hope to take the skills I have obtained and make better use of our web site.

Thank you Carol, Jason and David for your effort, time and work in creating this course. I appreciate your support and encouragement. You three make a good team. Great class!

#14 - Effective Resources for Student Use

I enjoyed reviewing various web sites for students. One of the sites that I found and am promoting for our students is Spaghetti Book Club: http://www.spaghettibookclub.org This site is filled with book reviews written by kids for kids. I believe that students will really enjoy reading what other students say about books, and especially enjoy seeing how other students have rated the books. In addition, students can write reviews to submit about books they have read, so it becomes a site that promotes writing, too. The other site is Kids’ Place Mathematics: http://eduplace.com/kids/mhm/index.html The site is broken down by grade level. After selecting the grade level, the student is then presented with a vast array of activities allowing them to practice basic math skills. The activities are fun and making the time practicing seem more game-like.

I put a link to these two sites, along with four other sites for students on our school’s web page. I am getting the word out about these sites is through our E-News to parents. I sent the E-News giving a brief description of each site, making sure I noted that the resources were free. I am hopeful that parents will visit the sites, perhaps even bookmark them. We have an upcoming professional development session after school and I will also be able to share these links with classroom teachers. They will be able to take the students to these sites when classes visit the computer lab. Finally, I will put notification in my weekly newsletter for those parents who are not signed up for E-News.

It is my hope to continue to fill the site with links. I had started this on my principals’ page, but it makes more sense to have it on the school’s page so it is easier to access. My next task is to learn how I can give each link a clever picture.

#13 - Resources to Support YOUR Content Area

In my search to find resources that would support my administrative role, I found Scholastic Administrator (http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/). Scholastic is a known name to educators and it has a wealth of information. The other resource I settled upon was District Administration (http://www.districtadministration.com/). While I was familiar with Scholastic (with regard to the many resources it offers to teachers) I had no prior knowledge of this informational resource. It is filled with news and information that will be very helpful in keeping on top of current issues in education.

The search was not difficult in terms of conducting it (although reading the Google tips was helpful with regard to the use brackets,[ ] to keep words or terms together while searching. The difficult part of the search for me was narrowing down the topic area (i.e., technology, motivation, leadership, administration) and then making sure it was appropriate to the elementary level.

#12 - Social Bookmarking with Del.icio.us

I watched the video on this essential and then read the document created by John Larkin. I was impressed by the step by step directions outlined by Mr. Larkin. However, when I went to the Delicious site, and clicked on the “Join Now” it took me to a yahoo sign in page – not part of Mr. Larkin’s direction or mentioned in the video. This was somewhat confusing since all the other portions of the course have been done with my Google account, but suddenly this one will be linked by yahoo. It was somewhat confusing. That aside, I do think the ability to house my searches in a place that will allow me access from any computer is great! No longer will I have to think, did I find that on my home computer, my work computer, my laptop or on one of the library computers; or was I using a family/friend’s computer. I can store the site and access it from anywhere. I’m looking forward to learning more about what Delicious can do (or I should say what I am capable of doing using Delicious).

#11 - Personal Learning Network (PLN)

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is determining and establishing those connections which will contribute to your ongoing learning and professional development. It is self designed it becomes more engaging and more meaningful. A PLN is a means of communicating with others and sharing ideas. Blogs are one method of this type of PLN communication (Google reader helps maintain the blogs I am following). Twitter is another way to communicate quickly and to read the ideas that others are sharing.

Early in my career (15 years ago or more), we relied on books and magazines for much of our professional learning; this is no longer the case. More than ever, the information I obtain is electronically. Some of the Professional Learning sites from which I get ongoing information include:

LFA: Join the Conversation – Public School Insights: www.publicschoolinsights.org
Learning First Alliance is a collaborative of several educational organizations. LFA shares success stories taking place in public schools. It gives a listing of other blogs, sites and networks by topic for easy searching.

Education Week - www.edweek.org
Education week offers free E-Newsletters with current articles and events in education. Easy to browse and access information. [Can email or print short articles for staff.]

ASCD - www.ascd.org
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development develops programs, products and services essential to the way educators learn, teach and lead.

- I signed up and get: SmartBrief – daily briefings on top stories in K-12 education.
- I signed up and get: ASCD Express – the latest information on learning and instruction.

MEMSPA (Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals) provides not only information to me, but also a means for me to send out questions to members when I want information from other elementary principals.
Finally, even the newspaper I used to subscribe to and have delivered to my home is now only available to me in paper format on Thursdays and Sundays. I can only obtain it the other five days if I subscribe to it electronically.

#10 - Using YouTube

I spent far too many hours browsing through YouTube. What a treasure-trove of resources to use in teaching. The difficulty I encountered was with Zamzar. Initially the pop up wanting me to purchase a subscription somehow blocked the download button. After downloading I couldn’t figure out how to save the movie to my computer – on one of the final times I was downloading it suddenly registered that rather than opening, I could click the other option – the one that said ‘save’. Those are the moments I want to sort of pull my hair and utter less than professional phrases.

Essential #9 - Using Online Tools to Communicate

One can easily get lost in time when visiting blogs.  One of the differences I discovered this time as opposed to when we first started MTC is that several of the blogs I visited and wanted to follow did not have a "follow" button. I had to subscribe to the blog and will need to read them in 'google reader' as the application that stores the posts.  Additionally, one of the blogs which was all in pod casts, would have required signing up in a different forum, so I passed on that one.  One of the sites that I couldn't figure out how to follow did allow me to follow via twitter.  One way or another . . . .

Essential #8 - Audacity and Podcasting

I really enjoyed watching the videos and learning about this capability.  I searched for audacity on my computer at school last week, but I couldn't find it. I then realized our computers don't have microphones (or web cams).  I tried to search for a similar program, but quickly realized I couldn't discern which, if any, might perform a similar function like audacity.  I also realized that I couldn't get the microphone on my headset to work with anything other than skype and couldn't figure out how I might use the microphone on the logitech web cam I purchased (it sits on top of my monitor). Hmmmmm.

I went to our computer lab three times in hopes of being able to spend time using the program.  One time a class entered about five minutes after I started working.  Each of the next two times I was only in the lab about ten minutes before I was paged to come back to the office to deal with various matters.

My idea was to have students talk about the books they were reading for "March is Reading Month."  One of the activities we have challenged students with is a different genre of reading each week. They can then complete a short summary of the book and submit it for a drawing to take place when we return to school from our Spring break.  I thought it would be fun to select a few students from each grade level who could share the name of the book they read, the author and a quick summary (perhaps even tell if they would recommend it to others) - a book talk of sorts.  I could then post the students' first names and the title of the books they were summarizing.

I think the potential to utilize and feature students is endless. 

Essential #7 - Using and Editing Photos

it took a while to get the photos loaded on my web page, but all eight (8) of them are there!  Phew!  Since I don't have a classroom, I decided to do a sort of "Welcome to Hayes" quick tour, focusing on the entrance and making your way to my office.  Although this is just a quick view of the sign out front, the entrance, the lobby and the entrance to the office; it gave me great insight on how use this could be posted on the main school web site to help visiters get a feel for the layout of our school. It could also be used to feature events and happenings that parents may not have an opportunity to make it to school to see.  Cool . . . feeling comfortable using this application and it really is so user friendly (now becoming a more adept photographer and picture editor.)  :-) 

Essential #6 - All about your Website

I went to my website and I added dates to the calendar.  Although I have kept the school calendar up-to-date, I have not gone to my personal page to put dates on that calendar.  The other section of my site I decided to focus on tonight was "Links". When I first established my page, I had one link and have added nothing else since.  I added two new categories in addition to the one that was already there, and then posted new links for students.  These sites are safe, fun and educational sites that children can use from home.

I have been wondering, however, if the links would be easier to access if I posted them on the school web page than on my personal web page.

Essential #5 - Google Documents

I had heard about google documents, but didn't know how to use the application. This was an excellent essential for me. It was easy to understand and made the program easy to utilize. There are so many ways I can see that this will be beneficial, especially in maintaining student database information (i.e., at-risk student lists in reading that each grade level can access, incident reports (number and level of severity) on individual students building-wide, NCA team reports, etc.). I can also see where certain documents that I want to edit can be done through this program and my secretary and I not having to email them back and forth.  Exciting to finally learn to utilize a program I have heard about and know is being used by others in the district. 

Essential #4 Skype

Skype is loaded and running from my office computer. I was able to connect with both Jason and David today. My monitor does not have a web cam so I had to purchase one (logitech) for it.  Even though it has a microphone in it, I also purchased a headset that has a microphone.  The outer office, even when my door is closed is very loud at times.  Having hearing difficulties, the headset makes it so much easier to hear.  However, the text feature is also an added bonus with regard to this same issue.

I can see many benefits of skype as an administrator.  It can allow meetings to take place with my colleagues and supervisors and not have to leave the building.  What a time saver this resource could be!  In addition, the program allows for the sending and receiving of documents and/or files. If there was an application I needed support in using, data management could open the application to demonstrate it for me, or I could open my desk top for them to see what issue I was having. Again, we do this without anyone having to travel to any other site.  This is a wonderful resource - and at a price administrators really like . . . free.

Essential #3 Twitter

I enjoyed setting up my Twitter account.  I knew we would be limited to the 140 characters in our posts, but I didn't realize we would be limited in how many letters we could use in our name.  I thought I would keep Pondering Principal as the title/name, however that was too many letters.  At first I was trying to keep the principal portion and was shortening the ponder. Sometime later it dawned on me to just switch to a variation and I came up with Pondering Princ,  I have enjoyed following the links that have been posted on the tweets by David and Carol.

Essential #2: Blogs

This essential is about creating and maintaining Blogs (web logs).  I initially created this blog when I thought I was going to be able to do the RESA online course. The blog has been sitting, with only two posts. It was great to have the refresher/review video segments, and then to spend time remembering what password I had created when I first set this site up. After I accessed my blog, I deleted the previous two entries and now I am ready to begin.

As I visited various blogs from the four different blogging sites suggested, I realized that large amounts of time can be consumed in reading what other authors have posted.  I also began to discern that blogs differ in quality of content.  For example, one of the blogs on quality instruction (http://quality-instruction.blogspot.com/) was really weak. One day the post just dealt with gathering all the pens and pencils out of a drawer and putting them in a cup; and if it was going for a deeper meaning,I think the symbolism was lost.

I subscribed to a site titled, Principal Reflections, because I found that I could relate to what the blogger was saying. The content was something I could relate to, gain insights from and connect with.  It seemed to me that I would be able to find helpful information/resources from this author.