One more thing...

Today at school I had a "transforming" technology experience! Six of us had just divided up a list of 360 families to call to schedule for appointments. We had to stop and think for a minute to figure out how to accomplish this without creating conflicts on the master schedule.

(Here comes the transforming moment.)

I went to our building tech person and asked about (drum roll.....) creating a WIKI!!!!

Well, I was shot down - it seems that this issue is in discussion among the district powers - but we struck a compromise by getting a central calendar set up that we can all view and edit simultaneously. Yay! Problem solved!

Final thoughts

I think the multimedia project speaks to Standard 2 in regards to "an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program...". What better way to advocate than a knock 'em/sock 'em multimedia project???

An administrator advocates for all facets of the school culture. In our fast-paced, techno world, it only makes sense to utilize a variety of media to drive home a point when the need presents itself. I'm sure many school boards would have been impressed, swayed, or inspired by the presentations that I saw last weekend.

I was floored by the successful efforts of my classmates to make their final projects as impressive and effective as possible. I'm inspired to get creative and use multimedia in my own class presentations and hopefully in my curriculum.

Thanks!

I hope the files burned ok!

I'm talking about the files in my head - not the ones for class. I learned a lot of new and exciting things in EDL 518. I just hope I can remember them all! As it is with most things, you learn them best when you use them. I plan to try to incorporate many of the skills I have acquired to either assist me in my classroom or in my coaching. On Sunday, it was cool to see so many people use the things we had practiced in class. Through them I grabbed even more great ideas - I just hope I remember them.

Randy Lee's Last EDL518 Blog

Well in the words of Mel Tillis from that classic movie "Smokey and the Bandit"; "We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there." That is what the journey in this class has seemed like to me; I came a long way in a short time. I was exposed to quite a few new technologies I hope to use in the classroom and in future jobs, areas of technology that I can explore to increase my awareness in this field and a collection of just good old fashion technological know-how from a very talented group of educators. I was extremely impressed with Kevin Olesen's use of the "i-stop-motion" software, so much so I have already explored the web looking for PC based software and plan on downloading the free trial versions from sites that have the best reviews that I have discovered on Animation BLOGS. I know these last comments have little if any to do with the assignment, connecting what I learved to the standards, but it is what I reflected upon. I am a little burnt out from this year for a variety of reasons and I was not sure if I was going to resign my contract for the next year but this class has sparked me to try and incorporate some of this technology into my lessons, trying to go farther with student center learning and transformation. My belief is as an educator, if I don't always try to modify my lessons so they match with the student's skill sets then I really am not educating. It was great working with you all; good luck to those that have completed the program and are moving into administration and to those that are continuing, I hope to have class with all of you again; you are all great talents. And in a final word, Danielle thanks for putting up with the many personalities and learning levels you had in this class. I loved the fact that things didn't frazzle you much and that one of your pet sayings with us was "That Works"; it sure did. Thanks again, great job and look forward to seeing you again some time.

Final Blog: April 12 and 13

Hard to believe this is our final weekend together. Please take time to reflect on the weekend and the class as a whole. Your reflections are important!

Be sure to tie some of your thoughts to the standards. Thanks to all of you for a great class!

Data driven decision making is the practice of today. The availability of data has made No Child Left Behind mandates possible to follow through on. The Excel and Access programs correlate with Standard #3 regarding "management of the organization for an effective learning environment". From budget, to making curriculum decisions, these tech tools will be used in order to view, manipulate, and organize the information needed to make sound decisions as an administrator and teacher. I am in charge of our budget; it was great for me to have the instruction. Frankly, out side of the accounting department, I have not found many colleagues who explain excel.
I am really enjoying how the tech we are using works together. I have publisher for a brochure on Volunteers, blogs, and wiki for communication, and moviemaker will be on our school web page for another avenue to reach our community concerning this new program. The key is communication and this class has opened up new avenues to use.

Second Weekend

I enjoyed having class with everyone and will regretably miss the third weekend. I learned a great deal this past weekend. The introduction to podcasting and wikis were both valuable presentations, even though many administrators probably have little knowledge of both.

In addition, I thought the excel spreadsheet assignment was very valuable for future data mining. In addition, the introduction to access was great, as I had no familiarity with this program. I can see where both of these software programs would have uses in an administrative setting. I look forward to getting my wiki and bloggers up and running for use here at MHS!