Personal Learning Networks (PLN…another great educationl acronym) using web-based tools like blogs, wikkis, and social bookmarking sites are a great opportunity to grow as a professional educator. Reading blogs is a wonderful place to start….leaving comments on blog posts is a logic next step. This post is here for you to participate by leaving a comment!
Take a few minutes to comment on what you’ve found valuable from today’s district in-service. Remember that your comments will be viewed by anyone using the internet. Think before you post. Keep your comments positive…if you have complaints or negative comments, this is NOT the place to put them, please. Mom’s rule holds true here: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
If you’ve never posted a comment to my blog before, your comment will not show up until I have approved you for the first time. After I’ve approved your comments once, your comments will automatically appear in the future. After a couple of days, check back and read your colleague’s responses…continue the conversation if you’d like!
Some things to think about while you compose your comments:
- What did you learn today that you’ll take back and use immediately?
- Was anything you saw today a totally new idea for you? What are your thoughts on that concept right now?
- What are you excited to learn more about so that you can implement it in your classroom?
Challenge: After you’ve responded to this post, re-read some of the earlier posts on my blog and post your own comments there as well!
Good stuff on both SOCS & KanEd (& other) resources!
Thanks
The inservice was helpful, but to have Lisa come into your room to assist you is great. I hope to check out the sites you recommended.
hey…..what’s up?
thanks for the useful info
enjoyed the day
Thank you!
I did like having time during the computer sessions, to take care of some loose ends regarding SOCS and GMail.
Hey Lisa–
Don’t really know what to say…but where are you?
I was excited to learn about thinkfinity.org. This website seems to have many lesson plans that may be useful for my classes. I plan to utilize this source in my classroom.
This inservice was very useful. I will be able to take much of what I learned and utilize it immediately. I am hopeful that I will be able to enrich my classroom in many ways using some of the tools I learned today.
The inservice was very helpful. Any time I am able to navigate the computer successfully is a joy. The CPR renewal was very practical and appreciated.
I liked the hands on sessions during in-service today. The CPR training was a great refresher for me. One thing I will take back to my classroom is blogging. I would like for my students to be able to create a blog and post comments on a blog, but have been “baracuddad” out of the websites available for them to use.
thanks for the fun day
Thanks for your comment. Hope you found your day (at least mostly) useful!
🙂 Glad to hear appreciation for assistance. Give me a shout if I can do anything more to help! Good luck with your Interwrite “adventures!”
Glad to hear you enjoyed the day. I hope you found something of value to your particular teaching assignment! Let me know if I can do anything more to support you or help you find resources!
You’re welcome. I hope that you something valuable through today’s workshop!
Time….something we all could use more of, right? I find with technology it’s all about setting goals and prioritizing. Oh, yes…and maybe breaking the goals into manageable pieces.
OK…and maybe a few nights of Pizza Hut or leftovers when I didn’t get supper fixed because I was on the darn computer!
🙂
But I agree, that it is good of the district to have follow-up sessions on things over which you’ve been previously trained. Some of it may be a bit “review,” but if we can make you even more efficient with a tool you already use a little, that’s great!
Sorry we had to mix the schedule up a little on you because numbers didn’t come out even during the sign up process. I was busy all day with other sessions. Let me know if you need to meet one-on-one, though, and I can work with you on whatever questions you might have! 🙂
Great! This is a valuable tool that just seems to keep getting better. Be sure to learn to use the search feature on the front page…it gives you control over the search so that you’re not “bombarded” with a huge number of hits. Try searching by specific standard/benchmark/indicator or by type of resource (lesson plan, interactive, etc.) The content from the partner sites is some of the best on the web (IMHO).
Great…I always figure if I leave an inservice day with one or two new “tricks up my sleeve,” it’s been a good day! Come back to the blog after you’ve tried one or two and post a response describing the successes and/or trials you’ve seen!
Usually I tell people I hope they go back and use what they learned at inservice RIGHT AWAY!!! But in the case of the CPR training, I really hope you never have to apply what you learned today. Of course, I agree that it is a valuable thing to offer.
I think it is important to really think through a blogging project involving students carefully before undertaking it. How will you manage it? What consequences will you have if students don’t follow proper etiquette? Do you plan to have it open to just your class or the “whole world” through the internet? Don’t just jump into it without planning these things.
And ahhhh Baracuda, got a love it!….ok, or maybe not! I do find it humorous that it has become a verb in our district…as in “@#$%% I got Baracuda-ed again!” Remember that it is there to protect the kids and if you find a site of value it can be “opened” fairly quickly if you ask!
Well, here’s what’s up in my mind right now: 9:33 p.m. after our district inservice. I’m replying to blog comments in hopes that people will continue to visit and (perhaps) continue to converse. I’m hoping that the people who were in my sessions went away with at least one or two new ideas to try with their classrooms or maybe they went away with an improved attitude about making an effort to integrate technology into their teaching in a new way. I’m also wishing that I had been able to work more directly with the secondary people, because right now I feel like those are the people I have the least amount of contact with. I enjoyed meeting you in person, today, too. I’m glad to have a face to put with your name and email address! Let me know if I can help support your classroom through technology in the future!
I found the various “tech” sessions to be quite informative. Some of the information was new and very useful in the classroom. I especially enjoyed having the “hands-on” approach. My only regret is that I wish that I could have had items to use on the various sites (for example…an article that I could have placed on SOCS or time to work on the various sites that Lisa gave to us.) Time is such a key component when working with the new technology that is available to us as educators.
Thanks for a great day and I look forward to more days like this one.
Glad you found value, Sheryl. I agree that time is critical. (See my comment to Monica above regarding time!) I have a plan to add a “section” to my blog about how “find” time…things like fast recipes, and stuff???? Think anyone would like that? 🙂
Lisa—I actually enjoyed all of my sessions on Monday and felt they were all practical/usable. Thanks for your positive encouragement to the staff.
Lisa,
I enjoyed the interwrite user the most. I thought working together and learning from each other was beneficial. Also, it frees up some of your time with each one of us asking the same questions. BUT, I also like the idea of having access to you personally if the situation comes up. I also enjoy having time to look on other websites. I just don’t have time OR take the time to do that on a regular school day. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for commenting, Shari! I’m glad your day went well. Let me know if you have any other needs as you support students in our district!
Lisa
I agree that a model of staff development that will be most successful will be one that has scattered “sessions” that you attend throughout the year, on-demand support for teachers as they need it , and support from colleagues with similar tools. I hope that we’re on the track for support teachers in this way in our district!
Thanks for taking time to comment when I know that classroom teachers are very busy!!
Thanks Lisa for all of your tech knowledge. You make it look so easy! I felt like I got a lot of new ideas to look at for lesson plan ideas. Of course, I wish I could incorporate a lot of it in right away and right now! I’m not very patient!!! Thanks for your expertise!!!
Thanks for commenting, Christa! Let me know if I can help make things happen more quickly for you! Just remember, though, that most of us who are comfortable with technology in our classrooms started right where you are and started small! Nothing happens over night!
I thought the inservice was useful- especially the delicious and thinkfinity websites. You tagged a lot of very useful websites for my kids! I will keep checking to see if you find any games on social skills or behavior modification lessons. Thanks!
Thanks for taking time to comment, Nikki! I’ll keep tagging sites and resources as I run across them. If you search around delicious, you may even be able to find a way to get a notification when I update a tag….not too sure about it right now, but I will let you know if I can find out the details of how to do it!
Lisa
Lisa, I really enjoyed your presentations. I am especially interested in learning more about blogs and how they can help me find and use other people as resources. However, like everyone else here, it will be a matter of finding the time to do that. I don’t have internet at home, so I am limited to when and where I can access it. I also liked the infinity website and I plan to investigate that further. Thanks for the information and I appreciate all your help this year.
Thanks for taking time to comment, Anne. I agree that time is limited and it takes a lot of time when you’re learning a new piece to the technology “puzzle.” Just know that I’m here to support you and make it easier if I can!
Lisa