Mobile Laptops

Hi all,
I am actually at home today because of an appt. later. Decided to check my school email and found an invite to Twitter. Well, I guess I need some assistance. I realized I had already registered but really cannot figure out what to do with Twitter. Even checking the help menu etc... hasn't helped. Old brain syndrome I guess.
Oh, and I had an unusual but fun week last week. Our school was finally able to start working with the mobile labs that were purchased at the beginning of the school year. Apparently, some glitches caused delays. There is supposed to be a tech aide hired to work primarily with the laptops. This person will not be allowed to do any teaching. Because they are only posting for the position, in the next week or so, they hired a substitute teacher for me and I went around to the classes last week orientating the teachers and students. It was a great experience! There are definitely some issues. Some of the laptops shutdown in the middle of students work, a couple of them wouldn't shut down. Some had updates start or had second log on screens come up. We just kept pulling out laptops to replace those. There were one or two that did not start. I'm hoping that the connections had not been plugged in tightly.
Students and teachers both seemed very excited. The teachers are rightly concerned about how to schedule the labs. There is one mobile lab for each grade level 1st - 5th. There are only 15 laptops in each lab. Since we have anywhere from 22 to 27 students in a class with 3 - 4 classes per grade, that will be a major issue. I used two labs in each class for the orientation to make sure each student had one.
The projectors and teacher laptops that are stationed on the top of the carts are not tied down yet and we almost lost a projector. There is supposed to be a digital camera with each cart also but will be coming later I guess. The labs will eventually be kept in one of the grade level classrooms but until then they are crammed into the head room that is located within the Media Center office. Last year it was decided that we as media specialists could not have a key. My principal had to come down to open the room up each time I had to get it. That, of course, will change when they are in the classrooms. Sorry if those last comments sounded crabby but that has been a sore point with us media specialists.
Well, I guess I’ve written a book so will close. Looking forward to Friday. Have a good week!

Still struggling

Well fellow students, it has been a while since I have written. I am finding that I think very often about something that I could/should write on my Blog but am busy and put it off. Later I have forgotten the thought or idea and the opportunity has passed. It seems that part of the difficulty for me is that I am not by nature a writer and do a lot of mulling over in my own thoughts. I am not used to putting my thoughts and ideas down on paper for others to read.
Following our last class I spent quite a bit of time looking around at different blogs I thought would be valuable in my professional life. Very interesting out in blogworld!! I have put several of them on my Blog. I also enjoyed playing around with the tools and adding a few other pieces to my Blog. I also enjoyed trying out the Delicious social bookmarking site. I registered and started saving bookmarks in Firefox. Then when I was using IE at my school, I found it quite awkward. I haven’t really figured out how to use this tool enough to make it beneficial. I believe that may be why teachers in my district get frustrated with any new technology. There is usually not time given to staff to practice new technologies in order to be comfortable enough to use them with students. As our text tells us, we must be willing to explore these new online tools with our students even when we make mistakes. This will have to be part of my responsibility as we move forward. I will try to be a role model in this area.
It happened again. I wrote the note above yesterday, was interrupted, and haven’t posted it until today.

Blogging problem solved

I was very very frustrated when it seemed that my blog was not working. I must have spent almost an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. I even started building a new blog. Well, eventually I found out that I had logged in with the wrong email address. Jeepers, creepers! So, I deleted the 2nd blog I started and hope now to be able to use this one as I wanted too. That's the thing about new technology. It seems to take me so long to get it figured out.

E2T2

Life has sure been interesting lately and has really put a crimp in my time to get familiar with and use my new blog. I had set one up last spring when starting the 21 Things on a Stick program offered through Minnesota’s seven multicounty multitype library systems. It was a fun experience but as with anything new in technology I've found "if you don't use it, you lose it". So, this is my second attempt at a blog. I am hopeful that I will find it a useful tool and in the process can begin to spread my wings as a tech leader in my school community.