Hello Again Everyone! Its been a few months since my last post, so I thought I should bring you up to speed on whats been happening in Norwalk CSD.
1) We signed up for the Iowa School Alert System. We had been using Infinite Campus messenger for notifications of weather cancellations and etc., but there was really no reason not to use the Iowa Alert System so, with a recommendation from the Security SIAC team, we signed up. One notable byproduct of our new account is NO SNOW! Since we signed up, it has snowed only once, about an inch or two. Maybe we should have done that earlier.
2) The School Board approved the Technology Plan for the next five years. This was big since a lot of infrastructure items need to be addressed in the next few years, especially if we are looking at a 1:1 project.
3) I also got approval to start the research into a 1:1 project. The target is NHS right now, and the implementation year has not been set, we will see where the research takes us. Depending on what we learn, a 1:1 MAY OR MAY NOT be in the works. I can't speak for the committee, but I can say that we have open minded and hard working people on the committee, so I will trust their results. As you can probably guess, I am in favor of a 1:1 project, but I don't want to do a project like that without the support of the school teaching staff, leadership, School Board, Supt. and parents. It takes time to build that, as well as time to develop the implementation plan. Its in the early stages right now, so lets give it some time and see where it takes us.
Well, that's it for now. If you are interested in talking with me about the 1:1 project or anything going on in Norwalk CSD, just email me at tgeyer@norwalk.k12.ia.us.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Auditorium and Stadium Projects
The Norwalk Performing Arts center and Warrior stadium are finally reaching a semblance of completion. I have been tied up in both of those buildings pretty much non-stop since August began.
Both projects are quite involved and have chewed up much of my free time. We had our first home game in the new stadium last Friday night and things were a bit off. The Newtek Tricaster device -which is resposible for mixing the live video feeds from our multiple cameras and streaming it to the video board and online -- was only showing greyscale images. It was very disappointing for all involved. We could not get the streaming URL and encoding file entered into the device at all as it was being worked on all the way up to --and including-- the varsity game. So I apologize to anyone that was looking for the stream and missed it. It wasn't there. We have another game in two weeks and I hope to have it all operational by then.
We have had a couple big events in the new Performing Arts Center. One was the all staff meeting that we have every year. It normally would not be that big of a deal, but since it was the first event ever in there, things were on edge the whole time for me.
Since then we also had the Iowa Teacher of The Year presentation last Thursday. Charity Campbell, our MS PE instructor won the award this year. She is very deserving and you probably saw the picture on the school homepage.
See it here as well.
So that's the latest for now.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
February Cadre meeting
Follow up results of the latest secondary cadres meeting.
We would like one system to enter communicable information into, to save time for staff. We have chosen that tool to be Infinite Campus. The Lesson Planner module will allow us to post events and assignments so that parents and students have one place to look for homework and grades. Very elegant. So far that is the expectation we would have of all 6-12 faculty. If there are documents that need to go to students outside school, they need to be hyper-linked from within Infinite Campus.
That way, at least tentatively so far, if you wish to use Google Apps or Moodle, you can simply link to the documents, where-ever they exist.
We are still working on where the students go to find things, but at least everyone will have one common place to update and go to find information.
We would like one system to enter communicable information into, to save time for staff. We have chosen that tool to be Infinite Campus. The Lesson Planner module will allow us to post events and assignments so that parents and students have one place to look for homework and grades. Very elegant. So far that is the expectation we would have of all 6-12 faculty. If there are documents that need to go to students outside school, they need to be hyper-linked from within Infinite Campus.
That way, at least tentatively so far, if you wish to use Google Apps or Moodle, you can simply link to the documents, where-ever they exist.
We are still working on where the students go to find things, but at least everyone will have one common place to update and go to find information.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Google Apps rollout plan
Well, next month we begin the Google Apps roll out to staff here in Norwalk.
The proposed plan is to do the main tools one per month.
So,
February - Google Docs
March - Sites
April - Groups
May- Gmail (if I can get approval for it by then)
Tech Day in the Fall - Copier training, Google Docs, Sites, and Groups training.
This plan gets our staff exposed to, and starts them using Google Apps by the end of the year and gives them the summer to work with it. Then more training in the fall when we plan on rolling it out with the students.
The proposed plan is to do the main tools one per month.
So,
February - Google Docs
March - Sites
April - Groups
May- Gmail (if I can get approval for it by then)
Tech Day in the Fall - Copier training, Google Docs, Sites, and Groups training.
This plan gets our staff exposed to, and starts them using Google Apps by the end of the year and gives them the summer to work with it. Then more training in the fall when we plan on rolling it out with the students.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Transitioning to Google Apps
Our school is about to begin transitioning to Google Apps. We are not implementing Gmail at this time, but probably will soon. We will be using Google Docs and Google Sites in the next 12 -18 months. Look for our site to be converted to Google (over time) and our other systems to convert in the future.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wagner's Ten Rules for Educators
(1) Start by looking at what we’re asking kids to do and what they will be able to do as a result of their work, not what you’re doing.
(2) Set “unreasonably” high achievement goals
(3) Share achievement data from common assessments and let data inform your work. Be transparent.
(4) Design lessons with rigorous cognitive demand. No more “Google-able” curriculum.
(5) Apply professional development strategies with fidelity.
(6) Use formative assessment data not as a quiz or grade and not as punishment, but as a clue to you about how well you’re helping kids learn.
(7) Get into other teachers’ classrooms and they into yours to practice and debrief. Eliminate the culture of autonomy.
(8) Embrace 21st century learning pedagogy and 21st century skills.
(9) Take ownership for all the kids, not just your kids
(10) Eliminate nonsensical educational practices
• Many grading practices
• Assuming all kids learn at the same rate in the same way (so there’s no pyramid of interventions for kids)
• Blaming the parents
• Using time badly
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