Moodle

I was very anxious to check out Moodle and I'm thankful that it was one of our class assignments. I know a lot of teachers use it in our district and I didn't know much (if anything) about it. At first, I was very frustrated with the set-up. I couldn't even figure out how to change my theme!! Arggh! Whenever I Googled instructions I was given information that must have applied to a different version of Moodle (????). But FINALLY I discovered the Moodle Docs located at the bottom of each page and then things went much smoother!

I'm really amazed at how many features there are in Moodle: chat, forums, assignments, surveys, wikis...I can see how a teacher would find it very useful! I had a little difficulty linking to files (not sure why) but I'm sure, with more practice, that will work itself out too. I signed up for an account in Moodle and I think I'm going to set-up another course over the summer - one that I can hopefully use in the future when I become a School Librarian! I initially set up a course (of sorts) in PBworks but I think I like Moodle better.

Thank goodness the semester is over! I'm ready for a little break! And.....I have lots of projects to do around the house to keep me busy until my summer courses begin.

Classroom Website

Finally! A teacher in my daughter's school asked me to help her set up a classroom website. I'm excited to have it completed. When I met with her last week, she said all she wanted was a page to post her homework. She said she didn't want a blog because they were "illegal" in the district (hmmm???). I have to remember to get on the district's website to see if anything like that is posted. (for future reference)

Of course, I did add a few more things to her website than what she asked for. I added some links (which took quite a while to do), a letter to the parents, a welcome page, and (of course) a homework page. I also typed up detailed instructions on how to make edits to the site. She wanted something really simple because (I assume) she does not have a lot of experience with updating a website.

I think, overall, it turned out pretty good. I hope she likes it. And I hope her students like it (since my daughter will be one of them next year!). This is the link for anyone who wants to check it out: http://corna5at.weebly.com

I love Weebly! :)

All Day Kindergarten

The state of Ohio mandated that all schools move to all-day Kindergarten. The district that I live in requested an extra year before implementing this mandate. So it looks like this will take effect during the 2011-2012 school year. There are a lot of people that are not happy about this because it will cost the district a lot more money. Apparently the district will need to hire an additional 20 teachers/staff with a price tag of $1.5M (an average of $75K per teacher). As a taxpayer, I realize that this is going to be a financial hurdle that was not accounted for in the budget. As a parent, I think it's a great idea that I wish my children would have been able to benefit from.

All three of my children went to half-day Kindergarten for 2-1/2 hours a day. I'm in no way discounting the education that they received, I just personally believe that they would have received more instruction that is crucial to first-grade IF they would have been in school all day. All of my children attended preschool and (really) Kindergarten was just a "review" time for them. I honestly cannot think of anything "additional" that they learned in Kindergarten that they did not already know when the school year began. Their reading did improve, but I'm not sure that was because they were in Kindergarten or because they were home reading books with me every night.

Finally, having two children in school all day and ONE child in school half-day is really a huge scheduling inconvenience. I am seldom able to go on field trips with my two older children because I'm home with my youngest child all afternoon. If I volunteer in the classroom, it has to be in the morning. Everything that I plan has to basically take place in those 2-1/2 hours that my youngest child is in school. I'll be happy when they all have the same schedule so I can finally start planning out a full day of "to-do" items!!

District Seeking Waiver of Full-Day Kindergarten Requirement for 2010-11

Different Ways To Skin A Cat

For the past year, I have learned so much about various instructional technologies! The more I learn, the more I want to know! It's overwhelming to think about everything that is available out there to help improve upon instruction! However, when I volunteer in the local classrooms and the local school libraries, I feel saddened that very little, if any, of these technologies are even being used. I'm guessing that some of the reasons for this are lack of training, lack of school funding, lack of motivation, or maybe just plain ole' lack of interest. Yet, unfortunately, it is our children who suffer from these decisions.

How fun would it be for our children to go to school and blog with students from around the world? How awesome would it be for our children to obtain skills that would help them turn their writings and artwork into digital stories? How interesting it would be to download and listen to a podcast from an expert on a topic that is being studied in school. These are simple technologies that our children, presently, will not experience - at least, not in school.

This has been weighing on my mind a lot lately - especially since I have three young school-aged children. Because I feel powerless to change the schools - even though I have offered my help to teachers on numerous occasions - I have decided to try and reach students, parents, and educators through the public library.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an email to the Director of Columbus Metropolitan Library with my ideas for the library providing training on various technologies. After graciously reading my email and responding back to me, he forwarded the email on to the appropriate staff in his organization. Yesterday I met with, and presented my ideas to, the manager of Youth Services. Thankfully, she was just as excited and enthusiastic about the ideas as I was. We are now in the process of setting up a task force and will, hopefully, start developing an outline for presentation to upper management. Ideally, we will be providing some much-needed training on various technologies in the very near future! As my dad always said when I was growing up, "There are many different ways to skin a cat!".

After Spring Break

Whew! I am ready for my kids to go back to school so I can get back into a routine. I seem to have absolutely no time to do any of my homework these days - especially with the kids being home. I have a little bit more to do on my instructional website and I'm excited to start working on my Podcast. I know I should have already started on it, but as usual, I'm gonna have to "power it out". I already know what I'm doing it on, I just need to write the script and practice. Plus, I need to find some music. But FIRST I need to finish my taxes!!! arghhh!!!

Student Led Discussions

I'm really liking the student-led discussions that we're doing in class. Both the synchronous ones and the ones on the discussion board. I think the participation has been great and I really like the topics that we're discussing. Out of all the classes that I've taken so far, this is the first class I've been in that has done this. I think it's a good idea. Everyone has been giving really great input and I like reading about the experiences of my classmates.

Podcasting

I'm anxious to start working on some podcasting projects. I'm totally unfamiliar with it but I'm excited to start learning more about it. I'm hoping that it is something that I will find useful in my future career as an LMS. I also need to learn more about podcasting so I can include it in my synchronous discussion of mobile learning on May 3rd.