Week+6

Today was an interesting day. We had PD on how to use Moodle in the classroom, which I had to teach to my team members. It started out really well and everyone was very enthused to get started. We wnet through how to set up their accounts and what they should do about all of their settings. However, when we finally got to the actual Moodle site, the wheels fell off the wagon. I had teachers wanting to learn this and others who wanted that and it was a mess. Once we finally figured out how to use all of the 'blocks" things started to go well again. Everyone had great ideas of how to use their site in and out of the classroom and I am sure they will use it to the best of their ability. After lunch, we went over the survey and made all of the appropriate changes and discussed what was expected of them during these next three weeks. They thought the video was a great idea and I cannot wait to see what ideas they come up with.
 * Monday**

Today was our ARRA Coaches Meeting in Columbus. It was rather good to hear what other teachers are doing and learn some strategies. Each cohort presented their ideas and our cohort nominated me to show the video I created for the grant. Everyone really liked it.
 * Tuesday**

Today I have been teaching a group of teachers how to use Senteos in the classroom. We had already had a meeting on how to physically use the Senteos, so today I was giving tips and tricks on how to set up a lesson and use tools to make the lessons more interesting. I think I taught for a total of an hour or maybe ven and hour and a half. They mostly already knew what to do. I just sat there and tried to help with any problems they may have had. I also introduced [|www.xtranormal.com] to them. This is a site where you create a scene and type a script and the computer phonetically speaks what you have written. It is a pretty cool site. I haven't been able to save any yet because our email filter is catching their emails but I think it would be cool to add little videos to the notes to make them funny or interesting.
 * Wednesday**

I really like the "Did you know" videos. They make you think about how the world is changing and really how fast it is changing. I am realtivley young at 26, and most of the technologies they talk about in all of the "Did you know" videos did not exist when I was born. It is crazy how fast these technologies "creeped" up on us. It really makes me think, if in the last 15 years Web 1.0 turned to Web 2.0, how fast will Web 2.0 fade to Web 3.0 and there will be new tools in which we need to stay up on as educators. It is kind of scary how fast we are creating new. I mean how long was newspaper the main source of information before the television? 100s of years. Then came television and that has be around for a shorter time than newspaper before it was taken over by the internet. So what comes after the internet? How soon will this new technology come on the scene?
 * Friday**

I read through the Project-Based Learning and Inquiry Model sites. I really do like how people are using these models. However, I have to ask with all of the standards we have to reach every year and with the increasing emphasis on standardized testing, when are we supposed to fit all of these projects into our curriculum? It seems as if we have so much that we need to be doing and not enough time to provide the problem solving rich curriculum which students need. I remember when I was in school, there seemed to be pleanty of time to do projects throughout the year. However, we learned fewer topics and mastered them instead of trudging through and making sure we hit many topics with quick memorization. I would just like to know where we should be squeezing these projects into our many topics?