Professional Development Planning

I am working trying to plan professional development workshops for next week. It is hard to believe that school will start for my teachers on August 2. This year after attending NECC, I am so excited about Web 2.0 tools. I must get my teachers to embrace this technology. So...I have 1/2 day that I am going introduce blogs, wikis,and RSS feeds. I also have to explain to them the best way to use Inspiration 8.0 and the new Office 2007. Then I have two more days of professional development where my teachers and I are planning for the Southern Association review team that is coming to visit. I have a wiki all set up and we are going to finish our report using a wiki. I have spent the last two weeks planning for these professional development workshops.

I learn so much reading blogs that others have done. My bloglines account has 37 feeds and I add to it constantly. I love reading all sorts of information and how they are using technology. I also am downloading podcasts all the time to listen to when I have a long drive. What great learning tools are available right now? What does the future hold? I can't wait to find out.

Librarian Workshop a success but not about Web 2.0

I love Web 2.0 but the workshop that I went to on Thursday was not about Web 2.0. First, we were allowed to shop for books for our school. I enjoyed the time looking through the shelves to find books for the school. After that, we talked about cyberbullying and the Volunteer State Book Awards. I am hoping that we can incorporate the Volunteer State Book Award (VSBA) this year, but first I have to order the books. Then we heard the author Rebecca Seitz. She was awesome. She is a publicist for several authors and gave away books. I won three books YEA!!!! Then Rebecca read to us from one of her book, Prints Charming. We all bought copies for ourselves. I can't wait to read it.

I did encourage all the librarians there to investigate Web 2.0 and be the leaders in their schools of the movement which will soon take over their students. We need to be prepared.

Librarian Professional Development

Tomorrow, (Thursday, July 12) I will be attending a professional development workshop with librarians from West Tennessee. I wonder if we will be discussing the usual fixed vs. flex?, what graphic books to buy?, etc. Or will be graduate to more collaboration and web 2.0. I am so excited about using web 2.0 tools this fall that I am going to drag my teachers to use this tool. I have been thinking about the best way to present RSS feeds and blogging. I have mentioned blogging before and they just stare at me. But with wikis and RSS, I can see them using them.

Wish me luck as I travel to a professional development workshop that I hope will be different.

Senator Corker to the Rescue!!

Senator Bob Corker's press secretary called and our group of 10 students and 5 adults that traveled to Europe are writing articles for the newspaper about our trip thanking Senator's Corker's office for their help while we were stranded. We had been in the airport for 46 hours when Senator Corker's office intervened and we were met by the Vice President of Customer Service and booked on a flight the next day, given hotel rooms and meal vouchers. It was a life saver!!! We finally flew home the next day feeling better after a hotel room and meals.

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Excitment

I am so excited about school starting this year. I mean I have the usual databases to set up but I also am going to introduce my faculty to a wiki in hopes that some of them will incorporate it into their classrooms. We have to write a narrative about the 7 standards of the Southern Association before a site visit in October. I have set up a wiki with each of the 7 standards and I hope to get the teachers to use them to write their narratives. It will work so much better than email. The record itself will be useful.

I also get to teach the new Inspiration 8.0. I don't know if I can get them to buy into the wiki idea but I hope so. I can see such learning. It is exciting to be able to teach the students now.