Library Projects

Today, students began the first of many library projects. Collaborating with the Biology teacher, the students came to the library and worked on a biome project. There is little mention of wikis that I taught during inservice but maybe soon. We did use our wiki to complete our standard access report for the Southern Association Team that is visiting in October. I think that teachers understand the wiki but are not ready to use them in class yet. Maybe a success story is needed.

My library skills workers are using blackboard this year. They have a discussion board as well as paperless assignments. I really like how it is progressing. School is going well even though we have the typical "I forgot my password" or "I am a new student--how do I log on to the computer?" This is really turning out to be a fun year.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school. There is such a freshness to the first day of school. Students have a fresh start. Teachers have the new tools that they learned in inservice to become better teachers.

Web 2.0 tools are worming their way into my school. I used a wiki to make the Standards Assessment Report to the Southern Association Visiting Team. Teachers see the value of using the technology. Some of them have created wikis to use in their classroom. I can see the ice thawing towards Web 2.0.

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.