Mid Way Through September

Congratulations for making it to this point in September! I am sure you have enjoyed your weekends as they have given you time to relax and refocus your goals for each week. During an Enrollment Experience last Friday I over heard Beth Santangelo, Director of the Parent Ambassador Program, tell a family to write down three goals as to why you have chosen to enroll at PA Virtual. She said then on those days that are challenging you go back to those goals to remember the reason for this adventure. Personally, I think this advise Beth gave to the families was perfect as we can always loss site of what is important to us while in the thick of our daily activities.

I challenge you to try this activity tonight in two different ways. First as a family discuss what the goals are for your family and write them down. Hang them in a place where it can be seen by all. Secondly write down the goals of why you have decided to enroll you children at PA Virtual. We all know why we want them to receive a solid education, but why does this environment seem to work for you.

We will continue to venture down this road each month, week, or even day together and remember to keep those lines of communication open so teachers, FSCs, guidance counselors, and more can build a foundation each child's education!

Working Together in a Time of Need!

Parent Learning September Glog

Setting the Perfect Goal for a School Environment

September is always a fun month for me as I enjoy the beginning of a new school year and the excitement of new challenges. I know a school geek! Ever since I was little I enjoyed going school shopping for supplies and a new school bag. Even now I love going into Staples and look around especially at the writing utensils.....who can't use a new pen! I have always set goals for myself and have taken the opportunity to share that idea with my children. We need to understand the difference between long term and short term goals. The long term goals last about six months to a year and the short term goals should help you achieve the long term goals. This year my long term goal is to assist teachers and learning coaches embrace new technologies available to make tasks easier but also engaging to its audience. My short term goals are associated with the long term as I am going to create wikis, blogs, and glogs to showcase new technologies and how they can be used in our daily lives. So what are your goals for the year? Would it be for your child(ren) to process to the next year? Save enough money to take that dream trip? Share your goals as you will find many of us are working toward the same thing......a strong future for all of our students!!

Glogster

Oh the Diigo we Go!!

In my opinion,  social bookmarking is an easy collaborative tool that can assist teachers and students in searching the web for information.  I discovered Diigo in May of this year and created an account.  To my surprise it was one of the tools that we were going to learn about during my Emerging Technology course!  I have enjoyed working in Diigo, looking at my networks, and researching content in the Diigo groups so much that I have created a podcast for this tool.  I am going to introduce it to my staff this coming year and feel this podcast could be helpful for them to begin collaborating with colleagues!

Enjoy the podcast about Diigo!!

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Change...Why?

I find it interesting that as teachers we fixate to routines just as our students may during the school year.  I know I always thought I was flexible and willing to try new things, but found it not to be as true as I believed.   As I have been learning about web 2.0 technologies and all the collaboration that it will bring makes me wince as I like to plan things on my own to complete tasks appropriately.  The idea of joining and creating personal learning networks can be intimidating as I think it is up to the community of teachers to make the PLN successful.

So we know change is hard and time consuming, but I say go for it!  If we continue to move down a path that is not updates, we are moving forward with no chance of development a stronger more improved system of learning for students.  Teachers need to get out there and join all kinds of communities to develop their own skills.  Teachers need to take chances to change so they can learn new ways to develop their skills in all areas of their instruction. 

We can all try new strategies but it would be helpful to set two or three long term goals with a few more short term  goals that will help you reach the long term.  With these goals in mind they will be to focus on a few technologies instead of all of them at once!  That could just make your head spin!

As we are approaching the 2011-2012 school year, my long term goals are as follows:
  1.  Develop a communication system for PLC groups at PAVCS
  2.  Develop a school wide use of Diigo
  3.  Create optional trainings on Web 2.0 technologies for teachers--self guided with some instruction from me
  4.  New Hire Wiki

I believe these goals are obtainable so now I need to set up timelines to ensure that I am changing and happening my staff to change too!

Again, change is hard but we all have to do it at some point in our teaching careers!