lots going on

I haven't blogged in so long. Sometimes I feel like my life is just spiraling and I'm doing my best just to hang on. My kids have taken turns being sick and I've been sick; I have new responsibilities at church and I have been trying to keep up with the work from school. I've been blogging in my head; does that count? Anyway, there's a lot to catch up on.

I am excited about where my project is heading. I am working with an elementary school librarian on a project that she is also excited about. I am helping her to use technology she hasn't used that much and she is also helping me to learn. I feel we are doing something that will be practical and helpful for the teachers and will be something that will grow and continue after I am out of the action. I just wish there were more hours in the day to do all I would like to do on this.

Here it is in a nutshell: A few weeks ago, Ms. Hampton sent out an email to the staff and let them know she and I would be working on gathering resources for teachers to use in their lessons, specifically for use with the new Smartboards. At the suggestion of the Instructional Technology Specialist at the school, we have set up a delicious account which the librarian maintains. We are adding websites that have activities related to topics teachers have requested help with. Anyone in the school can access the account and we are adding sites to it as we go along. I have gone to the school to get some experience on the smartboard and to research activities that require software available at the school. We have found some really neat sites that directly relate to the curriculum needs of teachers at their request. One challenge is getting the teachers to be more specific about what topics we should research. For instance, one set of teachers said they needed help finding resources for a unit on sound. If the teachers could take a few moments to give me some more information, like maybe a list of vocabulary words they need to cover within the topic of "sound" that would help me focus my research so I can find activities to fit what they are planning to teach.

I had thought about putting links to these activities on the school website, but per the librarian, the website is currently under construction and out of our hands. I think the tech people are trying to revamp the websites of schools in the county so they will be alike in format. For now, we can't focus on the website. Also, I heard there is smartboard training later this month for the teachers and I am currently trying to see if I can be present for some of the training and maybe present information at the last training on April 1.