TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

In an attempt to give students a more authentic web presence, Mr. Hendron decided to create a wiki for student use. He requested my assistance in testing the installation of MediaWiki, the same wiki engine used for Wikipedia. Since I had never done anything like it, the installation was a challenge.

I used MAMP, which stands for Macintosh, Apache, Mysql, PHP. When I installed MAMP on my computer, I could access files on my computer through my web browser and test how the wiki would run.

It was not easy, the first time, but when I needed to test some WordPress features a month later, I went the same route. I used MAMP to test and modify new templates for our teacher blogs.

Last summer was a busy one. I attended NECC in San Antonio and participated in a couple of presentations with John Hendron. The first one was a hands-on workshop on Google SketchUp. The second was a sesson sharing all we do in Goochland on the professional development front.

I also spent a portion of the summer learning about iLife 08 and ActivStuidio 3. I created video tutorials that are available on the website, and planned classes for new and returning teachers.

After several years of hard work, I have been awarded the ISTE National Education Technology Standards certification. My name is not spelled right, but it is still mine.

I will scan the certificate at school.

This past week I attended EdTech 2008 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. I was impressed by how far ahead Goochland is from the rest of the surrounding counties. Yes, there are small pockets of good ideas in some schools of the larger divisions around us, but as a whole, we are ahead.

I presented two sessions showcasing lesson plans and ideas implemented in our schools. Jessica Yoakum-Doerr, Liz Kuhns, Lisa Jones, Jillian Edwards, and Leona Barnes either presented or provided materials for the sessions.

I will scan the certificate when I get to school.

Along with all new teachers for the 2007-08 school year, I attended several courses. Here is the document with the points.

I am very excited about my conference schedule this year. In February I’ll be presenting at EdTech in Ashland with several teachers from the middle school and high school. We will be highlighting real-life, already-implemented lesson plans that develop many 21st Century Skills. At the end of June, John Hendron and I will travel to San Antonio for NECC. There we are conducting a session on effective staff development and a workshop on Google Sketch-up. John will also have his own conference where he will discuss his newly published book.

I participated in three days of Apple training with consultant Paul Suh. He covered topics such as network structure and connectivity, correcting problems using Terminal command line, as well as common problems that may occur with Mac OS-X.