Byrna's Blog

My PLN

2009-10-18T15:27:00.000-06:00

When it comes to technology, I always feel like everyone knows more than I do so why should I write about something that others already know? There is a lot that I don't know. Maybe if I just concentrate on writing what I do know, however meager that may be, I will develop some sort of flow.

What I do know is that I have learned an infinite amount of information from my iSITS committee. Our meetings always serve to revitalize me and I lurk on Yammer every day. More power to those folks who faithfully share links to sites important to education. I only seem to comment when I need help! Sorry.

The internet has afforded me the opportunity to learn from my global colleagues. It’s exciting to find out that other teachers of 7 year old children have the same problems and successes that I experience. It’s rewarding to share lessons and activities that have worked particularly well. It’s comforting to know that someone else out there has advice for me. Some of my favourite haunts are inhabited by other Grade Two teachers. These are the places that I frequent the most:

• The second grade mailring on teachers.net. This site has a chatroom for each of the grades 1 – 5. It has a newsletter that includes regular articles by Harry and Rosemary Wong as well as lesson plans and job opportunities. It’s the one-stop shopping of the education world.
• http://secondgradeclub.ning.com/ is another place I hang out. Ideas abound from creative and dedicated teachers.
• I love reading Danny Nicholson’s “The Whiteboard Blog – Interactive Technology in the Classroom”. He basically critiques online tools for every subject area. Lots of good ideas have been snatched from this blog!
• I also have Technology and Education Box of Tricks on my iGoogle page for easy access.
• I enjoy reading David Warlick’s Blogmeister blog entries. They often help me with my own classblogmeister account.

I'm sure that my PLN includes other resources but these are the places that I can most often be found surfing my butt off.

2009-03-14T13:22:00.000-06:00

2009-03-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

I'm playing with some 2.0 tools today.
Title: blogsticker
Post: b032100fa1c3089e4dac447e69825c40

December Technology Meeting

2008-12-03T14:57:00.000-06:00

Today I feel more comfortable with the whole idea of what digital citizenship looks like and what my role is to ensure that the information is getting out to my staff, students, and parents. I love the spreadsheet that we constructed to lay out the descriptors as well as the appropriate skills by grade level. I intend to show that spreadsheet to my staff at the next staff meeting and give them the links to websites to help them teach the necessary information to their students.

October Meeting

2008-10-16T14:57:00.000-06:00

Today I learned so much from my colleagues. It is easy for me to get comfortable with the things that I already know how to do and forget to stretch and grow. Taking risks is scary!

I always leave these "get-togethers" with renewed excitement and determination to introduce my staff and students to new things. When I get home, it's hard to keep the momentum going when everyone else at my school has their own issues, deadlines, concerns, and gripes. Somehow they think that when I come to a meeting, I should be coming back with answers to questions about blocked websites.

My next plan is to invite pairs of my staff members to join me in the lab for a bit of hands on page planning for the new school Drupal site. My goal for this year is to have everyone comfortably using their pages for communication with parents, students, and other teachers.

Thanks for the info about the web calendar Terrel! I'll be getting in touch with Methodius next week!

My Meme Challenge

2008-05-19T22:54:00.000-06:00

Adult Computer Classes

2008-01-15T11:57:00.000-06:00

Winter has brought a definite decline in the number of people who want to venture out of their nice cozy homes for a Computer Class after supper. Class size has dropped considerably and I have decided to stop holding classes for the time being. We did accomplish a fair amount before Christmas with people setting up Blogs, Wikis, and learning Microsoft Office programs. We spent quite a bit of time discussing Internet safety issues during the first session. I found parents to be interested in what their children are learning at school and they were definitely impressed with their child's skills. I think I made a difference in the way the parents (that attended) view the ever-changing Internet and what exciting things it has to offer. They are concerned about their children's safety but not worried about it. I am sending my email address to all who signed up so that they can contact me if they have questions or problems with their own skill development. Hopefully people will use what they learned to continue experimenting!

Computer Classes for Parents

2007-11-22T14:36:00.000-06:00

I had so many parents sign up for computer classes that I had to run two sessions! We began this week with the first group attending on Tuesday evening and the second group coming on Wednesday. Donna has posted some excellent resources on the technology wiki to help run an information session for parents. Thanks, Donna for putting in the research time. We talked a bit about internet safety, how to check a computer's history, blocking access from children and other pertinent topics. Parents had lots of good thoughts and questions. The first night my wireless connection wasn't very strong so the Youtube video clips didn't play smoothly but I moved my router into the computer lab on Wednesday and the clips played fine. By the end of the evening, each person had created a blog on Blogger as well as played a bit with Imagechef. Next week we will create wikis. I gave parents a survey to fill out prior to starting the first class and it turns out that they are interested in a variety of topics including Microsoft Office features, social networking, and using email. I plan to set up a schedule to cover off the topics over the course of the next several weeks so that parents will only attend the sessions that they are interested in. I think that next time I will do that right from the beginning. All in all, I am excited about the success of the project!

Meet the Parents Meeting

2007-10-07T18:36:00.000-06:00

Well, the meeting went very well. Parents were receptive to listening to me and several have indicated interest in attending an adult class. Each has found a child willing to attend with them. We had 40 families out of 92 so I am extending the invitation to the parents who weren't able to attend. I hope to have at least 15 participants. I'm excited to teach them some new and exciting things!

Random Ramblings

2007-09-27T19:07:00.000-06:00

Okay, so, on the trip home from the inservice I had lots of time to think about everything that I had experienced and learned. One thing that kept coming back to me was what Alan November said about children learning about technology from their friends. I began to wonder what our responsibility is to informing parents about the wonders of the Information Highway. If I can hook them into learning along with their children, maybe I can alleviate their fears about what their children are doing on the internet. We happen to have a "Meet the Teachers and School Community Council" evening next week. My principal, who is very supportive of this venture, has granted me some time to talk to the parents about the wonders and worries of the technological revolution. She wants us to target this as a school initiative this year. I will be offering evening information sessions for parents over the next month and will be requesting that they bring a child with them to assist them in their learning. My goal is to educate them on internet safety and authenticity as well as teach them to set up their own blog. One of the things that parents in our community want more of is better home/school communication. Perhaps we can begin an open conversation between teachers and their students' parents through blogging. I think it's worth a try. Any thoughts?