Lisa Kerns-December Blog Post

The month of December seemed to disappear in a blink of an eye. Being the technology coordinator is taking up much of my lunch, planning time, and many hours after and before school. This job should be a separate position. My phone rings at least 3 times a class period. I know is it my job, however the interruptions to my classroom are becoming a problem. I am planning to meet with each grade level team and explain the process of reporting technology problems-AGAIN. We have an online reporting program in Harrison County and our teachers need to take the time to use it. Once I receive the report I decide whether I can take care of it or if I need to send it on to a technician. Many teachers do not want to take the time to fill out the form and send it to me. I try my best to deal with a problem the day I find out about it, however some teachers want their problem dealt with immediately and that is not always possible, especially when I am in the middle of teaching a lesson. I have taken a lot of deep breaths this month and continue to work on building my patience with some of my fellow co-workers. As a classroom teacher, I understand the importance of technology problems, however I am just one person and I don't think cloning is a possibility at this point.
I have continued to help teachers with integrating technology in the following ways:

• Updating the Technology Resource drive
• Acuity
• WVWrites
• techSteps
• Finding interactive websites for each subject area
• Writing a Technology Newsletter for teacher use
• Setting up workshops for teachers--I have set up a Clicker workshop with e-Instruction for January.
• Our grading program now has a lesson plan component which I have presented to the principal. We plan to implement it for the next school year.
• Updating teacher webpages

My students have been utilizing the flip cameras and Windows Moviemaker and creating short movies about themselves. I continue to meet with my student technology team every Thursday morning before school. They are learning how to keep their computers free of spyware and viruses. They have also been assigned a teacher to assist with technology issues.