Aug 12 2008
How do you start a new school year?
This is cross-posted at my VSTE Ning Blog.
Obe Hostetter’s email to the VSTE ITRT Listserv got me to thinking (nice job Obe!). He shares some fantastic resources that all of us can use as we start this school year, that is for sure.
The question that I’ve been wondering about, after reading his email, is what do other ITRTs do in terms of getting ready for a new school year? Are you refreshed with some great ideas to try? Does your school division have a specific set of assignments for you to take on as the year starts?
In Floyd County we’re pretty busy making sure that all of the new teachers to our school division are set up and feel reasonably comfortable with the software and hardware that they’ll be using every day. Starting school, especially for a new teacher, is a huge undertaking. With this in mind, we try not to overwhelm them with too much to learn. In addition to this I sit down with our computer lab assistants and teachers and plan out the first few months of the year. This involves going over the SOLs that the teachers are covering and then brainstorming ideas that they’d like to try when their students come to the computer lab. Plus we consider any special technology projects that they are interested in working on, too.
This year we’re also really pushing the integrated Internet Safety that teachers must present to their classes on a daily basis. I imagine it will take some specific, concerted efforts on our part to help teachers provide those safety nuggets to their students. Does anyone else want to share what they do to help get their school year off to a good start?
One response so far
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We do training for new teachers before everyone returns; then once everyone returns, we do a technology training at each school for about 3 hours — including some “here’s what’s coming” stuff. This year, it was a new 21st century project based lesson framework each teacher will participate in.
Getting new blogs set up… getting everyone set with their Promethean boards by returning cables, pens, and remotes… and ready to answer a lot of questions the first few days back.