Today’s 2 Steps Forward

What a great morning! I led technology PD during our late start this morning, and I’d been planning to do some work on Noteshare, then let anyone who felt they wanted to work with it do so. I thought I’d maybe introduce one or two things to the (I thought few) folks who wanted to see some new tools. I try to be aware of the “too much too fast” freight train that I can be with this stuff, so this was my version of taking it easy. Much to my pleasant surprise, the consensus was “Show us neat new stuff!” Of course, this meant that my freight train ramped up – hopefully not running anyone down on the tracks in the process. We looked at blogs, even getting to the point where we went through the steps of signing up for a new blog. I also advocated for reading some blogs before going too far down their blogging path, but I couldn’t really bring myself to curb their new enthusiasm. A couple of teachers asked about Twitter – and I showed them a widget with Twitter posts, but the Twitter site is blocked at school, so that was put on hold for now. Same thing for all Nings. I shared a wiki I’ve made as a resource for technology information, so if they want to go back and learn more about blogging or wikis or nings or whatever, they can do that when they have time. I also had some conversations later in the day – in person and via email – about individual ideas teachers had about projects they want to do. Wahoo! I have no idea what sparked it, but I’m very excited about the next steps forward at our school. I also think I’ll advocate for a workshop-PD next month, where I can help everyone on their own project or tool, giving them at least 1.5 hrs to work on something they find valuable for themselves or their class. I know the 1.5 hrs is only a start, but I think that’s the next step on the path forward.