Parent Problems

I have missed one of my goals. I had planned on being finished with my class web design, but I am totally backed up with work. It seems like I have more paperwork than ever this year. Also, I have lost a little steam because of a few parent problems at work. My entire project is to create working partnership between parent and teacher and with some of the problems that have occurred, I don't know if I want to put forth the time and energy into creating a site, if no one appreciates the work that I do. These past few days have really stolen some of the joy of working so hard. I hope that I can regain a positive attitude and strengthen my spirit to move forward with this school year.

Technology Meeting

Today I went to the Elementary Technology Representative Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to update the representatives so we can go back to our staff and update them about what is happening in specific curricular areas in the district. In Technology, they are currently piloting a new student information system called, "Genesis". It is a web-based program that will include attendance, a grading program, and the online district-wide report card. I wonder which grading program they will use. I don't want to teach my staff the one I bought and then have them learn something different in a year or two. I will need to speak with the Technology Curriculum Leader to see which grading program they will use. I wonder how my staff will take the news of this soon-to-be required change.

New Grading Software

My new grading software arrived! Hooray! I can tell already that this software program will be much better than the other. One of the main benefits that I can see already is the tutorial that is provided in the first section of the book. It can take you step by step of how to set up your class and all of the options that you want and or need. I can set up a different class for my reading group, where I have different students than my regular class. Now, I wish I had a handheld because this program also has software for the Palm Pilot. I don't think I am going to re-enter all of the grades from the beginning of the year. I will just print out the records and input only the main subjects.

Fixing my school's web site

Today was the day that I went with my principal, office clerk, and our classified Super Hero, who does everything for everyone. We ventured over to Lakewood High School to learn from Paul Copeland, the technology teacher. He is also the district's expert on web design. With pen in hand, I took copious notes trying to understand how we will update my school page. I felt very confident while taking notes because he based most of his presentation from the book, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug . I read this book during the summer semester. His purpose of his presentation was web design and what a "good" web site should include. The most difficult part of the presentation was the final 15 minutes because he began talking about how to make the changes to the site through the district's server. This was a complicated process and after many trials, we decided that the site needs to be completely redone, so why start now? Good idea! I was exhausted. Memories of Virt Camp came back to me as I sat and soaked in as much information as possible.

Grading

For the first time I am using a grading program because of time effectiveness and the ability to publish the grades on my class web page. I am currently using Grade Network, but I really don't like it. I need to change grading programs. I cannot change the grading system to match the rubric that we use at school.

I will make sure to ask some of the other teachers what they use and check at my online community. I will make a post and hope to get a response. The community seems fairly active, so I'm sure it won't take much time.

Dreamweaver

I realize now why we are using Dreamweaver. Most professional web designers are using Dreamweaver and even if I may not become a professional web designer, I should be able to learn enough of the basics to put a class page together. I think I should buy a book to help me with this year.