Date: December 19, 2009To: Michael GreenFrom: Steve RipplSubject: Tech Dept. Executive Summary
The planning meetings for input to the new Technology Plan have gone well so far. I've had meetings at the Middle, Intermediate and Primary Schools to date, and some direction is beginning to emerge. Of course asking staff to deal with yet more State standards is challenging with the breadth of pressure they are under already. But, I hope we can turn this into a positive situation where at least some staff may be enthused and aided by the further integration of technology into their teaching. I have to report that I'm most impressed with the Primary School's approach to this. Mark Houk and Deb Kernen came along with quite a few staff members, and it was decided to make the time to have a further couple of meetings early in the new year; one with all staff where we'll gauge the current use and sentiment of technology using the latest technology (clickers) as an example to try and inspire!
It seems as though the new progress tracking/report card system was a success for this first round of report cards at the Primary School. I've obviously had some feedback on where we could tweak things to improve things for next time. But, I've also had a lot of comments to the effect that the system is easier to use than their previous one; and of course it's much easier to get changes made. I'm now finally making good on my promise to get the Intermediate School and Mo Anderson's test data in there. They will benefit from all the work I've done so far for the Primary School, while the additional work I now need to do (such as adding the capacity to handle multiple years' worth of data) will in turn benefit the Primary School. I'm happy with how this is progressing and think that it could possibly fill the data handling and presentation/analyzing needs for various groups within the District.
The Christmas break will be a brief, quiet time for us to catch up with a few things. One notable thing happening is Steve Brown taking some time off to head down to California for the Rose Bowl. He's quite the Ducks fan!