Starting the Grant

We had our first Coach/Mentor training on Tuesday. Our 16 coach/mentors were educated and entertained by the LACOE Multimedia Services team as well as TechEd Services. Gina Armenta-Shin is the project coordinator for the grant and did a wonderful job of organizing everything and giving us an overview of the project. We are working on getting our EETT Moodle site updated and will be posting all important documents and updates there. We met with the MIS department today to discuss the roll-outs of the carts and they are confident that we can get everything rolled out in the next 4-5 weeks! It is so exciting. I know the teachers at each site are getting anxious to get their hands on those machines and it looks like it's actually going to happen.

Tech Conferences

I am currently attending the California League of Middle Schools /Computer Using Educators conference in Monterey, CA. I've attended a number of fascinating sessions from data-driven decision making to converting a Wii remote to an interactive whiteboard. (Can't wait to try the last one out!)
Of course, the available technology was not nearly as advanced as the sessions and while wireless was sometimes available, it was down more than it was up and not available at all in over half of my sessions. I find this VERY frustrating when I'm at a technology conference, and I couldn't help but find a parallel to how our kids feel in our school settings. They are wired constantly via phone, iPod, and portable game devices, so why are we keeping them from using these resources. People have told me at many different conferences that they have turned the wireless access off because they want us to listen to the presenter. I'm not wired to just sit and listen. I need to synthesize what I'm learning and post to Twitter or my blog or take notes for myself in Google Docs. Why squeeze me into a four walled box when I'm just not wired that way? Well, the real problem is we're doing the same thing with kids - and considering that our "technology" savvy events aren't technologically enlightened, how can we expect it to trickle down into our schools?

Wiki Updates

We've been working diligently on updating our wiki. We have added a number of video tutorials (created by Kim Ellis of AHS) on Aeries ABI and Jeanne's been adding lots of FAQs on the elementary report cards and teacher web pages. We are also adding to the links portion of the site, but I'm not sure it's a very user-friendly layout. Any suggestions on ways to organize great online resources?

Aeries Resources

I have created an introduction video on setting up your Aeries Gradebook. You can view it below. We've also found another school district that has posted Aeries ABI tutorial videos. You can find those videos here.

Wrong Again

Ok, so I attended another meeting regarding the grant and I was wrong again. It looks like the focus of the grant will be on the Language Arts teachers. However, the equipment will also be available to teachers who are interested, but not initially. Sorry for the confusion and false hope.

Clearing up the Grant

The grant we received includes the training of 150 teachers, but only those who teacher 4-8 grades. The standards that we are critiqued by the state are only the Language Arts and Social Science standards, but we do plan to train all interested teachers. We will also be looking for tech leads at each school. Anybody interested?

Grant

We have received $1.3 million dollars in grant funds through the EETTC grant. The grant covers grades 4 - 8 so we will be working with that subgroup from our district. The grant includes funding for wireless laptop carts to be located at each school. By my calculations each elementary will be receiving 40 laptops via 2 carts and the middle schools will be receiving 80 laptops via 4 carts. Teachers must attend training in order to have access to these carts, but I think it will be a great opportunity for both our staff members and our students. Now we just need to work out the details. :-)