Steve (our ed tech guy) has hooked me on Twitter. Pretty incredible. I was skeptical and actually registered months ago but did nothing with it. Now that i’m on I definitely see the potential. It is an absoultely essential tool for professionals who want to stay current in their fields. It connects you to like-minded people and they share in manageable portions the information you may want to investigate. Like any internet based tool it can be a time waster if you approach it without a purpose, but that is the beauty of having an experienced tech guy like Steve show the way. He came in, helped me set up, and then used his personal network to help me link with others. Then he sent out a notice that I was someone “interesting” and others may be interested…and voila. I am now building an incredibly valuable network of resources. I haven’t even begun to tap into its usefulness.
Swimming is not an AASCA sport but we do offer classes and a program after school every spring. We also organize a competition with our sister school in Guanacaste each year, alternating the site between our campus and the Guanacaste campus. This year the competition will be held in Guanacaste.
If your child is a swimmer and would like to participate in the competition, the trip is open to everyone. You do not need to be involved in the after school swim program to participate. Just have your son or daughter inform the PE teacher.
The competition takes place from April 17 – 19. Here are the details:
1. We are leaving Friday, April 17 around noon
2. Swimming competition will be at CDSG pool Saturday morning
3. We will be camping at CDSG gym
4. We will eat at CDSG cafeteria. Breakfast 1700 colons, lunch, 2200 colons, dinner 2,200 colons
5. I still do not know how much for the bus
6. We are coming back Sunday morning, because we are taking varsity soccer teams also
We need lots of swimmers so please sign up.
The sessions were mostly tech related though my particular sessions were on critical thinking. Though not tech related I consider critical thinking important to the development of tech in the classroom. Here is how I see the connection: one of the biggest issues relating tech in the classroom is that we simply replace old methodologies with high tech ones, i.e. more bells and whistles (to use an overworked phrase). In other words, we don’t do posters we do power point, we don’t type we word process, etc. CT is one of the first steps to get teachers to change their thinking. Once they can make this pedagogical shift, they can see how implementing new technology is not about doing old things a new way but a shift in thinking and an attempt to teach new skills among other things.
It is the day after professional development and I am both exhilirated and exhausted. I conducted three seminars on critical thinking and enjoyed working with my colleagues. One of the seminars (the one I repeated) was me delivering information, but the other involved some group work and the groups seemed to respond positively to the activities.
Today we are gathering feedback via the web and so far the results have been positive.
I have decided to try my hand at blogging. I hope this approach will replace my need to communicate via monthly newsletter. Until you get comfortable with this medium I will also include a one-page, bulleted list of information for the upcoming month. In the meantime, for those of you brave enough to boldly go where no parent has gone before, let’s explore the possibilities of a blog.
My goal is to send you updates on the high school as they occur. In the true spirit of blogging I hope to use this opportunity to explore educational issues with you, share my thoughts on the latest educational reading that I am doing, share links of interest to high school parents, and report on activities throughout the school. You have three options with my blog. I recommend you put your email address in the box under Subscribe2 to on your right. Each time I add a post to my blog you will receive the blog in your email. The second option is to wait each month and I will re-send my blog link along with the one-page monthly update. The third is to return to this site whenever you want to check on the latest happenings in the high school.
I will also create pages you can access on this blog concerning various topics. For example, I hope to have a page with information for all students and parents new to CDS. I also hope to create other pages that will serve as quick references or resources for parents. I am open to your feedback, so please do not hesitate to reply with your thoughts, ideas, and questions.
I also want to have some fun with this blog and demonstrate the kinds of things going on in the school. When my son was a student I knew what was going on all the time because I worked at the school. We did not have a lot of those “what did you do at school” conversations because usually I already knew from talking to his teachers. Not fair, I know, but it made me sympathetic to parents who struggle every day to get a few bits of information from their teenagers. I hope this blog will supply that information in a fun and demonstrative way. Here is an example:
One of the web tools we recently shared with our teachers is a cartoon/movie making program called Xtranormal. Using this program I created an interview where I tell you about upcoming events in the high school. Watch the following video:
I created that video in a few minutes, mostly by typing the dialog. All of the animation is scripted, though I have some control over it and can add other features from a menu of actions and gestures. Personally, I am using the tool with my Spanish tutor to practice writing in Spanish. You can choose from a number of languages including Japanese, Portugese, German and French (in addition to Spanish and English), and the characters will speak in the language you type. I can imagine the Spanish teachers will love using this program as a fun way to have students demonstrate their language acquisition skills as they create dialogues and monologues in Spanish.
As you noticed from the one-page summary or from watching the video, March is an extremely busy month beginning with our 9th graders leaving for their river rafting trip to the Pacuare River on March 11. They have been meeting with their teachers and the group leaders from Adventures Under the Sun and are eager to tackle the rapids.
The Pacuare River is a much politicized river. Check out this link to learn more about the issues surrounding the Pacuare:
I would like to end this first blog by sharing a video I came across on YouTube. I think you will find it appropriate and amusing. Enjoy.