PD 10/4/11

Our meeting has just started.  It's 1:55 pm.  Ms. Jones is discussing Back to School Night.  We will be given rosters for parents to sign in and name tags for the teachers.  The faculty is in a good mood and making jokes about the evening.  I must say this is a nice atmosphere for a staff meeting.  We are only giving cooperation and work habits grades for X-period.  We put "N" for x-period since it is a non-graded class. For ET, we input an "M" for meets standards.  This always seems to confuse everyone.

Mr. Oakes is now talking about the uniform policy and how we can check the students' uniforms during the Pledge of Allegiance.  I personally plan to salute our flag and give our country the respect it deserves; however, I will make sure to check their uniforms when they enter my room.  This is meant in the most positive way possible.  We are to send students to the counseling office with a note to change their clothes.

Ms. Price is updating the staff about the principal selection process.  Tonight starts the interviews.  Out of 21 candidates, we have narrowed the field down to 6.  Now we move on to interviews.  Ms. Price is only here for 2 more weeks before she is leaving.  She is letting us know that there are some things that are not quite right here and that new principals will change anything that is not in compliance with the district.  She will let us know what those things are so we can be ready for any change.  In theory, at the UTLA meeting on Thursday we should know who the top 3 candidates are.  The community forum is scheduled for October 11th or 12th at 6pm.

Jamba Juice fundraiser is on October 12th during lunch on the North Field.  Students can preorder and prepay their smoothie order.  Now we are talking about tech requests - Abe is able to help with tech problems.

Now we are going to breakout sessions......The three breakout sessions are: Computer lab certification, accelerated reader, and special education.  I am going to the computer lab certification.  Ms. Vibbert is leading this training about how to use the computer lab.  We are going to hold each other to high standards for using the computer lab.

First thing, kids can use the lab for school work only during lunch.  Teachers can begin signing up to bring their classes starting tomorrow.  Please be respectful and only sign up for 2 days to begin with.  We reviewed the computer lab norms - all chairs pushed in, all keyboards, monitors, and mice are neat, etc.  At the end of the day, shut down all computers and lock the door on the way out.

AUP and web permission: most of the 7th and 8th graders have AUP forms already turned in.  Most students also have the web permission form so that you can publish their work online.  Under teacher resources, there is a master list of students with AUP and web permission from last year.

What is something goes wrong?
1. Check the plugs.
2. Check how the student logged in.
3. Try rebooting the machine.
4. If problems continue, leave a note on the machine or the sign-in book.  It will be passed on to tech support.

All computers have microsoft word, powerpoint, excel, scratch, kidpix, microworlds robotics, and geometers sketchpad.    We no longer have Inspiration and TimeLiner.

POE is amazing and students can turn in work digitally into their specific period.  Also, students can find the assignments on POE in the assignment folder.  If students log in as themselves, they can save their work into their folder.  If the students log in as default, then they must save their work on a flash drive or the local machine.  If your students are printing alot, please bring your own paper.

Helpful hints:
1. come to the lab the day before to make sure the desired programs work
2. plan ahead on how the students will turn in work
3. leave plenty of time at the end of class for clean up
4. make sure the students have their poe log-in before you come to the lab

Nathan is explaining the mobile carts and the procedures for checking them out.  Teachers need to ask Nathan to borrow the mobile carts at least one week in advance so the computers can be charged and updated.  There are two Apple carts with 15 each and a PC cart with 19 computers.  All of the computers have WiFi connection.  Please check the laptops every time you use them to see if any keys are missing.  Use the laptops on a table, although it is called a "lap"top.  Log out and shut down when returning.

We also have digital video cameras, headphones, and microphones that can be checked out.  Teachers can use iMovie to make videos.  We also have musical keyboards that the teachers can use.  Apparently we have LCD monitors that are on mobile carts and a polycom communications system for videoconferencing.  We are short on digital cameras and speakers.

This was a very informative breakout session.  I think everyone should attend this session.  Thanks Heather and Nathan!