Tales from the Dark

I'm a couple months behind on my commitment to the @ISTE #ETCoaches Blogging Buddies project, so my apologies for being such a slacker!  Summer was busy, preparing for the upcoming school year.  I remain the lead on the etext procurement/distribution/training/trouble-shooting process.  I have a terrific helper on the ordering side, but I do need to keep up to speed on any changes to our purchases so that I am aware of how those may affect the other steps in the process.  One example of that is somehow we ordered a flash-based etext that of course does not display on iPads, and we’re a 1:1 iPad learning environment! 

It was a new book for a new course, so we had to do some quick-and-dirty trouble-shooting with the publisher to figure out how to make it work!  We ended up utilizing Puffin Academy as the flash browser from which to launch this etext.  That has raised some interesting possibilities for us to curate and publish content through Puffin’s school portal, and we’re exploring that realm now.  If you have experience with that, any comments are appreciated!

We also launched a new LMS, @Blackbaudk12 onCampus, and moved to a drop-cascade, block bell schedule, which had us occupied on the training and development end of things as well.  A team of two teachers and I were trained by our LMS guru last spring. We held 12, three-hour training sessions for faculty over the summer, which helped introduce people to the new platform.  Thankfully the system was able to keep everyone oriented to date, time, and place for the new, six-day rotating schedule!

I’ve had a few irons in the fire since then, including following my beloved @ChicagoCubs in their #racetorepeat a World Series run!  Though it was a great season, unfortunately we didn’t make it.  Ever hopeful for a better outcome next year so we can #FlyTheW Championship Flag again!  Finally, I'm enrolled in the #LIISMOOC, Launching Innovation in Schools, by Justin Reich, @bjfr, and @PeterSenge.  Great stuff!  Stay tuned for more on that soon!

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