Nearing the end of this semster long project

Over the last few weeks, there have been some minor set backs with using the room at Gnets to practice with the Smartboard because this room is also being used for the end of course testing and CRCT tests. I will be doing final evaluations on each of the teachers this coming Monday to finish up the project for the semester. I have been checking Smartboard equipment, perfecting the lessons with backgrounds, title pages, scanning content material and extra information that the teachers have requested of me.

In teaching the Computer basics classes, I have been leading the classes with either Dawn or Tommy as an assistant. There have been anywhere from 3 to 12 people at a class. It purely depends on the week and weather.

Also as a part of my Gnets project, I did a photo shoot and presented at the GCSU Student Research Conference on my work with technology and teachers in the classroom.

I have also been working at the center at the front desk making sure that people have what they need and answering their questions.

(30 hrs)

This has been a very busy and productive last two weeks of work. I have been helping and teaching all of the introduction computer classes that I can attend during the weeks at work. I have also been finalizing the teachers lesson for the Parent Breakfast in May. We are preparing for our big day on Monday when we go over all of the lessons with the teachers on the actual Smartboard. We will also go through the process of hooking up the Smartboard and getting onto the Smart programming.

There is a possibility that the teachers will not get to do their lessons at hte breakfast where I can evaluate each of the teacher's progress. This means that I need to have alternative ways to further facilitate this reevaluation of the teachers. So far, my ideas are:

To make a new survey
Make a quiz/checklist to evaluate teacher skills in our private lessons.
Have video of one teacher teaching his or her lesson on a Monday afternoon.
Talk to Pat about ways to enhance and encourage the use of Smart technology at Gnets.
Have the cheat sheet I made printed out and laminated for the teachers to use with the smartboard.

I am also preparing for a research conference where I will be presenting a week from tomorrow.

That is all for now.

(20 Hours)

Preparing with Teachers for lessons

The past few weeks have been extremely busy and exciting here at Digital Bridges. The teachers are each working on their individual projects with me. We are getting materials together and all are very excited to see the final projects up on the Smart Board and working! I cannot wait to see the student reactions to the lessons on the board which I will take as an opportunity to gauge the student, teacher, and parent reactions.
The past weeks have had great attendance at the Library classes, and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to actually teach rather than assist this past week. The class went really well, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves while learning about how to search the internet and navigate the internet.
My time at the center has also been wonderful when I get the opportunity to work with individuals and see them learn something new about computers and technology. I have been gathering information for the teacher projects and pulling materials together. I also had the chance to help out with a different computer class on Thursdays which is teaching about Word Processing.
All of this is very interesting, and I am loving my time here at Digital Bridges. Every day has a different set of problems to solve, and I get a chance to learn new stuff about technology as well.
(20 Hours)

The Summit at Digital Bridges

This week Digital Bridges hosted the Entrepreneurial Summit at the new center with drinks and food from all of the best restaurants in Milledgeville. At the gathering, Digital Bridges had the opportunity to show off our new amazing facility, talk about our progress, and introduce people to the projects that each of us has going on here at this time. There were over one hundred and fifty people at this event, and it was quite a success.
In preparation for the event, I worked on having posters and preparing the space. I canceled my time at Gnets for the day so that I could be fully devoted to the needs of the center. On the day of the event, I arrived early to put on all of the final touches, answer questions, hand out gift bags, and introduce people to the center. We cleaned up after the event, too.
For the rest of the week, I worked on the teacher lessons, tried to locate new materials for the lessons online, work the receptionist desk at the center, and worked with individuals who came to the center. This was really rewarding to see when people got excited about using the computers that they checked out from our center.

(10 hrs)

Round 2 Continued

This week I continued to do introduction to Smartboard lessons with the teachers. I am working on making a cheat sheet of the Smartboard tools and what they do for the teachers. This was a great suggestion from one of the teachers who has trouble remembering what each icon does. Introduction to computer classes went very well this week with a high number in attendance. One of the students actually came to the Digital Bridges Center to practice her typing skills later on during the week. At the office, I helped a lady work her computer and become more comfortable with a touch pad. I also worked on my presentation for Tuesday when the Small Business Entrepreneurial summit which will be having their reception at the Digital Bridges building. We are very busy preparing and excited for this event.
(10 hrs)

February 18

This week was a lot more curriculum and planning based because Gnets was closed for President's Day. On Tuesday, I worked with Dawn at our Introduction to Computer classes that are going very well. I am actually an expert at creating Gmail accounts now. Here are just a few things that I have learned from helping with these classes: how to set up the projector and the screen, carry multiple laptops at the same time, set a home page on a computer, get multiple computers on the same network, and communicate silently with Dawn during our classes. I also attended staff meeting where we discussed our preparations for a big event in less than two weeks which is really exciting! The rest of the week was made up of hours working at the Center and developing curriculum. I also wrote up my monthly reports which will be sent to the Knight Foundation to make them aware of what Digital Bridges is doing here in Milledgeville on a monthly basis. Overall this was a very productive week of work.

(10 hrs)

Last Initial Evaluations

Mrs. C was actually back today, so I got to do a real initial evaluation with her. She teaches Math for the 7th and 8th graders. They are focusing on central tendency, word problems, Pythagorean theorem, lines, and area. For her students, all of the math must seem very applicable and useful in the students lives because otherwise they do not care at all and want nothing to do with abstract memorization of concepts from a book. Mrs. C is also a large active part of the team that works on the behavioral aspect of the school. She is working on the students and their impulse control, long term goals, and short term goals. They are learning to express themselves clearly and resolve conflict in appropriate ways. I would rate this teacher as below a level 1. She is interested in the technology and ready to learn. She was more cautious about the amounts of time this commitment would take, but this was because of circumstances outside of her control in her personal life.

Miss P is very excited about this project and its possibilities. She sees how much this could benefit her students and their participation in the lessons. She would like her lesson to focus on the continents and current events which I believe can be tied together very well. She would like a symbol that would represent something famous from a continent, and the student would put it on the correct continent placement. She teaches high school students. Her class was a little more crazy and difficult to get time to work with her because of the nature of her classroom. I would classify her as below a level one with the Smartboard technology. She has not had any more experience since her initial training on a Smartboard which was a very long time ago.

Miss F is a week behind schedule because of miscommunication and her absence at our meeting time. I actually did my first meeting with her a week later than everyone else. Her students are elementary age. She is extremely technologically inclined and so excited about working with the technology. She has actually worked with the Smartboard and also promotes the idea of a media room for the computers and Smartboards within the school as a whole. She teaches all content areas and none of her students can read. She is giving me free reign to come up with a good idea for her lesson. I am going to search through a lot of content, and then I will come up with the best option for her. I would classify her as a level 1 because she is familiar with the basic technology and is not afraid to use and make mistakes with it.

With the teachers this week, I took them through the basics of the tool bar, what each icon does, and showed some examples of possible things you can do with the Smartboard from my computer. I also walked them through how to use the gallery effectively. They were all really shocked and impressed with that. Using the teacher tools, they were able to go to the websites that have the GA standards and found lesson plans pre-made by other teachers that they can download and use for free. All they have to do is search by standard, subject, or content. They all loved me for finding this for them. It really wasn't that hard at all.

During my time with Mr. W, he actually radioed the principal to ask for the sofware to put it on his personal computer to work with the programs at home. I saw this as great progress and a really promising situation. I was thrilled to see him excited about the technology's possibilities.

Miss J told me during my time with her that she had needed me with the technology. I asked her why, and it turns out that she did a lesson using the Smartboard without me! The only problem was that she had not waited until I had gone through the basics of using the actual board with her. When her students tried to click on items with their fingers, the board was not calibrated and did not recognize where their actual hands were. I took the time to show her how to calibrate, but unfortunately I did not have a board ready and available to practice on at that time. One of the very next lessons I will do with the teachers will be to go over the basics of using the actual Smartboard and setting it up.

Miss B got some really good ideas, and I could see the light bulb go off in her head as I showed her the sample lesson and possibilities of the technology for her classroom.

The only thing that really did not go as planned this week was that the teachers had a faculty meeting while I was still there, so I did not have time to meet with Mr. C. I promised him that he would be first on my list the next time I am there.

I am debating whether or not we should move on to the actual board for their next lesson or whether we should work with the technology on my computer some more and begin to create a lesson for them to teach. I am now leaning toward teaching them how to work the physical Smartboard for their next lesson.

For my other hours this week:

I worked at the center
Attended staff meeting
Taught introduction to computer class

(10 Hrs)