Welcome to Lamar 2.0 "Nothing endures but change." - Heraclitus As swiftly as our world is changing, imagine how rapidly the world will be changing in forty or fifty years, when our students are retiring. Our challenge as teachers is to prepare all our students for a world in which the only constant is change. Children can sense that the world is changing, and are naturally looking for guidance. Before our students will trust us as their guides through a changing world, they must trust that we are willing to change for them. When you return to campus, please come willing to collaborate for change. “We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.” – R. D. Laing For the upcoming school year, professional growth will be through the lens of technology and human ingenuity. This yearlong journey will begin school-wide next Wednesday on August 18 th. Please be aware that most core support teachers will attend the Job-Alike training on August 17 th. For more information, you may go to: http://tinyurl.com/28ztqwn. Core teachers (Language A, Science, Math, and Humanities) will report to Lamar and will work with their SATs to produce and modify the scope, sequence, and pacing guides in preparation for our work on August 18.
Before you leave today: •
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It is vital to our efforts that you are able to login to the network, and that we have some preliminary information about your present technology usage and awareness. Before you leave today, please login to the Windows network, update your password (if necessary), and respond to the technology survey in your email. If you have trouble logging in or accessing your network email, please call the HISD Help Desk at 713-892-SERV. (Please be aware that classroom media resources will not be checked out before you have responded to the survey; more information is below.) When you return to campus on the 17 th or 18th, please double-check that you can login to the system, to ensure that our time is spent as efficiently as possible. Teachers new to Lamar need to login to Moodle, our virtual learning environment, to establish an account. Below are preliminary instructions for logging in to Moodle. o The web address is: http://moodle.houstonisd.org/lamarhs/ o Teachers use their own HISD username and password that they use for the Windows network, Chancery, GradeSpeed, etc. o Teachers who need to change their password cannot change it through Moodle. Teacher passwords can be changed through the HISD portal. If you forgot your password, use the “Forgot password” button on the Windows network login, or call the help desk (713-892SERV).
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The first time you login, you will be asked some preliminary questions, including agreement to a site policy. The prompts should be fairly self-explanatory. If you run into problems, please contact Mr. Budd (sbudd@houstonisd.org or W117 or Technology Integration Station in the library).
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” – Charles Kettering
For your return: With the understanding that change, while necessary, may sometimes be unsettling and difficult, we would like to make you aware of some upcoming changes at Lamar, so that you may use the next week to prepare accordingly. (For some of us that will mean emotional preparation, and that’s okay, too.) "Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy
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Online Professional Development: A growing portion of the professional development this year will be handled online. Some of this is by necessity, as we have a week less of face-to-face inservice training. As such, you will have a number of items to read and a number of activities to complete in the Professional Development 2010 course in Moodle. Please e-mail Mr. Budd (sbudd@houstonisd.org) if you do not see that course when you login to Moodle (http://moodle.houstonisd.org/lamarhs/). One of the parts of the online professional development that you may want to look at first is the literature circle and book study. “They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” – Confucius
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Book study: Today you will receive the book Our Iceberg is Melting. It is a short fable about change; some of us will be able to complete it in less than an hour. This fable will help establish a common vocabulary and a set of symbols that can facilitate a frank but relaxed dialogue about change. It will be helpful if everyone has read this book before our collaborative professional growth begins on the 18th. Be aware that you will be asked to respond to four prompts from within Moodle about this book. Though your answer to the final prompt isn’t expected until the sixth of September, you may want to crank out all four of your responses in one sitting. The first prompt is due next Wednesday, August 18th at 11:55 p.m. (And yes, that’s 11:55 at night. You and your students have 24/7 access to Lamar’s virtual learning environment.) At the end of this handout, you will find instructions on how to access our literature circle on Moodle. "Handle the challenge of change well, and you can prosper greatly. Handle it poorly, and you put yourself and others at risk." - John Kotter
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Personalized Professional Development: Each of us will be establishing personalized professional development goals, some of which will be technology-related. We will discuss this more during the three days of training, but be thinking now about some relevant and inspiring goals that will help draw you further toward 21st century teaching/learning. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare
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Classroom Media Resources: The check out process for classroom media resources (projectors, document cameras, etc.) has changed. Please see attached. “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr
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Year-round Training: In order to better support the technology implementation at Lamar, we are launching a teachers-only Technology Integration Station. It will be available and staffed to allow teachers the opportunity to ask questions, investigate resources, and become more comfortable with the technologies available to us. Even the more structured avenues of professional growth, such as IDC and SAT, will be approached through the lens of technology and human ingenuity.
“It is never too late to become what you might have been.” – George Eliot
Responding to the Literature Circle Prompts in Moodle: 1. Login to Moodle (http://moodle.houstonisd.org/lamarhs/) using your HISD user name and password. 2. Scroll down and click on Professional Development 2010:
3. You will be directed to our professional development Moodle course. The image will look something like this:
“Growth is the only evidence of life.” - John Henry Newman
4. Scroll down to the topic titled Literature Circle
5. Click on Iceberg Prompt #1
6. Click on Attempt Quiz Now
7. Be sure to answer both questions before clicking submit all and finish.
8. Use Steps 1-5 each time you need to access the Literature Circle to progress through the prompts as appropriate. “The key to change... is to let go of fear.” – Roseanne Cash
Classroom Media Resource Policy: Check Out Procedure Classroom media resources (e.g., projectors, document cameras, etc.) will be checked out to you through Alexandria, the library inventory system. In this way teachers can determine from their classroom computer what resources are available. Teachers will no longer need A/V cards, but they will need to fill out the Technology Integration Survey before they can check out classroom resources. (This should not be a problem, as you will have thoughtfully completed this survey by the end of the day today.) We recognize there are certain items some of us rely on throughout the school year. The following items are available to be checked out for the entire academic year: • Data projector • Document camera • Wireless slate • Overhead projector Please be cognizant of the fact there are fewer of these items than there are teachers. We absolutely want teachers to feel comfortable to stretch and to try new technologies, but this must be balanced with another of our campus goals, which is to make sure the equipment we do have is being utilized to its fullest extent. So please be willing to share campus resources with your colleagues, especially if your instruction does not rely on an item for a significant portion of the time. The following media resources (also in limited numbers) can be checked out for one week of classroom use: • Televisions, VCRs, and DVD players • Digital Cameras • Digital Camcorders Some classroom technology items have associated software and require setup and online training. Before checking these items out, teachers should come to the Technology Integration Station to demonstrate proficiency with the appropriate software platforms: • Remote clickers o The remote clickers are associated with CPS software, which can work with your specific class rosters. o Teachers should bring a USB flash drive to the Technology Integration Station for help in setting up class rosters, and to complete online tutorials on CPS software (http://einstruction.com/support_downloads/training/resources/index.html), o Teachers should use the Lamar Helpdesk (http://lamarhelpdesk/) to request the necessary CPS software be installed on their classroom computer. • Computer-On-Wheels (COWs) o Teachers should complete Vision training at the Technology Integration Station. o http://genevalogic.com/fileadmin/redaktion/training/flash/vision/VisionSeminar.html o COWs will be checked out for a specific class period. Please be aware that these policies are likely to be refined, in order to maximize equipment usage, while still giving teachers the opportunity to experiment with technology integration in the classroom.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela
Preview of School-wide Professional Development: The sessions that are planned for August 18 th-20th, 2010, will address the following areas: • • • • • • •
Introduction to Lamar 2.0 – Change through technology Personalized professional development goals IB World School guidelines and requirements Technology Laboratory 1 - Moodle: enrollment keys, groups, adding scope and sequence to your Moodle course as a topic outline Technology Laboratory 2 – Moodle: uploading files, adding web links, allowing for assignments to be submitted through Moodle, using news forums Technology Laboratory 3 – Changes to the IT Department Technology laboratories will be preceded by a pre-lab session. “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” - Comte D'Artois (later Charles X)
Please be aware that by the end of the three days of school-wide professional development, you should be able to produce: • Syllabus (modified per IB guidelines) • Scope & Sequence (modified per IB guidelines) • Six-Weeks Task for Cycle 1 (modified per IB guidelines) • IB Unit Plans for Cycle 1 • GradeSpeed setup • Responses on Moodle to the first two prompts about Our Iceberg is Melting (responses to all four prompts due by September 6) • Draft of personal, technology-related professional development goals • Moodle course with topic outline, six-weeks task with rubric, and groupings by teacher (with enrollment keys). • Evidence that you’ve started the online training (Professional Development 2010 course in Moodle) • TAKS data spreadsheet will be completed in IDC - September 13-14
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” - C. S. Lewis
Come Prepared to Professional Development Modules: Bring documents: Many of us already have working copies of at least some of these documents, e.g. scope and sequence. If you have editable, digital copies (e.g., Word or Excel files) of documents that you have used in the past, please take some time before you return to gather all these documents, and put them on a USB flash drive. In that way, we can simply edit or modify existing documents, rather than recreating them from scratch. If you have paper hardcopies, but not digital copies, bring those as well, but please do not bring anything that is written in stone. “Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.” - Unknown Moodle: Please ensure that you have access to your courses on Moodle (the ones for which you teach, and the ones for which you are an adult learner). If you are not listed on a course, or do not have access to a course that you think you should be included on, please email Mr. Budd (sbudd@houstonisd.org) and let him know. “Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.” – Robert C. Gallagher
Welcome to Lamar 2.0