Day 01 Welcome

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I was planning on doing live blogging, but the Marriot doesn’t have their public wi-fi available in the conference room. They started with a brief security over view. They told us how to evacuate the building. The man from BP gave basic info about being safe in Houston. He neglected to mention that the Galleria area is notorious in the evenings – with tourists being a prime target.

The A+ people will be asking teachers to contribute ideas to for Houston to use Solar Power. Discovery Green has solar panels for the park buildings. George Brown will be adding solar power.

They introduced various people. I’m trying to get my AT&T Connect to work so I can get on line. They are showing us various BP commercials. They went around the room and had all the teachers introduce themselves.

They are handing out the evaluation forms. So that we write up evaluations as we go. That makes sense. Got the AT& T Wireless up. They are going over the order form. 3 weeks notice needed for kits, so I’ll get with the team and we can order during inservice week. No that will not work because it is due before we get back. I’ll call Mrs. J with the info. AT&T crapped out on me. I remember I needed to download something from Serria Wireless last year. I’ll do that at home tonight.

Registration July 17, 2008

The meet and greet was fun, and I got a couple of good ideas. I was talking to a teacher from Alief. She purchased a digital picture frame that showed pictures of their project. I think it would be fun to get a digital picture frame for the front office. This would not just show robotics, but also garden, chess, soccer, and other clubs.

Branded Common Sense

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I’ve been reading Tools For Teaching by Fred Jones and recording my thoughts here because this is the next big deal in my district. The other current big deal in my district is Capturing Kid’s Hearts and I have to go a session on that in August. When I look at, these programs I see common sense trademarked and copyrighted. My grandparents, parents, assorted aunts and uncles all could have told you the same information based on their common sense and having raised two generations of kids. There were two kids in my dad’s family and ten in my mother’s family. I have around 25 first Cousins and 40 or so second Cousins. Out of about 65 kids only one is if been in trouble with the law. Many went to university and on to professional careers, and many of the others own their own businesses. I figure my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, parents, and aunts and uncles did a pretty good job raising us.

They did not need to pay $29.95 U.S. to figure out that no should mean no, to mean that you say in say what you mean, that follow through is important, and finely that being consistent is good for kids. To them that was plain old fashion common sense. To impart these pearls of wisdom my district did pay $29.95 U.S. per teacher. Not to mention the cost of sending either two or three people from each campus to a special training so they can train us and common sense. Those costs are just for the Tools For Teaching training.

Most of my coworkers went on a retreat to learn Capturing Kids Hearts. Since then involved room and board, I’m sure it was quite expensive. I’m able to go to just a day course which is easier on me, because I don’t have to pay to board my dogs.

Lest you think I am against all staff development, I am looking forward to the A+ for Energy Educator Training Conference this weekend. This will give me an opportunity to learn from both experts and other teachers and find new ideas for our robotics program.