Sunday, June 7, 2009

Tech Cohort 2 Summer Training




















SUMMER FUN FOR EVERYONE!
We hope this BLOG finds you enjoying the summer sun and time to re-energize. We wanted to send an exciting note to everyone letting you know that our laptops have arrived! Our Tech Cohort 2 is on schedule, and we are really looking forward to getting everyone on board with the new instructional tools.

As we shared in our May meeting, we will be compensating everyone for the training time this summer. We have budgeted 8 hours for each staff member at $25 per hour. The plan is to have everyone come for the first meeting “Care and Feeding of your Mac” for four hours. Then, after that initial session, the other two training sessions will be 2 hours each. Following each session, we will be sending everyone off with assignments geared to familiarize you with use of your laptop. It promises to be fun.

Each session will be held in the library media center and start at 9:00. We will provide pizza on each training day, so bring your own drink. The dates for the sessions are:
Session 1: June 22nd (4 hours)
Session 2: July 20th (2 hours)
Session 3: August 10th (2 hours)
A make-up session will be offered on July 30th. If you are unable to attend the first four-hour session, we will be able to provide a small group at your first attended session.

In addition to our TPACK (technological, pedagogical, content knowledge) training, Benton staff will be focusing on student management and motivation next year in our School Improvement Plan (SIP). We are bringing in Jim Knight and company to help us get to the center of what it takes to keep our kids motivated and focused in our classes. One goal is to create a school-wide management system that we can all use to build the best instructional environment for our students all while ensuring that they stay enrolled in school and make it to their graduation day.

We are really looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks. Dress is completely casual for this training – flip flop appropriate, as I like to say.

Until June 22nd…
Jeanette, Jeff, Luke and Sean
(For the new folks: feel free to contact us at school at 816-671-4030 or log-in at either of the following sites:
http://virtualsouthside.ning.com/
http://cardinalconnection.blogspot.com/