It is the end of the school year and we are about to enter the no-mans land of summer. As a student and educator my year only seems to last from September to June. July and August are not really part of my calendar year. Echoed through out the halls today are “goodbyes” and “see you next year” when really we will see each other next week at the grocery store or beach.

As the school year comes to a close I think about the accomplishments for this year and what goals to set for next year. This year I provided 185 hours of professional development outside the regular school day (when I do 1:1 support) to over 900 individuals (many are repeat customers). Topics ranged from RSS, Blogs, Wikis, Web 2.0, Moodle, podcasting, social book marking, 21st Century Literacy Skills, online collaborative tools, not to mention the special programs and services unique to the district. I have also had the opportunity to run a few grad classes for the district, Foundations of Instructional Technology and Differentiating Instruction with Technology. Next year we will be adding Workshops on Second Life, and hope fully running some professional development there as well.

I guess the part of the academic year I feel the proudest about is the Differentiating Instruction with Technology course. There were 20 participants from all levels, subject areas and specialties (Special ed, ELL, occupational therapists, speech and language and teacher of visually impaired). This terrific group a people learned from each other and collaborated in such a way as to be inspiring. The best part is many asked if we can continue next year and so we shall as a professional learning community. It was fantastic to see people step out of their comfort zones with technology, focus on specific student need and create learning opportunities and resources using a variety of new tools. The teachers really tried to put fear or apprehension aside and focus on students and learning. They had a terrific attitude and it was catchy. It was a terrific way to end the year. It leaves me excited for what lays ahead next year.