Well its finally done, the fall professional development schedule is complete. Scheduling has been a nightmare as I broke my arm at the elbow and need to work around my physical therapy schedule. I am so glad it is done, now I need to make sure all my materials are ready. Lets hope people come. This is just a summary of the more formal offering and does not take into account in-service, department, school or individual teacher requests.

Technology Infused Classroom Grant Project: These sessions actually began in the summer and are for the recipients of our in-district grant. Teachers wrote grants for up to $5,000 for tech equipment and then they attend monthly tech classes.

Differentiating Instruction with Technology: I offered this last year and we had a waiting list so we are offering it again. We focus on identifying student learning needs and identifying various ways to meet the need.

Teaching with Technology – PLC: Last year the participants of the course Differentiating Instruction with Technology requested the opportunity to continue to meet. They valued the insight, inspiration and support of their colleagues from all subjects and grade levels. The group focuses on addressing specific student learning needs, various ways to meet them and the new tech tools and services available. We will continue to meet in this new incarnation

MassCUE SIG: I host a MassCUE special Interest group. Our general focus is Universal Design in Learning. Our October topic is Developing Your Own Personal Learning Network. On a side note I’ll be presenting with Julia Colby at the Annual MassCUE conference on SecondLife and your Personal Learning Network.

Introduction to Discovery Streaming: We now have Discovery Streaming through out the entire district. I will offer introductory classes to the 3 buildings new to DS.

Discovery Streaming: a more detailed look (becoming a STAR educator): we have volunteers from each of our buildings willing to participate in more detailed training and share their knowledge with their colleagues. We hope they will become STAR discovery educators.

Second Life, Lighthouse Learning, and your Personal Learning Network
We will have a few face-to-faces sessions on SL and our Lighthouse Learning project.
We are in the final planning stages of our initial SL offerings in world.

Universal Design & Assistive Technology: This will be a 3 credit course for participants in an upcoming grant. The focus is on Math and a small one-to-one laptop trial.

Administration Tech Sessions: we will be offering FYI type tech sessions for our administrative staff. Here are the initial topics

• Connecting and collaborating with Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, RSS, Second Life)
• GroupWise for Administrators
• District provided Web Services part 1 (DiscoveryStreaming & NetTrekker)
• Interactive White Boards
• District provided Web Services part 2 (Atomic Learning & Moodle)

Okay I’m tired just thinking about it, but excited that we have staff willing to participate and try new things.