February+Minutes

Minutes for Feb. 3, 2008

 * Cookbook Assignment:** The first 15 to 20 minutes were spent working on a short lesson or idea to be entered into the Committee’s cookbook. These are short lessons for teachers, demonstrating any one thing that a committee member does or explains to other people in their building. Two lessons were sent to Rita for addition into the cookbook; one from Pat O’Neil and one from Lisa Cohen. If you have a short, one page activity, that relates to anything you are asked about in your building and have repeatedly shown to others, please put down those steps and send them to Rita. These lessons are important, not only for the cookbook, but also to help decide what areas we should cover in PD. Remember, check out the help menus in the programs for ideas!


 * A second cookbook assignment for any committee member:** If you have a short technology lesson, that can be condensed into a one or two page document, appropriate for your grade level, please write it down and send the document to Rita.


 * Organization of the cookbook will be by topic;** Word help would go into one area; setting TV properties to work with a computer would be in another section. These documents can also be put on the wiki.


 * Discussion of Professional Development:** two committee members did ask their staffs about technology on the PD date in January. Both elementary staffs felt overwhelmed with the idea of more mandatory standards that would add to the load they already have. In one case, a copy of the state tech standards was given to all staff members, then ideas were collected from those staff members, listing how they already use technology in their classes. If you are interested in seeing these ideas about how staff members already use technology with children, they will be posted on the wiki--or click on the link.

//**Note:** the first draft of the K-2 Technology Skills checklist is complete and will be presented at the next Instructional Tech Committee meeting for committee review.//

A reminder for everyone: any ideas we have must work within the system that currently exists in CV. The philosophy of the district at this time is that technology is a tool, not a separate class, and that should be used as a tool for students to learn in any and all other academic areas. Creating a separate class, just for students as a specials class, does not help our teachers learn. Educating our staff members by making PD sessions available where they learn to integrate technology into classroom studies is one of this committee’s goals. Creation of easy lessons, after school technology sessions, rewriting standards in teacher language, and helping teachers work around and through technology problems were a couple of ideas mentioned during the meeting.

Another part of the discussion was the reinstatement of IT coaches for the district, who would help teachers plan and implement technology into lessons in the lab and classroom.

Craig mentioned the CV Learning System as a learning aid, which can be used by any adult or student in the district. If you want to register for a class, or have students take a class, type http://learning.cvs.k12.mi.us as the web address in Internet Explorer, then click to register and enroll in classes. Your CV log in and password work on this site. Office 2007 classes are now available on the system.

Presenters are needed for the fall in-service day, which will be held the second teacher day of the next school year. Please think of something you are capable of presenting and let Rita know what that is. We have a list of about 20 presenters, with many different topics. We would like to cover easy as well as advanced technology topics. Ask fel