The End of School

The end of the school year has really crept up on me this year. Is it because of how busy I have been with everything or is it because I am getting older? I feel my blogging has been suffering but other aspects of my technological education have been thriving. I have been working on mastering the art of podcasting which I will be the first to say that I still have a way to go. We just finished a voicethread (new web application) on our 8th grade solar system projects. I have also been trying to keep up with all the new web applications, which by the way is next to impossible. We just got notice today that our grant was approved for a PV array (Solar Panel System) at the junior high and high school. I will tell you that I am not complaining. I have enjoyed staying busy on these topics.

As far as the home front, everything for the school year is wrapping up for my kids also. My kids had their school Spring program last week and my daughter just finished up dancing for the year with her Spring recital. My son has his scout graduation ceremony this Friday. He will be one year away from being a boy scout!

I have really enjoyed this school year, especially the kids. The seventh and eighth graders have been wonderful this year and have worked hard. We have done a lot of stuff with computers this year and I hope it continues next year. The projects that we did this year were of very good quality. Good job junior high!

The Year is Wrapping Up

It is that time of year here at school. It is time to see what you can squeeze in between leaving early for track meets, assemblies, field trips, end of the year meetings, etc. It is a great time of year for me because it keeps me on my toes. What better way to get the adrenaline flowing than to see if you can adjust lesson plans on the fly! At a time in the year when it would be very easy to just get in a groove, and stay there, all the distractions make sure you stay on top of your game. I guess I am really asking for it next week. I will be in the middle of three different projects! I say "Bring it on!". There are roughly 35 days left of school and I intend for my students, and myself, to enjoy them and learn something in the process. Let's rock 'n' roll!

GPS Opportunities

My high school class and I just got done marking the trees and fire hydrants that are located on the school property. I think the kids were kind of surprised on how easy GPS (Global Positioning System) units are to use. It took us roughly six days to mark around 100 trees and five fire hydrants. We are hoping the the school district can use this information to see where more trees may be planted and where current trees exist. To answer the question that everyone is asking, yes they could just walk around the school's property and see, but I think seeing this information on a map makes it much easier to see as a whole. The fire hydrants, I think, are very important as far as location, especially with the new addition at the grade school. We only marked the ones on the school property (5) but there were some that were directly across the street from the school's property (4-5). We now have the school's property boundaries, the exterior of the buildings, trees, and fire hydrants all marked. The property and exterior of the buildings was done in 2006 by my class that included freshman through seniors. We already have the boundaries and the exterior of the buildings mapped, using GIS (Geographical Informational Systems-Arcview in this case). We will be adding the trees and fire hydrants to the map soon. The kids this year (9th grade) enjoyed this project. They learned something, got some exercise, inhaled some fresh air, and hopefully, benefited the school district.

We, the technology coordinator and myself, hope to get some monies through grant opportunities to purchase more GPS units so that larger classes can benefit from this wonderful learning experience! I think we are ready to step it up a notch and venture out into the community.