It is great to be back, staff is busy readying for students. Registration continues. New Teachers started yesterday and I got to spend 3 wonderful hours with them. After so many years in educational technology, I am delighted to report that teachers are so tech savvy! the old fear facor is virtually non-existant and I didn’t hear that awful phrase once yesterday: ‘I don’t need to know, my husband does!’ or any of the myriad variations on that comment.
I didn’t need to open the class walking around with the traditional trash can in effigy routine — having participants throw out their fears, biases, negative thoughts toward technology, the I can’ts… I am expecting this will be a permanent change as much of modern society needs some sort of computer-based expertise. Afterall, some coffee pot programs require more know-how than many computer issues. If nothing else, (I think) the coffee-pot requires more stick-to-it-iveness!!! This is a change I have waited for for many years and I celebrate the hire practices that brought thiws wonderful group of folks to us!
Vista Grande High School is OPEN for business and it is a fantastic environment, roomy, friendly. The energy among the staff is super-charged and contagious. Vista Grande is also home to the beautiful new Casa Grande City Library that partners as the school library!
This week I am introducing all certified staff to IDEAL, that is the Department of Educations premiere educator professional development portal. It is robust and valued information adn I can’t wait to begin covering the myriad of resources that are provided in this one location! ADE’s IDEAL Portal is the catalyst for this year’s CGUHSD Districtwide ‘Theme’: The IDEAL District.
(Special thanks to Rick Baker, ASU - Nan Williams, Alhambra (formerly ADE) and Krystal Nesbitt, ADE)
We have many innovations coming this year! Including: teachers and administrators experimenting using socail networks to communicate witht heir ‘audience’; classes collaborating via webcam; administrators communicating with staff via Google Groups; teachers continue using Google Apps to support digital collaboration within their classorooms; and as always, I look forward to my favorite thing – developing more web-based global collaborations and distance classroom connections. More news to come!
See you in the virtual spaces! A 
