Archive for March, 2008
I have been on Spring Break since Friday at 4:00pm and it has been a joy doing things in my own time, on my schedule. I actually haven’t been on the computer much in the last 5 days. Monday, I even managed to go to the middle of nowhere. If you live near South Carolina I would suggest going there… where is it? Wood’s Bay Heritage Preserve…Its absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It’s not a large place but quiet and serene. It is one of the only Carolina Bays that is not on private land or drained for agriculture.
Today, I decided to catch up a little on my Google Reader (which had over 180 blog unread posts), jump on Twitter (I found myself completely out of the circle of conversation), even checked my work email (why I don’t know). I was a little dazed confused by the influx of new information. It is amazing how much information “the network (of educators)” generates. Do you people ever sleep????
And my question to you is … do you ever unplug and if so for how long and why? I am so inundated with technology at work and at play … I overload ever once and a while and it just nice to not be online for a few days. Its almost like caffeine withdrawal it makes my head hurt wondering what is going on online but when you finally get it out of my system, what a feeling!
I have a few days of Spring Break left and now I will be feeding my addiction since I am back online.
March 26th, 2008
Dear Joyce,
Hello. I wanted to thank you for joining us in Columbia, SC to at the South Carolina Association of School Librarians conference. I am not a Library Media Specialist. I am a technology education specialist and I work daily with educators to help with the implementation of technology in the classroom. I wanted to thank you for challenging the state library media specialists to “water the flowers before the rocks.” Your ideas were refreshing. Your willingness to open the “virtual door” in your library was enlightening. The shift in information and how it is gathered has changed librarian’s/media specialists jobs and you are truly making that shift with your students and teachers. Your collaboration with teachers and students seems so natural. I think my absolute favorite thing you shared was your wiki on Hamlet. A close second was the iGoogle pages for every student. I would love for our students to have access to to ALL Google has to offer.
I know your time was limited in the keynote and the hour sessions throughout the day just weren’t enough to fully express how to make the shift in the media center but I think you gave our state media specialists something to think about. You may have called it brow beating but I am going to call it an awakening. THANK YOU for sharing with South Carolina.
My only hope is that with this awakening will come a shift and a new way of thinking about media centers.
Thank you, again, for your time and effort.
MaryAnn Sansonetti
For those of you who want more ideas, visit Joyce Valenza’s wiki
Technorati Tags: joycevalenza valenza sansonetti iGoogle wiki SCASL SCASL2008
March 13th, 2008
Ok, so I am sitting here trying to prepare for my second presentation for this week’s SCASL conference and the sense of urgency is growing… after all I am going to be busy from morning until that night through Friday with the conference and I present Friday at 8:00am. (Our district is in charge of the “local programming.”) My first session is a part of the pre-conference day. I am presenting about blogging. That is done. I am very excited about it because I made the presentation using some neat tricks in SMART Notebook software that I learned last week in Chicago.
But with the sense of urgency growing what am I doing? I am blogging… reading Tweets, baking brownies, watching American Idol, chatting on gtalk and yahoo! messenger… everything else BUT re-working my iPod-abilities session. I like to think I work well under pressure but why do I need to do so?
So when the sense of urgency hits you… what do you do?
Technorati Tags: SMARTchicagoconference twitter sansonetti americanidol SCASL
March 11th, 2008
Last week, I attended one of the best conferences I have attended in a long time. The term conference is taking on a new definition in my world. This was not your normal hundreds of people herding through a conference hall wondering if the room they were walking in to is going to be worth the time. NO, this was a conference with 30 technology specialists from across the country sitting in the SMART sales office in Chicago, Il. talking, sharing, and learning with the guidance of the SMART education team.
It was the first time I felt as if the presenters were talking to me, not the teachers I service but me. The technology educator who tries to figure out how she can best meet the needs of the 400 teachers and tries to build a relationship. My
district just finished the first phase of a technology infusion plan focused on the installation of SMART boards, projectors, and sound systems. There were many bumps throughout this phase and after attending the conference I feel more confident about approaching principals on how to implement the board installs in their school. I feel as if I am now qualified to say, “OK, let’s look at how you chose who received the boards last year. What worked? What didn’t?” “Why not try this?”
One thing I learned from all of our discussion is no matter how large or small the district or what country/state we all have similar challenges with teachers, funding, and leadership. The really great thing is now that I am home in South Carolina I have a network of people across North America I can lean on for advise or help.
Of course, it wasn’t all work … we played a little and I managed to make a name for myself with my 80’s rock star flash back… You’ll have to ask someone who was there for the whole story… but I will forever evoke thoughts of twirling flash drives as if I was at a rock concert screaming for the band on the stage. By the way, if you were there… I want copies of the pictures!
Day 2 was full of top secret information about what is up and coming with SMART… I could tell you but then… you know the rest of the saying… Well, all I have to say is if you are attending NECC … head to the SMART booth.
Thank you to everyone at SMART … Shannon, Laura, Khoi, Chris, Giselle, Andrew, Coralie, and any other SMART person I forgot. You have recharged my inspiration in learning/teaching.
Technorati Tags: SMARTConference SMARTExemplaryEducator Chicago sansonetti intructionaltechnology
March 4th, 2008
Last week, I attended one of the best conferences I have attended in a long time. The term conference is taking on a new definition in my world. This was not your normal hundreds of people herding through a conference hall wondering if the room they were walking in to is going to be worth the time. NO, this was a conference with 30 technology specialists from across the country sitting in the SMART sales office in Chicago, Il. talking, sharing, and learning with the guidance of the SMART education team.
It was the first time I felt as if the presenters were talking to me, not the teachers I service but me. The technology educator who tries to figure out how she can best meet the needs of the 400 teachers and tries to build a relationship. My district just finished the first phase of a technology infusion plan focused on the installation of SMART boards, projectors, and sound systems. There were many bumps throughout this phase and after attending the conference I feel more confident about approaching principals on how to implement the board installs in their school. I feel as if I am now qualified to say, “OK, let’s look at how you chose who received the boards last year. What worked? What didn’t?” “Why not try this?”
One thing I learned from all of our discussion is no matter how large or small the district or what country/state we all have similar challenges with teachers, funding, and leadership. The really great thing is now that I am home in South Carolina I have a network of people across North America I can lean on for advise or help.
Of course, it wasn’t all work … we played a little and I managed to make a name for myself with my 80’s rock star flash back… You’ll have to ask someone who was there for the whole story… but I will forever evoke thoughts of twirling flash drives as if I was at a rock concert screaming for the band on the stage. By the way, if you were there… I want copies of the pictures!
Day 2 was full of top secret information about what is up and coming with SMART… I could tell you but then… you know the rest of the saying… Well, all I have to say is if you are attending NECC … head to the SMART booth.
Thank you to everyone at SMART … Shannon, Laura, Khoi, Chris, Giselle, Andrew, Coralie, and any other SMART person I forgot. You have recharged my inspiration in learning/teaching.
Technorati Tags: SMARTConference SMARTExemplaryEducator Chicago sansonetti intructionaltechnology
March 4th, 2008
Julia and I have the “pleasure” creating READ posters for the administration in our district, as well as a few local celebrities. I won’t say its the most fun in the world but with the ALA Read software and Adobe Photoshop Elements you can put your image in to those famous READ posters in the media center. As we had a break, Julia and I took pictures of one another to create a poster. Here I am! Notice the book I am reading! A little love for David Warlick!
The licensing for the software allows you to print the posters or post them on a non-profit web site. You just can’t sell them and rightly so. The first batch of posters Julia created for the District administration was a big hit. The posters are located all over the district to help support reading initiatives in the district.
On a personal note…. getting back to the local celebrities, one of those local celebrities just
happened to be one of my previous students. Miss South Carolina, Crystal Garrett. Its probably been 5 years since I have seen Crystal. I am SO proud of all she has done and accomplished in that time. Even though I am no longer in the classroom. I still consider every student I taught for 6 1/2 years to be my child and its so great to see them in adulthood!
Technorati Tags: sansonetti crystalgarrett ALA READ davidwarlick adobephotoshopelements misssouthcarolina
March 4th, 2008
