Day one of our New Tech In-service is in the books!
We kicked it off by registering and getting a bag, a lanyard with our name and school on it, along with a New Tech T-shirt. I was "fortunate" to get a Large T-shirt to kick off the day. I was unhappy to say the least, I've been a XXL guy for many years and the Large is not very flattering to a gentleman of my proportions. :)
After an intro speech we moved into smaller rooms and were introduced to what is basically a beta version of the ECHO web program that will be the backbone of our scaffolding for New Tech. ECHO has lots of potential, but it is currently pretty frustrating to deal with because of all of the bugs and dead end hyperlinks. It's really not ready for us to use, but we got to play with it for a bit.
Next up was lunch, where we were served chicken, pasta, and bread sticks along with salad.
After lunch we were divided up by subject, and I was thrown in the ELECTIVES group. The usual suspects were there; Art, PE, Consumer Sciences, and Foreign Languages. We learned more about the Project Intro process, as well as a useful tool called "Know, Need to Know, and Next Steps. This process is used to roll out a new projects in a manner that leads your students in the right direction without actually taking them there.
The day concluded with a wonderful and exciting group picture that involved a momentarily scary issue with an escalator. It was more funny than scary, but at the moment it certainly didn't feel that way!
Things I've learned:
-- I learned about Entry Documents and the variables that makes up an effective one
-- I learned that ECHO is pretty nifty but will not officially be ready for another 3-4 weeks
-- I learned that PE/Health is being coupled in several different ways at other schools
-- I confirmed my suspicion that June and I are way ahead of most of the groups not only at our school but also in all of the new New Tech schools here.
-- I learned that New Tech was first funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
-- I learned that 27 schools across the US will be starting New Tech schools next year, including former basketball rival Oregon Davis. (Feb 22, 2003 1A Girls Basketball Regional WT 60 - OD 37 EAT IT YOSHI!!)
We ate dinner at my first official Chinese restaurant. I had crispy chicken with stick rice. My buddies Cindy Trevino and Dori Downing were nice enough to share some of their food with me as a sampler, that was delicious too!
This evening I finished up on the Health State Standards for another project and fleshed out a few more. Right now we currently have three projects well on their way and are in the first steps of fleshing out three more.
Let's finish up with the New Tech buzz words that Rick Good and I have noticed so far (I'm tired so I can't remember them all!)
Roll Out
Piece
Echo (please don't do it!)
Multimedia
Collaboration
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