Thanks for be willing to share the slides. I know that they wouldn’t have done justice to the quality of hearing you present them live.

Ps. Can you update blogroll to new Building Understanding blog. You never know…

Your essential questions for learning various literacies in student-friendly language make them difficult to deny. As so many in the edublogosphere say, it is about the learning and “here fellow teachers, we have some tools to help reach the student learning goals as you design instruction and assessments”. And yes, we are leaders in our positions though often with limited “sway” to influence the direction of our schools. It can definitely be a lonely leadership role when you don’t have the support of your administrators.

Your efforts in the curriculum development and review process are crucial as you wear your designer hat focusing on using the UbD process to reach concept-based essential understandings. I would think that the next time any of our schools review their mission statements and student learning outcomes that following the UbD backwards design program is one way we can shine the light on the value of the 21st century learning skills our students need. Our school communities then would be forced to look for new learning tools that would need to be placed in the hands of our students.

I am new at my school district, and new in this “techie” role. I see the other tech team members do influence decisions. They are a part of the Leadership Team, so they participate in meetings that affect everything from curriculum to new construction. This is a big change from my previous school district where technology people were seen as the enemy.

I spend a lot of time with teachers, adjusting lessons, troubleshooting, just listening. I try not to say, as I do with my own children sometimes, “because I said so”. I try to give a good reason to why I make certain suggestions or think something is a bad idea. Of course, there are days when I just want to shake someone. But, haven’t yet. I think there are many success stories around our county. We’re getting there, slowly.

Maybe things would move a bit faster if our superintendent didn’t describe herself as a self-made technophobe. Maybe not.

It’s a pity that your speech was actually only about 30 minutes–minus the time of Mandarin translation.

Could you send me some examples of TESOL w/ IWB?

Thanks a lot!

Thanks,

Miguel