Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Tag: support

  • they were the best of times…

    …they were the – you get the idea.

    Yesterday I signed all of the paperwork then waited around for 5 hours and got the keys to my new house! I didn’t really wait around as much as drove around – luckily my father decided to take the day off of work to accompany me. We went out for lunch, we drove around the countryside, he bought me a mailbox – the kind with the little red flag to tell me when I have mail (original ‘you’ve got mail’ notification). We checked out the painting that was begun on my house. It’s barn board grey, which will look nice with the red roof.

    That evening my car decided to go berserk and this morning I had to tow it to the dealership, making me late for work. A whole bunch of money later and it’s well again.

    Today one of my students didn’t show for an important exam. He’s sabotaging himself and I can’t help but feel wounded myself.

    Tomorrow we will have our closing ceremonies and our computer that has all of the certificates I need to print and then laminate to hand out during the ceremony decided to stop working. I’m also in charge of the decorating committee so tomorrow will be a long day.

    Then I move on Saturday morning.

    I’m so thankful for…

    • My father, who was by my side throughout my signing extravaganza yesterday
    • Helen, who is organizing the amazing gang of people who are going to help me move on Saturday – herself, Ross, Stephane, Tara, Magda, Laura, Liz, Bill, Angus, and Lucinda.
    • Both of my parents, who are taking care of my 2 dogs for these few days before the move AND who are going to provide food and drinks for us all once we finish the move.
    • The kids – Vanessa, Alyssa, Melissa, and Ashley – who are running with their decorating committee duties
    • The towing guy, who hung around at the dealership to give me a lift to work afterwards
    • Marie, for keeping an eye on the decorating tasks yesterday while I took the day off to sign
    • Walter, who drove me to the dealer at the end of the day today
    • Lucinda, who is on her way over to help me finish my packing
    • Krissy, who stuck out that history exam to the very end despite being frustrated and unsure of what she knew

    Life is good and so much easier because of all of you.

  • “Put technology where it can be best used… In the classroom!”

    [cross ranted as a comment at Stephen Ransom’s EdTechTrek] [and slightly elaborated]

    I am starting to think that because many teachers and administrators
    still do not know exactly what we can do with technology there is a
    reluctance to put it in the classroom.

    Example – today the Internet had, for some reason, stopped working
    in the west wing of our school. I was at the computer lab with one
    other teacher. She packed her kids up and went back because she only
    books the computer lab for the last period of the day so that her kids
    can ‘play on the internet’.

    For her, technology has nothing to do with learning, it is a form of
    entertainment. I stayed with my kids and used the time to work on our
    Science vocabulary while teaching them how to hyperlink in
    presentations. They were linking their vocabulary words to comments and images made by their peers, creating a collaborative learning network around the new terminology they are learning in Science. (Not bad for a wing it activity, eh ;)

    For some reason, this teacher has not caught on yet that technology
    can be much more than a way to waste time. I can understand the frustration of the new teachers that Stephen mentions in his post, but
    until the more experienced teachers and administrators at schools begin
    to use technology as a learning tool, really use it, and demand that
    good forms of it be available in the schools, it isn’t going to happen.

    I can also understand the frustration of the more experienced teachers who are
    expected to use technology but who aren’t really given the time to grow
    less afraid of it and to experiment with what can be done. There is a huge divide between our students who live and breathe with technology as part of their daily lives and the teachers who don’t. Huge. and while
    there are still administrators who don’t use technology in their daily lives and who don’t champion for its appropriate use and availability in the school, let alone the classroom…well…that divide can only be expected to widen.

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