February 2009 – June 2009 Update

I have been remiss in putting in my activities for the end of the year.  I am sorry about that.

There were a lot of issues during the last five months of school.  I helped numerous teachers with issues with printers, as well as the mobile lab.  There were issues at the end of the year with a missing MacBook from our new mobile lab, which Lilly Moss and I investigated with the help of IIT. 

In March/April, there was a lot of work dealing with RFP10.  We are looking forward to receiving the new hardware!

In April/May, there was quite a bit of preparation for Mathday 2009.  The day went well, with only a few issues.  It was quite enjoyable for students, teachers and volunteers.

January 2009 Monthly TM Update

January was a busy month. I worked with the Black History Day Committee to ensure that they had everything they needed technologically speaking for the day. The morning of the event, I arrived to school early to set up all the computers, LCD projectors, etc. It was a very busy day, but it went very well. Also, in January, I worked with Michael to ensure that the students taking ELA tests with the use of a Word Processor had computers to use. It was at this point that we found out that the airport on the new mobile lab was bad. I replaced the Airport with one that IIT brought to us and it is working fine, with the exception of the printer pausing itself.

Also during January, there were a number of problems with viruses on computers. I assisted Bill Mahler with this issue, making sure the computers were collected and redistributed.

The new orchestra teacher started in January. She received her computer and the training associated with it within two weeks of her starting – quite fast!

So, as you can see, it was quite a busy month!

December 2008 Monthly Update

It was not too bad in December. There were still issues with some of the printers and other questions that dealt with computers, but for the most part it was okay. I had some issues getting computers back from teachers who received a new on in November. I am actually still waiting on one of the computers!

I worked with a special ed teacher to help set up a system in her room for an LCD projector and her computer. She is really having a blast using technology and the students seem to really enjoy the visuals.

I am still working on the WIAB for the Smartboard. I really just need to sit down and put it all together. I have it on my list of things to do.

October 2008 and November 2008 Monthly Updates

October and November were busy months.  At the beginning of October, we were planning our Tech Day on Superintendent’s Conference Day.  Working with the Tech Committee, we had a very successful day that included a number of different workshops.  We were able to recruit assistance from Roger, Bill Mahler, Norm Adelewitz, Karen Durfee and Denise Ruben, as well as many of the teachers here at Boynton.  All the hard work paid off and it went very well.  Also in October, there were a number of issues with printers around the school.  One of our printers had to be unplugged due to a leak in the ceiling, and when it was plugged back in, it would not work.  I tried numerous troubleshooting ideas and finally found out that once a printer has been unplugged, it needs to be set up again through IIT if it is not a reserved port.  IIT has fixed the problem with that port.

In November, most of RFP9 was delivered.  I had three training sessions for the new computers, including a training with Mike Pliss the last day of school before Thanksgiving break!  I also worked with Michelle Kornreich and Bill Mahler to do some updates on our mobile lab.  We have decided that once a month maintenance on the iBooks is necessary to maintain a well working lab.  Now, we just need to set a monthly schedule for it. 

There were other small, day to day things that came up during October and November as well, but these are the larger issues that I dealt with over the past two months.

September 2008 TM Posting

The summer went by with many thoughts about technology at the school.  Making sure that computers  belonging to teachers who left the school was the main priority for the end of June and July.  Also, making sure computers were being assigned to the new teachers was one of the main priorities for the rest of the summer.  I worked with Karen Durfee on issues with the new website also.  So, even though it was a time to relax and enjoy the time off, I was quite busy ensuring that the beginning of the year went smoothly for Boynton.

During September, the usual issues emerged, with some twists.  Because of the construction at Boynton, there were issues with where printers and computers were going to be located due occupation of science teachers in the planning centers and the support teacher in the teacher tech room.  Lillian helped out a lot by allowing most of the displaced hardware stay in the librarian’s office and the library itself.  One day, the printers all decided to stop working…IIT was very helpful and had the server rebooted in the early afternoon, but it was still a trying day with questions about the printers coming from everywhere.

This month there were a few problems with computers dying (already!).  There is also an issue with the Dell 1100′s (blue computers) not being able to use the SASI version of IEP Direct.  This issue is due to the age of the computers, so there is the concern about what teachers have these computers and what we need to do to ensure that they have access to this information.

Also, during Septembr there were a number of Tech Committee meetings that dealt with the Technology Play Day at Boynton on October 10.  This is shaping up well and we are really looking forward to the day.  It is very exciting that Jason is letting us take a Superintendent’s Conference day to do this.

February 2008 Monthly Update

February was a busy month, even if it was short!  The new Dell laptops came in from RFP8 and they were distributed to the teachers during February.  I had one workshop on the SmartBoard, two teachers came – one from Cayuga Heights!  It went well, even though I was sick with a cold.  We had Black History Day during February.   The afternoon before the event, I made sure all the rooms were ready for the presenters.  Then, the day of the event, I worked to make sure everything went well with the technology in the rooms.  It was interesting trying to get everything in the right place, as well as running my own workshop!  In the end, it was a success.

During February, we also had a few tech committee meetings where we began looking at the RFP9 forms to see if we needed to make changes.  We also have some SU graduate students who are helping us take inventory of all the technology in each classroom.

Also during February, I was having a difficult time with the teacher tech room.  The computers would not stay connected to the internet and it was becoming quite frustrating.  The airport that we had for that room has since been moved to the library and the computers seem to be working well via the wireless connection.  I am still trying to work with the Dell computer that is not wireless to make sure it stays online.

January 2008 Monthly Report

January was quite a busy month.  The tech committee at Boynton really took off, with meeting every other week since the beginning of the month.  We are working hard to get representation from each department.  So far, there are only a few die-hard people committed to the committee, but it is coming along well.

In addition to the tech committee, I had three workshops in January.  One workshop was a wash - no one signed up or showed up for it.  I think it was because it was right after break and people were busy.  The other two workshops netted a total of three participants.  I was able to do one-on-one teaching and I believe the participants learned a lot.  I know that at least two of the people are using the technology that was shown to them in the workshop.

I have been having a problem with the teacher tech room at Boynton.  The internet connection keeps going in and out.  I have been spending a lot of time to try to get it functioning reliably for the teachers.  There are many teachers who are using the room to complete projects and work.

There are still problems happening with teacher computers at Boynton.  Sometimes I don’t even know that there are problems, until the technicians bring back the computer to their owners and ask me to help them set up something.

Another item that was set up during January was a listserv for the Boynton staff.  We are excited about this and hope to be able to move all the papers from our mailboxes in the office to our mailboxes in eMail.

Overall, January has been a very busy month and I feel much better about what is happening at Boynton with the tech committee and my position as tech mentor. 

Overall, I am pleased with

December 2007 Monthly Update

December was a month that was trying for me.  I felt like I was being pushed in many directions and that I was not doing what was expected of me in this position. 

I was however able to find a candidate to chair the Technology Committee at Boynton.  This position was not something that I felt comfortable doing and I am happy to have someone with “committee” qualities to oversee it, with the help of Marcie and me.

I was able to set up three workshops between January and February, and am looking for another workshop in January.  I plan to have a PowerPoint, an EXCEL and a SmartBoard workshop.  The fourth workshop is for the Teacher Tech Room at Boynton.  I am looking forward to these workshops and hope that I will have a lot of teachers/staff members coming.  I am still working with Marcie to set up our District workshop, and we will hopefully have that set up by the end of January.  It has been difficult connecting with her, since our schedules are so different.  I believe that we will be able to find something interesting for the ICSD staff though.

Overall, December was a chore and I was really frustrated at times, but I am happy about the ways things are going now.  I believe the holiday season was a little frantic for everyone.

November 2007 Monthly Update

November has been quite a month.  I worked with Guidance some to set up the initial connection for the website.  Now, I need to get with the team to show them how to use Dreamweaver and create the webpage for the Boynton website.  I also need to work with the 7 Blue Team to help them understand what they need to do for the 7 Blue homework page.  I am hoping that I can do both in a workshop after school.

There were a number of teachers and a support person who received new computers from IIT.  Their computers were past the point that they could be updated or fixed, so they received new laptops.  The Dell’s had to have the sound card installed, so when I gave the individuals their training, I also installed the sound card (there were three Dell’s I had to do this with).  I also provided training for 2 iBooks that were upgraded to OSX.  So far, the upgraded/new computers seem to be working fine.

I had a problem adding a printer onto a iMac computer this month.  I was able to find the information from another iMac computer that was linked to the printer in questions, and found out that the printer was on the DOA NTServer (or something like that).  It took me about an hour trying to figure out where it was, but I finally got to the right place.  It is so much easier with a Dell. 

October 2007 Monthly Report

October was another busy month for me.  There were teachers who had questions about computers that kept crashing.  I worked with one teacher whose computer randomly lost connection with the network.  We worked around it, but I am concerned that there is a problem with the older Dell laptops ethernet ports failing.  This is the third time I have seen this type of problem since June. 

I also provided information to teacers to make sure that all the OS9 computers had the proper papers to be upgraded to OSX.  So far, two teachers with iBooks have their computers with IIT to have them upgraded.  Only 2-3 more teachers have OS9 on their iBooks, and we hope to have them upgraded by the end of December.

Marcie and I introduced Snoopy to the staff during a staff meeting in October.  At the same time, we went over the issues with webmail and how to change the interface from Panel to one of the other selections.  It appeared to be well received.  I did have some questions from teachers asking if the students received the same type of spam mail that we do.  This is a big concern for some of us, since we do not want our students exposed to some of the emails we receive.

I have not planned any workshops as of yet, but I hope to do a couple in December.