educating for the journey

Eighty percent of success is showing up.
- Woody Allen

Wednesday was the third annual Teaching with Technology showcase. It was a great opportunity for students to show off what they have been doing in their various classrooms. It included students from all school levels and highlighted the great work that is going on here. Visitors were introduced to blogs, wikis, an array of vernier labs, radio CMS, the popular and much anticipated release of the CMS film program’s second DVD, the ipod as teaching tool, digital stories, Destiny, Ableton Live, and much much more. It was pulled off thanks to lots of hard work by too many people to mention, however the student-centered displays allowed a low-stress environment for the teachers involved, they sat back and watched their students shine. My day was made when one of them said to me, “this is just what we do in my class.”

gracias a dios

this is where we need to get to; technology isn’t something added for a showcase or an observation, it is just there - always. When teachers and students stop seeing it as something added to a lesson but simply as a part of one then we will be moving forward. We are a long way from there now but we are facing in the right direction and moving forward. So until then we keep pushing, we keep praising and offering opportunities for teachers improve their skills and to showcase their ideas in hopes that they’re integrations are contagious.

January 25, 2008

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
- Albert Einstein

radio.cms.edu.do was launched last night and was a ginormous success. Facilitator Osiris Villacampa and Information Technology Director Harold Oritz worked tirelessly to ensure the 6pm live broadcast would go off without a hitch…it did! There were more then 30 listeners to the innagural broadcast and we have no doubt that the number will continue to increase. If you missed it, that’s my fault due to poor advertising - be sure to “tune” in next Wednesday when the radio club goes live to air from the third annual Teaching with Technology Showcase.

The excavation process is due to end next week, and the teachers whose classrooms are the closest to the work are extremely thankful!

January 18, 2008

The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.
- Thomas Kempis

This is stolen from Shanghai American School directly - but i enjoyed watching their construction weekly last year and thought the idea would be a nice way to increase the “buzz” as construction has begun on our new media center. It is really exciting and will be a tangible expression of the intense link that there is between the traditional library and technology.