Useful technology seminar...

Hey all,

About 6 of us attended a technology seminar at Hollywood Road Education Services (HRES) last week. Now, I know I saw a bunch of you at the little get together on Friday night, but I didn't really talk about the seminar at all when we were at D's house. Sorry to the UVic Interns, but this will be of no use to you. However, if the Island schools are on First Class, try to contact your Technology people and get them to fill you in on this stuff... I think it would be a great resource for anyone!

I would really encourage everyone to get in touch with Blair Hope (who ran the seminar), as he seems to be the guru of First Class and of School District #23's technology stuff. Kate, Vicki, Kevin J., Nela and I all attended the seminar, and I found it extremely useful. The CRC (Curriculum Resource Centre) has a tonne of materials that you can borrow and reserve for your classes, First Class offers the option of creating a web page for your classes, and there are a number of other things we learned about that the schools will probably never teach you.

I think the idea of creating a teacher website is a great idea, particularly one on First Class that can be accessed for any kids who miss class, go on vacation, or forget their work at the school. It also gets them to be more responsible for any missed work, since you are providing an opportunity to always get the materials at home (presuming that 90% of your students will have internet access, which seems to be the case in my classes).

If you have any questions, feel free to get a hold of me, or respond here. I'm definitely one of those people who wants to embrace the technology (particularly if it helps make my job easier!), so I'm definitely going to do as much as possible to incorporate this stuff. Again, drop me a line if you have any questions...

- T