Caffeine for the Classroom: Intriguing idea

One of the most productive and interesting sessions I attended at the NECC Conference in San Antonio this summer was Dr. Cheri Toledo's from Illinois State University whose topic was the use of online discussion questions. I have tried this using turnitin.com's discussion board and found it had merit and was successful but now I have a greater appreciation of this technology tool and have gained some valuable tricks of the trade. This will be one of the new ideas I try after the first year of the grant since I am locked into those lesson plans. However, it is possible I can use this more immediately as I see how time allots itself. In the meantime, I feel I gained a valuable new insight and idea for technology use.

Attending NECC in San Antonio, TX

Our newly assembled grant writing team (slightly different people from the original group) attended the NECC convention in San Antonio, TX June 29-July 2, 2008. We had a wonderful time and worked very hard. I attended about 5 sessions daily from developing wikis to new models for modern 21st century high schools. This year each team member had a laptop computer and carrying case on wheels. In some sessions we had to balance the laptops on our laps and over the course of the conference I developed a crick in my neck which has taken a few days to cure. But it was all worth it. Our level of confidence was much higher this year as we had already been working with Web 2.0 tools and worked hard in writing the grant. We met many interesting educators from all over the country and even the world, particularly Australia. Now as a team we will work on implementing all these new tools into our lessons as the grant starts in August. In fact, the equipment begins to roll in around the first of the month. It will be an intense but challenging year.