While reading through the text, I noticed the section on software written to perform various types of educational applications. I remembered several years ago when our faculty was introduced to STI. The office personnel and administrators had to go to numerous inservices and training sessions to learn how to implement this in our school. Without getting into all the specifics of the program, STI is designed to manage tasks such as enrollment, attendance, lunch counts, student profiles, behavior and grades.
The teacher has access to a gradebook, classroom attendance, lunch count information, lesson plans, progress reports and report cards. It all seems to be a great plan and a very handy tool to use. Grades and behavior documentation are at our fingertips and readily available for our use. This is all well and good until the system crashes or we have a power failure. In our area, this happens a lot. Grades will need to be posted, progress reports or report cards will need to be printed out and the famous words "STI is down!", will come over the intercom. These are the times when we all pull out the calculators and paper grade books and thank the Lord that we did the double work to write the grades in that cute little gradebook and post them on STI.
I am certain that in the future the bugs will be removed and all of the glitches corrected. Until then, I will continue to do the double work to please myself and the administration at my school.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Cruise picture
Since the last one was so successful, I thought I would do another one. This really would have come in handy on the trip. I could have blogged and let my students see some of the sights in Mexico. Last time, I took Flat Stanley on the trip and documented his journey with pictures. Next time, I will have Flat Stanley have a go at blogging.Latest technological feat
I absolutley cannot believe I have got this done! Thank you Aaryn. You are so tech savvy! Here is one of the first pictures of Sophia Ellison Hopkins (Sophie). I hope to be able to get comfortable with this craft, as any good gramma should. Just call me Lovey!
Please forgive the tardiness of the picture posting. Things have been a little hectic around the Hopkins household. Watch for news of our little one coning soon.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Cruise to Mexico!
I have just returned from a seven day cruise to Cozumel and Playa De Carmen, Mexico. I attempted to retrieve the assignments before I left on the cruise and nothing had been posted at that time. Upon returning, I found the assignments and posted one response. This is my second attempt at blogging. I hope to get more comfortable with practice.
I did not attempt to use the internet access on the cruise ship. I now know that I should have tried just for the experience. The cost was a factor and I had no idea how long it would have taken me to figure out the procedures. I think it was about $30.00 for an hour of internet time. We knew that there would be "internet cafes" in Mexico and I thought I might give that a try. Turns out that in the internet cafe there was international telephone access. The cost for that type of technology was $.40 a minute. That sounded like a much quicker solution to our communication issues. By the way, an internet cafe has nothing to do with a quaint little cafe with coffee, danish and clean computers.
I think it would have been a great idea to be able to email and post blogs for my students at home. Hopefully, this expereince with blogging will get me prepared for my next trip and I will be able to teach them how to post their own. Technology is a wonderful thing if you are ready and well trained for the task.
At this time, I am on the way to a doctor appointment to see if it is time for Sophie to come. She is such a good little girl! She waited for Lovey and Pop to come home to make her appearance! I will keep you posted.
I did not attempt to use the internet access on the cruise ship. I now know that I should have tried just for the experience. The cost was a factor and I had no idea how long it would have taken me to figure out the procedures. I think it was about $30.00 for an hour of internet time. We knew that there would be "internet cafes" in Mexico and I thought I might give that a try. Turns out that in the internet cafe there was international telephone access. The cost for that type of technology was $.40 a minute. That sounded like a much quicker solution to our communication issues. By the way, an internet cafe has nothing to do with a quaint little cafe with coffee, danish and clean computers.
I think it would have been a great idea to be able to email and post blogs for my students at home. Hopefully, this expereince with blogging will get me prepared for my next trip and I will be able to teach them how to post their own. Technology is a wonderful thing if you are ready and well trained for the task.
At this time, I am on the way to a doctor appointment to see if it is time for Sophie to come. She is such a good little girl! She waited for Lovey and Pop to come home to make her appearance! I will keep you posted.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Experiences of learning how to creat a blog
This is my first experience in a technology class. I have learned how to create a blog but feel I need more practice before I am comfortable with this new skill. I am very grateful for my friends that are helping me through this new experience. I have no confidence and am afraid I will not be successful. Next, we will be learning the art of WIKI. I am terrified! I wonder if blogging is a skill my children would enjoy. If the internet would stay up for any extended period, I would like to try it.
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