Today, I had the great benefit of meeting with elementary Physical Education teachers in the a.m. and Technology Integration Specialists in the p.m.  We have developed a Curriculum Review Cycle that will help guide us in many ways over the next 10 years.

1.  It will help us focus.

2.  It will guide some budgetary decisions.

3.  It will help us to continue to be a cycle where we constantly look at our content and what we are bringing to the table for our students.

It is always a great conversation with PE teachers.  They think of such important things while the rest of us often get caught up in the state testing and No Child Left Behind. They brought to the table an organized curriculum that integrates skills, nutrition and lifelong health education plus many ideas to help us reach the goal of meeting the minutes required for Physical Education K-3.  Thank you to our department reps!

I always enjoyed the afternoon with our Technology Integrators. They are such free thinkers that we often find ourselves off on another tangent. It works for us, and I remind myself to be a task master so that when we walk away, we have a feeling that we are steps closer to our desired goals.  Thank you to them! I appreciate their free thinking and great ideas to integrate web 2.0 and beyond!

Now, I am working on a data report. I do love my job, but data can bring me down at times.  Don’t get me wrong.  Our data is awesome; it is just hard for me to share the excitement when looking at tables and graphs.  I think many of my data friends would disagree.  Hey!  We all have our favorite projects. 

Yesterday was a mixed bag! 

We started the day with our Administrative Cabinet Meeting.  It was another long one chock full of various topics.  We continue to update ourselves on H1N1. We talked about filtering the Internet, what has to be filtered as per the government and where we have some leeway.  We talked about our district goals, and we talked about budget guidelines.  With 15 people, the experiences are broad and in depth.  My favorite part of the meeting was when our Intermediate School Principal reminded all of us to continue to communicate well with each other and beef it up even more.  He is such a good leader and makes so much sense.  Even though we know we need to communicate, it was great how he worded it and reminded us all ever so gently of good examples of it every day. 

From there, I had a meeting with a High School Art Teacher (and a techie). She brainstormed with me so many various topics about what to offer to our teachers on our next Superintendent’s Conference Day. The theme continues to be about personal learning.  I really don’t mind that we are focusing on that first.  You know that once we find a way to feel comfortable using tools in our personal lives that it is an easy extension to classroom practice.  Thanks, Mary Beth!

Next, I had a phone conference regarding our PEP Grant. This was about data collection, and it was a bit confusing because it is so new to me.  I am hoping things go smoothly as this is so good for our students. Of course, we have a great evaluator, and she tuned into the conference, and that is a big relief!

After the phone conference, I tackled our Superintendent’s Conference Day final details.  We have a great committee who has already sent some feedback on the final draft of courses and registration procedures.  I hope to finish that up tomorrow morning and have a restful weekend!