Thank you... (and one last video... :) )

So this is it… It’s the last Friday in June and I am all packed up and ready to leave the office for the last time… I have so many thoughts, memories and emotions running through my mind…

First of all, thank you for encouraging me ever since I found out that I was moving to BHBL. The number of people that have wished me well and supported me in person and in writing over the past few weeks has been overwhelming. If I started to name people I wouldn’t know where to stop.  Please know how thankful and happy it  has made me. Please stay in touch. My contact information is pmcgrath@bhbl.org or patrickmcgrathjr@gmail.com.

A parting thought.... I recently heard a speaker at a graduation talk about a short story called Eleven, by Sandra Cisneros. The story starts out…

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you’re still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.


The image struck home to me. Here at Mohonasen, when I was Assistant Principal at the Middle School, I still felt like that teacher back at Niskayuna… in fact… I still was that teacher. Then I became principal, but the layer of me that was the AP never went away. I took my Middle School Principalship (minus Quiet Zone...) to the high school. I built on it, of course, but underneath it was still there. In District Office I feel like I have been able to draw upon all of those layers…student, teacher, principal... to learn and grow.


On Monday, I will open up my eyes and expect to feel like a superintendent. But I won’t feel any different. I’ll feel like I am still a kid, still a student, still a teacher, still a principal, still an assistant superintendent… still Mohonasen Proud… And I will be. 

Until we meet again…

Patrick

Many Opportunities for Free Classes in Technology Integration

Hi Everyone! Here is a list of the Model Schools Courses for the Winter and Spring 2012 sessions. Remember that all of these courses are free. You can sign up for them on www.MyLearningPlan.com. (Just select “CapBOCES/NERIC" under Activity Catalogs in the navigation bar on the left side of your screen.)

All of the courses involve technology, but the emphasis is on integrating that technology with instruction. We strongly recommend that everyone take a look through this list and take a course. There are online “Blackboard™”  style classes, live webinars and traditional workshops in various districts.  Some are only 2 hours long. Others are multiple weeks. They are held on lots of local campuses…including our own… and maybe one near your house.  All carry in-service credit.

Technology is moving so quickly that there is something for all of us to learn. Please consider taking a course. Here are just a couple recommendations (but there are many other great courses, as well!):

*Presentation 2.0: PowerPoint is getting outdated! Have you seen the new generation of presentation software? SlideRocket? Prezi? These are engaging presentation media that exist “out in the cloud” and can be accessed by students anytime. BEST OF ALL- this course is being offered right here on campus- in the Middle School with our own resident expert:  Art Teacher Steve Blais as the instructor. Steve has a ton of really great ideas.  Please consider taking this one-day course:

March 14

Presentations 2.0

4:00‐6:00

Draper Middle School, Room 116/117

*ActiveInspire for Beginners: Taught by our own Lori Gallo, this 3 week course will show you the basics of designing presentations specifically tailored for the interactive whiteboard. You can easily transform existing presentations. The course is held here on campus and starts soon.

Feb 15, 29 & Mar 7

ActivInspire for Beginners

3:00‐4:00

Draper Middle School, Room 121

*Google Docs is a powerful cloud based software that students can access for free from home and school. We have it. Kids have it. All students 7-12 have G-Mail accounts.  It lets them store their work online, collaborate, share with the teacher, and even publish to the world. It has a full free software suite that puts all students on the same playing field. There are a number of different Google Docs workshops:

March 7

Google Docs

3:30‐5:00

Bethlehem High School, Room A‐104

May 3	Create Google Forms to Gather Information Quickly & Easily	3:45‐5:45	Niskayuna Van Antwerp Middle School Lab
May 10	Google Docs – Write and Edit Online; Collaborate With Others	3:45‐5:45	Niskayuna Van Antwerp Middle School Lab

March 7 & 14 OR April 4 & 18

Google Docs for Educators

3:30‐5:30

Schenctady- Steinmetz Academy, Room 201A

March 3 ‐ 18	Google Docs ‐ Encouraging Real Time Collaboration	Online
April 28 – May 13	Google Docs ‐ Encouraging Real Time Collaboration	Online

But wait… there’s more… many more classes on iPads, Google Earth (an incredible resource), creating your own online courses, movie editing, digital photography and image manipulation, animation, Glogster, and on and on… Please take advantage of these free workshops taught by other educators. Maybe you can register with a friend or a group… even go out to dinner after the class? We need to enhance and broaden the skills that we have in this technology rich environment in which we live and work.

Feel free to call or email with questions.

Patrick

Ideas for Unit Plans...

As we are working together on new Unit Plans, I want to remind you about the SAS Curriculum Pathways site that I introduced in this blog earlier in the year... THIS link will give you all of the instructions for signing up for an account. I continue to be impressed by the new content they are adding and the way that the site is set up. There are 4 types of resources in the SAS library: Interactive Tools, Inquiries, Audio Tutorials, and Web Lessons. They are all independent of each other and can be used as standalone items to supplement many different units. You can search them by subject, or look at printable lists of activities arranged by subject. They are all mapped to the NYS Standards and to the Common Core for ELA and Math. You need an account- but the kids dont- they put their name on the assignment as they do it and a PDF of the assigment is sent to your email with their name on it.  Many of the activities are also perfect for projection on the screen and discussion as a class. Here is a video overview:

If you explore the State Standards/Common Core links, you can find specific lessons tied to specific standards. This may help as you brainstorm and write new units. Consider exploring this site and trying an activity out...let us know your thoughts below?