The Life of the Librarian TIS February 13-17, 2012

Besides continuing to work on my library projects, I’ve been very busy with Mimio training and the blended delivery project.  First, I’ve been spending a great deal of time at home watching Mimio Teach videos online and then practicing using the tools after school in the computer lab.  I am providing teacher training during our Instructional Support day Monday, February 20.  Although I’ve already been helping teachers set up these devices and get started, I haven’t worked with some of the finer, more in-depth features of the Mimio Teach that I plan to show Monday. 

During this week, I also attended the business department’s PLC meeting and helped them learn to use their projectors and document cameras.  I also installed Mimio Studio software for these teachers so that they’ll be ready to begin using their devices after the training.  In January, a trainer from Mimio came to our school to train our staff, but many teachers have asked for another session because they just couldn’t remember what she showed us.  I’ve also had many other requests for one-on-one sessions in teacher’s specific classrooms after school that I’m going to try to accommodate.  It’s tough to do this, however, because I have extended library hours from 3:30-5:30 Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, so the only days I can work with them are Mondays and Fridays.  Most teachers don’t want to meet on Fridays, so Monday is really the only day I can provide individualized training in a teacher’s classroom.  This makes for a very long waiting period.  I’m hoping that the additional training session Monday, February 20 will help them get started right away.  (Many teachers couldn’t attend the first session, so they haven’t even received the devices yet.) 

This week I also worked with a teacher on building quizzes in Edmodo.  I am working again with one of the science teachers as he uses Edmodo to manage his semester project.  I talked to him about incorporating other assignments into Edmodo as well and helped him load a quiz for his students to take. 

This past semester, I thought I had completed the blended delivery requirement for the TIS credential, but once I received the guidelines this week, I saw that I did not meet some of the requirements of the project.  I have been scrambling to find another teacher who is on board with setting up a blended delivery course.  Most teachers have simply told me that they are not interested.  They do not want to deal with discussion boards and online quizzes because of the difficulty in getting computer lab time.  (We only have 58 computers for approximately 825 students).  I have one person who might be willing to help me complete the project, so I’m in the process of presenting a plan for her of how the blended delivery course will look and what it will require.  If she’ll go along with the project, I’m going to use Edline so that she is already somewhat familiar with the format.  My school’s version of Edline now gives us access to discussion boards, online quizzes, etc. 

I’ll be spending the weekend finalizing this plan for her and finalizing my plans for the Mimio Teach training Monday.