Written by: Dan Maas
8/12/2009 

All the preparation work is winding down and schools are ramping up!  Every 5^th grade classroom is equipped with ASUS EeepC netbook laptop computers.  Every section of 6^th and 9^th grade language arts are also equipped.  All teachers heading into these classrooms have undergone extensive training on writing best practices and how to utilize the netbooks to support that pedagogy.  Everyone has had a chance to go over the TPaCK reflection guide which is intended to be a framework for teachers and instructional leaders as they create a nexus of pedagogy, content and technology in their classrooms.  Our training wiki can be found here: http://inspiredwriting.wikispaces.com/

Now, the calm before the storm; the indrawn breath.

We are predicting high winds of rising achievement, and storms of student publishing.  We hope our teachers will ask “where did you get this information” less and ask “why do you trust it” more.  We anticipate classrooms communicating beyond the old boundaries of the classroom walls or even the community borders, reaching around the world to share learning experiences with the best, the brightest, the interesting… or even just the interested.  We await student publishing on scale we’ve never achieved in this district so that students grapple with the opportunities and responsibilities of having a global audience.  We know our students will be well coached and guided to protect their identities, avoid cyber-threats, honor intellectual property and responsibly develop a digital footprint that will help them become the most competitive applicants for college and the 21^st Century work-force in the world.

Our Superintendent challenged us last spring with the age-old question: “If not us, then who?  If not now, then when?”

Well, this is the time and we are ready.

I will attempt to chronicle the results of this initiative on this blog.  Here you will see our work and be able to celebrate and reflect with us.  2009-10 is going to be a great year in LPS!

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Location: Blogs Dan Maas, Ed.D. Chief Information Officer

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