Here I go, again...

Somewhere along the way, I lost my original blog. It wasn't much of a loss really, as I hadn't posted anything of significance. I'm trying to get my head around the idea of blogging but a twist of that old adage keeps going through my head, if you don't have anything interesting to say, don't say anything at all.

This has been an incredibly hectic year that at times is going way too fast. After 12 years of working in Special Education, I jumped at the chance to return to the classroom. Teaching at the 5/6 level has been wonderful, scary, time-consuming, frustrating and all those other things that teaching on a daily basis is. Getting my head around what I had to do in the classroom has taken a long time, in fact, I'm not sure if I've quite got my head around it yet. Its a work in progress, everyday.

For .25 of my teaching time I teach computer skills to all of our classes, which really doesn't give me a lot of time (about 75 minutes/week/class). The last 2 years of computers has been a bit of a learning curve alone. I got to teach computers because I was the teacher with an interest in and a little bit of knowledge about computers (just enough knowledge to be dangerous). I finally mastered our Linux/thin client system with limited admin privileges when we were given a brand new Dell lab and I had to retrain my limited knowledge of Open Office to Windows XP. I'm getting there; there are still days when I have to look for something before I show my students how to do it.

After becoming a part of the in-school technology support teachers committee, I've realized how little I know about so many things with regards to computers, the internet and Web 2.0. I'm trying but another adage pops up - you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I don't necessarily believe that, I just think it takes a lot longer for an old dog to learn new tricks. So be patient with me. I may have more questions than insights - actually, I know I will. I have been exploring a few things on my own and I'm trying to figure out a logical way to bring a staff of widely varying technological competencies along with me. I may have to get a student to teach me, instead.