Hi all! On Monday I will be starting my eighth year as a teacher at Sweetwater High School. I teach Special Education, am the Yearbook advisor, and I coach a few sports. I graduated from Sweetwater in ‘93, SDSU in ‘99, and National in ‘02. This year I will be teaching ELD, Geography, Computer Applications, and Yearbook. Having more than three preps is not cool, but when you teach Special Ed, you just get used to it. Outside of the classroom I am happily married, have three German Shepherds, and have been a wedding photographer/videographer since 2003.
Prior to the COMET program, I was only technology-savy in the field of video/photo editing and basic publishing. I had already heard of blogs, wiki’s, and podcasting, but I never really thought about implementing it into my classroom. Now I am so excited, I don’t even know where to begin. This is an instance where I really wish I only taught one or two classes. Implementing all this technology into all of my classes will be pretty much impossible. Especially since I don’t have the same schedule every year. Oh well. I will try to implement as much as I can. On a personal level, I now use my igoogle page to read my favorite blogs and I’m constantly trying to get my friends to use it as well.
I will most likely use edublog, in conjuction with my googlepages, to organize all the info my students need. I might even try to use it within our department, but who knows, I can bearly get them to use google docs to manage our caseloads.
Hope you had a good first week.
hope you’re having a great week. “see” you sat. in class!
Rob,
Our first week has been interesting. I share your excitement about trying to include blogs/wikis as part of my classes. But, like you, I’m at a bit of a loss as to where to start. I think as the “fog” of week one lifts my ideas will become clearer.
What kind of yearbook does your school produce? With all of your experience it sounds like you could do a fun senior website or video year book. Do you have a blog for graduating seniors? That’d be cool to post photos and have an archive of the whole year. We did a video yearbook – it wasn’t very professional, but the students really had fun making it!
Ciao!
Lori
We just do a regular yearbook. I have to much going on to devote any more time than I already do to the yearbook. This year we might have a company do a video yearbook/online magazine for us.
how do you teach special ed and have three preps in class? My wife wanted to join the special ed intern program and I told her not to because of all of the paper work a special ed teacher has to do. IEP’s seem like the worst thing to do in the world. Does Sweetwater provide you with an assistant to help you?
The paperwork is not so bad anymore. Everything is online now, so a lot of the paperwork comes filled out already from the previous teacher. You just have to update as needed. IEP’s don’t take as long to complete as they used to.
Wow, you’ve got a full load going on there, Roberto. It does make it a problem to try to set something up for your classes. As far as helping out with some clinics with the team, I have to decline your kind offer. I spent over a decade making my living as a coach; now when I set foot on the court, I just try to have fun as long as my body lets me. Have fun with the girls.
I knew you’d say no, but it’s ok. It was worth a try. Maybe we can just step on the court and play some day.
It is overwhelming! Especially with all of the different tools we have been using. I’m sure you will find awesome ways to use what we have learned!
I just started teaching in a school where 99% of students are not fluent English speakers. Would you be able to share any resources to help me be a better teacher for my new students?
To tell you the truth, I don’t have many resources I refer to. Just scaffold and translate most of the concepts they don’t get. When they really don’t get it, I just give lots of real world examples that they relate to. Once you start teaching and have specific questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll help out any way I can.
I love the googlepages, I will definitely continue using that tool, but blogging I’m not so sure.
You are going to be busy. I have blogged for geography and you are more than welcome to use my google page (although all the content is second semster because that is when we learned googlepages and blogger). Check it out and maybe you can save some time- my kids did really strong on the EOCEs. Link is http://mr.rodriguez23.googlepages.com/home
Thanks. I’ll definitely check out your web site and refer to it as needed.
Wow! It must be stressful not knowing what you are going to be teaching one year to the next! I heard that I might have a grade level change next year, and the idea made me quite nervous. Good luck with your tech integration plans!
You’ll be ok. Starting from scratch every year sucks, but it definitely forces you to stay on top of game.
Hey Robert,
Everything you do looks so cool! I like how the comments are speech bubbles. How did you do that? I might copy you again!
I didn’t know you were a wedding photographer? My sis is getting married next year. I will definitely keep you in mind for the job.
misty
Thanks for the compliment Misty. Unfortunately, I had nothing to do with this one. Not really sure how the comments come out that way. Feel free to borrow. It must be design itself. Forward my info to your sister so she can check out some of my work.
Use the rubric to come up with your 5 posts about the final project.
Looking forward to hearing what your plans are..
http://edtec700.edublogs.org/assignments-2/blog-rubric/