February

Another semester has started and every teacher is so exhausted I would put money on that every teacher will probably take a sick/personal day before spring break. We hardly had a chance to end one semester then turned around to start a new one!

I have been spending some time with a Special Ed teacher a few days after school talking about how to integrate technology into the math classroom. She is team teaching with two math teachers this semester. We talked about using Quia.com, Smart Notebook, and Interactive web sites. She made a quia activity for a 2ccp class. I am interested to hear how it goes. She did a great job creating the questions and then put them into a Rags to Riches game. (3hrs)

I have written two grants! I am excited...so far anyway! I have never done something like this before so I will be exhilarated if we actually are awarded the grants or even one! The first grant is tthrough HP for $30k. It involves a team of teachers which is made up of three math teachers, a special ed teacher and myself as a technology teacher. If we get the grant we will get five multimedia projectors, five Tablet PC's, five digital cameras, five all in one printer/scanner/copier and each teacher will get a $500 stipend. We spent two days after school answering the questions. Then on another day I meet with the Technology director for the school district who is my mentor for my internship. He gave me his okay. We discussed at length the three year technology plan for the school district. It was interesting to hear his plans to upgrade the equipment across the district in the next two school years then start focusing on professional development in the school year 2007-2008. Next I will need to meet with the principals and the curriculum director. The HP grant is due on Wednesday...I hope there aren't too many corrections!!
The other grant is for $5K. I nominated a math colleague as my Math Hero! She is amazing in all that she has accomplished and all that she does every day. This grant is also due on Wednesday also. I am hoping she can get a SmartBoard, laptop and multimedia projector out fo the grant! (3 hrs)

So thats all for now! I hope to come back and write about all my successes with grant writing!!!