Life...

You see that e-mail from your professor wondering why you haven't done your assignment and you feel like someone just died...yep, that was me about an hour ago!  Why did I think this was due Thursday, I have no idea...April 5 is Tuesday, not Thursday.  Regardless, here is my blog for the week...though late!
An update on E-Rate first of all.  We are currently in the 28 day waiting period, which is what you must do between filing your initial request for E-Rate and filing your "actual" request.  In this 28 days, you should receive bids from local carriers to provide you service for you telecommunications and or internet access (so far, we have not received any bids...I am not sure if that is good or bad).  As you receive these bids, you will put them in your prepared matrix to compare them all and see which one is best for your school.  Once your 28 days are up, you then file Form 471 which is showing them who your carrier will be, the cost of their services, and they will factor the discount amount you are given.  I HIGHLY recommend contacting your ESU to help you with this. Diane, my E-Rate fairy, has been SO helpful through this process and made it so easy for my team (remember...me, myself, and I).  I did share this amazing program with my staff today at our bi-weekly meeting and had some great response to the fact that we were saving money...one willing to help with the process next year! :)  I will present this to our school board tomorrow evening and hopefully get one of them to help chair this project as well.  As Dr. Mausbach said...you shouldn't have to beg for volunteers, if you can show them the great ways it will help your school you should easily get volunteers.  I pray that is the case!
Though E-Rate is still fresh in my head and I continue reading on it, my brain has switched gears to my next module, Technology Integration.  I look forward to hearing what those of you who have done this module have learned tonight (yes, I do have that date right) in our BlueCafe discussion.  In my brain, this should be a simple task...well as you may realize from my forgetfulness of this blog my brain may not always be right!  In a perfect world, technology integration should be just like using your reading basil or your math workbook.  It is just part of your curriculum and "how we do things".  Though this may not be the case right off the bat, after some practice and implementation...it will be, right?!  Dr. Mausbach has suggested that I look at some of the technology models when I am writing my paper. Honestly, they are all new to me so I am taking a peek at each one and trying to decide which one would work best for our 1-8 school.  Any suggestions?  I of course like parts of each one and do have one that I like more than the others, but haven't decided why I like that one the best yet...more research.  I have been most familiar with the TIM model, as Doug Zauha our "tech guy" has talked about this and I have read up on the SAMR model after reading Candace's blog.  That doesn't mean I won't look at the others, but these two were in the forefront of my research as I was more familiar with them.
I look forward to learning more about these technology models and how they can help us in our school to make technology "how we do things" in our classrooms.  I am up for the challenge of taking our school closer to the digital era!