Are Smart Boards a smart purchase?

Should you purchase Smart Boards for your school?
The short answer: Only if your teachers already have and know how to use laptops and projection devices (LCD projector, good sized TV, etc.) If you have not already provided the afore-mentioned equipment and training, there's a good chance those Smart Boards will end up looking like a real expensive overheads. More on this subject later.
Remember: Ready, FIRE, Aim! is not a good technique to use in considering tech purchases. More than one school I know of went out and bought Smart Boards not realizing they also needed to buy projectors!!

Ed Tech Tips for K12 Administrators

On Wednesday I presented at the Fresno County Office of Education Tech Conference for Administrators up at the Tenaya Lodge. Just the fact that we had a conference like that is encouraging, given school administrators are the least tech-savvy members of our profession.
The PowerPoint presentation I used is on my website(www.caedtech.com/examples.htm) and will will provide some useful opinions on what good educational technology integration looks like.

Here is today's tech tip for tech integration. If you visit this blog often, you'll see this one repeated a few times. This one is the fundamental component of ed tech at your school:

Use a computer and projection device for DIRECT INSTRUCTION. In other words, train teachers to use PowerPoint, Keynote, Excel, Word, Appleworks and/or iLife to present engaging content to their students. LOSE the overhead, blackboard, whiteboard, and flip chart except for the rare occasions that is the only medium that will work. I guarantee your students will come alive . Check out the previously mentioned PowerPoint for more.

What does CTA stand for??

By the way, CTA is the California Teachers Association, who I normally view as a positive influence on education. Not in this case, though.

No CST for second graders...yay or nay??

Wow, this bloggin' stuff can be addicting......Great news from Sacramento! Second graders don't take the CST any more. That's the test our students take to measure their learning growth. I hope CTA is happy. They led the effort to spare those little 8 year-olds the trauma of testing. (I have a bunch of third graders that enjoyed ice skating, water park and baseball game trips, regular monthly prizes and special status 'cause they succeeded on the CST as second graders. Good thing we're going to save next year's class from that terror.
Second grade proficiency scores tend to be higher than other grades. There will be schools go into PI (program improvement) status 'cause they won't get that percentage bump from those second graders.
Next year the proficiency target jumps to 37%, about a 12% jump. Some of my calculations show a drop of about 4% in the average school's proficiency level. Nice job and impeccable timing, CTA!

my "m" key doesn't work

A teacher spilled coffee on my mac keyboard and my m key doesn't work. If I took a few minutes to open the keyboard up, I could clean it and wouldn't keep having to copy and pasting the m in when I need it. That's why my previous post had the word "soe" in it where it should have been "some".
I have a 17 inch Apple titanium laptop. It's the best laptop you could get back two years ago. I always have the best laptop and the biggest monitor(Apple Cinema Display) in Fresno Unified School District. Especially the biggest monitor. If I see anyone with a bigger one I will upgrade mine. I bet therapy would help me.

What took me so long?

I should have put this up two years ago. Oh. well, no use crying about spilt milk. Lord knows, we need to be talking about this stuff. Well, just so you'll know what's up with this site, first I'll tell you about me.
I' m Jack Jarvis, principal of Hidalgo Elementary School in Fresno CA. I also operate an educational technology consulting group called California Educational Technology Association. While I enjoy being a principal, I hope to retire tommorow (just kidding). I hope to work with schools around the state that want to step out of the dark ages of teaching and into the brave new world.
Since this is my first post, I'll be polite and not tell you what's wrong with our profession. If you want to see my website, go to www.caedtech.com. Find the examples page to see soe of what we do, and we'll get back to you.