Professional Development

When there is a professional development day at school the work day starts and ends a little later.  I left this morning thinking I would have time and then didn't.  What I hadn't realized until it was too late is that there was a lengthy backup on the highway.  My GPS went from 5 minutes late, to 25 minutes late to 45 minutes late so I called work to let them know.  Thankfully things cleared up and I was only 25 minutes late.

One of the things that is being discussed at school is integrating certain subjects with each other.  This is something that I tried to do when I homeschooled.  It is easier at home when teaching something, say geography mapping skills with longitude and latitude, and then tangent to math and graphing.  The subjects, in this instance, combine well.  These aren't as easy to coordinate in the public school setting.  They are going to try though, and that pleases my home educator heart.

The paras watched a very touching and informative documentary, Intelligent Lives.  It discussed some of the horrors that people with disabilities have gone through in the United States not just historically, but also very recently.  Thankfully it ended on a more positive note with the increased assistance, educational and job opportunities available today.

We ended the professional development with a scavenger hunt of sorts.  We formed teams and had a Google Expedition.  There was a list of questions to answer about displays that were being presented on technology in the classroom.  There are some pretty neat things on the market for educators.  One that allows a teacher to add questions to videos on the internet, edpuzzle.  The zSpace systems that allows for 3D virtual learning where frogs can be virtually dissected and buildings can be designed and then virtually walked through.  Many interesting technologies and we got to learn about them by using software, whose name I have forgotten, that allowed us to have the scavenger hunt.  I feel that I am not describing the scavenger hunt well, but it was a fun ending to the work day and is a happy for today.

One other happy for today is the delicious meal my friend made for dinner tonight.

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