Week April 20-24, 2009

I remember registering for the first workshop in Grantville I attended as a business education student. That was about a year and a half ago. Before going to this workshop, I thought it was going to be like all other seminars and meetings I attended in past employments. I was sure this was going to be a waste of time and energy. I was wrong. The first workshop was filled with great ideas for new teachers as well as experienced teachers. I found the information was useful and can be immediately implemented in class. The networking of teachers was also valuable because all business teachers want other business teachers and the business education department in all schools to be as successful as possible. The business teachers I have met at all of the workshops have always been extremely helpful to me as a new teacher. The most valuable part of this week was attending the workshop in Grantville.

Friday's workshop was filled with an overwhelming amount of resources. A representative from the Federal Reserve in Philidelphia offered us an entire course, free of charge, called Keys to Financial Success which we can teach in our Personal Finance class. A member of the Bloomsburg University staff presented reading strategies for us to teach our high school students. These workshops truely offer a wealth of information for both new and seasoned teachers and I plan on attending each one.

For the most part, the week was well planned and no major problems occured. However, there was one thing I would like to have changed. In my nineth grade computer applications class, I had a Microsoft Access exercise planned for both of my classes. I uploaded the exercise to the student drive the same way as I had done in the past with the Excel exercises. I asked the students to locate this exercise and open it. However, there was a technology problem. None of the students could open the Access file. All of the students received an error. I was stuck. I remembered immediately how Dr. O told us to be prepared with a back up plan because technology was not always going to work. I was not prepared with a backup plan. I did continue with a discussion on Microsoft Access and had the students discuss with me how they could use a database. Yes, back up plans are necessary especially when teaching technology.