Dear Colleagues: 

There is a bitter sweet feeling as I prepare to take my leave from Shen and move on to Voorheesville. I am excited about the opportunity to lead a District, but I will miss Shenendehowa very much.   I have so enjoyed meeting so many of you and experiencing the energy that is Shen.  As I write this for the final Professional Development newsletter, I want to apprise you of the great work of the District Instructional Technology Integration Committee (DITIC), which led the way in terms of outfitting classrooms with teacher presentation stations.  We got 216 installed this year and we are targeting 68 additional classrooms for next year.

Our original charge of fully operationalizing every classroom within five years took a significant ding with this year’s budget development.  However, the committee remained determined to continue the work and Shen will move forward with the project, even if it takes us six years or more. It is  important to have the means of accessing the world of information out there  for our students.  That said, I am a big believer that technology serves instruction—it is not an end in itself but a means to an end. I urge you to share your great ideas with your colleagues, to pass on knowledge about using the technology to enhance instruction, and to embrace the opportunities that technology can offer to good instruction. I wish you all the best and I will always cherish the three years I have spent among you. 

To view complete summer course

descriptions visit the ShenPD blog:

1  Login to the ShenPD blog by starting Internet Explorer and typing shenpd.wordpress.com in the address bar

2  Click on Summer 2009 under the categories heading on the right hand side.

3  To read full class descriptions use the read full post link at the bottom of each article.

4  Once you have attended a class, feel free to continue your dialog with other participants using the comment button below each class description. Through the use of this comment feature you can have discussions with all participants of this class past and present, including the instructors.