Reflection - First Meeting

This blog will be the primary data collection tool for reporting on the progress of the mentorship. Our first meeting was a great success. The list of things that Margie wants to learn is long but we managed to prioritize it to give presidence to a new program purchased to support our school-wide professional development. The name of the program is GIST and is a tool to create content literacy diagrams. I downloaded the program to her home computer and installed a number of templates. Our time was spent learning the basics of file management within the program as well as basic functions. We created a new diagram from a template and modified some text and added a little color. The routine to add links was a little more complex and we spent some time adding pictures to the folder for her diagram. We then linked to those pictures from within the diagram. We discussed the difference between edit and presentation mode so that I am confident that Margie will be able to complete the diagram on her own without my assisstance. For next week her assignment is to finish the diagram or make another that is relevant to her teaching. Margie is getting a lot of new ideas on her own for integrating technology in her classroom. She even plans to put in a requisition for an LCD projector so that she can give the great presentations that she is preparing. You GO girl!

As was our plan, I shared dinner with Margie and plan to sleep over. This was an enjoyable experience and I am glad that we have plans to continue to meet in this way. I believe this will be a very productive and enjoyable experience.