New School Year Checklist

It's Tuesday, and I'm back to work kicking off a new school year as an Academic Integration Coach under a new title, Instructional Technology and Integration Coach (ITIC).

I figured I'd kick things off with a checklist of things the techie teacher could do during the first days of school.

*Get to know your reimaged computers (now on Windows 7 OS) and make sure your favorite apps and links are still accessible

*Remove students from last year's Wikispaces or Moodle site

*Pre-populate your Wiki with accounts for your new students (if you teach younger kids)

*Clear your blogs (Kidblog? Blogger?) from last year's students' posts

*Update your Schoolwires Teacher Webpage with up-to-date courses, grading policies, etc.

*Prepare a Google Form to collect the information you need from your new students

*Prepare instructions for students to submit work electronically via Google Docs

*Embed your Google Calendar on your Wikispaces page or website

*Make a video podcast to spice up your classroom rules or other introductory info

Have any more suggestions? Please add them in the comments below!

I am happy to be starting a new school year, and to be joined by Glenn Yetter. The two of us will serve as K-12 ITICs (though we'll probably keep going by the old "AIC" title to keep the focus on "academic" instead of "technology").

We'd love to help you get started with anything on the checklist, as well as any other integration needs you have, and we're just a few clicks away. Go to www.npenn.org, and click "Academic Integration" under the "Our District" tab. Fill out our "Help Request" form and we'll come to you!

Here's to new beginnings. Good luck out there. Go make a difference!