What are some things you have learned and/or tasks you have accomplished this semester?

Throughout the first semester I’ve accomplished a lot, not only myself, but also with my group for the Wall of Excellence. With the group we’ve met to discuss how to truly put our plan into action for this year after two years of planning. As well as, we’ve finalized for the most part our application, visual aspect, criteria, and awarding method. All our work and efforts are paying off as I believe we will be awarding the first recipients this year at the academics banquet. Furthermore, individually I have been able to work and learn about the Micro:bits. As well as, I got the opportunity to personalize my blog posts with DiVi Builder. This application is quite hard to get used to, but allows one to show this personality through their posts.

What aspects of your work are successful? Explain why.

Our team for the Wall of Excellence has gotten a head start on trying to accomplish our project by wanting to award the first recipient this year. This is a huge accomplishment as we’ve been working on this for the past two years putting together ideas, getting them approved, and finally actually putting them into action; therefore, I’m glad that I’ll be here from start to finish to see how this projects turns out.

What aspects of your work is challenging? Explain why.

The most challenging part is coming together at the same time as a team to discuss the Wall of Excellence together. Also we have to account for everything that can go wrong with the design and process so that we can troubleshoot and find solutions for these things if they do happen. Additionally, I found a lot of challenges when using the DiVi Builder plugin as it was difficult to use in it’s various forms and was difficult to understand when trying to form the page. On the other hand, the Micro:bits were quite easy to get used to, but of course there’s a lot to learn from them and what they can to be able to truly utilize them.

What steps did you take to overcome these challenges / what adjustments did you need to make?

For the Wall of Excellence our team has great communication skills as we are able to team up into smaller groups to at least have one person in each group at the meetings. Also we have very in-depth conversations to understand the issues we can run into so that we could also solve them. For the DiVi Builder on the other hand, it was very challenging so my best tactic was trial and error, but at times I did try and search things up online. As for the Micro:bits, the greatest challenge was the notion that I’ve never used them, but they are very accessible easy to learn about.

Is there anything you can do improve?

At the moment I believe this is the best way as everyone in Tech Team has a very busy schedule, but we are making do and have actually accomplished quite a bit in this first semester for the Wall of Excellence. Also for the Micro:bits I would just like to go down to the Maker Space more often and get a better understanding of how to use this technology as it seems as it can accomplish a lot.

As Riverside continues to immerse itself into innovation and technology, what do you think Riverside can do to provide support and help for teachers and students?

I would continue having the Wave open as that’s great support for the students and staff. A suggestion, which may not be probable, but would be nice is to have workshops that can be either included into more classes or have outside of class ones. This may not only be beneficial to our school community as our world is technology driven, but also allows for individual students to possibly see if they have a passion for technology and electronics. This idea may also be used for the teachers at Riverside to be able to sharpen and better their skills.

Do you have any feedback or suggestions, as we move forward, that could help the Tech Team meet the needs of our school and staff / be more effective?

I believe that Tech Team is currently doing very well as some classes have taken in the technological initiative in their projects, I wish more would do so. Also we provide great support at all the bootcamps and information nights which have really helped students and parents transitioning into this 1:1 digital setting. Many students use what was learned here on a day to day basis without the need for assistance which sets them up for success in their future. Furthermore, the only suggestion I would say it to have these bootcamps and information sessions more organized for the Tech Team students as most are put on the spot; therefore, we could more prepared and able to help with the best advice/help possible.