Changes Are Coming!

I have received approval from my principal at Mt. Hebron for my internship, and the paperwork is in the mail to Loyola! I am nervous for two reasons: first, I am not sure if David will approve my internship even though my principal was really excited about it, and second, everything could change now that Howard County is moving forward with the new ASPEN program.

ASPEN will eventually be a full-fledged course management system. Next year, it will be more than our attendance and report card program; now it will be our online gradebook, parent communication tool, student/parent information system, report generator, and transcript access. Towards the end of the year it will be a schedule designer and hopefully, student communication tool.

I attended a training session yesterday, and it was extremely beneficial. I am concerned for all of the schools because a representative will be coming out to each school for this training session in hopes that the people who attended the session will be the leaders in their school for training the staff as a whole. When school begins again in the fall, the county will not be sending out any more representatives for training. I am torn between the plan that I had for my internship and being the leader that my school will most likely need for ASPEN. I am already leading a training session next week for my department, and three or four more in the fall. It was suggested that I also be in charge of a small group of new teachers, teachers who are currently on maternity leave, and transfers from other counties who will also need this new training as well as everything we've been using this year.

My internship could change drastically in the next few weeks, and I am not sure what to do. I know that my principal will support me no matter what, but I may have to decide between what may be best for my school and what I want to do. Stay tuned for more details...for now, it's time to finish up some posts on my pre-internship portfolio! Eight more days of school!