ASPEN...take 2

I led the second session for ASPEN today with the World Language department. I felt like it went better than the first session, but working with certain people in my department can be a challenge. This part of the internship is definitely testing my patience! I realize that people are upset with this program, but this is what we have been given and we need to run with it. Until the county tells us that we are able to use something else, we are stuck with ASPEN.

This program is not user-friendly in the least bit, and that is why the staff is so frustrated. Today, I walked my department through setting up the categories for their grades and setting up all of their gradebook preferences. Yet again, there are varying ability levels within the department. They asked questions that I thought were very basic, but I tried to be patient and walk each person through getting their gradebook ready to go now that we are two weeks into the school year. What my team leader and I thought would take 25-30 minutes, took almost an hour! We had the time, so it was not a big deal, but the varying ability levels kept us from moving at a reasonable pace.

I was pleased with the session today, but a bit disheartened that we could not get as far as I had hoped. I was only able to show them how to set up one assignment instead of the multiple samples that I had planned. Hopefully, this will change the next time when we talk about interim grades and report cards in October!

I am making myself available during planning and before/after school every Monday so that department members who need help can drop by if they need to. The reference sheets with which Howard County provided us are fairly clear, and most teachers have been using those to guide them and figure out what they need to do. Some people learn better with hands-on help, however, and I understand that! Before you know it we will be moving on to interims and report cards!

I would love to show screen shots of what we have been doing, but the county has made it very clear (with a warning message at the top of the page EVERY time you log on) that this information is to be kept private. I will respect their wishes!