Welcome Back! I know some of you are just getting started back to school, while others have been in class since August 1. This year for RICE begins with our meeting on Thursday, September 4 (more information listed in a previous blog), I hope you are looking forward to the meeting as much as I am. RICE meetings are a sharing of education ideas and resources by teachers, staff support, technology directors, and just about any staff member in your school, focused on students and learning. This opportunity to gather together to focus on modifying and hopefully improving is one of main reasons I got involved with RICE. The topics that are covered often include computer or technology, but the focus is always on students and learning. The members are what make RICE strong and vibrant. You are the source of our best ideas and, many times, the answers to questions for other members. For your participation I am truly grateful. The people I have met through RICE continue to uplift and energize me.
This year RICE can provide our members with a new membership benefit. RICE is a chapter of Illinois Computing Educators (ICE). ICE has created a Blogging Website using TypePad software. Each chapter has its own blog site for members to access, but you may also view other chapter sites. The address for the RICE blog site is http://ice.typepad.com/rice/ . Please take time to visit the site and choose to link to it with your email address. Many of our members live too far out to be able to attend all our meetings. This will enable us to keep everyone updated with the latest information.
Julie Cox has graciously volunteered to be the RICE blogger and will be posting information on a regular basis. This is intended to be an active exchange of ideas, questions, comments, and whatever else our members need. So please take a few minutes to take a look and register your email address.
I am extending an open invitation to all parties interested to come to any of our meetings. The RICE Web page and Blog site both contain information about our meetings. Please share the meeting information with your fellow staff and educators. We offer pizza at each of our meetings, so please do email me to make sure we can have enough. And if you have any special requests, please let us know. I would love to see you on September 4 at the RIROE (Moline ROE).