This is my final week of the Summer of 2010 Externships. I did not do daily entries this week because I have been trying to come up with someway to summarize the past weeks. We are done with our work for the City of Carroll and are completing our work for the DNR. This week we have taken some time to update our Excel because of some minor changes from visiting parks last Friday and also took the cash receipt report to the final 2 pilot parks. All parks seemed positive about what we brought to them, and we sincerely hope that what we have done will make an easy transition for them in the future. We have also taken some time to reflect on what the past weeks have brought out for our teaching.
While our externship did not have a lot of "hard core" math involved, it did have some. The DNR cash receipt has many calculations involved with it. It is definitely a project that I could set up for my Algebra I students at the beginning of the year. The question I have to ask myself and keep asking myself is how much direction do I really give to the students. There is a fine line you have cross -- too much information and too little information. When I teach mainly Freshman in Algebra I they are already sometimes having a difficult transition from middle school to high school. If this is a project for the beginning of the year for them... how far can I push?
The second part of our externship did not really have any math involved. We were collecting data for the city. BUT, we do have the entire data set, and I wonder if I can't use part of the data set and ask students to look for correlations or trends. I could also ask students to do some research about ADA compliance's and see what it really takes, mathematically, to design something as simple as a city sidewalk from ramp to ramp. This may also be a time to bring in some real-life learning and ask the students become disabled for a day. Is the slope really important now? I remember talking with the City Engineer and that is exactly what they did in one of their trainings. They were given basically an obstacle course with different barriers from the street/sidewalk side as well as handicaps. Students sometimes really need to see things to believe them.
The major thing that I really want to take back to the students is communication skills. Year after year, we as teachers tell students they need to explain themselves. I know I stress this year after year, but I have never had the backing this externship gave me to say -- well this past summer.... Now I have it. They cannot argue with me. They, as well as me in many respects, need to step it up. As I keep looking at the 21st Century Skills need for our students, employability, technology, health, financial, and civic literacy, it becomes a huge part of teaching. This is not just a one person job. It is a job that all teachers need to take responsibility for in our classrooms everyday.
This externship has been a very positive experience overall, and I hope to get the opportunity to do it again in the future. The more real-life connections we can personally make to the math will have a great impact on the way we teach our students!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Friday July 16, 2010
We started our pilot project with our 4 parks today. We delivered our cash receipt excel workbook to 2 out of 4 parks with some positive feelings/feedback from the parks rangers/managers. Next week, we will visit the final 2 parks and bring them the excel as well.
It is pretty exciting to finally be taking this out to the people who will really be using it. It is also a bit sad not to be completely a part of the pilot. We would like to know how the excel will actually work for the parks people. Designing it and using it are two different things, and as teachers we are fully aware of that.
We have related this experience to similar "education initiatives". You are handed something at an in-serve and asked to use it, but who does the follow up? The state level of DNR wants changes made, but I do not know their time frame, and I could not tell the parks people today what the future holds. I guess that is part of a being in a pilot, but again, I just wish I could be there to see the whole thing through.
It is pretty exciting to finally be taking this out to the people who will really be using it. It is also a bit sad not to be completely a part of the pilot. We would like to know how the excel will actually work for the parks people. Designing it and using it are two different things, and as teachers we are fully aware of that.
We have related this experience to similar "education initiatives". You are handed something at an in-serve and asked to use it, but who does the follow up? The state level of DNR wants changes made, but I do not know their time frame, and I could not tell the parks people today what the future holds. I guess that is part of a being in a pilot, but again, I just wish I could be there to see the whole thing through.
Thursday July 15, 2010
Since we are done GPS'ing the City of Carroll, today is the official city tour. I have lived in Carroll for 12 years, but today I really did learn some new things about the town.
Our first stop was the water treatment plant. There are 8 wells the city uses water from. All the wells feed into the treatment plant and goes through a filtration process to make the water safe for all the houses in Carroll.
Second, we went to the waste water treatment facility. Carroll feeds into the facility from the north and from the south. In order for the water to be returned to the nearby creek, it goes through 4 different filtering processes.
Third, we stopped at the streets department. Here is where they take care of all the city streets from snow removal in the winter, street repairs, and mosquito control in the summer.
Finally, after taking a tour of other city facilities such as the rec center, little league fields, cemetery, etc, we ended up at the police station since our "tour guide" was the chief of police, we got the complete tour. We saw evidence storage, lab, arsenal, weight room, interrogation rooms...everything.
We got a fairly complete tour at every place we stopped, and I was amazed at how much goes on behind the scenes at each facility. The amount of math and science that takes place every day is incredible. Our tour was way to short to really get into specifics, but I would like to go back and shadow for just a day and see the people in action rather than just taking us on a tour of the facilities. I think it would be very beneficial to see how very important facilities are run day by day for a city to function. I did not think about what goes into some of these jobs until we actually went to the facilities.
At the end of the tour, the City of Carroll Manager invited us to use the resources the city has to offer. He said that if we needed anything or anyone to come into the classroom, he would do what ever he could to make that happen. Now, to plan....
Our first stop was the water treatment plant. There are 8 wells the city uses water from. All the wells feed into the treatment plant and goes through a filtration process to make the water safe for all the houses in Carroll.
Second, we went to the waste water treatment facility. Carroll feeds into the facility from the north and from the south. In order for the water to be returned to the nearby creek, it goes through 4 different filtering processes.
Third, we stopped at the streets department. Here is where they take care of all the city streets from snow removal in the winter, street repairs, and mosquito control in the summer.
Finally, after taking a tour of other city facilities such as the rec center, little league fields, cemetery, etc, we ended up at the police station since our "tour guide" was the chief of police, we got the complete tour. We saw evidence storage, lab, arsenal, weight room, interrogation rooms...everything.
We got a fairly complete tour at every place we stopped, and I was amazed at how much goes on behind the scenes at each facility. The amount of math and science that takes place every day is incredible. Our tour was way to short to really get into specifics, but I would like to go back and shadow for just a day and see the people in action rather than just taking us on a tour of the facilities. I think it would be very beneficial to see how very important facilities are run day by day for a city to function. I did not think about what goes into some of these jobs until we actually went to the facilities.
At the end of the tour, the City of Carroll Manager invited us to use the resources the city has to offer. He said that if we needed anything or anyone to come into the classroom, he would do what ever he could to make that happen. Now, to plan....
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Wednesday July 14, 2010
WE FINISHED DATA COLLECTION TODAY!!!! We have been to almost every corner in the City of Carroll and collected ramp slope, cross slope, ramp width, landing slope, and landing dimensions. It is a good feeling to have all that data collected.
Our next step for the City of Carroll is to take a look at the bigger picture of where this data is going and what it will be used for, and we will also be taking a tour of various facilities in Carroll and trying to find where the math is being used.
We also spent some time making sure we are ready to go out and pilot our DNR project since we got final approval to go out to 4 parks today. Now, we are trying to get appointment dates and times set up.
Jason visited us today as well to see our tricked out golf cart and equipment. We talked about how this is all going to apply to the classroom. I have some general ideas of how bring the information in, but I have a feeling by the end of next week after visiting multiple locations in Carroll and 4 different state parks, I will have an even better idea.
Our next step for the City of Carroll is to take a look at the bigger picture of where this data is going and what it will be used for, and we will also be taking a tour of various facilities in Carroll and trying to find where the math is being used.
We also spent some time making sure we are ready to go out and pilot our DNR project since we got final approval to go out to 4 parks today. Now, we are trying to get appointment dates and times set up.
Jason visited us today as well to see our tricked out golf cart and equipment. We talked about how this is all going to apply to the classroom. I have some general ideas of how bring the information in, but I have a feeling by the end of next week after visiting multiple locations in Carroll and 4 different state parks, I will have an even better idea.
Friday July 9, 2010
We were in Des Moines today presenting our "final product" to the DNR. We met with the same people as before, Marsha, Sherry, and Cara since they are all stake holders in this project. As they looked at the excel document every thing was in pretty good working order. There were a few minor cosmetic changes, but they are quick and easy to do. We saw the initial email that will go out to the parks explaining the pilot project and discussed some "best practices" while presenting. We are excited to get this rolling! I still wish the entire process could have gone a bit faster, but totally understand the pressure and workload of the non-extern. I would love to see the pilot go in place and also do some troubleshooting and see if what we did was really what will work for the parks as well as the main office in Des Moines.
From a teacher stand point, this is what I am thinking. We assign homework everyday and expect it done to the best of the students ability typically the next day. We trouble shot and try to find and fix errors with the students when and if they ask questions, then we move onto another topic. At the end of a chapter, we ask students to pull all the individual stuff together and take a test. Students have difficulty with this. They find it really hard to pull all the individual stuff together even if it maybe related. So, I can relate to the students with this DNR project. We were handed an idea. We had to look at several individual ideas and incorporate it all onto one document. We had to have other people look at our document and see if there were needed changes, and then we had to correct any problem. We have spent quite a bit of time on this process. But in the end, we are proud of what we have accomplished. Students should feel the same way at the end of a chapter. They cannot give in or give up. They should feel proud of their accomplishment no matter what.
From a teacher stand point, this is what I am thinking. We assign homework everyday and expect it done to the best of the students ability typically the next day. We trouble shot and try to find and fix errors with the students when and if they ask questions, then we move onto another topic. At the end of a chapter, we ask students to pull all the individual stuff together and take a test. Students have difficulty with this. They find it really hard to pull all the individual stuff together even if it maybe related. So, I can relate to the students with this DNR project. We were handed an idea. We had to look at several individual ideas and incorporate it all onto one document. We had to have other people look at our document and see if there were needed changes, and then we had to correct any problem. We have spent quite a bit of time on this process. But in the end, we are proud of what we have accomplished. Students should feel the same way at the end of a chapter. They cannot give in or give up. They should feel proud of their accomplishment no matter what.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Wednesday July 7, 2010
We finished up our "final" product for the DNR and prepared for a meeting in Des Moines on Friday to hopefully get approval to take this out to the parks. As we were working with our document, we were noticing all the details that had to be adjusted, shifted, changed, etc. Looking at this from a teacher perspective, details are so important. From a student perspective, I can understand why sometimes students just say, "give me a C and call it good enough." When you spend several hours just looking for details to change to make something as good as you can make it, it can become frustrating. I think this is what makes our job as teachers important. We need to convince students to WANT to make their work the best possible thing it can be no matter how many times they need to re-do or revise it.
My colleague and I also took some time to go reflect on the list of 21st Century Skills and Mathematics Essential Concepts that we have been working with in our DNR externship and City of Carroll externship. The number one thing we keep running into is the use of technology for both. The idea of technology literacy is very important. For the DNR, we designed our document using an excel document, and for the City of Carroll all of our data is collected onto an excel document. For City of Carroll, the GPS equipment is basically a handheld computer. It has to connect to as many satellites as possible to get a good reading of the GPS position. Then the survey equipment is downloaded onto an actual computer. GIS skills are used to create a map of all the sidewalk corners and then use the excel document to see if they are ADA compliant.
The frustrating thing we both agreed on today was the lack of mathematical knowledge that we have to use in our externships, OR do we already have the natural ability to just use it? We understand taxes (DNR), and we understand slope (Carroll). We understand data collection and analysis and the importance of details. So, as I am "cleaning up details" to a DNR report or recording sidewalk slope data, I have to stop and think - is this what a student would do? Would they understand all these numbers? Then take that idea and create something new in the classroom. I will also go back to a previous post I made. I believe in the "real world" people just get so accustom to using math in their everyday jobs its just natural for them. Take them out of their job and ask them to do the same math, and it does not make sense to them. The same thing happens to students. They have a lot of math background coming into high school. It getting them to use that knowledge naturally and understand what they are doing is the same thing in a different context. Same concept -- Different context.
My colleague and I also took some time to go reflect on the list of 21st Century Skills and Mathematics Essential Concepts that we have been working with in our DNR externship and City of Carroll externship. The number one thing we keep running into is the use of technology for both. The idea of technology literacy is very important. For the DNR, we designed our document using an excel document, and for the City of Carroll all of our data is collected onto an excel document. For City of Carroll, the GPS equipment is basically a handheld computer. It has to connect to as many satellites as possible to get a good reading of the GPS position. Then the survey equipment is downloaded onto an actual computer. GIS skills are used to create a map of all the sidewalk corners and then use the excel document to see if they are ADA compliant.
The frustrating thing we both agreed on today was the lack of mathematical knowledge that we have to use in our externships, OR do we already have the natural ability to just use it? We understand taxes (DNR), and we understand slope (Carroll). We understand data collection and analysis and the importance of details. So, as I am "cleaning up details" to a DNR report or recording sidewalk slope data, I have to stop and think - is this what a student would do? Would they understand all these numbers? Then take that idea and create something new in the classroom. I will also go back to a previous post I made. I believe in the "real world" people just get so accustom to using math in their everyday jobs its just natural for them. Take them out of their job and ask them to do the same math, and it does not make sense to them. The same thing happens to students. They have a lot of math background coming into high school. It getting them to use that knowledge naturally and understand what they are doing is the same thing in a different context. Same concept -- Different context.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Monday July 5, 2010
Since most people are taking this day as a holiday, I have taken some time to update my DNR program and City of Carroll data. Not real exciting, but it is a task that must get done at some point.
Friday July 2, 2010
It's the end of a long work week. You would think driving around in a golf cart collecting data would not be so tiring, but I guess when you are used to being inside a building teaching all day, the outside air really gets to you.
Reflecting on this week. I have realized a something, you really do not think about all the math that takes place on relatively simple tasks. That is probably why I have heard countless times, "Oh, you teach math, I was never very good at that." I just do not think people realize that they are really doing a lot of math without even thinking about it especially when it is a day to day "normal" task for them. As I think about teaching next year, I really want to have my students focus in on when and where they actually use math without even thinking, because as they go through high school math, that is what should happen. High school math should be done just naturally, without even thinking. Now, to convince a student....
Some of the math in our externship I used lately would be taking a reading with the survey equipment. We have to try and get a reading in the thousandths place in relationship to a horizontal axis AND a vertical axis. If you do not know the difference between horizontal and vertical, how are you going to adjust the survey pole correctly? Also, as we take all the other readings, we use a digital level for the slope and an engineering tape measure which gives measurements in a decimal form. We found out all the computer programs require measurements in decimal form verses feet and inches. (4.25 ft instead of 4 ft 3 inches). If you do not have an engineering tape, you get to do all the conversions on your own. It is all the simple stuff you do not think about.
Another realization that I have come to lately is the need for students to just jump into a task and take control of it. Ask good probing questions, but take control of the situation. If we waited to be told what to do, step by step, we would not get anything accomplished in our day to day tasks for the DNR or City of Carroll. You have to try something. If it is wrong, you may have to go back and correct your mistakes but keep trying.
The last thing I have seen in the last 3 weeks is 21st century skills are crutial. No matter what the task is, you are constantly made very aware of the skills: employabiltiy, technology literacy, health literacy, financial literacy, and civic literacy. I do not think a day goes by where you would not use all of these skills some how and in some way.
Reflecting on this week. I have realized a something, you really do not think about all the math that takes place on relatively simple tasks. That is probably why I have heard countless times, "Oh, you teach math, I was never very good at that." I just do not think people realize that they are really doing a lot of math without even thinking about it especially when it is a day to day "normal" task for them. As I think about teaching next year, I really want to have my students focus in on when and where they actually use math without even thinking, because as they go through high school math, that is what should happen. High school math should be done just naturally, without even thinking. Now, to convince a student....
Some of the math in our externship I used lately would be taking a reading with the survey equipment. We have to try and get a reading in the thousandths place in relationship to a horizontal axis AND a vertical axis. If you do not know the difference between horizontal and vertical, how are you going to adjust the survey pole correctly? Also, as we take all the other readings, we use a digital level for the slope and an engineering tape measure which gives measurements in a decimal form. We found out all the computer programs require measurements in decimal form verses feet and inches. (4.25 ft instead of 4 ft 3 inches). If you do not have an engineering tape, you get to do all the conversions on your own. It is all the simple stuff you do not think about.
Another realization that I have come to lately is the need for students to just jump into a task and take control of it. Ask good probing questions, but take control of the situation. If we waited to be told what to do, step by step, we would not get anything accomplished in our day to day tasks for the DNR or City of Carroll. You have to try something. If it is wrong, you may have to go back and correct your mistakes but keep trying.
The last thing I have seen in the last 3 weeks is 21st century skills are crutial. No matter what the task is, you are constantly made very aware of the skills: employabiltiy, technology literacy, health literacy, financial literacy, and civic literacy. I do not think a day goes by where you would not use all of these skills some how and in some way.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tues, June 29, Wed. June 30, and Thursday July 1, 2010
For the past 3 days, my colleague and I have been driving around the city of Carroll in our golf cart. We have been collecting data for the City of Carroll about sidewalk ramps slope and dimensions. We are also doing survey work and collecting GPS location points on all the sidewalk ramps as well. As strange as it may seem, it is actually pretty interesting. We have been observing how the style of houses change from one section of town to another and how the sidewalk conditions have changed as they have changed ADA laws throughout the years as well. I guess you have to be a math teacher to really enjoy looking at all the data.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday June 28, 2010
Today begins week three and also a different externship. We worked with Carey Promes today. He works in the City Engineers office under Randy Krauel. Carey will pretty much be our boss for the final weeks of this summer externship. We started today with a briefing about all the previously data collected for the city, and we started to develop a plan of how best to start collecting the new data. We learned how to use a gps/survey pole. We were issued "official reflective vests" to wear while working on our retro-fitted golf cart. (We have to have a special bracket attached to the golf cart in order to keep the gps pole vertical and collect part of the necessary data for the city.) It has been a pretty busy day.
Tomorrow, the real work starts....We can not wait. We will actually be out on the city streets measuring and collecting data about all the sidewalk ramps in Carroll. We have several piece of data to collect at every ramp including slope, width, whether there is an indicator mat in the sidewalk, ramp dimensions, landing dimensions, etc. All the data will be going into an excel document for the city to get organized and prioritize necessary fixes.
Tomorrow, the real work starts....We can not wait. We will actually be out on the city streets measuring and collecting data about all the sidewalk ramps in Carroll. We have several piece of data to collect at every ramp including slope, width, whether there is an indicator mat in the sidewalk, ramp dimensions, landing dimensions, etc. All the data will be going into an excel document for the city to get organized and prioritize necessary fixes.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday June 25, 2010
Not a real exciting day. We did the updates we needed to from the feedback from Sherry at DNR. We also updated the other pages in the workbook to reflect the new "look".
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday June 24, 2010
We worked on fixing our excel workbook and learned how to lock out cells that should not be changed by a parks employee. We also updated our procedure documents.
Yesterday at our meeting with DNR, Jane Mild, the volunteer coordinator, talked to us about GIS. So, we spent some time playing with that on the DNR website and are thinking about incorporating some of that with our City of Carroll project. We are not sure if it will work, but we will keep looking into it and talk to the City on Monday.
Yesterday at our meeting with DNR, Jane Mild, the volunteer coordinator, talked to us about GIS. So, we spent some time playing with that on the DNR website and are thinking about incorporating some of that with our City of Carroll project. We are not sure if it will work, but we will keep looking into it and talk to the City on Monday.
Wednesday June 23, 2010
We traveled to Des Moines today and met with the people from the DNR and showed them our project in person. I think it will work! After talking face to face, we all decided to do a bit of rearranging, but nothing too major. It was a good feeling leaving the Wallace Building today.
Our target goal to pilot the project to 4-5 state parks is the last two weeks of our externship. I sincerely hope that when we take this too the parks, we have made this user friendly enough that when they start to use it they really like what we have done.
Our target goal to pilot the project to 4-5 state parks is the last two weeks of our externship. I sincerely hope that when we take this too the parks, we have made this user friendly enough that when they start to use it they really like what we have done.
Tuesday June 22, 2010
Today we are getting ready to present to the DNR on Wednesday. We have made a few adjustments in response to their emails. We hope what we have will look like what they are wanting.
We also met with the City of Carroll to talk about part 2 of our externship. As we talked with Randy Kruell about the project the city wants done. It seems interesting and math, especially Algebra I, can be incorporated into this part.
The city has asked us to look at every street corner in the city of Carroll and determine if the ramp is compliant with the current disabilities acts. We begin next Monday!
We also met with the City of Carroll to talk about part 2 of our externship. As we talked with Randy Kruell about the project the city wants done. It seems interesting and math, especially Algebra I, can be incorporated into this part.
The city has asked us to look at every street corner in the city of Carroll and determine if the ramp is compliant with the current disabilities acts. We begin next Monday!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday June 21, 2010
Today, we worked on fixing some of the tax problems with our excel workbook. In doing so, we had to go and do some research with the Department of Revune tax website. It was interesting reading through some of the tax laws and trying to apply them to our circumstances.
We also spent time with our procedure document and are working on cleaning it up.
We also spent time with our procedure document and are working on cleaning it up.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday June 18, 2010
After working all this week on our excel workbook, I think it is in a presentable form. Today, we wrote a first draft of a procedure plan to take to the pilot parks this summer. I am feeling like we are really getting something real done, and we will soon be ready to take this to the parks.
This week I have gone through a tremendous change of heart as well. At the beginning of the week, I was very frustrated about the project that was handed to us, but now, I am really excited. Through out this week I felt like I was lost, did not know what to do, I knew the math, but I did not know the expectation of our supervisor, etc. Then I finally realized this is truly what the "real world" is like. You are handed a project and expected to complete it. No one is standing over your shoulder telling you this is step one, step two, etc. You just complete it.
As a teacher, I will definitely take this idea back to the classroom. As teachers, we cannot just tell students the answers. We cannot just give them the steps needed to complete whatever project we give to them. We, as teachers, need to hand off the work to our students and just let them figure things out on their own. For my externship, this project is MINE! In a classroom, the learning is THE STUDENTS! As teachers, we need to hand off the reigns, so to speak, and let the students do the work and the math will be come theirs.
This week I have gone through a tremendous change of heart as well. At the beginning of the week, I was very frustrated about the project that was handed to us, but now, I am really excited. Through out this week I felt like I was lost, did not know what to do, I knew the math, but I did not know the expectation of our supervisor, etc. Then I finally realized this is truly what the "real world" is like. You are handed a project and expected to complete it. No one is standing over your shoulder telling you this is step one, step two, etc. You just complete it.
As a teacher, I will definitely take this idea back to the classroom. As teachers, we cannot just tell students the answers. We cannot just give them the steps needed to complete whatever project we give to them. We, as teachers, need to hand off the work to our students and just let them figure things out on their own. For my externship, this project is MINE! In a classroom, the learning is THE STUDENTS! As teachers, we need to hand off the reigns, so to speak, and let the students do the work and the math will be come theirs.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday June 17, 2010
Today, we worked on cleaning up our excel project. We wanted everything to look pretty much the same, yet still give the DNR the information they are looking for. We were also looking at how the reports will print and we tried to get the final printed project onto the least amount of paper possible. Tomorrow, we plan on working on a procedure document on how to use the excel.
The excitement is building know that we are going to be creating a DNR report, writing a procedure to go with the report, and also taking it to the some pilot offices. It's kind of cool to think our externship could impact all the state parks and turn into a standardized practice at all parks.
The excitement is building know that we are going to be creating a DNR report, writing a procedure to go with the report, and also taking it to the some pilot offices. It's kind of cool to think our externship could impact all the state parks and turn into a standardized practice at all parks.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday June 16, 2010
Yesterday, we sent our excel workbook to our supervisor in Des Moines to get her feedback and to make sure that what we are doing is what she is really wanting. We did not get a response from Marsha, but we did get some good feed back from Sherry, and we have a few adjustments to make, but that was to be expected. We also decided to make an appointment with a Park Manager, Andy, at Ledges state park to take what we have done so far and ask his opinion of the project and to get some of our other questions answered. This way, we were also able to start getting out to the parks and seeing what really goes on in the money collection portion of a state park.
We showed Andy our "work in progress" an asked his opinion, and we got the impression that what we have so far is a good thing. He liked the idea of inputting data in daily and having the values automatically update their weekly report. This was a good feeling.
We plan on going forward tomorrow with a implementation training plan/procedure to take out to the parks in the very near future as some parks will become pilot parks to this new process.
We'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that our assumptions are correct that what we have so far is a good thing. . . .
We showed Andy our "work in progress" an asked his opinion, and we got the impression that what we have so far is a good thing. He liked the idea of inputting data in daily and having the values automatically update their weekly report. This was a good feeling.
We plan on going forward tomorrow with a implementation training plan/procedure to take out to the parks in the very near future as some parks will become pilot parks to this new process.
We'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that our assumptions are correct that what we have so far is a good thing. . . .
Tuesday June 15, 2010
Today, myself and colleague worked on creating the excel workbook we hope to take out to the park rangers in our eventual pilot area. We took the current documents that the rangers are using and tried to make something easy/user friendly that Rangers would be able to quickly input data and have the computer automatically update weekly(monthly) totals. We feel quite confused about if our product is really what it should be. Without having face to face contact with a supervisor, we are not getting immediate feedback. We did make a call to a Ranger at Dolliver State park to try and gather some other information in hopes that what we are doing is correct.
Monday June 14, 2010
Today, myself and my fellow math teacher met with the DNR for an initial meeting. We traveled to Des Moines and met with Marsha Peterson, who works in the budget and fiance department of the state DNR; Sherry Arnzten, who works in the Conservation and Recreational Division of the State Parks Bureau; and Amy who is an intern this summer working as a liaison between the DNR and an outside accounting firm.
In our initial meeting we were given a task of creating an excel document for individual state parks to use for cash remittance to the state DNR. We also need to create an implementation/training plan for the parks so all parks are doing the same thing. We know the excel some how needs to include a break down of 4 different taxes (state sales tax, local option tax, state hotel/motel tax, and county/city hotel/motel tax). We will not be working in the Des Moines office on this project, but we will be relying on email contact with our supervisor and possible phone conversations as well.
We are not sure how this is all going to work out . . . .
In our initial meeting we were given a task of creating an excel document for individual state parks to use for cash remittance to the state DNR. We also need to create an implementation/training plan for the parks so all parks are doing the same thing. We know the excel some how needs to include a break down of 4 different taxes (state sales tax, local option tax, state hotel/motel tax, and county/city hotel/motel tax). We will not be working in the Des Moines office on this project, but we will be relying on email contact with our supervisor and possible phone conversations as well.
We are not sure how this is all going to work out . . . .
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