My wishes for this upcoming year......

This will be year two of our 1:1 project.  Year one was not exactly what I signed up to leave my classroom for.  I did a lot of work with broken iPads - inventory of iPads and general management of iPads from a software perspective.  I hope now that we have some of our basics down I can get to the meat of what I think this position should be - which is supporting teachers.

I will use so many of the resources from this class in supporting them.  I have already given some of the links and articles to the computer science teacher about digital citizenship.  I will pass along a lot of the PD articles to our principal and VP.  I will use them myself as well, just to know how to approach the teachers who are a little uncomfortable or resistant.

My favorite items have been the creative resources or classroom ideas that I can share and help implement.  I want this project to be a success so we have to make up for our lack of knowledge in year one.  This is another reason why I am making tutorials for the parents and hosting parent nights when school starts back up.  People are usually more accepting once they understand what the technology is used for and how to use it themselves. Some of these videos will be my stakeholder project - as I have chosen parents as my stakeholder group.

Parenting Alert

Parenting Alert!

Without a doubt my school is in stage one, “Control by Authority”. I talked about how I can go into a classroom and the message on the board or the teacher is stating for them to put their ipads face down. We have rules in place for students about using and not using their ipads at certain times or in certain areas of the school. We have consequences for students who do not “play” by the rules, by removing their games from their portal. However, I agree even with all of these things, if the student still wants to really play an Internet game, or surf the web, draw in an app, or check email, it can be done.

I believe that self-discipline is a learned skill. It is not just a school skill it is a life skill. So parents we NEED you. Teach your children how to be self-disciplined starting at a young age. Helping them understand the concept of self-discipline and restraint will get them ahead in life. Self-discipline is a required skill when trying to prioritize. Knowing when you can be a little lacks and when you really need to buckle down and get to work, all play a part in how much you let yourself be distracted. We really are asking a great deal from middle school students when we put the technology in their hands, tell them to stay on task, and don't really teach them about self-discipline and prioritizing.

My first reaction to the idea of the Freedom program is “wow, that is really bad that adults need to lock themselves out of the Internet to stay off of it.” In my opinion this really goes back to how you control yourself. If you can't control yourself as an adult then you need more help than an app, it is reaching addiction level, which is always scary. As for technology control in our school system we have guided access which is a built in feature within the ipad. We block certain websites like any other school, but we don't have anything else at this time that works on the ipads. I did like the idea of the “eyes on the teacher” app. We have “Vision” for our computer labs, but there is not an equivalent program for the ipads at this time that I am aware of. I think a better way of engaging the students would be to use a program like Nearpod where the teacher presents to the students and the students ipad is also displaying the presentation. The slides are controlled by the teacher and the teacher is made aware if the student leaves the presentation.

To wrap up all these thoughts, we need to work with the technology not try to fight it because I do believe we will lose every time. So we need to use it to our advantage by using apps like Nearpod or a guided access when necessary. Must importantly we need to teach the importance of self-discipline and prioritizing. However, this is a monumental task if left until middle school. We need the parents to step up and start this life skill at a young age. It will pay off more than they will ever know. 

What I wish would have happened year one ….. I will make happen year two.

I am picking parents as my stakeholders. I really wish year one we would have done more to inform the parents of the ins and outs of the day to day life their students would be having with the ipads. I guess I do know why we didn't; nobody really had a good grasp on what that day to day was going to look like. We knew it was going to be different, challenging, and evolving, but we couldn't tell them because we didn't know ourselves. But now after year one I feel more confident that I can explain some key concepts and procedures to the parents.

1. Why are we doing this?
   We want our students to learn and possess 21^st century skills. I would start by saying there is nothing wrong with paper and pencil. We will still be using them, however we need to teach our students lessons beyond math, language arts, social studies and science, we need to teach them how to learn these disciplines while engaging in; creativity, critical thinking, problem- solving, communication, collaboration, digital citizenship and personal and social responsibility.

2. Speaking of 21^st century skills, your children already think this way in their personal lives, they go to Google with questions to find the answers in seconds. They will search youtube for a helpful how to video, or they will post a question to their friends on a number of social media sites. We need to use this inquisitiveness and teach them how to use it for their core academic topics. They need to learn to be critical of the responses they find to ensure their validity. They need to understand and guard against plagiarism.
   
   
3. For the next part of this program I would like to show some basics of the top programs the students will be using.
   1. Google Docs – How to log in, how to create a doc and share that doc. A quick demo in quick office for power point type of presentations.
   2. My Big Campus – How to log in, how to find the teacher's weekly agendas
   3. IXL – how to log in and what teacher expectations will be with this program.
   4. Acuity – How to log in, how to use this software as a study tool, how to read the reports.
   5. ibooks – how this app can be used to download books and PDFs that are viewable off line.
   6. ipad 101 – A demo of how to do a soft reset, how to hook up to home wifi, where the parent controls are – and just some general ipad care tips.

I believe that if I go through this informational meeting with parents they will feel informed and it will lessen their apprehension when it comes to having the ipads in their child's hands. I am hopeful that this will need snowball by word of month and I will be able to get more parents to show up for my second session. I also feel that it will take some pressure off of the teachers who may be meeting some resistance with parents who don't know how to help their child.

Effective Collaboration is the Key to Achieving Goals

21^st Century Skills

I can remember sitting down to have dinner with my Mom and Dad listening to my Dad tell stories about his work and the people he had to work with. Form an early age I was taught two things by this, “Life is not fair” and “You have to learn to work with people, even people you don't like.” So I have to pick Collaboration as by 2st Century most important skill. This skill is the most important to me because we are social beings. No matter if it is play or work we have to interact with other people. There are countless examples of group projects, starting in elementary school where we have to learn to do our share and to bring out the best in our partners, this is sometimes easier said than done. We are on sports teams, where the hope is that you play well as a team to achieve your goals of winning it all. These are just a few examples of how collaboration is a life skill we use everyday of our lives, to enhance our lives.

In my early stages of thought about my Technology Infusion Plan, I see collaboration as a huge key. I need to collaborate with our staff on many levels. I first need to get them vested in a Google PD so they will be comfortable using the Google Drive format with their students. This would set up a classroom of Collaboration between students and teachers and students and students monitored by the teacher. I then need to collaborate with the teachers on classroom presentations. I want to be more involved in their planning. I want them to see me as a useful resource to take some of the time restraints off of them when planning, creating and implementing a technology based project or presentation.

This skill can be assessed by how many of the teachers I can persuade to get on board with the Google Drive format as a way of “running” their classrooms. I could also, create a survey at the end of the year to serve as a climate audit to measure the teachers feelings of how successful the collaboration in their classroom was during the year.

The Way I Am

My Philosophy of Education:

When I think back on my ten years in the classroom the word Philosophy does not come to mind. It was not so much a “Philosophy” that drove me, my students and my classroom environment as it was a purpose. I was driven to be the best teacher I could be. To achieve this, I had to have the best students. Since we all know we get what we get when it comes to students, it was part of my job to mold them into the students I wanted them to be, the successful students I knew they needed to be, and hopefully by the end wanted to be themselves.

In reading though the articles and taking the “Educational Philosophy Inventory” I would have to say that my philosophy is truly a balanced mix. I hold tightly to ideals in most of the categories. My results of the inventory were within 8 points of each other scoring a 20, 19, two 18s, 15 and a 12. I believe this is what made my classroom work so well. I was not an extreme “old school” teacher, but I was not so out in front of the curve that it was uncomfortable and unstructured.

I place myself firmly in the Constructivism realm. I do wholly believe that students have to develop a solid base. However, by the 8^th grade the students are all over the board with their developmental bases. It was my job to assess where they were in this process and develop them from their starting point. This is where I as the teacher have to find the balance from being an Essentialist and moving into being a Progressivist. My the middle grades it is good for students to start to question “why will I need this”, but only if they follow through with searching for the answers. Sometimes it is as simple as because “I have to get to the next step, and I will need the next step for X.”

One of the roles I took on in my school was the “Technology Guinea Pig”. I loved this role! I would take any little gadget or software they wanted tested and work it into my lesson plans. It was more work at times to change up my lesson plans, but 9 times out of 10 it was well worth it. I 100% embraced Smart Software and my wireless slate. I was able to move around the room to check my student's work, yet I was able to run preset notes, activities or stop everything to work out a problem if that was needed at the time. I was able to hand the slate off to student to demonstrate their knowledge of the given problem. It became part of our everyday routine. The few times I was forced to go back to the board with marker in hand, it created a different feel in the room. It was almost like the students respected the technology, “this information must be important, look how it is being presented”. Using the slate also took the emphasis off of me as the “teacher” having to be at the board in the front of the room. Since I was able to be any where in the room, I was able to create more of a discussion feel about a problem.

Technology gave me the tools to move from my essentialist base to the more progressive hook if you will, to engage the students. Being able to manipulate the math problem on the fly as the students came up with “what if” questions made the experience more relevant to them. I could not hope for more than actively engaged, participating and thinking students. One of the best compliments I could ever get from my students was the statement “math class flies by”. This meant they didn't have time to be bored. They were too busy focused on the tasks at hand.

I believe the middle grades are hard to go through and to teach. It is a balancing act every day of moving from childhood with childhood thoughts and feelings, to the adult world of responsibilities and a whole need set of fears. When I think about being a guide and ushering the students from one phase of life to another I think about two different teachers in our building. One was our last 8^th grade science teacher, she would talk to the students about metacognition. She used this as a way to help the students learn to study. Making them think which way of learning was most effective for them. She would challenge them constantly with this throughout the year. I think she would have taken off with our one to one ipad project. I can only imagine all of the research she would be having them do. Not to mention the projects they would be collaborating on with each other. Another was a lesson from our current 8^th grade health teacher, his statement was “The smarter you are the less you realize you know.” This is a profound statement for a 14 year old to understand, it totally confronts their developing ego. He found one of the most fascinating apps in my opinion and it is just for the fun of pure knowledge. Wonderopolis has short summaries of why the world is the way it is. Questions like, “Why do you blink?”, “How does a hovercraft work?”, “What is the vernal equinox?”. There is a new question posted everyday. He said some they just read together, but if it does happen to have a health related issue they talk about it further and explore the question further. This is a great use of the technology at hand to develop well rounded curious human beings.

I bring up these two teachers as examples because this was always my goal, my Philosophy if you will, to instill a solid base, then guide them as they grow in their own direction, reaching for their greatest potential, and having the desire to learn. I think these two teachers nurtured the growing by trying to open their student's minds beyond the present. The tools technology offers only enhances what we as educators can present as options to students. It is up to the students to make it their own and soar. It is up to me as the teacher to use any and all tools that will support them in their learning endeavors.

Show Me the Resources

The deciding factor in agreeing to take part in this class, was knowing that I will have the opportunity to talk to other educators, technology support people and administrators who are going through the same trials as I am.  I want to learn what works and what doesn't. What are the must have resources, tools and tricks that others have learned about along the way in their journey. 

In reply for this knowledge, I will be happy to share the experiences I have ventured through this past school year, as my school rolled out the 1:1 iPad initiative.  What the advantages and disadvantages are to iPads.  How we have tried to work through or around those issues.  How taking such a large progressive step forward is viewed in a very small community.  I will be as candid as possible of any question asked of me. 

Thinking of the larger picture is where I must slow myself down.  This initiative is a process, an ever evolving process.  We can learn from each other, but we don't often take the time or pay attention to others, when we "think" we already know what we want.  Something I have really struggled with this past year is meaningful Professional Development for my teachers.  Not everyone on staff has a positive outlook when it comes to technology, so not only do I need to create a non-threatening atmosphere, I need it to be perceived as helpful, instructional, inspiring and not intimating.  This has proven to be a tall order.  So I am here to soak it up from the rest of you.  How do you create positive buy in and continue to force the envelope to insure the technology is being used the correct way? 

Don't Tweet Me.

I'm not to the point yet where I am willing to go into the social media world with my students.  We have always been told not to be friends with our students on Facebook or twitter. There are just too many legal issues.  We as teachers have sworn to protect our students, so if we know something about them no matter how we find out we have to report it.  Then there is the other side of it, I have a personal life that I don't need my students to be apart of.  My friends and my family don't need to be subjected to my students opinion of them and their comments.

From a parent stand point, I am protective of my children.  I would not want part of their grade to depend on their participation on Facebook or twitter.  There are just too many other unknown people involved that could get to my child's information, or simply talk to my child.  So as I am not a proponent of using the social media for my students, I think it would be a good idea as a place to post information for the parents to access.  I am also not apposed to an educational format like Facebook, such as My Big Campus.  It has most of the features of Facebook, but is set up by the teacher, so other people cannot ask to join from outside of the class.  Even here we will have to be constantly teaching  the students were the good citizenship line is, and not to cross it.  We as teachers have to create and maintain a save place for our students to learn whether that is in our classroom or our virtual classroom space.