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.

Diigo

I love the idea of Diigo.  Yes! This is what I need to personally use when I come across ideas of my classroom.  Before I would find a website or a great idea somewhere and I would just bookmark it for later.  But sometimes later never comes or I would have the site, but not know what it was that I loved about  it.  So with Diigo, I can put sticky notes on the page and so much more.

In my classroom, or in other teacher's classrooms, as I will be the person giving the teachers resources,  I would use this in the student's research projects.  What sites did you go to, were they helpful, what did you take away from it?  Then, I would have the students either share with the teacher via Diigo, (still need to look how to do this) or I would as least have them take screen shots of their notes on their sites and send it to their teacher.  The teacher can skim them to make sure the students are on the right track.

I see this tool as being very helpful for the type of organized person that I am.  I have sticky notes and lists everywhere, so to be able to do this digitally now as I stumble onto different things would be great.

Tools and Apps and Sites Oh My!

Honesty, what I have taken away from this course are all of the ideas and tools that have been presented to us or have been there for us to use.  I am demo-ing ShowMe, Educreations, ScreenChomp and Doceri with one of my classes.  I have shown VoiceThread to one of our Language Arts teachers, as well as Bubbl.us.

Having ideas is more than half of the battle.  We all know our content and we all have lessons that we really like and others we know could be better.  So having the knowledge of what is out there to help us improve our lessons, assignments, projects, and assessments is so vital to creating a balanced blended learning environment.

Since my roll is changing next year from teacher to technology integration specialist, I have also shared the SAMR model.  I felt this was a good way to pace ourselves as we immerse into a 1 to 1 environment next year.  There are some teachers who are excited and there are others who would rather do anything but have to change to a digital curriculum. I have tried to ease their concerns with the gradual ascension of the model.  Explaining how we can start with substitution, but that we don't want to stay there we have evolve ourselves to the transformation stages.

The hardest idea for me to implement will be the authentic assessments.  It requires a great deal of time.  For it to work correctly, students have to take ownership of their learning.  It is out of my comfort zone, so I don't know how I will push my teachers to do something I would not want to do.