In about 2 weeks I will be moving into a new classroom in a brand new school.  My digital classroom equipment will be part of the new school experience!

With one year of classroom experience in the digital classroom, I realize I have so much more to work on.  How do I use the iPads effectively as a learning tool other than for research?  It seemed the further we got into the school year, the iPads were used more and more for research alone.  If we were to use the apps to create projects and display learning, I ran into issues of being able to look at students' work and to publish it.  This will be my challenge this 2013-2014 school year.

The Cano Freshman Academy will allow BYOD (bring your own device) for instruction.  I had thought last year that most of my students would have smart phones, but this was not the case.  Thinking of ways to make technology available to all my students will be a priority.  I will be utilizing the Flipped Classroom technique this year, and students will need access to the digital world to access the information.

I hope to do better with my blogging this coming school year!

In the book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors suggest using online survey instruments to gather information to set meaningful objectives.  I decided to use the standards for my upcoming unit on Population and Demographics to create a survey using www.surveymonkey.com.  I had my students take the survey in class so I could get a grasp on what my students know or don't know about demographics. 

Not all the students took the survey-only half of my studnets.  This was extremely disappointing considering the number of students who were allowed to used their electronic devices for the purpose of the event.  What I did learn is that most of the students who did complete the survey felt they were only somewhat knowledgeable or not knowledgeable about the topic. 

Was this useful to me?  Probably not, as when we usually start this unit, my classes come with limited understanding of the topic.  What I hope is that the students were paying attention to the questions and will use this information to customize their learning. 

So where do I go from here?  I plan on showing the students the results and posting the survey results in the classroom.  If anyone has any suggestions, I sure would appreciate hearing from you!

Digital Classroom Update

We had our first meeting for the digital classroom on the Tuesday I was coming back from Houston, so naturally I missed it!  Corey Martin (English teacher deluxe) brought me up to speed on my return. The equipment has arrived and will be sent to the various campuses.

I went on a hunt Wednesday and Thursday to see if our equipment had arrived at HHS.  As luck would have it, it has not. I did make our budget secretary aware that the equipment was somewhere, and she is looking for where it might be.  This is of concern as our lead district technologist wants to start coming out to the schools to help set everything up.

As part of Cadre I, we were given a book to read-Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works.  We have homework to read to page 38.  :D  Time to get to work!

Engage Training in Houston

I'm leaving very early tomorrow morning for two days of training in Houston with the Engage team.  We have been learning all summer about Project Based Learning and how to implement it into our classrooms.  Part of the training this week includes visiting Houston schools that have successfully implemented PBL into their classrooms.

I have already started 2 projects with my psychology class and my geography classes, and I'm the first to admit there is a definite learning curve.  I just hope my beginning experiences will make it easier for the other teachers who will be doing the same in the future.