Our awesome technology director and I gave a Web 2.0 training at our school yesterday and it was GREAT! The teachers that were there were from 2nd grade through 12th, but they were all supportive, intuitive, and glad to be there. They asked great questions and wanted to know details about the sites. They were brainstorming openly with the whole group, even though some of them barely know each other; remember that this is a very rural community that has three school buildings all in different towns. When the trainings were over, they stayed in the room and discussed additional ways to use the sites, worked on making those ideas start to come to life, and collaborated with each other. I was glad to see that they must've gotten something out of the training because they didn't all run directly out of the room when it was over!
Next professional development....How to use an iPad in the Classroom!
Right after that....SMART Notebook training for our district's new teachers!
I'd be tickled (as my Grandma Jean would say), if these sessions go half as well as yesterday went! Thanks for all of the support, Camp Point!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A Schoology Surprise
Originally written last July ~
Our amazing technology director and I provided Web 2.0 training at our school yesterday and it was a great experience! The teachers were supportive, intuitive, and overall glad to be there. I was worried about having a wide enough array of sites to make everyone feel like they took something away from the training, but everything worked out just fine. The morning session had a wider span of people in it than the afternoon group, but I believe everyone walked away with something they will be able to use this school year. When both sessions were finished, people stayed to look around the sites more, ask questions, brainstorm on additional uses, and collaborate with each other. This was an encouraging site to see; I was glad we had sparked enough interest that they didn't all take off running out the door as soon as we were finished!
One of the most educational things that happened all day was by accident. Last spring, a first year, 6th grade, history and language arts teacher who I mentored showed me Edmodo. At the beginning of the summer I thought I would use this site next year in my class...but that was before I discovered Schoology. I wanted to show him Schoology and bounce a few ideas off of him. The discussion between 3 middle grades teachers (him , a new-to-our-district JH science teacher, and me) turned into a discussion larger than I ever imagined. Three high school english teachers were still in the room and they LOVED the idea of using Schoology! They were so excited about it and asked great questions. We brainstormed ways to use this site for a half an hour. People were saying things like, "when you do your Romeo and Juliet unit, you could have the students post blogs as one of the characters." They were asking about posting SMART Notebook presentations on the site, building collaboration between some of the upper and lower grades in the room, and discussing ways to keep parents informed through Schoology.
I stayed at school to do a little work in my classroom, but by the time I got home last night two of them had already set up Schoology accounts, got the courses entered, and were letting me know all about it! The teacher I had originally began the discussion with and I created a "fake student" so we could see what it was like from a student's point-of-view. It was so easy to join his 6th grade class and my 8th grade class. The links loaded quickly and it was easy to get around the site. We decided that the students are going to love Schoology; we can't wait to share it with them and everyone else we know!
Our amazing technology director and I provided Web 2.0 training at our school yesterday and it was a great experience! The teachers were supportive, intuitive, and overall glad to be there. I was worried about having a wide enough array of sites to make everyone feel like they took something away from the training, but everything worked out just fine. The morning session had a wider span of people in it than the afternoon group, but I believe everyone walked away with something they will be able to use this school year. When both sessions were finished, people stayed to look around the sites more, ask questions, brainstorm on additional uses, and collaborate with each other. This was an encouraging site to see; I was glad we had sparked enough interest that they didn't all take off running out the door as soon as we were finished!
One of the most educational things that happened all day was by accident. Last spring, a first year, 6th grade, history and language arts teacher who I mentored showed me Edmodo. At the beginning of the summer I thought I would use this site next year in my class...but that was before I discovered Schoology. I wanted to show him Schoology and bounce a few ideas off of him. The discussion between 3 middle grades teachers (him , a new-to-our-district JH science teacher, and me) turned into a discussion larger than I ever imagined. Three high school english teachers were still in the room and they LOVED the idea of using Schoology! They were so excited about it and asked great questions. We brainstormed ways to use this site for a half an hour. People were saying things like, "when you do your Romeo and Juliet unit, you could have the students post blogs as one of the characters." They were asking about posting SMART Notebook presentations on the site, building collaboration between some of the upper and lower grades in the room, and discussing ways to keep parents informed through Schoology.
I stayed at school to do a little work in my classroom, but by the time I got home last night two of them had already set up Schoology accounts, got the courses entered, and were letting me know all about it! The teacher I had originally began the discussion with and I created a "fake student" so we could see what it was like from a student's point-of-view. It was so easy to join his 6th grade class and my 8th grade class. The links loaded quickly and it was easy to get around the site. We decided that the students are going to love Schoology; we can't wait to share it with them and everyone else we know!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Living the 7-Habits + Living Technology = Successful Classroom
To me, a habit is something that you do over and over again until the point that you don't even realize that you are doing it anymore....then you do it some more! We develop habits at a very young age and continue those same habits, or new ones we pick up, throughout adulthood. Every teacher in the district where I work has been trained in the 7-Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The idea is to develop these habits within ourselves so that we can help students develop them throughout their school days. The Habits will be beneficial to students long after they graduate. This year, every student in our district (PK-12) will receive some form of 7-Habits education. These Habits are:
I'm sure a few teachers look at these two topics (7-Habits + Technology) as "two more things I have to do in my classroom," but most of us are excited and can't get enough of them. We realize that the 7-Habits and technology aren't additional subjects to teach, but they are tools to help us teach our curriculum in more effective ways. We also realize that we have to LIVE both of them to be successful in our endeavor. You can't fake living the 7-Habits and you can't fake living technology. Students will know if you are genuine with both of these things or if you're only mentioning it because your boss told you that you have to teach it, and his boss told him he has to make you teach it. Students will know the same way that adults know.
Leaders will emerge in each of these areas, but I see the best leaders in our school district as being the people who live BOTH of these amazing tools. A good leader doesn't just tell you what to do and how to do it, they LIVE it and they make you want to live it too. We have to live the 7-Habits and we have to live technology. This is what will make the integration of the 7-Habits and technology into our classrooms a success!
- be proactive,
- put first things first,
- begin with the end in mind,
- think win-win,
- seek first to understand, then to be understood,
- synergize,
- sharpen the saw,
- find your voice (not an error - this is the 8th Habit)
I'm sure a few teachers look at these two topics (7-Habits + Technology) as "two more things I have to do in my classroom," but most of us are excited and can't get enough of them. We realize that the 7-Habits and technology aren't additional subjects to teach, but they are tools to help us teach our curriculum in more effective ways. We also realize that we have to LIVE both of them to be successful in our endeavor. You can't fake living the 7-Habits and you can't fake living technology. Students will know if you are genuine with both of these things or if you're only mentioning it because your boss told you that you have to teach it, and his boss told him he has to make you teach it. Students will know the same way that adults know.
Leaders will emerge in each of these areas, but I see the best leaders in our school district as being the people who live BOTH of these amazing tools. A good leader doesn't just tell you what to do and how to do it, they LIVE it and they make you want to live it too. We have to live the 7-Habits and we have to live technology. This is what will make the integration of the 7-Habits and technology into our classrooms a success!
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