Ahhh, summer work and summer vacation on the horizon
June 19, 2009 at 6:46 am | Posted in Blogging, Links, Professional Development, Scratch, SmartBoard | 1 CommentTags: BLC09, Blogging, games, Myst, PD, Scratch, SmartBoard, Spore, summer, UbD
Ok, so I haven’t posted in a long time. I have written notes and drafts for posts but have been so bogged down in the day-to-day whatever that I’ve felt zapped at the end of the day. As the sun rises, birds singing on the morning of the last day of classes on campus for students and staff, I’m looking forward to 2 weeks of summer work, 4 weeks of vacation, and then summer work in August. Not so much looking forward to the commute to school, but am looking forward to the time to reflect, plan and prep for next year to make it an even more successful and enjoyable year than this year.
I’m looking forward to:
- Diving into my unread books
- Getting caught up on favorite blogs, starting with these: langwitches, alwayslearning, bitbybit, E-LearningJourneys, EwanMcIntosh, Grow a Knowledge Tree and many others I have on my reader.
- Build my SmartBoard skillset
- Post to this blog and comment on others- contribute more.
- Build understanding of UbD, differentiated instruction, project-based learning and how to weave them.
- BLC09 in Boston including a day at the MIT Media Lab (have been wanting to attend this conf for years!)
- Learn how to play games- Myst and Spore and build Scratch skills
At the risk of appearing a work-aholic, I do have plans for many hours with family, friends and the ocean. But one of my passions is my vocation and I look forward to slower-paced reflection and learning over the summer.
Time to breathe!
Beginning Year Tech Boot Camp
April 29, 2009 at 5:25 am | Posted in Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, Planning, UbD | Leave a commentTags: Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, Planning, tech skills, UbD
Recently, students and teachers have been unable to find files that are accidentally moved. I don’t know how this happens- seems to occur from grade 1 up and I believe it is accidental in most cases- although I’m not sure with the older grades. Another problem is inability to remember or correctly enter an account password. Whether it’s mistakes, learned helplessness or boredom with the tech pace in class, I see a need for creating a beginning of the year boot camp for this fall. As the elementary tech facilitator I provide teacher and student support without being the lab teacher (lab classes are planned and led by the classroom teacher) so my contact with students is based on opportunities to co-plan and co-teach lessons in the classroom and lab.
This idea is a seed just planted and my initial thought is several weeks of classes in the lab at the beginning of the year. Each grade level class will be focused on different skills and ideally incorporate current class content and skills. I’ve informally used Understanding by Design for several years but have no formal training- planning this K-5 unit and grade level units will be a great opportunity to learn more and apply the UbD format to planning. I’d also like to frame each lab session to end with keyboarding, “sandbox” and group reflective discussion (10-10-5 minutes). Also essential will be requiring teachers to participate in each session and their own and student learning.
My beginning list of skills needed:
- Internet safety, Digital citizenship
- How to access, organize and use folders within Class drive
- MS Office basics
- How to find programs from the start menu
- How to logon, logoff, shut down, control volume on monitor and desktop
- How to choose and remember/record passwords- how to enter passwords correctly
I have already sent an email to my tech team for feedback and future meetings to plan. Do you have a similar program anytime throughout the year? What do you incorporate and how do you structure the sessions?
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