Practice What You Preach

Mrs. Iocoangeli and I are going to introduce blogging to her students on Friday. I thought it might be helpful to actually try it out myself beforehand, you know…practice what you preach. So, what kinds of things can I use blogging for?

• To share information about a topic I’m interested in or an expert in
• Exciting moments
• Things I wonder about
• Controversial topics–things that people can take a stand on and debate
• Creative writing
• Poetry (which I despise)
• Research writing
• Getting feedback from my peers on writing I’m working on

Basically, the uses are endless. For now, I’m going to go with what I know. An exciting moment for me and a challenge:

Last week, one of our technology specialists stopped by to set something up for me. I mentioned to him that we introduced the kids to iPads that day and how excited they were. He commented on how he didn’t know how they could be used beyond toys and that the kids would basically play with them. I told him to come back in a month and see what our kids can do with this awesome digital tool!!  :)   So now the pressure is on–and not just from him. Part of the responsibility of being among the first classes to deploy iPads is we have to disprove those beliefs some parents, teachers, and administrators may have about the impractical use of iPads. We have to challenge our students, push them towards higher order thinking, and transform the way they are used to learning at school. It’s exciting AND scary stuff!

Netiquette

Day 2:

Having been privileged enough to pilot a 1-to-1 laptop program in the past, I have some experience with the online learning environment My Big Campus. However, this year I decided to try out Edmodo instead. This decision was made for a couple of reasons. One, I was introduced to Edmodo at an iPad Academy I attended this past summer and wanted to give it a try. Two, our middle school uses Edmodo, so it just makes sense to be consistent.

Before allowing my students complete access to Edmodo, my class had a discussion on netiquette. Instead of just giving the kids a list of rules to follow, I thought it would be more impactful if they developed the expectations themselves. After creating our netiquette expectations, it was time for them to show me what they know on Edmodo.

Prior to today, my students had already set up their Edmodo accounts. However, I noticed that many of them did not capitalize their names. So, I had them begin by going back into settings and capitalizing their names, since they are a proper noun. In addition, they went a little crazy practicing their first posts. I felt like we needed a clean slate, so I deleted all the "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" and "I like pie" comments and created a new post which asked them, "What is one netiquette rule you learned about today." They were required to respond in a complete sentence. It was amazing to sit back and watch as they started responding. Kids are natural peer editors! Without any prompting I heard comments such as, "****, you did not write in a complete sentence," and "***, don't forget to use punctuation." I couldn't keep from smiling! This was learning at its best- student initiated!

On Day 3, we continued with more Edmodo practice. The students updated more of their profiles. They were able to select how they learn best, a career goal, and their favorite quote. I then had them share their selections.

iPad Deployment

Day 1:

Friday was the long awaited, official launch day of 1-to-1 iPads in my classroom. The kids, and I, were so excited. Like every other morning, I greeted my students at the door. With a smile on his face, one specific student greeted me with, "Happy iPad Friday!"

We (Ms. Grier and I) began with deployment by using my Apple t.v., to display the student's iPad screen. We then opened the floor for the students to discuss what they noticed. Through this simple activity, we were able to go over the current apps that had been installed on the iPads, as well as the iPad expectations for our classroom. After we had discussed our general expectations, it was time to get the iPads into the students hands.

In my classroom, each iPad is assigned a number. My students are also assigned a student number. To make things easy on myself, I then assigned my students with the iPad that matched their student number. Students will only use their assigned iPad. To help ensure iPads aren't mistakenly confused, we taught the kids how to save an image from google into their pictures and then apply that image as their wallpaper. The image had to be of their student number. We then disable sounds, and taught the students had to set-up their email accounts and close programs.

The final lesson for today involved showing the students how to put away their iPads and charge them, so that they would be ready to go for tomorrow.

Although these tasks do not seem exciting, excitement is in the air!