Books in Sixth

I mentioned in my last blog that during the last session of Day 3 training the media storm arrived.  So maybe it wasn't like a huge "storm" as you would associate with paparazzi or TMZ, but it felt pretty significant. My principal (Rich Thomae), the Executive Director of Instructional Technology and Personalized Achievement Curriculum and Environment (Jake Henry),  and a reporter from the Northwest Observer (Mike Shaw) all showed up to gather information from the Northwest Middle teachers attending the training; that was where I came in. First the interview for the Northwest Observer....questions first, pictures second..... that will all appear here a few weeks from now; stay tuned. Then, Dr. Henry asked if I would speak to the Board of Education the following week.  He was to give an update to the board on the PACE initiative and had asked a PLEF, a principal, and a teacher(myself) to be part of the presentation. The anxiety inside me screamed “NO”, but out ca...

I am going to combine Day 2 and Day 3 training since they both feel like one big amoeba sloshing around in my brain. First, let me say, that before Day 2 and 3 training, I began playing with the tablets and discovering some of these sights and such that I had heard mentioned and suggested.  I figured out the whole Google Drive thing and am now in the cloud.  The scan feature on Drive is super cool.  I then figured out how to upload documents and links to the playlist builder on the tablets from my Google Drive . Next, I created an Edmodo page for my students, got some apps, and began “tinkering” with that.  For those that are a bit reluctant with technology, you just have to start clicking and learning.  You really can’t mess up anything and, if you do, in most cases, there is usually a nice delete button to get rid of whatever you did.  For the most part, it’s a lot of common sense.  And never underestimate the “help” link; I have worn that one ...

What to do??  Neither tablet would log in.  Time to call in the big guns. I emailed tablet support about my tablet problems and figured I would hear from them in a day or two, closed my laptop and left to run errands. Within literally 2 minutes (and I have proof), I received an email back. Once I got back home, I began emailing back and forth with Amplify tablet support and all in all, must have talked to 3 or so people.  (They really wanted to make sure my problem was solved.)  We finally ended up on the phone troubleshooting various things with the tablet, none of which worked. The end result..... I was to go back to the school where my tablets were registered on Day 1 training, let them connect to the wifi, and finish all updates and downloads.  Skeptical, I was, but a few days later, I gave it a shot, and what do you know…  It worked. I emailed Amplify back and, within minutes, I was back on the phone with tablet support and logging in ...

Day 1 tablet training took place on June 21st.  I went in with very few expectations; everything was so new and unknown, I didn't know what expectations to have.  They tiered the training for beginner and advanced and I had signed up for the advanced class; not because I am an advanced user of technology, but because I find technology user friendly, in most cases, and easy to figure out with some "tinkering". My only concern at this point was keeping up with the rest of the class. Every school has been assigned what they have termed a PLEF (Personalized Learning E-something Facilitator??)  This is a person that is assigned to our school to guide us and help us through this process. Ours is fantastic and dynamic!!  And he was our instructor the first day. Day 1 was spent as it should; learning where things are on the tablet, leaning how the interactive features work, exploring applications and some functions on the tablet.  There were also a ton of Ampl...

Not only is joy my name; joy is my attitude.  And in the mixed up crazy world of our educational scene, we all need to remember to be positive and joyful; especially when fostering the lifelong learner in ourselves as well as developing the lifelong learners in our students. This is my "positive" journey with "personalized learning"; the latest buzz word in education.  I am not going to even begin to define this term since that too is ever changing.  What I am going to do instead is attempt to record my journey, as a lifelong learner, into the world of technology, from one who has only began to skim the surface of how technology can and should be used in the classroom. Our county recently received a $30,000,000 grant to put a tablet into the hands of every middle-schooler in our district. (what they call 1:1- 1student, 1tablet)  HUGE, right!! And guess what - hasn't been done before.  Even more HUGE! So where should we logically begin??  Training the ...