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 Amplify people walking around in orange shirts fixing tablets, getting things people needed, and offering some wonderful support. I remember thinking; WOW! These people are really on top of this. Impressive!!
After Day 1 I was BRAIN DEAD; In a Fog, exhausted. And the immensity of this initiative hit me like a MAC TRUCK. And I began to question; How will I ever learn this well enough to teach my students? How will I teach them how to use this tablet, when I am not even an expert? What does tablet use look like in a classroom? What else can this thing do? What is Edmodo and Moodle? You mean you can complete digital classwork/homework and turn it in? Some people already use this in their classroom? Am I behind? So...........many.............questions!!!!!??????
I had to let Day 1 go - literally! It was vacation time, and I decided to put down the tablets when I got home at just let it SIMMER in my brain.
So after a week at the beach, where we played hard and had a blast, it was time to reconsider my questions.
And here was my AHA! moment: Baby steps; One day at a time, One step at a time; One APP at a time!
Wow, that sounds like a great motto.....let's hashtag it and make it part of our school theme this year.
"The Future is Ours ..........#oneAPP@Atime" (This will be presenting this to the leadership team in early August as a possible school theme and we will be putting this on our 6th grade t-shirts.)
Time to pull the tablets back out. I went to show my husband how the tablets work and......Nothing. I could get the tablets on, but I could not log in. What??? Time for my first interaction with Amplify Tablet Support.
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