Tablet roll out is right around the corner. So where is all the excitement??
This time around things are different and I can't quite put into words the sense of cautious anticipation we are all feeling.
When the tablets left us last year, I will have to say, there was a great sense of relief from students and teachers; relieved to be released of the pressure to use something that was often unreliable and for an initiative that was misunderstood. We went on "doing school" as we always had and the year ended just like every other year.
But, through the rest of last school year, as I sat on the PACE teacher advisory committee, I had the privilege to see the careful planning and preparation month after month; the many hours spent turning this bus around; the collaboration with Amplify and how they listened to the teachers and modified their programming to incorporate teacher feedback and improve classroom functionality; the ingenuity of our PACE leaders in creating a personalized learning vision for our county and communicating that vision through professional development, policy and procedure, and redefinition of this initiative.
Even though there has not been as much press, as many interviews, and as much talking about the tablets, there sure has been some hard work, dedication, and extraordinary vision, creativity, and ingenuity behind the scenes of this initiative.... and a lot of it.
Teacher tablet training this summer was the most organized, beneficial, useful professional development I have ever experienced. I came away with a ready to go learning management system and a vast array of techniques and strategies on how to use technology for personalized learning.
As we prepare and plan to roll out in a few weeks a vast array of emotions have been swimming around; we are cautious, we are anxious, we are unsure, we are hopeful, we are optimistic, we are reluctant, we are curious, we are ready to make this thing work.
The excitement about the amazing possibilities is still there; we are just keeping it to ourselves.....it's more personalized that way!
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