Skip to main content

We Had A Great Run!

In this new year, it is time to close the door on an inspiring journey with Amplify and begin a new chapter on our Personalized Learning journey.  And in the process... I have decided to redefine my blog to open the door of conversation to, not only just tablet talk, but also the world that is the life of a teacher.

But first....What went wrong?  To make this short and sweet....It was just too much, too soon.  With the amount of issues that shrouded us through the first year with the tablets, it seemed impossible to capture the same excitement, motivation, and zeal when redistributing the new tablets.  As a teacher, we were hammered with way too many changes and not enough direction; in other words, we were building the plane while flying it and metaphorically, you know what that ultimately leads to.  The worst of the debris was the awesome company tech. support people we lost in the process.  Incredibly talented, innovative people who became not only colleagues, but friends, now only a product of the crash.  We wish nothing but the best for them all!

It was amazing to be part of the process, and we have learned much from it, but it is time to regroup and move forward; learn from our mistakes and move towards what's best for our students.

The twinge of excitement is begging its way back in as I am learning more about the new device that will be purchased by GCS.  And with what I have heard....it just makes sense.

We may be able to recover after all!  Only time will tell.  Stay tuned to the "scoop" on what devices made the cut.  Time to move forward!!

Image result for learn from mistakes

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2016 at 2:12 PM

    Nice reflection and transition to the next step in this journey.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 Training

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dark Side... is Pretty Dark! - The Problems with ARC

Last school year, I delved deep into personalized learning with self-paced Canvas sets and standard driven maps for students.  It was a glorious time in my creative, educational pedagogy, because I found great success with intentional, meaningful, and engaging units of study. Then came ARC. The trainings I received this summer were all about the personalized component of ARC; getting kids to read on their level, making personalized goals for each student, a valid assessment that could actually tell me something about my students' reading levels.  All of which sounded reasonable and needed, and I was behind this.  We received little information about the specific content of the day by day elements and did not see any manual/lesson plans until less than a week before school started. And I am here to tell you; the "Dark Side"....... is pretty dark. The structure of each lesson follows strict direct instruction with modeling from a grade level...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joining the Dark Side.... the ARC change of heart

It's been an interesting journey upon first hearing about ARC at the beginning of this calendar year.  Teachers throughout the county were in a twist over this new reading program that we had never heard of but were required to implement the following school year.  What was it?  Where did it come from?  Who made the decision?  Why were we being forced to accept it?    This was our county's most infamous secret.  ARC ended up being raked over the coals and harshly criticized by administrators, teachers, and community members.  And I was one of those! But I have learned a most valuable life lesson from this experience and I hope our county leaders have as well.  The problem is not the program.  After attending a few GOOD, really informational sessions about what ARC is all about, I have to say, it's actually really incredible.  I could see the vision of how this would work in my classroom, more specifically, how this progr...
Post a Comment
Read more