Books in Sixth

Today it has been one month since I have posted a blog entry;  the tablets are but a memory, the news stories have died down, and I have run my cycle of emotions with this whole situation.  I will have to admit.  I have been living in the land of disappointment and uncertainty; watching the news articles come out day after day with their pointy finger subtleties and their patronizing whispers of blame.  It's enough to crush your inspiration and creativity to death. I have been back and forth on what to do with my blog now; abandon it, change the title and focus, or continue to write it with the same focus of personalized learning minus the tablets.  There is the sure fact that the tablets are coming back so in the meantime it is imperative that I continue to explore personalized learning for my students, with or without 1:1 technology.  Last year we toyed with the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) concept with our students.  My team designed a contract ...

Last week was one crazy week! We took our annual overnight camping trip to the Betsy Jeff Penn 4-H center where students focused on leadership and teamwork skills.  This was a time to disconnect; no cell phones, tablets, laptops, or computers.  Just nature and its beauty, some mosquitoes and spiders,a beaver pond and fall leaves, campfire songs and great weather.  And let us not forget the horrible skunk smell in my cabin, which I kind of got used to by the second day; No, not really! It was a wonderful experience for our students and a great way to stay connected to the natural world. And we were back to school on Friday when the email came. We received the email Friday morning around 8:30.  The email stated that due to quality issues, the tablets, covers, and chargers were to be collected from the students throughout the county until further notice. I knew there had been problems with the tablet glass breaking easily; even 2 of our own teachers expe...

What middle school student doesn't like to talk??...Even the ones you think are quiet. The absolute best way for them to learn how to use their tablet, involves just some honest to goodness "play".  There must be time to explore and this helps students become independent learners in the process.  So which feature did they zero in on first..... the class discussion feature that allows the students to talk to one another, as well as with the classroom teacher. If you are a middle school teacher and you are in tune with your students, you would already have a feeling about how this would go down.  First of all, they love to talk. Second of all, they have no idea what to say to one another.  We just kind of sat back to see what they would do with this feature. And I have to say; not surprised, somewhat impressed, and highly amused. Conversations went a little like this..... hey..... hello......wuz up......hey..........hi.........hiya.....what's for homework......ba...

Instruction and Practice: On day 2, I pushed out some vocabulary practice on the tablet.  This was so exciting, because I was able to scan the pages of their vocabulary book, which they cannot take home, and create a playlist where they can keep these vocabulary pages as practice and reference.  So here is me, doing the typical teacher thing, where I start the activity by having them open the document and everyone at the same time begins completing the exercises.  Problem #1:  Some students were moving very quickly through this process and some were moving very slowly through this process.  Problem #2:  I wasted some valuable instructional time waiting for all to finish so we could check their answers.  Problem #3:  We did not have time to go over it before class ended, and now everyone is in a different spot. Reflection: So here was my paradigm shift: I have come to the realization that releasing control will be the obstacle for me and well a...

How many times am I going to hear this??? "The kids will break them, lose them, and they will get stolen." "In 2 years the tablets will be irrelevant and useless." "The tablets will not solve our educational problems." By the way, educational problems will never be solved.  (That should be in that quote with death and taxes.) Is is not just human nature to resist change?  Absolutely!  But, hey, is all this negativity really necessary?   History speaks amazing success of many innovations and ideas that were doubted and predicted to fail. What I see is a general lack of knowledge, written by a whole bunch of people that went to school, but yet, have never spent one day teaching school.  FYI:  It's real different now. I would like to hear from an actual student;   talking about how the tablets are not going to help them, or how the tablets are useless, or how the tablets will be irrelevant in their education in 2 years, then, I think I would...

Since we are studying story elements in class, I have been inspired to write this blog as an original story outline. Exposition:  The students and myself, Northwest Middle School, Tablet Distribution Day The excitement is killing me all morning in anxious anticipation of the day.  The tablets are charged, the PowerPoint is cued, my playlist is ready, and I am expecting miracles. Rising Action:   The students enter the room and after we take care of some maintenance items, we begin passing out the tablets, chargers, and orange covers.  The students are so excited and can't wait to get their hands on them.  Forget following the original "wait to power on" presentation slide.  Students begin to immediately explore.  Comment #1 "Look at all the math videos on this thing"!  We go through the basic tablet features, talk about tablet responsibility, and attempt to try the student/teacher interactive features. Climax:   Many students...

Connectivity, Connectivity, Why are you such the irritating mystery? You thrash us to and fro, Knocking us out in vicious throws. By now, I thought you would discover, the needs - already uncovered. But instead we continue to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, distribution seems way too late. We are bound by your limitations, will you be ready by Holiday Vacation? What is standing in your way; the mobiles, the server, the electronic highway. We need several miracles here to get this thing going, get it in gear!! As we wait, and wait, and wait, for Thursday  -  the magical date. Stress Test - Yes, it was! STAY TUNED!!! (Distribution to 6th Grade Thursday, September 12th)