Friday, August 10, 2012

In the beginning....

What does a classroom look like when every kid has a technology device in their hand?  What can be done in that class?  How do we manage a class such as this?  Is it effective?  Does pedagogy change?  Is a tablet or a laptop more effective?  All of these questions and more is what we hope to discover in our 1:1 laptop/tablet pilot!

This is an exciting time in education because we are moving away from the traditional classroom of teachers and students to a community of learners.  With this paradigm shift comes many shifts in education.  The teacher is now a facilitator and a learner.  The students learn from each other and also facilitate their own learning.  Pedagogy shifts from recalling and remembering facts to evaluating, analyzing and applying content to their own lives.  Students and facilitators are no longer confined to the 4 walls.   Their community now includes 7 continents and a few planets.


Feel free to join us in our adventure of creating this environment for our students.  Join us as we climb to the higher elevations of Bloom's. Join us as our students soar to limits unknown.  We look forward to sharing our ah has and uh ohs.  We also would love for you to join our community and sharing tips or best practices you have experienced in your classroom.  I am so excited to learn this year with our community of learners.





3 comments:

  1. In the Beginning.. Thanks for creating this Blog to reflect on our journey, Marty. Last June, I hadn't heard of a "Community of Learners" and now - in three week's time, we'll be cutting the proverbial ribbon to celebrate the opening of our very own Community in Room 401, at Kernersville Middle School. Who knows where the journey will lead, but the entire world is now our classroom and we'll all be learning - together.

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  3. Build up to day 1:
    I spent most of my summer working towards gathering resources for the year. Here is a list of some of the things that I obsessed about in anticipation to the introduction of a class set of 10 inch Samsung Galaxy Tabs:
    • Dashboard programs
    o Symbaloo – web 2.0 programs
    o only2clicks – math videos
    o Tizmos - science videos broken into tabs for each standard
    • I updated my science PowerPoints and Prezi presentations so they reflect the new common core identification (6.E.1, 6.L.1, etc...)
    • Updated my interactive math and science games
    • I also created science folders on the schools shared drive for teachers to share. This folder has each science strand with folders inside that include graphic organizers, notes for teachers, labs, activities, interactive games, webquests, and presentations.
    • QR codes – These were shown to me by Marty Creech and Steve Anderson. I think my OCD kicked in here once I found these. Below are a few things that I put together so far :
    o Science word wall – took three solid days to make code, print, cut cards, and laminate. I did find that lamination produces a glare when scanning.
    o Poster of links on my webpage
    o Getting to know the teacher activity – family, education, accomplishments, favorites (movies, books read last year, video clips, etc…)
    o Teacher websites
     Sixth grade website address tags for the doors
     School addresses for the main office
     School addresses for the guidance department
    • Picked a few new programs to try in the classroom
    o Learnzillion
    o Edmodo
    o Blogger
    o Nearpod - probably what I am most excited about so far. This program allows the teacher to control the information that students experience. Nearpod allows the teacher to share presentations, video, and images. There are features that allow students to respond to polls and take quizzes. Data can be accessed, put into a spreadsheet and saved for easy record keeping.

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