This week we had our first Chromebook casualty. The screen is cracked and the LCD looks like it is bleeding. Very sad. It turns out we might have a warranty after all, so it might be replaced. I don't know how it happened, but the rules have been tightened up. No bags on the tables at any time, even if they aren't touching a laptop. The damage looks like it is from pressure, so I'm not taking any chances. In terms of what students have been doing: they used advanced search to look for and compare/contrast powerpoints on Napoleon. I had tried this with the French Revolution, but it didn't work very well. I think this was because the French Revolution is such a big event so there was too much out there. I though the Napoleon assignment went really well with students being successful. The level of work output is increasing as students become more used to working on them.
We did take a day off the laptops to do a simulation and students just seemed confused without the laptops. I intended to go right back to them the next day, but we had a big power issue and were lacking WiFi. I just decided to ditch them for the day and I had a mixed reaction. Some were thankful to be on paper and others were not as engaged and verbally expressed their dissatisfaction. I had a suggestion from Twitter that I install offline apps for those kinds of days, so I will be looking into that.
Today was a difficult day because of Google's birthday game. All the kids wanted to play the game and unfortunately even after a warning they were still doing it and the computer was taken away. I told them if they finished the assignment we could talk about playing it, but they were not deterred.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Failure, Success and a little confusion
The title pretty much sums up the first 5 weeks of school. Yes, 5 weeks. We start earlier than most, but that was good since I was so excited to start the year. Really! I started with Google Drive, having small assignments with Presentation and Documents, even a little something in spreadsheets so they could get the idea of cells.Mainly though, I focused in Documents because I wanted to start with things they were familiar with. For the beginning of the first unit I was basically transferring the worksheets the rest of the department uses into docs so my kids could use it as an organizer during powerpoint. Yes, still doing that too. I was hoping to break away from that, but I wanted to start with something they were familiar with, plus, the Ancients it just seemed too difficult of a concept, so I was waiting until the French Revolution, which starts this week to break out of the mold in a serious way.
Now all the while I'm basically making digital worksheets and still plugging along with powerpoints, I did want the students to create something to show their understanding of the Enlightenment Philosophers and I though Glogster would be a perfect platform. We went through the process of signing up and we waited for the confirmation emails. And kept waiting for the confirmation emails. After about 3 minutes of wasted class time 1st period, I decided the students should get started on their gathering of images for their Glogster, so I had them copy and paste the URLs into a Google Doc while we waited for the confirmation emails. I asked a student to check his email in 15 minute increments, but sadly the email never came. So, the next day we switched gears into ThingLink. This is an awesome site I learned about at CUE Rockstar. It did not require a confirmation email! So the kids signed up and used their research for the day before and boom, awesome things were created. The only problem I found was the learning curve for some students was more steep than others. Some were done after one day, others needed a lot more time. I am still trying to figure out how to deal with this, especially since I two of my classes are half special education students. I hate seeing kids just sit there and waste their time.
Thursday we had our PLC meeting and I explained my (non tech) simulation I was planning and while their came up with a "four corners" idea, which made me really excited. I like having the kids up and moving and thinking critically. I hate powerpoints. My colleagues did not seem very excited about the ideas, but they have their own teaching styles, which is fine. But, now for the confusing part. I had a meeting with my VP the next day to go over goals for the year. She suggested I work on being more consistent with group. That her and other VPs talked and I need to make sure I have some things in common, like the "Four Corners" idea that was decided on in the PLC. I tried to explain that I am digitizing worksheets and doing powerpoints, just like they are (nevermind that I don't intend to for long), but my students are not transcribing the notes since they have access to the presentation on the class website. I did not mention that the "Four Corners" idea was mine because I do not want to seem cocky, but This whole thing sent me for a loop and I am now confused and concerned. Do they want me to use the technology to its full extent, or as an IEASC cohort member said "just to look good"? I'm trying to work up the courage to ask her.
Now all the while I'm basically making digital worksheets and still plugging along with powerpoints, I did want the students to create something to show their understanding of the Enlightenment Philosophers and I though Glogster would be a perfect platform. We went through the process of signing up and we waited for the confirmation emails. And kept waiting for the confirmation emails. After about 3 minutes of wasted class time 1st period, I decided the students should get started on their gathering of images for their Glogster, so I had them copy and paste the URLs into a Google Doc while we waited for the confirmation emails. I asked a student to check his email in 15 minute increments, but sadly the email never came. So, the next day we switched gears into ThingLink. This is an awesome site I learned about at CUE Rockstar. It did not require a confirmation email! So the kids signed up and used their research for the day before and boom, awesome things were created. The only problem I found was the learning curve for some students was more steep than others. Some were done after one day, others needed a lot more time. I am still trying to figure out how to deal with this, especially since I two of my classes are half special education students. I hate seeing kids just sit there and waste their time.
Thursday we had our PLC meeting and I explained my (non tech) simulation I was planning and while their came up with a "four corners" idea, which made me really excited. I like having the kids up and moving and thinking critically. I hate powerpoints. My colleagues did not seem very excited about the ideas, but they have their own teaching styles, which is fine. But, now for the confusing part. I had a meeting with my VP the next day to go over goals for the year. She suggested I work on being more consistent with group. That her and other VPs talked and I need to make sure I have some things in common, like the "Four Corners" idea that was decided on in the PLC. I tried to explain that I am digitizing worksheets and doing powerpoints, just like they are (nevermind that I don't intend to for long), but my students are not transcribing the notes since they have access to the presentation on the class website. I did not mention that the "Four Corners" idea was mine because I do not want to seem cocky, but This whole thing sent me for a loop and I am now confused and concerned. Do they want me to use the technology to its full extent, or as an IEASC cohort member said "just to look good"? I'm trying to work up the courage to ask her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)