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.
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