Back to School

I recently sent out a survey to our teachers asking them how they have implemented technology into their classrooms and professional practice in the first two weeks of school.  I was curious as to what many teachers were doing in their classrooms, as much of the first month of school our Tech Team is spread a little thin trying to make sure everyone is situated with what they need in their classrooms and everything is working properly.

Some of the implementations and resources that were shared with me are listed below.

• Fruitnotes; Online syllabus/class webpage
• Planbook.edu
• Twitter
• I used flip cams for students to create videos after doing a "MacQuest" to get to know their Macbooks. The videos were shown to the class as a teaching tool for them.
• This year I created an opening day powerpoint including images to help my students learn my PBIS expectations. I also included procedures for fire, tornado, and code red drills. It was very helpful for the visual learners and it was a very user-friendly way of introducing expectations to every class so that I did not forget anything important.
• Google Docs and additions to my Google Site
• Moodle; Google Docs; I will be trying to record my lessons and posting them on my youtube channel.
• Google Earth tours.
• Using the IPEVO to project assignments or explain activities. You tube videos for counting, and PBIS videos on the shared drive.
• We've been using more Kagan Techniques in my classroom.
• Keeping documents online for easy organization and access. And, creating a google form.
  (http://gelstudentsupport.weebly.com)
• Used internet websites.
• I took their pictures on the first day of school and put them on the screen for them to get to know each other, then printed them off to use for centers and for work that will be put up for parents to see.
• Trying to integrate Discovery Ed Techbook.
• Had students do some exploring of different websites and apps and how we could use the, to learn English. Also, I usually start out with a unit to help Newcomers become familiar with the school and incorporate technology as we go. I will still do this, but this year I started with some basic technology instruction such as basics of an iPad and logging in to RebelNet. Students with experience in these areas were tutors for Newer students.
• Adding the Apple airplay capability to classroom instruction
• Attempting to hook up more web links on our school page.
• We're using ClassDojo to track behavior and participation. Comments from ClassDojo data will be added to report cards at the end of the tri.
• I have completely changed the way that I instruct the marching band, while using technology. The use of the iPad has changed my life. I am still working on integrating the audio part, but the growth is happening.
• I began storing my lesson plans, links, and documents in Dropbox to help me with organization. By putting everything relating to my units and lessons in organized folders in Dropbox, I can easily bring up a document or link relating to the unit. I also started using DocScan on my phone to take a picture of documents I am using so I can easily store them in Dropbox to add to my lesson plan. This also came in handy one day when Edmodo was down. I was able to quickly pull up the scanned document in Dropbox and email it to the students. I didn't learn about either of these directly in a Rebel U session, but after MEAP, I do plan on having students create videos and use the editing tools in YouTube that I learned about from Ron.
• I'm trying to keep all my calendar items online.
• Because this is the first year that I have had technology to use in my special education classroom I have been able to use a lot of different tech based resources that I have never been able to use before. Having resources is absolutely wonderful and I think my special education students will really benefit from having access to them.
• I have used a Prezi! I have thought long and hard about how to use remind101

If you are interested in viewing some of the data about those that replied to my survey, please click here.

The responses to one question in particular I found to be interesting. On the Wednesday before school began (which was on the following Tuesday), our Technology & Media Team put on Rebel U for technology professional development for teachers. When asked if what they had done in the first two weeks of school was something that they had learned about at Rebel U, there was a decent number of teachers who responded "yes" to the question. This was very encouraging to me to see that some teachers were so excited about something new that they learned, that in less than a week, they found a way to try it in their own classroom.

So, how did your school year begin?  Were you able to use technology in a new way?