Student Device Management Tips

Are you looking for some management tips for student devices in your classroom? Listed below are some suggestions that might provide some helpful tips.

1. Create a system: When managing devices it is important to have a system that your class is familiar with. Making sure your devices are labeled is a great way to keep track of what device is which. Try using a labeling method that is durable but doesn’t permanently engrave the device. If you need assistance labeling your devices feel free to ask a tech team member for help.

2. Create a Checkout Process: Assigning your students a number that corresponds to a specific device in your cart will help you keep track of which student has what device and will help narrow down the pool of responsible students if a device was to go missing or suffer damage. Try labeling your storage slots inside your cart so students know exactly where to place their device.

3. Use Collateral: If you are permitting your devices to be used outside of the classroom, make your students give you a piece of collateral. The best form of collateral would be a form of ID or a cell phone even. This will increase the chances that a student returns the device, but will also give you a way of knowing who took a device out of the classroom.

4. Do an hourly inventory: At the end of every hour, take a look at your cart to make sure all devices are in your charging cart and accounted for. If your storage slots are labeled, you will be able to do a quick glance and see which device is missing. You can then refer back to your checkout list to see which student last used the device.

5. Appoint a Student Tech: Appoint a responsible student who will be in charge of managing the device accountability system. It might be a good idea to appoint a few alternates as well. This will be useful when you have a substitute teacher in the room.

If a device of yours is missing from your cart, please alert a member of the tech team immediately. The longer you wait, the more difficult it is to track a device down. If it is confirmed that a device was stolen, we can notify the authorities and seek recovery or replacement of the device.

10 Minute Tech Tools - Dot Day Fun!

Are you looking for a quick and easy way to celebrate International Dot Day and creativity and inspiration?  Come check my blog and how you can use augmented reality to celebrate International Dot Day on the latest 10 Minute Tech Tools!

Rebel U 2015 - Looking to the Future

Our GLPS Tech & Media Team loves to make Rebel U a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone, but we do take our job very seriously as far as how it relates to district and school improvement plans.  Each year, we set goals and objectives for the day (2015 goals and objectives can be found here) and we use these to help guide

As part of the evaluation, we ask all attendees to rate the intended goals and objectives as they feel they were implemented and evident throughout the day.  Below are charts that reflect the answers to statements each attendee was given.  It is always part of our process to reflect on what our attendees think and areas for us to grow!

Students Show Some Teacher Love at Rebel U 2015 #rebelu15

The objective of Rebel U is to provide teachers with quality professional development that helps them leverage available technology resources to support student learning and classroom instruction.  This day would not be possible though if it weren't for the amazing teachers we have in our district, but also if it weren't for the students who show up everyday and have just as much of an impact on our teachers as our teachers do on them.

At the end of last school year, we asked students in all of the buildings to share what they liked about their teachers and how they have made an impact on their learning.  After gathering responses, we asked teachers on the final day of school to read what some of their students had to say.  It was truly touching to hear teachers read, laugh, and maybe have a few tears over their students' sentiments.  We recorded this readings as a way of documenting the great things that are going on in our district and the impact our teachers have on our students, inside and outside the classroom.

In addition to creating the video, we also created several "boards" that we posted in the building for everyone to see (and we were able to include more student comments this way!).  The questions we asked our students (to fit with our Disney Heroes and Villains theme):

• ECC K-2 students: Why is your teacher one in a "minion?"
  
• Godfrey Elementary 3-5 students: How has your teacher helped you or lifted you up this year?
  
• Lee Middle School 6-8 students: Which teacher has made an impact on your learning and why?
  
• 9-12 students:  What is your favorite memory of a teacher that you would like to freeze in time?
  

If you are unable to view the video below, please click here.

Rebel U 2015 - Heroes and Villains #rebelu15

For the past several years for Rebel U, our Technology & Media Team decides on a theme for the day, which we try to carry over through our yearly professional development.  We try to do this to provide consistency in our publications, keep the Rebel U spirt from the beginning of the year alive throughout the whole school year, and most importantly, for fun!  One thing our team works really hard to do is provide quality professional learning that is a little different from traditional learning opportunities.  We try to not make the whole day a bunch of "sit and get" learning, but encourage our presenters to be hands-on with the participants, think outside the box for presentation methods, and in general, make the learning fun for those in sessions.  Our theme provides our presenters with opportunities to have fun with their content and it also gives our participants a chance to dress to match the theme!

The themes we have had in the past are:
2010: Inaugural year of Rebel U - no theme
2011: Innovation Through Collaboration
2012: weLearn
2013: A Day with the Stars
2014: Superheroes
2015: Heroes and Villains

As part of our registration this year, we asked participants to share their favorite Disney Hero or Villain as well as their favorite Disney movie.   This year in particular, we used the responses we gathered for our student response project and inspiration for our photo booth props.  So, what did our participants tell us were some of their favorites?

Rebel U 2015 {All About Our Attendees} #rebelu15

Each year, our presenters are key components in making our day successful, but each and every person who attends Rebel U is just as important.  At Rebel U, we have teachers, consultants, itinerant staff, and administrators who attend sessions.  One thing that we are proud to offer each person who attends is the choice to attend sessions that are of interest to them.  We do not dictate which sessions participants attend, as we want each person to get the most out of Rebel U.  By having the opportunity to personalize and self-directing their own professional learning, we hope that Rebel U provides an unique and individualized learning experience.  After all, we want our students to have unique learning experiences that set them up for success, so why not give our teaching staff that same opportunity?

Below are several graphs that share a little bit of basic information about our attendees for Rebel U 2015.  We use the information from these graph snapshots to see that we are providing session opportunities for all teachers (based on pre-registration) as well as any trends we see in preferences, needs, and feedback from previous years.  We love our teachers and are grateful for their continued support, participation, and open minds to the learning opportunities that Rebel U presents!

Rebel U 2015 {All About Our Presenters} #rebelu15

Rebel U is right around the corner and presenters work hard every year to put together amazing presentations.  This year is no exception to that statement!  Every year, we are amazed, impressed, blow away, and inspired by the ideas that our presenters step forward to share with their peers.  To celebrate the amazing things our amazing presenters are sharing this year, we wanted to share some amazing data about what Rebel U has to offer attendees this year!

Below is data that we have collected and would like to share about our presenters this year.  We are excited to have presenters from every building and almost every grade level!

If you would like to view our agenda for Rebel U 2015, please click here.

If you would like to view the session descriptions for Rebel U 2015, please click here.