Ok, commence year two as a technology coach. What projects am I working on this year?
1. ePortfolios: This is a project I began last year. While I would love to say it was a rousing success, that wouldn't be entirely truthful. We have 1,200 students in our school. Last year (my first) I was quite excited to use our google apps to create portfolios for each student. My plan was to go through our career major teachers to set up the students. And it almost worked. Almost. I assisted approximately 800 students in creating portfolios and then....nothing. Most teachers did not use them. Not because they didn't want to, but because it took so long to get all of the students set up. And many of the students were difficult to find; we started rewriting curriculum, and other things took precedence.
I don't want to abandon the project altogether because I still think it is a wonderful opportunity to measure student growth. This year, I am going to work with Freshmen only, and only within English and Math classes. This will be a manageable 350 students, and a much smaller number of teachers. Hopefully, this year will be more successful.
2. Independent Study: I am really interested in this right now. After talking with Rich Kiker at Edcamp Leadership, I have decided to visit his school to learn how they implemented blended learning courses. I think this is an especially important initiative at our school. Why? Because we are a technology school, and most of our student's day is filled with their career major classes. Consequently, we offer very few electives.
I'd like to set up an opportunity for students to pursue a topic of interest through an online course. My initial idea is for them to complete coursework, keep a blog, and create a capstone project. I'll keep you posted as this pans out.
3. Technology Workshops: I will be offering twice monthly workshops for our faculty. Some of the topics will be Twitter for Educators, Nearpod in the classroom, Digital Storytelling, Infographics, Presentations, and Interactive Maps. After highlighting the possibilities for each tool, I will be available for assistance using them in the classroom.
4. Project Based Learning: This is also a project we began last year. This year, we will be evaluating the projects with formative assessments, revising, and reimplementing them.
1. ePortfolios: This is a project I began last year. While I would love to say it was a rousing success, that wouldn't be entirely truthful. We have 1,200 students in our school. Last year (my first) I was quite excited to use our google apps to create portfolios for each student. My plan was to go through our career major teachers to set up the students. And it almost worked. Almost. I assisted approximately 800 students in creating portfolios and then....nothing. Most teachers did not use them. Not because they didn't want to, but because it took so long to get all of the students set up. And many of the students were difficult to find; we started rewriting curriculum, and other things took precedence.
I don't want to abandon the project altogether because I still think it is a wonderful opportunity to measure student growth. This year, I am going to work with Freshmen only, and only within English and Math classes. This will be a manageable 350 students, and a much smaller number of teachers. Hopefully, this year will be more successful.
2. Independent Study: I am really interested in this right now. After talking with Rich Kiker at Edcamp Leadership, I have decided to visit his school to learn how they implemented blended learning courses. I think this is an especially important initiative at our school. Why? Because we are a technology school, and most of our student's day is filled with their career major classes. Consequently, we offer very few electives.
I'd like to set up an opportunity for students to pursue a topic of interest through an online course. My initial idea is for them to complete coursework, keep a blog, and create a capstone project. I'll keep you posted as this pans out.
3. Technology Workshops: I will be offering twice monthly workshops for our faculty. Some of the topics will be Twitter for Educators, Nearpod in the classroom, Digital Storytelling, Infographics, Presentations, and Interactive Maps. After highlighting the possibilities for each tool, I will be available for assistance using them in the classroom.
4. Project Based Learning: This is also a project we began last year. This year, we will be evaluating the projects with formative assessments, revising, and reimplementing them.