Not much has changed in a week. I continue to progress and work with what I laid out last week. I have heard from a few former students and they have agreed to help. What I'll have them do is look at some things I'm considering using and class and have them give me feedback. I try to keep in mind that I need to put myself in the shoes of the students, but even with that mentality it can be hard to do, so their perspective gives me some ideas on how to tinker with the process.
I'm still set to give a professional development workshop on one of our professional development days prior to the start of school. I haven't heard any of the logistics, though. It would be nice to know what room I'll be in and what materials I'll need to have prepared. It shouldn't be too hard to do once I know the parameters. I'm going to show them how to set up a blog and a Google Reader and how they might want to use it in class. A friend of mine is doing one on all sorts of web applications. Hopefully this brings some new converts to the technology side of things.
Moodle Presentation
13 years ago
Adam,
ReplyDeleteI must say, I loved your idea about sharing your plans with former students. If you do not mind, I will do the same because students are the best feedback we can receive right?
Veronica
Adam,
ReplyDeleteMy progress has been pretty slow this week. I have seemed to have lost my balance a little. If I was at school with a little more time to myself, I think I would have been much more aggressive with my game plan.
I too, like the idea of bringing in former students. I do think they are our best resources for feedback. When I've gotten to know parents outside of school, I also like to ask them how their children enjoyed the class. I think this gives me an unbiased opinion.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the idea of telling former students your ideas and getting feedback from them. Former students are going to be able to tell you what will work best in your classroom and I think more than a colleague. Students know how you teach in your classroom and know your strengths as a teacher. Although a colleague will be able to help with content, sometimes that is not enough.
By showing your fellow teachers how to use a blog will help with the communication amongst you all. Maybe you could set up a blog to post discussions or different ideas of instruction techniques that may work in classrooms? Having a sounding board for you all would be nice to have throughout the year!
Darcey Kondel
Adam,
ReplyDeleteIt is always great to get others excited and involved in bringing technology use into other classrooms. I applaud your willingness to present a workshop to your colleagues. I'm sure you have thought of this, but whenever I give a talk or workshop I always provide a virtual copy of the workshop in PPT, web, videocast format so that teachers can go back and access the information on their own time if a significant amount of time has passed when they begin using it with students. This also minimizes how many questions I get asked afterwards - it can be a large time commitment after the workshop.
It has also helped to set up a google discussion board where your attendees can ask questions after the workshop. You could monitor it there as well. This way the questions can be answered asynchronously. Here is the link:
http://groups.google.com/
Best of luck!
Tom