A year in reflection....without technology

My first 2 years of teaching, my students were one to one with iPads. I learned to absolutely love it! My creativity was on high, I was energetic about it, and could not stop learning about it. I then moved. I love my new life, I bought a house in the country, teach at an early college high school (one of the few). I have tools, I have support, only one thing missing....my technology.

At the beginning of the school year, I realize quickly I was going to miss my students having one to one. We have a wonderful program here called PASS, where instead of a student missing school from a suspension, or some other circumstance, they go to PASS. The thing is, they are still enrolled in your class. Now, I kept up with my PASS students "okay" this year. I felt like I could do much better. I told the administrator that runs PASS, how much easier it would be if my students have a device to get them work everyday. What she quoted stuck with me for the rest of the year, "Don't you feel like a rich person who has gone into poverty?" I do! I really do, it was so easy to go into technology, and then when I no longer had those resources, it was difficult to teach my way.

My Ag Power class was pretty easy to teach without technology, but I feel like they didn't create as much as my former Ag Power class. Yes, these students welded more, built more, and work on more hands on projects, but I feel as like the didn't create anything meaningful. I would love for them to get on a computer and create a "how to" forum and post how to actually do or make what they made in class for the world to see. I would love to have them make safety videos to share with other students. I wouldn't say that class was a flop, but there could have been more to it.

My Landscape Management class started out pretty good. We started with design, but it would have been great for the kids to find pictures of elements of design themselves, instead of my showing examples. It also would have been nice to do my plant ID quizzes on Quizlet, instead of old cards that get torn up and lost. When we went over pests, each student could have researched a pest and presented on it, but the computer lab is taken up by core classes (which they should be).

There was so much I could have done with my Food Science class. One day I wanted to discuss health inspection reports, and I had to show them ones from our community and read them to them. How cool would it had been, for them to look that up on their own. Maybe correct the problem, or discuss how too. Even though my textbooks are new, the data is from 2003. My standards say CURRENT trends....CURRENT! A lot has happened in the food industry since 2003!

Now, I am not complaining about my school one bit, just how I taught as a teacher this year, and how I felt a little restricted. I love my school, my administration, my co workers, and most of all my students. And I am very happy to say that, last Friday I found out that I will be one of the teachers piloting a Chromebook Program in my classroom! I cannot wait to show the teachers and students the wonderful things that can happen with one to one technology!

I'm back, and going Chrome!

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of blogs. Moving into a new house, teaching a new school, and all that goes with it made the blog on the back burner. Also, the fact my new school is not 1 to 1 yet, the motivation and passion for 1 to 1 technology has been a little lower than it has been in the past. BUT GOOD NEWS! I am back! We have 4 more school days left, my finals are written, my kiddos are ready, and all I have to do is put those Scrantons in the machine, and upload those puppies into the gradebook, and I am ready for summer!

Now, the second part of the title of the blog. Going Chrome. Yesterday at our teacher's meeting, we were told about my school's 1 to 1 initiative. Our students are expected to be 1 to 1 in the high school by 2018, and a few more pilot programs will be implemented next school (of course I applied! Spent a Saturday making the movie.). Anyways, all the teachers in the corporation received a Chromebook to play around on for the summer. I love this. The best way to implement a technology tool in the classroom, is to get in into the hands of the teacher first.

Reason why, is because the teacher's are going to have to put on yet another hat once 1 to 1 is implemented. Even though my student's are very technologically savvy (they taught me how to use snapchat), they don't understand how to submit homework, and do actual schoolwork on the devices. Not their fault, and no they aren't stupid, they just  aren't used to that type of school culture. It's just like how I had to train my current students to put their worksheet in the set of drawers in the back of my classroom.

The past two days I have been playing around on this Chromebook, and I have so many great ideas and new things I want to try on here. I have already been making a lesson on SymbalooEDU, and looking into Chromebook apps. I'll be posting more on my discoveries I come across in the next few days.