A Principal's Responsibility

Justice, Ashley

Tarte, Justin. 8 Principal leadership tips for the new year. Retrieved from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/8717

Principals are responsible for fostering collaboration within the building. The principal interviewed insists that the leader of the building must confront behaviors that are keeping successful collaboration from happening. 

These tips interested me because there's definitely a division within my school. All the teachers know who's willing to try new things, including collaborative projects, and who isn't because they don't handle change well.

Using Twitter in the Classroom

Justice, Ashley

Jukes, Ian. 60 ways to use Twitter in the classroom by category. Retrieved from
http://fluency21.com/blog/2013/06/18/60-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom-by-category/?utm_source=Committed+Sardines&utm_campaign=deaddffec8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f244ccc9d2-deaddffec8-188994535

As stated in the title, this resource compiles ideas for employing Twitter in the classroom. Many of the ways listed are common knowledge, but others are more creative. For instance:

• For students who have trouble with disruptive blurting, allow them to instantly tweet their blurts silently instead of out loud.
• Send out quick quizzes on Twitter, and have them count for bonus points in the classroom.
• At the end of the day, teachers can summarize what has been learned in the classroom, encouraging reflection and discussion between students.
• At the College of the Holy Cross, assistant professor Daniel Klinghard uses Twitter to teach students to be concise, summarizing major political texts without going over Twitter-imposed character limits.

If only students at my school were allowed to use their devices for educational purposes...

A Transition to Bring Your Own Device?

Torbert, Nancy

Johnson, D. (2012). On Board with BYOD. Educational Leadership, 70(2), 84-85.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a topic that schools are exploring. Should they let students bring their own personal devices to school and use for learning? Why should schools consider letting students bring their own device? 

One factor is that as districts have been facing budget cuts and are finding it more difficult to provide a school-owned computing device to every child, personal devices—tablets, laptops, and smartphones are becoming more affordable.  If schools are considering moving to BYOD, planning and policies should be established for a smooth transition.  These include

·    an acceptable use policy that include personal devices

·    consider why transitioning to a BYOD is acceptable

o    student engagement

o   online collaborative work in the classroom

o   increased student access to school online resources

·         meet infrastructure needs for wireless network (bandwidth)

·        provide staff training—classroom guidelines for technology use and help teachers create lessons that use personal devices, e.g. student polling, writing and editing, multimedia projects.

·       schools will also need to provide guidance to parents on minimum specifications for appropriate devices that may be used.  

·       for students who may not be able to afford a device, schools will need to provide access to online resources by lending out devices or using labs so that all students have access to online resources.

BYOD is an ongoing discussion at many schools. Our school has a strict policy regarding electronics--no cell phones, electronic signaling devices, CD, MP3 Players, and iPods. If the policy is violated the device is to be confiscated.  As a “rule follower” I will have to admit, I've broken the electronic device policy.  When some of my students formed a book group in class, there were not enough print copies of the book they chose in our school library for all in the group to checkout—the solution, I let them use their e-reader instead. 

Laptops, Part 2

Torbert, Nancy

Rapp, D. (2011). Libraries, Chromebooks, and Google Apps. Library Journal, 16.

Many schools use Apple products—Macs, iPads, and the iPod touch as technology tools as well as part of the Apple 1:1 program.  Some schools are finding that the program can be too expensive and students are struggling to make their payments on their lease to buy their laptop or iPad. 

As an alternative to Apple’s laptop program, some schools are transitioning to the Google Chromebook available at a lower cost and using Google’s cloud-based applications.  Students don’t have to worry about the applications being out of date, as Google upgrades the applications with new updates.

Not only are school’s using Google apps but some public libraries have also migrated to Google—two examples cited in the article are Palo Alto City Library and the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL)--a large contract with the city of Los Angeles.

Beginning in 2013-2014 our school will phase in Google Apps for Education, beginning with Chromebooks for students who have opted to participate in an Academy that will focus on grade level collaboration among core departments. Teachers have been selected from English, Science and Social Studies.  In the meantime, however, teachers not in the Academy will need to learn Google Apps—sounds like a good use of the learning commons to provide some professional development in the ELC!

Laptops, Part 1

Torbert, Nancy

Warschauer, M. (2005). Going one-to-one. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 34-38.

This article written in 2005 discusses advantages and disadvantages of implementing a 1:1 laptop program resulting from a two-year study in Maine, grades 3-12, in rural, urban, and suburban schools.

The article presented a balanced con and pro for schools and districts considering a 1:1 program. The results of the study for why not implementing the program—districts are not likely to see higher test scores; reform of troubled schools; or a decrease in achievement gaps. On the other hand, the positive benefits of implementing the program was 21st century learning skills; greater engagement through multimedia; more and better writing; deeper learning and easier integration of technology into instruction.

The article further made recommendations on what to think about before starting a laptop program:

·         Total cost of ownership (how will purchases be financed?)
·         Vendor
·         Maintenance (could use the iTech squad of the school library here)
·         Keeping students on task (not only is the laptop an educational tool but a game center, chat, etc.)
·         Time for teacher collaboration (to plan, and share lessons)
·         Go slowly (roll out the program in phases)

Three years ago our school implemented 1:1 laptops using Apple as the platform. Due to the costs associated with Apple laptops, they are being phased out and replaced with the Chromebook for incoming freshmen; current Apple laptop users will continue with this platform until graduation. 

In the lease to own program some students were facing financial hardships in trying to make the monthly payment and techs were putting in more time than expected to keep up with the tech requests associated with student laptops. Many schools have implemented 1:1 with iPads. Our school did not go in the direction—though the cost is less at $500 there was concern that even this cost may present a financial hardship; the chromebook is $249. There seems to be excitement generated by implementing the chromebook as it uses Google cloud-based applications and the opportunity for collaboration. 

Google Apps for Education

Torbert, Nancy

Google Enterprise. (2010, November 19). Google Apps for Education K12 Demo [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAfzcYWh5Gg

An introduction to Google Apps for Education and produced by Google.  The Day in the Life of a K-12 teacher provides an overview of how a teacher can use the Google calendar, documents, forms, spreadsheets and how students can share a document with the teacher through a shared folder.

Although the narration can be condescending at times, the information provided packs a lot of information and “food for thought”. Although created as an overview of a teacher’s day, I can see a lot of applications that the teacher librarian can incorporate into “their day”—for example, the teacher librarian collaborating with a teacher through a shared Google docs folder; forms to create book request, or an equipment check out request form; calendar to share the library calendar and also have faculty share their calendar; or assist teachers to use sites to create a classroom web page.

K-12 Distance Learning and Blended Learning: Trends on the Rise?

Wirtanen, M. (2013, June 18). K-12 distance learning and blended learning: Trends on the rise? [Web log entry]. Retrieved from http://www.onlineschools.com/in-focus/k-12-blended-learning.html

The following infographic describes how blended learning -- the use of which has increased dramatically over the last decade -- is being utilized in K-12 classrooms across the nation.



Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com