Team Teachers

Leaving the Paper Behind

I’m sick of paper. Sick of photocopying. I have 150+ students and that’s a lot of paper, especially when I change my plans so often that so much of it goes to waste.

As part of the development of our new World Language curriculum, our department was given 5 iPads/teacher to pilot their use. With only 5 iPads for a class of 20, I’ve been struggling with how to actually use them. How do I split 5 iPads between 20 kids and avoid fighting?

I recently attended a session at the NICE (Northern Illinois Computing Educators) Conference about a 1:1 iPad classroom, presented by Nadine Norris and Angelique Masellis, and decided to see if some of her ideas could work with my limited supply of iPads. Angelique talked about taking pictures of worksheets and putting them into Explain Everything. How easy is that?! Once in the app, students can write over the worksheet and present to the class.

I walked the students through the process of retrieving the document through Dropbox and through the first few questions on the worksheet and they were off and running! This was such a great way to have them work in groups, save paper, use technology and do an informal assessment all at the same time! Students not only had fun with the technology, but worked on essential skills such as turn taking, listening, group work and more!

The best part of all of this, is that the iPad was merely a means to an end. The lesson was not about the app I chose or the device itself, but rather about the content that was loaded to the device. Technology can’t be the lesson, but it can be a tool that enhances our students’ learning and excitement about a topic.

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A great submission!  What useful professional development have you all attended?  How have you incorporated the ideas you heard about into your teaching?   How are others using the Ipad in the classroom (especially with a limited supply)?

51% of students believe they know more about technology than their teachers.

What are your thoughts?

Socratic Dialogue: A Collaboration Experiment for the Educators on Tumblr

After an initial experiment, I’m creating this for the Education community on Tumblr. Those with a passion for education are also welcome to participate.

I have created a document on Google Docs that is open for anyone with the link to edit. You don’t even have to sign in.

Here is the link.

In this document is a Socratic Dialogue Prompt (I’ve also included the prompt below). Your weekend challenge is to open this document, follow the prompt, and check back throughout the weekend if it interests you.

If you’ve never used Google Docs before, this will be a great experience for you. You will see other people’s cursors, as well as what they type, in real-time. You’ll also be able to chat with them if you would like.

I think this is a great way for everyone here to collaborate and connect with one another.

If this is successful, we’ll work to do more of these in the future here on Team Teachers.

And don’t forget to reblog!

The Prompt:

Pick your favorite education-related quote. Type the name of your Tumblr blog in this document (it would help if you left your Tumblr link), then type or paste your favorite quote. Explain why that quote resonates with you in about a paragraph or so.

Afterward, read through the other entries on here. Pick at least one person’s entry, and ask that person a thoughtful, genuine question that you think will help that person dive even deeper into their answer. Type your question beneath their entry (it would help if you typed your Tumblr blog name and link again).

Repeat until you’re spiritually fulfilled (or the Rapture occurs).