Model Classroom Professional Development day!!

Our model classroom professional development day was held at the Innovation Room at NWTC in Green Bay, WI.   This room at the tech college was designed to promote collaboration and was outfitted with a variety of technology resources to enhance learning. 

Here is an outline of our day...

1.  Shared what we are excited about...

2. Reflection of how we have changed as educators in the last 3 years.  (Each teacher took a section of the whiteboards and made a list of the different ways.  We then walked around and looked at each other's areas of growth.)  This was a great reflection activity!

3.  Lunch and tour of NWTC campus:  Very neat learning spaces, especially in the cafeteria.  Projectors and pull down screens all over for groups to learn together and collaborate while in a relaxed atmosphere.  

4.  Watched short thought provoking videos on education.  Discussion/brainstorming followed each one.
Links to videos:
Play, Passion, Pupose : Tony Wagner
How to Answer the Yeah, Buts... - Will Richardson

5. Teach me something I don't know:  Sharing of new tools/apps/strategies we're excited about..

6. Exploration of new tool/personalized professional development

My challenge(s) after today.... Need to expand the classroom walls further.  Want to create experiences for students with people from other cultures/other Spanish speakers. Need to brainstorm a list of resources.

Ideas:

• Classroom Twitter Account? / Linked to class blog 
• Skype w/1st grade class in district - career/hero/etc. focus....
• w/Chromebooks/ speaking videos via webcam>upload to drive>share in class folder

Generating Group Stories through TodaysMeet

TodaysMeet was utilized in my Spanish 3 classes to generate a group story for practicing the proper use of both the Imperfect and Preterite Past tenses.  To do this, I created a TodaysMeet room for each of my 3 sections of Spanish 3 and then linked the URL of each room to today's post on our class blog.  The whole activity worked seamlessly and students really seemed to understand better how to properly use the 2 tenses.  Definitely a successful activity, which I plan to use again in the future!

What a year!! - Going 1:1 with Android devices

This school year had both it's challenges and amazing moments!   The beginning of the year was a little rocky as we spent time figuring out the devices, glitches, procedures and other surprises that came our way.  However, the benefits and high points of implementing a 1:1 Pulaski Community School District 21st Model Classroom most definitely outnumbered the obstacles!  I have laid out some of the new 'tools' implemented in my classroom this year, student favorites (based on their informal feedback), and goal/ideas for next year....

New tools implemented this year:

• Class Blogs - A daily post was made each day to each blog that included the lesson, videos, links, activities, and any other resources needed by students.  
• Individual Student Blogs
• Video Lessons
• Individualized Listening Activities 
• Assessments via Google Forms
• Interactive Reading Activities
• Many Android Apps utilized throughout the year.  Click here to see a detailed list!
• QR Codes 
• New Problem Based Learning Units
• Soapbox for discussion
• TodaysMeet for discussion/back-channeling
• Class Dojo - Used to track student participation in the target language
• A SmartBoard and SMART software
• Video Documentation of new tools used in the classroom
• Youtube - used to upload all of the videos created throughout the year
• New Performance Based Assessments
• Google Forms to assess listening
• Google Voice - Used for speaking assessments
• Google Docs for collaborative writing assignments/projects
• Gmail - Used with students for 24/7 communication and for assessment purposes.
• Quizlet for online vocabulary activities

Student Favorites:

• Class Blog!
• Their own individual blogs
• Video Lessons
• Interactive Reading Activities
• Online discussions via TodaysMeet and Soapbox
• Google Forms
• Google Docs
• Google Voice
• Quizlet
• Choice in Learning/Individualized Learning!

Goals/Ideas for Next year:

• Re-design the classroom setup and create a more collaborative learning environment!
• Twitter Accounts for Students - Class created hashtags for discussion. / Open class walls to have discussions with other Spanish Classes & Spanish speakers. / Create an additional opportunity to teach about digital citizenship / Provide discussions in target language outside of the designated class period
• Enhance Individual Student Blogs and create more student discussion between each other's blogs.
• Increase Problem Based Learning Units
• Increase Performance Based Assessments
• More meaningful cultural lessons
• Tie other curricular areas into lessons to create deeper understanding and meaning
• TPR Storytelling Activities for each unit
• Increase use of Google Apps for assessments and activities

I can't wait to see what next year brings!! :)

Android Apps on our Tablets - Updated List

Earlier this school year, I had posted an initial list of Android apps that were put on the Xoom and Transformer Tablets .  Here is an updated list of the Android Apps we are using in my classes.  All of these apps can be found in the Google Play Market.

• Blogger
• Splashtop Remote
• Easy Voice Recorder
• Catch Notes
• Skitch
• Google Docs
• Firefox Web Browser
• Dolphin Web Browser
• Chrome Web Browser
• Word Reference
• Letrix (en español)
• Motivator
• QR Droid
• Barcode Scanner
• Prensa de España
• Pulse
• Spanish Verbs Pro
• Verb Conjugator
• SlideIT Keyboard
• World Newspapers
• Word Search (Spanish Version)
• Google Earth
• Genial Writing
• Free Pronunciation Checker
• PhotoShake
• Photo Grid
• Whiteboard
• Paint Joy
• Cartoon Camera
• Hidden Word
• Hangman for Spanish

Professional Learning Academy 2011

The Professional Learning Academy this week was AWESOME!  I am so glad I had the opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm with some really amazing and innovative teachers in my district!  I am super excited about some of the ideas we came up with and learned about (which I shall share in more detail very soon).   Now, all I have to do is get to work on implementing them for this upcoming school year!  Some of the topics and tools we discussed included...

• Problem Based Learning
• 21 Century Classroom Design
• Google Apps for Education: IGoogle, Google Reader, Google Docs, Google Earth and more!
• Blogger - to be used as a class managment tool and as a living document of student work, projects, etc. throughout the school year
• Moodle
• Discovery Education
• Video Tools - Screenr, Splicd, Youtube, and Jaycut
• Introduction Videos for 1st day of school
• Digital Citizenship and Proper care of 1:1 Devices
• Parent Letter for students that will be enrolled in the 21st Century Model Classrooms

Creating a Model 21st Century Classroom..

I am thrilled to be creating a "Model 21st Century Classroom" in the upcoming 2011-2012 school year! My school district has chosen 5 classrooms (2 elementary, 2 middle school, and 1 high school) that will basically be given a "technology makeover". The technology tools in each room will be a little bit different, but in all the classrooms the implementation of technology rich lessons and problem based learning will take place.

What will this entail for my high school Spanish classroom?

• A Smartboard - A large sized Smartboard was purchased at the end of last school year and installed in my classroom in May 2011. So, I have already had some time to work with it and start creating lessons using the Smart software. However, I still have much more to learn and will work to optimize the capabilities of the Smartboard in the upcoming year to improve teaching and learning.

• 30 Motorola Xoom Tablets - The Motorola Xoom is the first tablet device that runs on the Android 3.1 Honeycomb System. It also contains a dual core processor, HD Video Camera, front and rear facing cameras, and is Adobe Flash Player 10 ready. The video below demonstrates in more detail the capabilities of this device. With the 30 Xoom tablets, there will be a 1:1 student to tablet ratio in my room. As you can imagine, this opens up so many opportunities for learning and my brain has been working overtime lately with new ideas that I want to try out. I have to shut it down sometimes so I can fall asleep at night!

As the year unfolds, I will be continuing to post updates on the creation of the "Model 21st Century Classroom" as well as reflecting on the various new tools, apps, strategies, and technology rich lessons that are implemented. I love getting and sharing ideas with others! So, if you have anything you think would be useful for me and others looking to improve 21st century learning, don't hesitate to leave a comment!